Cotton Calvary: Part II of the Faerie Arc

Beta: strawberries and napkins

A/N: Please read Part I of the Faerie Arc before reading this, otherwise it might not make much sense.

…

They hurt.

Everyday, they hurt. The pain, and it's the bindings most often I cannot take. Do you know what it's like to willingly stuff yourself into a tight box for hours? It takes strenuous time in the morning to bind up my flowers—my wings, so that they are not noticeable. But it hurts; it hurts badly.

And sometimes it's not just the physical pain. The pain of everyday hurts too. Ever since I left his house that morning, there's nothing left of it. I didn't take any memorabilia. I expected him to be there everyday. But he wasn't.

His house was gone. His locker was gone. His seat was gone. One day, I had asked Sakura what she thought about him, and she looked at me in a confused yet polite way and said,

'Uzumaki Naruto? Sorry Sasuke-kun, I don't know who that is. Point him out to me though sometime, his name sounds hot.' I blinked a few more times, expecting something else, but she didn't—couldn't—say anything else to me. So then I understood.

Uzumaki Naruto had never existed.

The only thing I have to remember him by are the beautiful wings on my back. He turned me into some kind of monster. Only I don't mind it, because I was already an outcast, already special, but now in a different way. I hate them, but I love them at the same time. I got no help, no instruction of how to be a monster. Everything I learned I had to learn through experience.

I could not eat anything other than fruits and vegetables. If I did, I would get sick. By mistake a swallowed a chicken nugget and was stricken with a stomach virus for over four days.

I also could not eat things of the same color for more than a day at a time. Otherwise, my wings would take the color of the food I ate most often. And in some cases, also my skin.

I did not bleed. My blood was sticky and brown like tree sap. I learned that the hard way during Phys. Ed, when I was knocked over and fell on my head. People expected gushes of blood, and so I gave them quite a surprise.

But, even knowing all of this, I still wouldn't take it back. It's the feeling of finally being done with the day, locking the door, and stripping off my clothes. And then, with a swift tug of the bandages—swish—and they're free. Most times I moan, because it feels so good when they are freed. And now I know why Naruto was so anxious and excited to get home everyday. They way they stretched and begged for a bit of sunlight was beautiful to watch.

I became a Narcissist overnight.

They aren't anything like Naruto's, which were a really pretty rainbow mix, but they're mine. He gave to me, so I love them.

I came to love everything about myself. Especially when I was alone, things were perfect. I was alone and I was finally happy to be alone, even if Naruto wasn't around anymore.

But then things started getting worse. Or…maybe not worse, maybe it was just weird.

I didn't notice it really at first, when I would wake up in the morning with a swollen tongue as if I had been biting it while I slept. But that wasn't the case.

I drank my tomato juice, and eventually it went away. But then I'd wake up and it was like my tongue doubled in size by the mornings. And I'd have to drink more and more glasses of tomato juice for it to go back to normal. It wasn't painful, just peculiar. It was hard to talk to my family or friends in the morning, so I stopped speaking, and carried on with the notion that once school was over. Then I'd be all by myself again, surrounded by my own beautiful wings.

Then one morning I woke up and found that I couldn't speak at all. I had lost the ability.

But then I also found out that the flowers had doubled in size, making them harder to hide. They hurt more when I bound them to my back every morning for school. I had to release them more than twice a day or else I'd go mad.

It was only when I had begun to release my wings three times or more a day that I met him again. Naruto.

By the bay, in my family's summer home was the first time I remember seeing Naruto. A floating angel in the deep, dark ocean. I didn't believe it, but it was real. The intoxicating smell of flowers, the burning scent of coconut, and the warm tan hands were real.

Naruto was real, even for a moment.

'Real enough for you,' Naruto smirked and pressed his cool lips to my suddenly burning forehead. So badly I wanted to scream out to him, angrily, and accuse him of ruining my life. Be mad at him for leaving me, without a tip, a clue, nothing.

But my tongue was swollen to the roof of my mouth. I expected that any day now the beauty of my wings would one day suffocate me. To my chagrin, my eyes welled up with tears.

'I hate you,' I thought angrily. And then Naruto furrowed his brow and says to me, 'Hate me? Why? I came all this way back for you Sasuke.'

