Viggo Mortensen was not what other people might call a normal man. He looked normal enough with his tall statue, broad shoulder and slim hips. His face left no room for complaint; it was handsome with a clefted chin, a straight nose and devilish cheekbones. His hair had a glossy and flighty appeal and there was certainly nothing wrong with the color, a pleasing medium blond highlighted by threads of gold and autumn. The dark blue of his eyes glittered like ice and whenever his lips stretched into a smile he showed an even line of white teeth. No, it was safe to say that his lack of normality was not apparent in his appearance; he was in fact gorgeous, and even though it's not exactly common with gorgeous men you do happen upon one every now and then.

There was nothing wrong with his voice either, quite the contrary actually. It had a slow melodic quality to it that made it a pleasure to listen to him talking and whenever he sang his voice seemed to speak to people's hearts easing their pains for a while. He was a man of good manners, kind and polite, if sometimes maybe a bit slow. Not slow because he was dumb, but slow because he had the habit of thinking things through before opening his mouth. He never raised his voice in anger, he did in fact rarely get angry at all. He was for all intents and purposes a perfect specimen of a man, except for the slight fact that he wasn't a man at all. He was a creature of magic in a world were the only true believers liked to dress in black velvet, wear heavy silver jewelry and whisper about the mother goddess. Viggo was for lack of better words an angel, sent to Earth with sole purpose of doing good. Not big time good, not stopping the apocalypse good, but gentle caring everyday good.

Viggo lived in the southern parts of Stockholm, the Swedish capital, and he worked at the nearby hospital as a nurse. He had a one-room basement apartment in a big old stone house. The bathroom and the kitchen were newly renovated though and the living room/ bedroom had a fireplace. As an added bonus he had his own entrance from the backyard, which was good since a lot of strange people visited him at even stranger hours. Viggo was just one of the millions of lesser angels living on Earth spreading the light in their everyday lives.

Viggo had no friends; he had found that it was easier that way. Having no friends meant having to tell fewer lies about who and what he was, and Viggo, being an angel, detested lies. It also meant that he didn't have to explain why he sometimes talked out loud to the voices in his head and why he always put food on a plate outside the small kitchen window. People probably didn't want to know that the archangels spoke to Viggo in his head, and that he thought that some of them, especially Gabriel, were a bit of a nag and meddled way too much with his life. He was quite happy with his quiet little life and felt no need to explore the fun of a social life no matter how nice Gabriel seemed to think it could be. He took a lover when he felt he needed one and then let that person fade out of his life without anyone getting hurt. Gabriel spent all too much time worrying about his sex life, when he could handle that quite well on his own, thank you very much.

As for the food outside the window people certainly didn't want to know that the world was inhabited by millions of little people. Small persons, no more than a foot tall, who were invisible to most and that together with the angels strived to make the world a better place to live. Viggo called them pixies, folklore had called them various things over the years, but the higher ups called them Helpers. Just as the angels they did good, small time good. Whenever someone spent half an hour looking for the keys and then suddenly found them in a place they were sure they'd looked at least once, it was the Helpers that had put them there. They did good in their own way, helping to lessen anger and frustration because anger and frustration fed the Darkness. Sometimes of course they did larger good, blowing out candles that had been left burning, waking someone that was falling asleep at the wheel, preserving life whenever life was supposed to continue. Viggo didn't really know where they got their orders. He supposed that maybe they didn't get any that they just did whatever good they could in the everyday struggle against Darkness.

Darkness and Light have about equal access to Earth, they find access in the thoughts and feelings of humanity. Anger, resentment and pain invite the Darkness. Love, hope and happiness invite the Light. Many are those who think that Darkness and Light shouldn't play out their pity little games on Earth. That humanity should be left to their own devices, but they can't. The Light can't back offm because that would give the Darkness free reign. The Darkness won't back off, because the Darkness is evil. So in modern day the scale is more or less balanced between Darkness and Light. That means that for every Helper there is a Destroyer, a miniature demon intent on doing evil. The Destroyers hide things and destroy things, simply do everything they can to make the world a worse place to live. It also means that for every angel on earth there is a demon in humanoid form. The demons don't actually do evil themselves, not like most of the angels do good. They rather inspire humans to do their evil deeds for them, because they know that that hurts the Light so much more.

Viggo despite the fact that he was an angel had no wings, at least no wings that were visible to the eye of an ordinary person. Some people could see them though, the exceptionally perceptive that most of the world called insane and the dying. He didn't really know why the dying could see his wings; he'd asked Gabriel once but hadn't gotten a straight answer. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it helped people that were dying to see an angel, it assured them that there really was a life after death where pain and suffering were but a memory. Viggo's wings did not exist on the same plane as him when he dwelled on earth, it would be difficult to go unnoticed when he had wings that measured more than six feet at their widest point protruding from his back. Truth be told, he didn't miss the wings so much, partly because he knew that they were still there, partly because everyday life was just that much simpler when he didn't have to take the wings into consideration. Just sitting down was a project when one had wings, without them one could slump down on any available surface without giving it a thought.

