Part 2 - WINGED PROMISE
“Junk food, junk food, junk food and lots of instant food.”
I muttered under my breath as I made my rounds around
the aisles of the grocery store.
My whole cart was filled with my week’s supplies and the
truth is it’s sort of scarce, my mom gave quite a low fund
to supply me with my daily needs but then again there are
my relatives just a short ride away, I can always ask for money
or the easy talk which is to demand to them money directly.
My hand traveled on the long row of instant noodles.
I had to make the right choice, the tastiest but cheap
should be a candidate. Oh how hard it is to be a consumer,
so many choices but so little money.
A woman pushed her cart passed by me,
she was smiling as she looked at me while dumping
some food on her cart. I knew her, she’s Kurama’s mother,
that beautiful and loving woman with that sincere smile
and warm twinkling in those wondrous eyes.
She moved on to another aisle but not before bending over
to retrieve a stumbled package on the floor.
I heard a small sound when her purse came falling down on the floor.
I was the only one at that aisle and I debated so much whether
to pick it up or not. Chances are, he’s here with his mother
but then again he could be not.
Oh what the heck! I should be a nice citizen,
his mother is too nice to resist and so with a huge breath
I picked up a purse and ran after her
She turned around and she smiled.
“My, what is it young lady?”
I handed her black purse. “I believe this is yours.”
I was about to turn away quickly but her hand fell on my wrist
in an effort to restrain me. No good I would go away.
“Please young lady, may I know your name, you are so kind.”
Her voice tamed my inner turmoil,
I slowly faced her again and gave her that infectious smile
that reserved for people I really like and she is definitely one of them.
“It’s Triana Madam.” I answered my head slight
bet low so as not to show my tingling pink cheeks.
She looked at me closely.
“You look familiar, I think I’ve seen you before.”
I shook my head. “Doubt it Madam.”
She laughed, like tiny bells ringing.
“Oh well please accept a token of gratitude,
we sure need youth like you these days.”
We debated for a while about her ‘token of gratitude’
I couldn’t accept it. After all, kissing his son was enough of a payment.
Then I saw a figure loomed at my back,
I could tell by his shadow on the floor that he’s Kurama.
My Kurama.
“Oh there you are!”
His mom chuckled pulling him on her side.
My eyes darted back and forth nervously on my cart
and theirs like a thief looking for a sign of escape.
“This young lady just brought me back my purse.
Isn’t she nice?” She boasted giving me a nice pat on the hand
gripping tightly on the metal handle of my cart laden with food.
I couldn’t see his reaction. Was it surprise? Anger?
“She is. I know her actually.”
He admitted, I stared hard down on his sneakers
bobbing my head up and down like a crazed lunatic.
“Oh for heavens child, look at us.
My son’s not gonna eat you!” She said with a hint of amusement.
I finally looked up and there it was again that green eyes and flaming hair.
Too perfect to be.
Now the jittery part has come.
His mom insisted that they should give me a ride home.
But that woman! She went on to some place to check out
on something leaving me to be with him…alone.
Don’t leave us. I mentally begged to his mother as she slid out of the car.
“Have fun!”
She said to both of us before disappearing inside the building
inside the car I held tightly on my a bag that Kurama
asked me to hold for him.
He drove straight to my house, not a word between us exchanged.
I tried listening to the songs being played on his car but it’s giving me
romantic notions that I really had to focus on the negative signs around me.
Traffic, beggars and pollution.
By the time he pulled to a stop in front of my house,
I was already frowning like hell just fell over me.
He gazed at me quietly as I sulked on the passenger seat,
arms crossed and lower lip jutting out stubbornly.
“You look disturbed.” He said pushing back that rebellious
strand of hair on the side of my face,
His touch burned and I reddened all over even my breathing was labored.
I smiled and went out of the car nervously.
Puffing a lot of air to release that tension.
This is nonsense. I am nonsense. I repeated inside my head.
He got out and opened the trunk taking the groceries on his hands,
balancing them as he secured the car.
“I could bring them by myself.” I suggested rudely lightly touching it.
“I’ll help.” He said walking past me straight into the iron-screeching gate.
I shrugged and let him in, he walked straight into my house
like he knew the way and upon entering he went straight
into the kitchen as if he knew the interior of my home.
He sighed upon placing the brown bags on the kitchen counter.
I swallowed hard, the house was so quiet except
for the faint singing of the birds and the loud thudding of my heart
at the prospect of being alone with him.