And my thinking grinds to a halt. I'm sure—no, certain—that when Naruto speaks to me, his mouth moves, and yet I can hear him. I move my mouth, mouthing the words, 'Can you hear me?' But Naruto just raises any eyebrow.

So I can't speak, but yet, Naruto heard me. He read my thoughts.

'Do you get it now? Faeries are telepathic. You never needed speech in the first place, Sasuke. It's such a human thing.' And he smiles at me, as if I'm supposed to understand everything. The truth is, I don't get any of it. I want to punch his happy smile away.

Instead, my shoulders slump forward in exhaustion, and I blink away forthcoming tears while Naruto embraces me, letting his soft petals brush against my skin. It sends a shiver running through my spine.

I think to him, 'What took you so long?'

And he thinks right back. 'Sorry. But I promise Sasuke, I'm here to stay.' And he lifts me bridal-style, and then he carries me right back inside the cabin. Not surprisingly, neither my parents over my ever-watching brother even notice him as he walks past. I don't think they even noticed me either.

And when Naruto locked us both in my room and un-did my bandages, I didn't stop him from touching my flowers all over with examining hands.

I listened carefully as he poked, stroked, and rubbed at the petals and stems that curved seamlessly into my skin. His hands were warm and careful, how could I resist them? He hummed a soft song as he experimented with me. And then after what seemed like too short of time, he stopped and said happily,

'You're coming along just fine!'

He pulled out that container of milky fluid and popped open the cap, offering me some.

I smirked and pulled out my own container of tomato juice. He smiled brightly at me. 'Yeah, you're doing just fine.'

And then we talked, mostly Naruto kept me busy with questions about my school or home life. He would be able to steer the conversation around my buzzing questions of my speech's impending doom—and more importantly, what could happen next.

It was surprising, I was able to fit right back into the habit of having my friend, my best friend, by my side. The only times I was pulled out of it was when Naruto would do something affectionate—or just tell me how much he cared. He's so stupid. I know he loves me, already. I wish he would stop saying it.

And by the next morning, I still can't talk, but Naruto teaches me how to communicate through telepathy better. He says that the less I use the tongue, the better, but I fear that it may just fall off from disuse.

Nobody sees him. I walk with him through our summer luxury home, showing him the rooms and bathrooms, and my parents walk by him like he's nothing. I want to shout to them, 'Do you know who this is?' But the truth is, they did at one point. Now they've forgotten him.

Even my older brother doesn't remember him. When he catches me talking to Naruto, he asks me what I'm busy doing.

I say, 'I'm showing Naruto around.'

But he can't hear me, so he pokes my head and then stalks off. I wonder if one day my family will forget the sound of my voice they way they've forgotten about my only friend.

Naruto tries hard to reassure me though, showing me tricks and tips on how to keep my flowers healthy. But we can only practice them when we're sure no one is going to walk in on me exposed. Most times we practice at night, when I'm assured that Itachi is slumbering, and my parents are long gone.

I still can't fly.

He laughs off my frustrations, and gives me a peck on the cheek. 'Don't worry about it Sasuke, it took me a while to figure out how to fly myself. Besides, now you have forever to figure it out!' The thought still irritates me to no end.

It's only until Naruto grabs the sides of my face and purrs to me, 'It's okay, Sasuke. Just seeing you try so hard really turns me on.'

The expression on his face after I pull on one of his blue lilies always cheers me up when he sells me something stupid. And then I went back to trying. I practiced my telepathy everyday until I could do it without having to open my mouth first when someone spoke to me.

My parents had written my behavior off as something disrespectful, and so they don't talk to me much. My brother couldn't have cared less. He was never into talking anyway, sometimes the looks we exchange each other remind me of my telepathy. I wish that I could talk to someone else besides Naruto sometimes. I can't remember the sound of my own voice.

By the end of summer break, the swelling of my tongue had completely disappeared. Twenty minutes later I realized that it wouldn't move at all. It was dead.

Naruto didn't seem surprised when I told him. He just sighed, fluttered his wings and said simply, 'Separating from the normal. You don't need it anyway, since you're so advanced.'

'But what if I don't want to separate.' I say without trying to whine, but it was the first time I actually felt scared. Because now I'm realizing that to become special, you have to pay a price for it. And I don't know if I could. But Naruto just rolled over on his side and beckoned me closer so that we could embrace on my bed.

I wasn't one to resist.

