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Sakura Oogami was born on a beautiful clear day in mid-September. Aoi Asahina was never actually born, being an angel, but she came into existence on the same day. From that first moment of being, she knew that she had one purpose: to protect Sakura Oogami. Not that she had any idea what that would entail, other than the innate knowledge that came with being a guardian angel, but she figured she had time to learn. How hard could it be to protect a baby?What Aoi didn’t count on was that Sakura was part of a clan of martial artists. Yes, they all tried to be careful around the baby, but Aoi didn’t think other angels had to protect their charges from debris flying towards the crib. She was actually relieved when Sakura started her own training, because she could finally start to protect herself.Not that Aoi would relax her guard. Even if she’d been willing to risk it, she enjoyed keeping Sakura safe. Sakura was just a good person. She was kind and dedicated and driven, and remarkably wise for her age. Aoi sometimes thought that Sakura should have been the angel instead. She’d probably be able to resist sneaking into her ward’s house to try human foods, for instance.On a completely unrelated note, Aoi had discovered that donuts were the closest things to miracles humans could create.Still, she was being careful! It wasn’t like she showed up in broad daylight and stole everything in the pantry. She restricted herself to foods that were likely to run out soon anyway, and only when she was sure no one was around. And if she did sometimes stretch those rules, she was very careful to make sure Sakura was asleep and safe before she even considered taking a human form. She did take her duties seriously, thank you.She also just didn’t want to leave Sakura’s side when she was awake. She was so much fun to watch fight, and listening to her talk always made Aoi happy. Sakura was quiet most of the time, but when she did speak she was prone to incredible insight. It didn’t hurt that she had a nice voice, too.Aoi knew better than to reveal herself, though. She didn’t know why people weren’t supposed to know about their guardian angels, but the guardians of the other Oogamis all seemed shocked when Aoi brought it up, so she didn’t try again. Not that she had much else to talk about with the other angels. Most of them were much older than her, and they took themselves way too seriously. It was like they thought being celestial meant that they had to be boring. She’d bet they’d never even thought about trying human food. They probably thought it was beneath them.She contented herself with listening to Sakura and wishing they could have an actual conversation.When Sakura was fourteen, she finally beat her father in a grappling match. She didn’t know it, but Aoi had been cheering loudly for her the whole time, drawing strange looks from the other angels. It was the best she could do, since she wasn’t going to interfere, even when it looked like Sakura might break her arm. The victory had to be Sakura’s alone.Winning was reward enough for Sakura, but her family insisted on celebrating properly. This meant buying a cake. If Aoi’s normal form had been capable of it, she would have been drooling. It was a beautiful cake, with whipped-cream roses on top and strawberries all around the sides. It called to her.She spent the rest of the day waiting for Sakura to go to bed so she could take a piece for herself.She was careful about it. She didn’t cut a whole slice, just the thinnest sliver that no one would miss. She just needed to taste it for herself.She had just lifted the fork to her lips when she heard the floor creak behind her. She narrowly suppressed her instinct to drop out of human form, since that would probably be even more questionable than a simple thief, and instead turned around guiltily.Sakura stood looking at her, arms crossed. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”Melting into the floor was sounding more and more appealing, but sadly, Aoi figured she should try to talk her way out of the situation first. “Well, uh, it’s a funny story actually. You see… I needed to borrow a cup of sugar?”Sakura shook her head. “We have no neighbors, and you’re clearly holding a slice of cake.”“Yeah, I got so hungry from walking all the way out her that I needed to have something…” Aoi seriously debated the pros and cons of shoving the cake in her mouth and running. Sure, Sakura would be confused, but Aoi’s secret would still be safe. She didn’t think that Sakura would immediately jump to guardian angels as an explanation, anyway.Aoi didn’t know if she’d be able to get away before Sakura stopped her, though. It probably wasn’t worth testing it. Aoi would just have to stop manifesting in a human form for a while after this. That was fine.Sakura regarded Aoi flatly. “I see. Well, if you aren’t going to answer that question, I shall move on to a more important one. How did you make it this far? It’s no small feat to sneak past a family of martial artists.”“I don’t know… I mean, you’re here, so I can’t be that good at sneaking, right?” Sakura could probably tell that Aoi was stalling, but it wasn’t like she had any better ideas. Or really any ideas. The way Sakura was looking at her wasn’t helping, either. Aoi just kept thinking that this wasn’t how she’d imagined their first meeting at all.She was only looking more suspicious the longer she stood there gaping. She finally opened her mouth, prepared to go with whatever came out, and said, “I’m your guardian angel!”She immediately muttered a distinctly un-angelic expletive. She was going to blame that on her slow corporeal brain, because that was just sad. She prepared herself to suffer whatever punishment was visited upon angels who broke the rules.She still felt exactly the same a moment later when Sakura snorted. “I see.”Well, she was committed now. She might as well introduce herself properly. If she was going to suffer for this, she was going to make sure it was worth it. “No, really! Remember when you were ten and you fell out of that tree and were sure your legs were broken, but then when you stood up you were fine? Well, they were broken, but then I healed them for you. I tried to keep you from falling in the first place, but, uh, that didn’t go as well.” She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “Sorry for letting you fall, by the way.”Sakura’s eyes were wide. “I never told anyone about that.”“Nope! But I was there, so I know. I also know that you just beat your father for the first time. Congratulations, by the way!” Aoi held out her slice of cake, realizing a beat too late how ridiculous it was to offer stolen cake to its rightful owner.Sakura stood frozen in shock for an instant longer. Then she nodded. “I will accept your story, at least for now.” She bowed. “Thank you for watching over me.”“Oh! Yeah, no problem, it’s pretty much my job,” Aoi said. “I’ve actually been enjoying keeping an eye out for you. You’re pretty great.”Sakura smiled. Aoi realized that she’d never known just how beautiful that smile was until it was directed at her. “Thank you,” Sakura said.Aoi didn’t really know how to respond, so she took the opportunity to casually try the cake. Somehow, it tasted even better than it looked. She bounced on the balls of her feet. “Wow, this is really good! How do you not eat this for every meal? I mean, I guess you’d maybe want to have donuts too sometimes, but still.”Sakura laughed silently. “I take it angels do not get many opportunities to eat desserts?” Aoi shook her head, her mouth already full of her next bite of cake. “In that case, you may have as much of this one as you like. It is the least I can do to repay you.”“If you’re sure…” Aoi felt a little weird taking payment for something that was literally her reason for existing, but on the other hand, cake.“I cannot imagine that my family would mind.” Sakura brushed past Aoi, and suddenly Aoi understood why humans were so into physical contact. Sakura’s arm was so warm and soft and nice, and Aoi wanted to lean against her and see if her whole body was like that.Sakura cut two more slices of cake and offered one to Aoi. “Sit down. If you’ve been around my entire life, I’m sure we have a lot to catch up on. Now that I know you exist, I’d like to get to know you better.”“Okay!” And now this meeting was even better than Aoi had imagined. For instance, cake had never factored into her fantasies. She was about to flop down when a thought occurred to her. “Oh, wait, but you can’t tell anyone else about me. Nothing’s happened yet, so hopefully I’ll be fine, but I’m really not supposed to have revealed myself even to you.”“Of course. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble on my account.” Sakura sat down and took a dainty bite of her cake. “Nonetheless, I would like to hear more about you. I seem to be at the disadvantage here, having just learned of your existence.”Aoi sat down right next to her. “Sure!” She didn’t really know where to start, but that was okay. She was finally getting a chance to talk to Sakura, and she was going to make the most of it.