“About the kiss-“
He began jamming his hands on his pockets
and swinging his backpack o his back.
Quickly I cut him off.
“You were sorry.” I finished for him.
Darn it all! I wished I could eat back my words,
he looked startled then hurt.
“Actually, I was about to say another thing.”
He stumbled on his words clearly shaken by blatant musings.
I slumped on the kitchen stool while he remained standing
in front of me, kind of tensed but not nervous. He cleared his throat.
“I would just like to say that I liked it and enjoyed it
very much to the point of saying that I loved it.”
Sheesh, couldn’t believe it.
His words rang loudly on my ears like gigantic drums, clanging and hysterical.
“To the point of doing it again?” I said without realizing it.
I turned away quickly my cheeks flaming madly.
“Yes.” He answered quietly.
He walked towards me, his footsteps echoing as it stepped
on the shiny kitchen tiles and towards me.
I almost run and darted for the door,
I opened it wide and crudely showed him that I want him out.
“Thank you for everything.Tell your mom thanks for shouldering
the expenses and…that’s all.”
I paused for lack of things to say while shifting my weight from one foot to another.
I was unstable back then, I feel like falling and plummeting to a hole.
In the kitchen doorway he stood confused but he walked
towards me and straight into the front door, my eyes were
locked on the floor not daring to lift it up.
This is madness, this feeling that bugs me and his barefaced
display of emotions. There must be an ulterior motive that
I must first find out before I fall into this wondrous pit.
Oh! but how I wanted to fall.
“Ok goodbye then!” He said casually but not before opening
his backpack to reveal a teddy bear so familiar to me.
My eyes darted to him and the bear.
“How could you have that thing? I gave it to Youko?”
He didn’t answer me.
His long fingers came to rest on the wooden panel of the door
and he pushed it shut with him still inside the house with me.
Alone again together.
I gawked at him finding the right words to send him away
or reprimand him. But I couldn’t find any.
In fact, I found it quite delightful and happiness was way
beyond me for his act and that bear in his hand.
“He missed you.”
He murmured looking down at me and settling the bear on the couch.
Kurama advanced towards me, there was no threat in those
stealth movements only the tenderness in those eyes
and the way his arms were out stretched towards me,
almost begging and pleading to give him my warmth.
“What are you doing?” I asked trapped on the wall, there was no escape.
His answer was pure and simple but perfect.
“Loving you and hoping for you to feel the same.”
My heart tightened against my chest.
Oh yes I will love you, no, I loved you maybe even before you did love me.
No suspicion ever occurred in my heart,
mind or soul as he gently took hold on me, his arms embracing me.
I’ve never doubted his words from the very beginning.
I knew it to be true, but why?
“Triana, for a year I’ve been loving you.
” He confessed, his voice almost a wind whisper on my ear.
He held me soothingly yet too close that I can feel every hard
and soft part of his body as he took deep breaths.
“Do you believe me? Please do, I tried not to but
it always ended up this way.
For a year I hid my feelings afraid that you might turn me away
because you wouldn’t believe me.”
He was speaking without stopping,
words poured out of his mouth in great waves crashing into me
and drowning me with it’s sweetness.
He held me, like a lover, like a child,
my head resting on the gently grove of his neck,
my lips barely inches from his skin that if I were a child of the night,
I would have bitten him.
“Well, do you mean all that?” I asked my voice shaking,
my hands frozen on my side not touching him but my lips brushed
against the side of his neck as I spoke.
“Yes.” He bravely replied then he gazed down on me.
No need for words or promise.
He bent over and we kissed.
All ideas of him being a fraud vanished into nothingness as
I let his love wrap around me in a tight and warm embrace.
Lips against lips.
We offered our love, that unspoken truth behind
those stolen glances we both received from each other
finally showed itself. It was heavenly to feel him, responding to you.
A man you loved so much, adore from a far finally revealed
his truest intention to you.
He drank it greedily, the sweet nectar of love on my lips.
I was a student and he was a teacher.
My mouth could only lock with his in a clumsy way but he
showed me that graceful dance of lips.
In those heated moments, he thought me how our mouths could mold
into each other perfectly like two pieces of puzzles.
And those sinfully delightful kisses would travel up on my eyes,
to the sides of my face to my nose and finally down on my mouth again,
probing exploring and confessing.
His long fingers held my face the entire time while his other hand
continues to push me against him, gently arching my body to fit his.