And then we moved back home, and Naruto came with us, flying ahead of the car. It was very hard to stifle my giggles as he rode on the windshield and yet no one could see him. I still couldn't talk to anyone, so everyone pointedly ignored me. It's okay though; I'd rather sleep anyway. But when I woke up from my hourly nap, I struck another problem.

I was losing my vision; Well, not my vision, per say. I was going colorblind.

I only noticed this because when I was watching him fly and enjoy himself, I noticed some grays in his bouquet of wings. When I asked him about it, he didn't have an answer. I began to notice blotches of gray on other people, objects, and places too. And then Naruto decides to explain, as if it was something old, and I should just get over it.

'Sight isn't needed, there are more important things than speech and sight, right?' He mouthed to me. The action made me angry, because in the sight of other people, they could hear him as they walked by. I couldn't hear a thing, and I never will, ever again. And now I can't see, no colors, no nothing. Life would be gray, and tasteless.

I tried to swivel around to see my wings, and sure enough, I could still see them. The colors, I mean. That was one piece of my life that would never, ever, go away.

Not even if I wanted it to.

That night Naruto tried hard to fill my holed life with something meaningful. Love, sex. He said that he's been waiting a long time, a very long time to love me like only a faerie can. It was too hard to take it as a threat, that I could never be with someone who wasn't a faerie. That I could never have sex on my back, because it would hurt my wings.

And that I could never, ever, hear either Naruto or myself moan, because it takes a lot of remind yourself that you have to moan mentally to hear it, and by the time you remember to, the feeling has past.

I looked up around the room, outside and could see the midnight beach and the twinkling skies, but everything was just in another shade of gray.

It was the only time that Naruto ever saw me cry, and he had mistaken those tears for those of happiness.

Naruto tried in other ways too, to make me happy. Eventually my color-blindness was complete, and everyone around me got used to the fact that never again would they hear me speak. He showed up everywhere—accompanying me to school, floating around the classroom and pulled pranks on those who couldn't see him.

I couldn't believe there was once a time I staked everything on this blond. I was complete however, my faerie instincts were ramped through my life—I was forbidden from eating anything if it wasn't purely vegetation, and I had to sunbathe daily to keep myself in high spirits.

At night, Naruto and I would make love and then after we fell asleep he'd take us to Avalanche, and there I would practice my powers and how to fly.

'There's only two things you need to remember at all times,' Naruto would say seriously, 'One, never expose your secret.'

'And two?' I'd say, upset at the fact that I had to repeat myself three times before I remembered to do it mentally.

'Your powers weren't made for violence.' He'd smile, and kiss me on the nose, as if I should've known it all along.

As it turns out, my skill power would never be exceptionally high like others in Avalanche, but they were good for other things. Sneaky tools—confusion, mind-takeover, blackout, and potion-seduction techniques that I could use to escape a battle should I come in contact in one, or secure my secret if a human found out about it.

I frowned again. 'Do all faeries have the same skills?'

Naruto avoided my gaze. 'Different faeries born to different positions get different positions. You and I,' he'd point to us, 'we're on the lowest rank. But that's okay, because we're smarter than most, right?' He laughs sheepishly.

I force myself to nod and swallow the rest of questions, settling on scowling instead. But my mind was moving way faster than my mouth.

'Why are we on the lowest level?'

And Naruto stared me hard, and serious, and I've never seen that kind of look on him before. And he opens his mouth, closes it, and opens it again.

'Because we're not born faeries.' He spits angrily, and then doesn't say anything else. I'm not one to pry, so I don't pursue it. It isn't until the training is over, until he takes me to another place in Avalanche, Reflection's Pond, that he decided to talk again.

'You see that star up there, Sasuke, that big one above us? I made that for you while you were at school today. Because I was thinking about you.' He smiles bashfully, and takes my hand in his. I blush despite myself and look overheard.

'It's made out of onyx gem, the color of your eyes. Pretty, right?' He says, reading my mind. I can only nod as I examine the paper star in the sky made out of a dark colored gem. It glowed, but slowly, like a slowly burning fire gives smoke.

He leans in to kiss me. As we kiss, I feel angry. Angry because I feel like I give Naruto too much, because I let him take too much. But as he slips his rough tongue inside my mouth, I can't help but think: Will it be like this forever?