Being an angel had other perks than the wings though; angels had special powers. What kind of powers depended on what kind of angel they were. Viggo had the power to alter the perception of a human, so that the human in question was able to see what Viggo saw, namely all the supernatural beings of the world. He also had the power to close the door to such a perception if it had been opened wrongfully. His song had the power to heal if it were meant to; otherwise it helped to ease the pain and suffering of the terminally ill. His touch was calming and gave a general feeling of being at ease; it could also help to right things that were wrong. For example, he had many co-workers that had no idea that had it not been for Viggo's touch they would have developed cancer, or remained childless the for rest of their lives. He could not right every wrong though, some bad things were meant to happen. Some people were supposed to get ill because the sickness would help them grow, other people got ill simply because it were their time to go. People dying didn't bother Viggo so much, of course he mourned the person, but he knew for a fact that they were in a better place and that they would get a new shot at life later on. It was the pain and the suffering that got to him, and having no one to share his own pain with, sometimes he didn't even know how to get through the day. Even though he was an angel, on earth he was still basically human and thus prone to the same kinds of thoughts and feelings that the every day person have. To put it short Viggo was lonely and it really annoyed him that maybe Gabriel had been right all along. He should have cruised more, should have put an effort into finding the right one; the one he wanted to share his life with. Because now he was stretched so thin that he just didn't have the energy anymore.

**********

"Viggo is in trouble," The Voice said.

"I know," Gabriel answered.

"He is lonely," The Voice continued. "And it pains me."

"Yes," Gabriel said, refraining from telling The Voice that he had tried to get Viggo to be more social and find someone suitable because The Voice knew such things.

"It is his third time on earth. He does much good."

"That much is true," Gabriel agreed. He was in fact very proud of Viggo.

"We will help him find his One. It would take him too long," The Voice said.

Gabriel was pretty sure that Viggo would not appreciate the meddling, especially not if he got the notion that Gabriel himself was involved, but the reward, true love, might possibly soften him up some. "Be it a man or a woman?" Gabriel asked.

The question was an important one. Most angels on earth were by nature gay since they were not supposed to have children. Only a selected few were allowed to breed because humanity needed the input of Light every now and then.

"Although I would rejoice in a child of his loins, I'm afraid the choice has already been made in his heart."

Gabriel who was pretty tuned in to Viggo love life knew as much already. "Who is he then?" he asked.

"His name is Orlando but he prefers to be called Orli. Viggo would have happened upon him sooner or later since he is homeless. I just intend to speed things up a bit." The voice was silent for a while. "Darkness has touched him, but the light is still strong."

Gabriel winced, when Darkness got their hand on the truly good, bad things had a tendency to happen. "How bad is it?" he asked.

"His mother was one of our own, but his father... Darkness got him. Choira is back with us now, the hands of her enraged husband killed her. The boy lived but the mark of Darkness was upon him so they put him in an asylum, one of Theirs. He escaped and now he is homeless. He sees things, they opened his eyes to Them."

Gabriel wept, the story wasn't in the words that The Voice said but rather the pictures it painted in his mind of a beautiful young man scared out of his wits because his world was populated by demons and darkness. "Will he heal?" he asked. The last thing Viggo needed was to be caught up in the web of a mind tangled in Darkness.

"Yes, easily so. Deep down he believes and that makes all the difference. He will need only Viggo's touch and his love to pull through. They have not broken his spirit."

Gabriel nodded and absently wiped the tear tracks of his face. "I will see to it, but Viggo will know that we meddled," he warned.

"But will he complain when he gets what he desires most, someone to love that will love him back?"

Gabriel sighed internally, there were some things that The Voice just did not understand. Viggo might be somewhat mollified by having True Love but he would still be upset, especially since the whole falling in love bit was bound to be spectacular when the his One was more or less dumped on his lap. "It will be love at first sight I assume," Gabriel said somewhat wearily.

"Of course," The Voice said. "But that will be no work of mine. They are Meant to be, the love will happen at it's own volition."

"Yes. I don't think it's the love that will upset Viggo though, it will be the desire."

"The desire? He knows that lovemaking pleases us, why would his desire upset him?"

"Never mind," Gabriel said, hoping it wouldn't displease The Voice too much since it could just pick his brain about the subject. He really didn't feel like explaining the trauma of desire for a being that had no sexuality.

The problem was that Viggo thought he knew all about desire and he cured the problem of aching loins the way he would an itch; he scratched it. He found someone for a night or two and the problem went away. True desire that came with a healthy dose of attraction was something all together different as he was about to experience soon enough. Gabriel wasn't sure Viggo would be able to handle instant attraction and the urge to just be with someone, there was a chance that he'd run for the hills. Either way it would be fun to watch and people that were Meant to be always found each other one way or another so he wasn't really worried. Besides he loved to yank Viggo's chain, he was just so much more fun when he was annoyed. However it may go, at least Gabriel knew that this year Viggo would have someone to share the Holidays with and that warmed his heart because he secretly considered Viggo his favorite among the angels under his domain.

To Be Continued in "And Angels Find True Love."