I found my path at that time, I knew and saw a glimpse of heaven in his arms.
“Triana.” He murmured against my lips.
I melted against him and sagged on the floor.
Pure Bliss.
But I pushed him away. “I can’t doubt you, I simply can’t.
But I need to hear your reason why you love me.
And why have you not made a move until now.”
He sighed deeply. “I told you already.”
I turned away and faced the wall, I was still trembling and breathless from our interlude.
“Something tells me there is more to that.”
He came from behind me, wrapping his arms around me,
pressing me closely, his lips pressed on my ear.
“I will tell you a story and I want to close our eyes and picture it.”
I did and he began. I could feel his heart beating and his arms
folded unto mine not wanting to part.
He held me so close, his face pressing unto my head opening me up
to a world I forgot to remember.
“You told a story of Youko and Caeli, do you realize what you just did?”
I shook my head, my eyes shut away.
“Remember how you knew each scene as if it was a part of your memory?”
“It’s my imagination, the things that I wanted to feel.”
“And indeed you felt them.”
He answered his other hand covering up my eyes.
“Triana, please remember.
Do not be walled up with your life as a human.
Be free. Fly like you did before.”
Remember your promise. He whispered.
A thousand of tiny bells rung up to me joyously and felt a change within me.
Something old and profound began to take shape and when I opened my eyes
I wasn’t Triana anymore rather than Caeli.
Trapped inside her beautiful body,
I lay there on the grass wounded, a strange arrow
embedded within my body and straight into the ground and
Youko sat beside me, his face mourning.
“Caeli, why did you do it?” He asked.
The words that I uttered came to me automatically.
His hand grasped the arrow and pulled it out.
Pain pierced me and my body began to weaken,
a foreign body to me joining and invading me escorting me to death’s door.
I was dying. I could feel that. I vaguely recall saving Youko
but from who or what I could not bring to mind.
All I know is that there’s no cure, the arrow was called the spirit sweeper,
sucking the life out of the body but at least I saved him.
What happened there?
Now, I remember! It was something about an accusation.
Youko was framed and caught because of me, my stupidity,
my lack of wits brought us tragedy.
I recalled offering my life in exchange for his. I gambled big time.
If I win, Youko would be freed and if not I would be the one
to receive his punishment.
I was going to die. Even Youko’s ability to heal with his plants didn’t help.
I looked around, I knew this forest.
I saw it somewhere and look at me, I have wings, beautiful wings
with a certain shimmer like glitters around it dusting my dark feathers lightly.
“I’ll save you.”
He vowed then he lifted me off the ground his eyes
so indignant that I had to reach out and touch his face.
“Idiot, why do you have to rescue me like that?”
He asked, closing his eyes tightly as if wanting to turn back time.
I could feel him slipping away into another world,
far away where nothing bad happened. Take me there, I wanted to say.
The hardest part of dying wasn’t the sting of Death
slowly tugging you out of your body, to know that I saved him is enough
I could die peacefully. But to see him like that…
He was running with incredible speed docking the trees,
jumping through cliffs and bodies of water yet he still held me
close to him ever so carefully like I myself is made up of glass.
The wind whipped at my face and my wings felt the gushing of the wind
sifting through it caressing the wounds as if to comfort her
the child of the wind.
“Youko!” I called to halt him.
“No, we’re close. Just one more…one more. we’re there.”
He said ignoring my pleas for him to stop and rest.
He carried me on his arms protectively but I knew that it’s near…
it’s inevitable.
“Youko, please stop.”
My cry fell on deaf ears.
If Youko will continue this running he would get weak
and be hurt at this rate. He himself is wounded from a fight.
I didn’t have any choice left. I closed my eyes to prepare myself
for the pain and with the count of three I unfolded my wings
while wrapping my arms around him.
Dark feathers danced as his feet were lifted off the ground.
I moaned with pain, for his weight for my wounds and
I couldn’t take it anymore and so I fell releasing him.
“Caeli! He cried out seeing them falling to the ground.
He held me closely and tried his best to be the one to land
on the ground and he did.
I rested on his chest panting, my hands planted firmly on his chest
as if to imprison him there. My wings sagged and draped around them
like a warm blanket in the cold night.
“Stand up Caeli, we could still make it.”
He said trying to pry my arms away from him but I held him close.
“Youko, I am tired.” I said listlessly.