And I forget that Naruto can hear me, because he breaks the kiss with tears in the corners of his eyes.

'Sasuke,' he murmurs my name, wiping his eyes like a child. I stay impassive. 'I'm sorry, I'm so selfish, you know.'

'…Selfish.' I repeat, nodding.

'I'm in love with you, Sasuke. I can't help myself. I'm so crazy about you.' He's pleading with me so seriously and asking for something I can't seem to give him, and I'm confused.

Because isn't this what I've always wanted him to say, and so why did I feel afraid?

'I'll tell you. The day I was turned into a faerie, it was the day I got accepted into that school. Do you remember? I was sitting on the swing, and I was crying because all the mothers were giving their kids lunches and kisses for good luck and I didn't have anything. Nothing at all. Don't you remember me?'

His eyes are begging me to give him an answer I don't have. His face is stricken with grief when I shake my head, and he swallows loudly. I wonder if he's really going to cry.

'That day, I was just sitting there and you came over and pulled my hair. Remember? You said, 'blond is a loud color' and I said, 'black is a scary color.' And then when you stared at me for a long time and you gave me those slices of coconut from your bag because you said I looked hungry. Remember?'

I gasped. I did remember that first day of third grade and I couldn't find the slices of coconut that my mother usually packed for me, I just didn't remember giving them away. I don't remember Naruto from my memory at all.

'Remember? Please say you remember, please...' he pleaded in-between kisses to my forehead, cheeks, and mouth.

I couldn't break his heart. So I nodded. I nodded and told Naruto that he was as annoying then as he is now. And then I laid back and kept still while he made love to me for the second time that night.

When I woke up in real life, I realized that I was alone, again.

But I'm afraid, and I can't turn to anyone. For the first time, I feel so helpless and I don't understand why that I can't feel happy that I'm something people only talk about in fairy tales. But not this way. I didn't want to be subjected to total disconnection to the human world.

Because in the daytime, I still had to be in the human world, and I could only see Naruto when he decided to stop by, or when I'm asleep. It's not fair, only I have to deal with the fact that I can't speak to my family, or that I'm always in pain from bindings, or how I'm blind, or that I'm pissed that I spend more time learning my skills than actual schoolwork.

And when he shows up, and holds me and we talk about everything and I feel like he is truly my best friend again, I'm in love. That never changes, how in love with Naruto I'll always be.

At least, I thought I'd sorta be.

I don't remember the specifics as much as I remember exactly what he said. I only knew that we were in Avalanche, because I was so hungry that I begged him to take me back to Cherry's Fountain, and there I was sucking down those ruby-red grapes and he didn't say anything to me yet, which I thought was strange.

So when Naruto finally says to me, 'Remember how I told you that ever since I was a faerie I've loved you?'

I nodded, and wanted to say, 'I love you too' but I was very distracted by my hunger.

He paused, and then scratched his head. 'And I told you that, faeries aren't always born…they can be created...'

I looked up, obviously confused. 'So?'

He sighs. 'I made you, Sasuke. But not because someone told me to! I did it because I love you, and it's impossible for faeries to be in love with humans, it just never works out, so I created a special serum so I could have a few human qualities, and then…I was able to turn you into one too.'

I spit out everything in my mouth, completely enraged, just by the fact that I was turned into this, all on his own free accord. Then I pause, because didn't I want this? So I stopped and looked down at my feet, bashful. I took that drink, he didn't force me to, and he just gave me the opportunity.

And at the same, I thought it would be wonderful to be so amazing, so special, and to always be with Naruto. But it's nothing like that, and I can't change back.

I want to cry, but I don't. I pick up one of the bigger grapes and chuck it straight at his head, knocking him on his back. I'm satisfied for the moment, but I wait for him to continue.

'We can carry own our race of non-born faeries by creating more and more of ourselves, and I wanted to do it out of love. I love you, Sasuke, but that doesn't change rules.'

I gulped. 'Rules…?'

'To stay here, you have to do something, and I've been talking to the Council as long as I could so I could train you first, but I can't make them wait anymore.'

He cups my face and kisses me roughly, and I push him away, scowling. I need to hear him finish.

'Sasuke, you need…to turn someone else into a faerie.'

This is my part two of the story. I hope you liked it and enjoyed the plot so far. I don't know how far to take it...I just like faeries lol. Please review, I really appreciate it!