The matchmaking competition

Chocolates and bonbons were flying around him, each time a bullet crossed the thin plywood wall it hit a chocolate box or a stuffed animal holding a heart. The gifts were a way better cover than the wall and way more effective than he thought them to be.

Keyf was atletic and short, with very curly golden hair and blue eyes, the typical image of a cherub you see on temple ceilings and murals save for the neat black suit, the heart patterned tie and pistol in his hand.

A milk chocolate chip landed on his hair during the last bullet salvo, he tasted the candy and the delightful expression in his face gifted a blissful sensation to a chocolate maker unaware to this commotion. Getting the approval of an angelic being, even on something as small as making a really good chocolate is enough to bless you with some minor boons like feeling good or some extra luck for the day.

The bullet barrage started to slow down and Kyef sees an opening for an escape.

"Come on guys, are you really going to gang on me? What about good sportsmanship and healthy competition? Are you even getting couples together or just trying to off me?" He said and with a laugh to finish his taunt, he positions himself waiting.

The sound of his pursuers' response and the weapons reloading gets muffled in his head as he notices the first signs of debris and chocolate slowly rising into the air and catching speed. Kyef launches himself to the window, the fragments of wood from the wall and valentine gifts again clumping together restoring their previous unbulleted selves, working as shield behind the rogue cherub as the gun fire started raining once more.

The decorated display window shatters with the impact and midair in midst of glass shards Keyf turns to his assailants to try for a shot or two of his own. He fires two bullets and whistles as one of the angels he hit friendly fired another, their bodies hitting the floor while they softly hummed and hugged themselves affectionately. Love bullets don't affect angels like humans but they can put celestial beings out of commission for a significant time while they get overwhelmed with love.

Keyf lands and roll over, using the momentum to keep running.

"Haha! Today's special! 3 for the price of t-", his verbal feint cut short and his expression changed to seriousness and focus mid sentence.

He quickly aim at two passerbys and fires two bullseye bullets into their hearts, the "victims" losing a little of balance momentarily with the impact, enough to make them stumble into each other and drop what they were carrying.

While they akwardly apologize to each other and kneeled to gather their things, their faces visibly blushed amidst the glare exchange. One of them asks if they would be up to getting coffee and the other promptly accepts, it was clearly love at first sight.

"Really Keyf?? While we are pursuing you? It's humiliating that you don't consider this enough of a threat to stop scoring points!!", exclaimed another angel.

The frustration was hard to contain, the rogue cherub has been the sole winner of this competition for centuries now and this has been extremely demotivating for the other cherubs.

"And it will be a lot of points for that one! It's a match made in heaven!", Keyf exclaimed, his tauntings still at full speed.

But his boasting was right, he understood how humans worked much better than most angels, especially when it came down to relationships. He knew that the main aspects for a successful match are both persons involved being able to have fun and their willingness to put in the work and commitment needed on a serious relation.

This year would be another win, Keyf just needed to avoid being hit for the rest of the competition, something that had become increasingly hard in the last few years. In fact, it had become more of a "Keyf hunt" than a matchmaking tournament.

He didn't want to let it show but they were getting too close for comfort, which also made the game more fun for him.

A car was fast approaching and that would be his way out. With bullets grazing his back and headlights getting bigger in front of him, he leaps into the light. The astral plane isn't supposed to physically interact with the physical realm but it doesn't mean the clash of the two doesn't produce reactions.

Once again Keyf went through glass, his hair cluttered with small shards, most of which landed on his side on the backseat of the car. After repositioning himself more confortably on the seat, he looked behind to watch the silhouette of the angels diminishing in the distance, and with a deep breath he relaxed, smiling.

He picked a shard from his suit and spent a few moments leisurely observing it and enjoying his free ride. Soon after this and all the other shards started to levitate and fly into the shattered window, now restored like it was untouched. It takes a few moments but the astral tends to reconfigure itself to look like the physical plane where both of them intertwine.

Keyf checked the time and started a countdown, and as it reached zero he desappeared.

In the next moment Keyf and many, many other angels were standing together on an empty white void, soon after two pairs of enormous interlocked blazed wheels of eyes with many wings and a thunderous voice appeared.

"BE NOT AFRAID!... Ehemn, sorry, force of habit", the angels laughed while the Ophanim cleared his throat to continue, "Another annual competition ends in the North American division and once again we had a great year of festivities! Congratulations to all participants for bringing possibly more love and happiness to Earth as our father and brothers would have liked!"

Some of the angels weren't exactly excited with the ophanim's announcement they still thought that those hairless monkeys weren't worth of the love and blessings of the Lord, but they refrained from expressing those feelings after the last conflict this topic caused. Most of the ones that weren't enjoying the moment were actually focusing on Keyf.

"And after calculating this years result seeing both amount and quality of the matches, this year matchmaking champion is KEYF!! Please come forth!", exclaimed.

A microphone materialized in front of the ophanim and the mass of angels opened way for the winner.

"As was stated at the beginning of the competition...", the thunderous voice continued while Keyf approached, "the champion can choose to be promoted and leave the chast of cherubs for a higher one. Will he choose to became a throne or maybe a power? Let's hear his decision!".

Keyf held the microphone and with a big grin, he spoke: "I choose to remain a cherub!".

Many cherubs groaned and a few cheered on with whistles and screams. He placed the microphone back on its stand, nodded to the ophanim and turned away to return to his place.

"ONCE AGAIN WE WILL HAVE NO PROMOTION! REJOICE FOR YOUR BROTHER CHOOSE THY! Farewell and until next year!", with the parting words, the gigantic wheel was gone.

The crowd was slowly dissipating but one angel still stood unmoving, unblinkingly staring at Keyf, and like every year Keyf approached him and whispered: "why I would leave when you guys are so fun, better luck next time!".

The angel's face, bursting with anger, let a silent tear drop down his face.

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