He sat up, I didn’t have the strength to put him down anymore
and so I lay there in his arms breathing heavily.
“Please let us stay here.” I whispered my hand on his shoulder.
Youko couldn’t take it.
His golden eyes rimmed with tears as he gently pull me on his lap,
his hand cradling my head.
“No, please let us travel. It’s near.
The medicine man is near. He can help you.”
He reasoned out. I merely smiled and ran my hands on his silver hair.
“The stars are pretty tonight aren’t they?
Perhaps we can watch them for a while.”
I requested mildly, my gaze on the sky.
A few minutes to spare, few minutes to see him and talk to him.
“Caeli, what are you saying?”
He cried out pulling me close to him and sobbing against my shoulder.
“This is nonsense, let us go.” He begged.
If he took me against my will, he knew that I would thrash around
and would hurt myself even more but to have me remain like this…
it’s too much for him.
“They will find you if you go to him.”
I pointed out in a scolding tone.
I coughed and blood poured out of my mouth.
Painfully he wiped it away his heart thudding against his chest.
“I can’t let you die, we have a whole lifetime together.”
He whispered in my ear, his lips brushing against the side of my face.
I turned my face to kiss him, to feel that silken mouth against mine.
Our kiss was soft and loving like the first time they did it,
everything was perfect.
When we parted, I was smiling blissfully.
I kissed him again, my lips trailing all over his face
and on his hands ever so softly but possessively.
I touched it all with my lips; I wanted to relive again the moment before I would die.
He watched me, tears blinding him. “Caeli…”
“Youko, my only love.”
He held me like a child as I whimpered against him.
“Youko, I can’t hold it anymore.” I begged my hand entwining with his.
He looked at me almost angrily.
“Caeli, you can do it. Just a bit more and we’re there.
We’re almost there.” He even had the urge to shake me.
“We can still make it, if you weren’t so stubborn”
“Yes, I am stubborn.” I agreed snuggling close to him.
“But my stubbornness brought me to you.
If didn’t let that attitude reign then I would have not met you.”
He cried softly his face pressed to mine.
”But alas! It seems that the thing that brought you to me came to take you back.”
Liquid midnight eyes stared at him sadly.
“I wish I could see you much more.”
“You can, just hold on to me.”
He gazed down at me, my eyes drooped heavily slowly
surrendering to eternal slumber.” He panicked.
“Don’t sleep. Don’t sleep just yet.” He said his voice breaking.
I touched his silver hair weakly feeling it’s texture,
the fine hair that I adored and his soft lips that kissed I so many times.
“The journey with you made my life complete.”
I was speaking ever so tenderly the words barely making a sound.
“No!” He protested pulling me closer to him trying
to stop the blood flow on my side.
“Your life isn’t complete yet. We still have the future together.”
I laughed that tiny sound opening the wound so much more.
“I would be so greedy now if I stayed with you much longer.
Fate granted me a chance to be with you and now the time has come for us to part-.”
He hushed me, his finger pressed to my lips.
“Please don’t talk like that. Don’t say such nonsense stuff.”
I shook my head at him, he could be so stupid sometimes
and oh I needed to rest too I couldn’t. I heard it, the voice calling me,
sweet voices that made me want to close my eyes
and embrace death like a lost friend, like a lover, like Youko.
My eyes grew heavier. “I love you, Youko.”
“Don’t talk as if you’re going to die.”
It hurts me to see him in that condition.
I touched that tender part on my abdomen and smiled softly
to the figure watching from a far.
It’s silvery wings bathed by moonlight.
He was watching me hidden but I knew he’s there,
beckoning me to go to him, to a portal of light behind him.
“Just spare me a few minutes.” I begged at it.
It nodded solemnly before it disappeared into nothingness
and that pulling on my soul stopped. Death had given me time again.
And I now looked back at my sweet Youko,
the one far more suffering and wounded than I was internally.
“Where do you say the medicine man was?
This wound is bothering me.” I asked bleakly.
His face shone, he smiled.
There was hope in those eyes, but how can I tell him it’s my time.
Relief washed over him and he rained me with promise he meant to keep.
“That’s right. Let’s go! I’ll settle down with you once and for all”
I nodded connecting with him.
“Yes, that’s right.
We will have a house with big windows and lots of flowers.
Our children will play on it and you will be…
it’s cold here, would you mind lighting up a fire?”
The warmth of my physical body seeps out slowly.
“I’ll keep you warm.”
He said putting the suggestion away of me staying another minute in the forest.
I sighed deeply as he carried me again and ran with the wind.
My wound hurt so much, and I so wished that Youko would just let me rest
on the forest but I just couldn’t.
If I would be stubborn enough to let my life slip by on
the forest without medication, he would definitely blame himself.
He’s like that after all.
Always the one taking the responsibility especially towards me.
But then I really wasn’t sure if I could leave Youko behind. Could I?
The answer didn’t come. I closed my eyes and slept.
When I opened them, I was already on a cold steel bed.
A friendly face greeted me but his eyes were sad
and already mourning for my death. He glanced at my side.
Even the greatest doctor known, couldn’t save me.
“Is it that bad?” I croaked blood pouring out of my mouth.
The doctor didn’t answer. I tilted my head slightly to the left,
there it was again that angel this time closer and his compelling pull
on my soul, tugging beckoning me.
“For a moment.” I promised sweetly. “I need to kiss him one last time.”
“Child, who are you talking to?”
The man asked lifting my head so I could look straight into his eyes.
I glanced again, my angel was they’re standing but
to a mere mortal’s eyes it impossible to see.
“AN angel, sir.” I answered my head falling back as blood poured out of me.
It was poison that’s killing me.
The man smiled and stroked my face softly.
I grasped his hand and pressed it close to my face.
“I know that death is near, I am not afraid but I fear for my husband…
let me be with him these last moments of my life.”
“But…” He reasoned.
Soon enough, I was brought back to him.
I was so weak I barely lift my hand to touch his.
He looked so forlorn I wanted to weep.
Minutes ago, through the window I saw the doctor called out to him
and told him the bad news.
He looked so upset as he clenched his fist and looked up at the heavens,
almost blaming them.
Then and there, the terrible realization came to him. It him squarely and painfully.
“My plants.” He moaned. “They didn’t do me good at all, they couldn’t save you.”
“Hush now.” I soothed him.
He gently carried me again in his arms out of the cabin of the doctor
and straight into a secluded spot out into the forest once again.
“Is it painful?” He asked his voce breaking.
“Barely.” I lied, caressing his face.
I wanted to take it all with me, those memories of him.
“Please live, just for our unborn child.”
He asked kissing me, he couldn’t stop himself from touching me.
He knew that my death was near, an omnipotent voice talked to him
asking him to let me go but he angrily pushed that voice away.
“You knew?” I asked touching that soft spot.
“What are you saying?
I knew it from the moment you had those cravings and that morning sickness.”
He said, he was crying now unrestrained.
Tears trickled down on his cheeks and landed on my face.
“It’s a boy.” I replied guiding his hands towards that dying child inside me.
I grinned at him as he cupped and nestled his hand there. “It’s mother’s intuition.”
I spoke to him in that soft voice to calm him,
Youko could only nod and sob as I made that promise to him.
“This child, this child within me and our love, it would continue if you believe.
We will find each other again someday and continue where we left off.”
“How?” He wailed, all reason and logic leaving him.
This things I say, it’s madness, sheer madness undoubtedly
consuming my fogged mind.
‘Believe…love me…” I whispered.
“If you continue to love me. If you haven’t found the right person then…
in my own will I will journey on any time or any place so I could be with you again.
I’ll hear your eternal wounds and bring you the warmth again we both shared.”
“I don’t want you to go.” He begged clinging to me.
“We still had a whole life time together, please remember that,
be enlightened!” He pleaded.
“I am enlightened and it’s telling me to go.”
I helplessly said, not knowing how to simplify things for him..
He grasped the sides of my face, massaging me waking me up,
doing everything he can to make me awake.
“Live, please live.
Must Fate be so unkind to give me a gift only snatch it back from my hands?”
“Fate gave us a chance and we embraced it.” I examined gently.
“But it’s not enough, if you die, I’ll die with you.”
He almost warned but I opened again my eyes,
I was so tired and so sad as I looked up at him.
“Youko, if there was a chance, if I could turn back time
with my own hands then I would still be here with that injury.
I would still choose death knowing that it was you that I saved,
knowing that at least once in my life I’ve become a use to you.”
I stopped gasping for air.
“To be worth your love…to know that I’ve not been useless all along.
It makes me truly happy.”
He snuggled deep within me.
“You were never useless, never!” He spat out.
“You provided me with guidance and love every single day of my life since we met.”
I smiled, remembering that first encounter.
“I would always want to go back to the day when you picked
the wrong sack with me inside it. You never knew until I began to complain
and almost kill you”
He lifted his head again, his eyes brimmed with clear and sorrowful tears.
“I thought back then that I was so unlucky,
to get a girl like you not the loot that I so worked hard for…”
“Tell me now, did you ever regret taking me, the sack I mean.”
I asked my voice so faint he can’t hear clearly.
He laughed, a deep sound vibrating and squeezing his heart.
“Never in my life had I regret making that mistake,
it was one of life’s errors I would dutifully embrace.”
I sunk against him and breathed deeply.
“I’m tired.”
My hand fumbled for his left ankle and felt that leather string with my feather on it.
It was my offering to him, one that he could not resist.
A leather string with a priceless blue stone attached to it,
my ancestral stone passed down from family to another.
“I am so glad you kept it all these years.” I said gratefully.
“It was a gift from you, you paid me that to keep you company
at least until you get to the border you said it was a lucky charm
to make me be one with the wind. To grant me the speed of the gales.” He remembered.
“But days after, I didn’t want to leave you.” I admitted.
“I felt the same thing. I never wanted to let you go.”
He looked away. He saw it, the figure just a few feet away and back to me.
He didn’t know what to feel back then proud or angry with me.
He knew how I held up the entire time,
how I bravely tried to ignore that voice beckoning me and how I pleaded
to spare me for a few minutes.
He knew me too well…well enough to know that I needed to go.
But it was damn hard for him.
To hurt he was he clenched his fists and crammed it tightly into his mouth
so as to suppress his wailings.
Oh God, how he wanted to fix things the way it was.
Maybe it would have been better not to take the sack with me inside it.
He felt like creating a riot, only my battered body beside him
prevented him from bursting with utter hostility.
Why this? Why him? Why me?
Question painted his mind with dark and sorrowful colors, he wept and wept.
“Don’t cry now.”I said trying to sit up,
blood gushed out of her but I didn’t give the slightest winch.
I was being strong for him, for my unborn child and for him.
He supported me and folded his arms around me in a tight embrace.
He started apologizing for his wrong doings,
for his passion at ticking me off, for his rudeness,
for the stolen kisses and for the future that he hadn’t given me,
he apologized for it all and I smiled all the time, I was crying too.
He ran a hand over my face sobbing quietly,
all the emotional strength draining away from him.
“The doctor said that I had to let you go.
He said it was selfish for me to hold on you knowing that you will die.
He reprimanded me and told me nothing can alter the fate.
You had to go, you should have died hours ago but for me you lived.
He said that you’re already dead but your soul won’t leave
but your body’s it’s dead…dead…dead…”
He squeezed my hand and I felt nothing.
“You’re cold, your body’s stiffening but you’re still here with me,
holding unto me…loving me.”
“I can’t leave not knowing you’re safe.” I said my lips pressing on his mouth.
It was incredibly tough for him to say it straight into my face
without crying but he said it anyway.
If he truly loved me, he would end my suffering.
Over and over again, he knew that I would try to cheat death
to be with him even if it’s the cost of selling my soul.
My only love looked up in the sky,
his tears shone against the moonlight reflecting his pain
slowly killing him inside and he gazed down at me,
all the tenderness in his face that I wanted to touch him again and again.
He opened his mouth, no words came out.
He tried forming the words as more tears gushed out from his eyes
like an open wound, he can’t.
But finally he mustered up himself in broken sentence
and faltering voice he let me go.
“I love you…you can…rest now.”
He finally said and we shared our ultimate kiss.
The kiss where I gave up the last of my life.
The wings on my back sagged and the feathers dance around them.
Pure dark feathers mourning and offering themselves to the ground,
as it’s glittering dust swirled with the wound.
“I love you…Youko…forever.”
Those were my last words before I slowly closed my eyes
and surrendered to eternal slumber.
When I opened them I was flying,
I floated above him and my body he tenderly cradled.
The winged figure came close to me and gave me its embrace.
“Come.” He whispered into my ear.
“Wait!” I pleaded but I seek warmth in this heavenly essence as I looked down.
Youko was grieving, his eyes were glazed with sorrow
and his mouth closed in a mute wail.
He blankly held my body tears pouring non-stop.
I vowed to return to him, if he can’t find happiness
in another person I would come back to him once again…
The light swallowed me whole…I could not remember anything else.
When I opened my eyes I felt a dampness on my cheek,
Kurama still held me tight and I touched his face blindly with my hands.
He was sobbing softly, his face wet with his own suffering. I was back to my world.
“What is that flashback I saw?” I asked him facing him,
his eyes bore into mine.
I was afraid of his answer, scared of what truth he carries
in those seemingly sorrowful eyes.
“There was a story about a man who lives a life making
enemies because of his need and hunger to touch and possess
the beautiful things the world has to offer and he found it.
The greatest treasure of all, a girl trapped inside a sack-.”
“Stop!” I almost shouted, large fragments of memories falling to me,
the missing pieces of Youko and Caeli forming into one love story.
I backed away and leaned against the wall.
“I am seeing things, memories as if it was my own.
Caeli and Youko’s story being clear to me.”
“It’s your memory that you forgot.” He opened up to me.
“What?”
He came towards me. “Can’t you see?
You remembered Caeli’s passing, each detail embossed within you
because you yourself experienced it."
“No.” I shook my head, I was crying now bitterly but the memories
kept flooding and I walked blindly across the room until I came face to face
with the miriror, my reflection.
I was Caeli, the liquid black eyes blinked at me and the wings framed my body.
“And she fell in love with the man,
the man with the silver blue hair and amber eyes.”
I continued looking back at him.
He smiled nodding glad that I was inching towards the truth.
“Can you see it now? I searched for you Caeli,
I never found happiness and you promised me that you will come back.”
“You’re Youko.”
I said the realization hitting me strong.
He is for real, my prince! My young prince!
His eyes brimmed with tears as he picked from his pocket
a handkerchief I knew too well, with roses and butterflies.
“Oh no!” I sobbed.
“I’ve found you at last.
I felt your energy when you were reborn and finally I found you.”
“You saved me, it was you, my Youko.” I said my voice breaking.
He lifted the leg of his pants and there it was, that old anklet I made,
that precious stone I got and my feather still glittering. “It was all real.”
I mumbled feeling weak.
We looked deeply into each other.
Though different on the outside on the inside we felt the same.
The passion and love still lingered in our eyes, ancient and untainted.
‘I’ve found you at last.”
My tears stained my blouse and my hands trembled as I reached for him.
It’s all clear to me now. I remembered it all and I love him still,
no matter how many years we were separated no matter how far we were,
we would always be united, heart and soul we are one and nothing
could divide or tear us apart.
“Caeli.” He called.
“Yes, my Youko.” I answered stepping straight into his arms
and feeling again that familiar warmth that I missed for so long
and I touched his face eagerly.
“You lost all that beautiful hair.” I said teasing him.
“But you love me just the same just as I love you even if you lost those wings.”
He countered grinning sheepishly.
“You were talking about me when I first saw you, right?”
I pressed tiptoeing to give him a light kiss on the cheek.
He sighed deeply. “I was, I hope to stir that sleeping Caeli within you.”
“I fell in love with you again the moment I saw you standing in that uniform of yours.”
I admitted blushing furiously, he kissed each heated kiss and whispered.
“I am sorry I kissed you so suddenly when I took you home. I couldn’t help myself.”
“You’re forgiven as always.” I mocked him snuggling close to his body.
“Will you promise not to leave me again?” He asked softly.
“I won’t ever leave you again. Ever.
Now that Fate gave us a chance I intend to use it to its limit.” I promised.
He tweaked my face to his and pressed his mouth tenderly to mine.
” You gave the wolf wings to fly.”
Brushing my lips against his I told to him.
”And you gave the Dark angel sanctuary and warmth and provided a path
for her again to the heavens.”
We were now together.
Nothing or no one will hinder us from loving each other.
We surpassed time and space to find each other
and now that we are as one we would shone brightly like the stars and the moon
shedding light to those who are lost.
Our love will grow brightly and fiercely for the entire world to see.
Our love will fly and travel through any place and time to be one again.
Over and over I will love only him.
A thousand death may come, new life may come for me,
there’s no certainty really but one thing’s for sure…
my heart could only whisper his name…his and only his…
He bent over sealing the promise so long ago kept with a sweet kiss.
“I love you Caeli.”
Happiness swelled inside me and joyful tears slid down my cheeks.
“And I love you always. I will love you Youko,
always and forever, our love is stronger than death.”
“Forever…together…eternity for us…”
THE END
(
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