Croissant
The rain came down, each object -the trees, the lampposts, the cars- were as surrounded by a halo that made indistinct their shapes; often a lightning tore the black and heavy clouds. Fuu watched absent-mindedly the Parisian streets, extending the glance up to Eiffel Tower -Tokyo Tower's elder sister: so much better-sweet memories re-emerged in her mind.
" W'ads to you dsink, Mademoiselle Fuu?"
Alexandre asked without move the look from the street.
" Rien."
" Menteure: your eyes tell me dse opposite."
" Just memories: the evenings like this make me remember many events, some pleasant, other not."
Alexandre peeped at the woman an instant.
" Paris is dse lovers' city, but I 'ave dse impression dsat you run away from your past... from your love."
Fuu became stiff: she didn't run away from her love, simply they couldn't be together.
" You're wrong, unfortunately it hasn't depended on me."
The man sigh: Fuu Houojii had come to Paris two years and half ago and she worked for his father. Fuu worked too much for his tastes: she spend the few free time at home studying functions and her only hobby was to go on the coast once a month. Alexandre didn't deny that she was a beautiful woman, with her blonde picked hair in a chignon and her sad green eyes: Fuu showed much more than her twenty-two years, either for the too much work or the depression rooted in her heart. This irritated him: she had just begun to live her own life; she could not devote herself only to the work and to her son. Alexandre peeped at the child sleeping in his mother's arms. Hiroyuki was an adorable five-years-old boy; he had wild dark green hair, which only a skilled and long combing was able to tame them -Fuu employed at least one hour each morning; his skin was olive on which stood out bright amber eyes and a smile that melt your heart: everybody adored that little brat and everybody helped eagerly his mother, financially and above all morally. One of the reasons that had brought Fuu in Paris was Hiroyuki's health: a heart trouble mined his health and only an expensive care could allow the child to live a most possible ordinary life. Fuu was killing herself with work to pay her son's medical expenses, which she must bear alone. Nobody knew who or where the father of Hiroyuki - who was nicknamed "Le Petit Prince"- and Fuu had not confided to anybody his identity. Alexandre was very mad with that man: Fuu and Hiroyuki didn't deserve to be treated in that way.
" Your son needs a fadser."
" I know: Mon Petit Prince needs /his father/. And me too."
" Dsere are men more deserving dsan 'is father." Alexandre sigh, " you must just open your eyes..."
" I won't forget him, as I won't can forget what has happened. Jamais de la vie!"
" You s'ould try... try to love an odser man..."
Alexandre added reasonable. Fuu shook her head.
" How could I love somebody else?"
" But you couldn't keep on in dsis way! You work too muc', you'll get sick! You need somebody to 'elp you: avant tout your fils needs an 'ealdsy modser! I don't mean dsat you are very bad modser, simply dsat you couldn't do everydsing alone."
Fuu didn't answer: she tightened stronger Hiroyuki and sinks her face in his hair. Alexandre was right, if she were been ill nobody would have had care of her son, but...
The silence ruled in the car, just interrupted by some half word stammered by Hiroyuki in his sleep. Alexandre stopped before of condominium where Fuu lived. Fuu took her purse; she opened the door and smiled:
" Merci Alexandre, we'll see Monday: bonne nuit. Hiroyuki says goodbye to Alexandre."
The boy made a face and murmured half sleeping:
" Bonne nuit oncle Alexandre."
" Bonne nuit Petit Prince. Mademoiselle Fuu, meditates on w'at I 'ave told you before, bonne nuit."
Fuu nodded, arranged Hiroyuki on her arms, shut the door and runs toward the entrance. Alexandre watched the young woman run under the rain until she didn't came in the building; he then left with a sigh.
Fuu looked unhappy the poster with the writing "l'ascenseur est en panne" attached on the elevator's door: it meant six flights of stairs with Hiroyuki on her arms. The young mother bore up and began to go up: the boy was still asleep and those staircases could be lethal for his little, unhealthy heart. Fuu went up slowly, stopping at each landing to take back breath; reached the sixth floor she went toward her apartment seeking the keys in her purse: she moved Hiroyuki on the left arm and opened the door.
" Mon Petit Prince, we are home: puts on your pajamas."
" Mmh... maman, I won't: I am sleepy!"
" I know it, trésor, but you are wet rotten and we must at least dry your hair."
Fuu replied kissing his temple puts down him on the floor. Hiroyuki went in his bedroom rubbing his eyes.
" Oui maman... "
Fuu went in the bathroom and took a towel, then reached Hiroyuki: the boy had fallen asleep sat against the bed with a sock in his hand. Fuu smiled and undressed the sleeping child, she then putted him his pajamas and she shook him slightly.
" Mon Petit Prince..."
" Oui maman... "
He answered mechanically. Fuu began to dry his hair with the towel, and when they were acceptability dry, she laid her son in his bed.
" Bonne nuit, Mon Petit Prince."
She whispered tucking up the blankets and kissing his forehead. Hiroyuki embraced his teddy bear and murmured:
" Bonne nuit, maman..."
Fuu switched off the lamp and shut the door; she then went back in the bathroom for a quick shower. While the hot water flowed on her body, Fuu meditated on Alexandre's words: a father for Hiroyuki. Fuu knew that her son needed a paternal figure, anyone with whom go fishing and play soccer; this meant give up Ferio, but she wanted her son to know his true father. Fuu also knew that she could love nobody but Ferio, and this thought worried her day and night: she dreamed that somebody rings and that, opening the door, Ferio was there, with his gorgeous grin and open arms; but they were only dreams. Fuu wore the bathrobe and went in her bedroom; in that instant the light flickered off. Fuu sighed and grabbed the door's handle.
A noise. Anybody was in her bedroom.
Fuu stepped back of some footstep and with the hands searched one of the heavy brassy candelabra that decorated her fireplace. Swallowing, she opened the door quickly and said threateningly:
" Qui est là?!"
The room was completely dark and Fuu could sense a man's presence. The stranger not moved, neither spoke. Fuu tightened the candelabrum with vehemence to pluck up courage. A lightning lit up the room and for few instants the young woman could glimpse the intruder's shape: it was decidedly a man and he wasn't taller than she; his appearance seemed strong and perhaps there would have been a scuffle; the stranger gripped a photo frame in a hand. Fuu growled again more threatening:
" Qui est là?!"
" ... Fuu?"
Fuu started; the candelabrum slipped from her hand. That voice....
" Fuu? It's really you?"
The living room's lamp flickered on, lighting up the room and the man: Fuu laid a hand on her mouth; her eyes filled with tears.
Ferio was there and looked her, between hope and fear: he wore a pair of jeans and a blue night sweater; his hair was shorter than how she remembered. Ferio seemed aged too. Fuu was thrown between his arms and hide her face in his chest, her tears wetted his sweater; Ferio embraced her and began to fondle her damps hair.
" Ferio..."
Ferio and Fuu sat in kitchen drinking a cup of hot milk: he was telling how he had come at Paris.
" ... a day I met Hikaru in a park and she told me that you had moved in Paris for job. Umi helped me with the passport and I worked in Hikaru's gym to buy the ticket: before I leave, they told me that I here would have found a nice surprise, but I wouldn't ever imagined..." Ferio said peeping at a photo of Hiroyuki and Fuu at Le Avre. " I come this afternoon and I searched at once your house."
"Ferio, how have you done to enter without burgled the door?"
" Umi has told me that you hide one of the keys under the door-mat. Hiroyuki has... four years, right?"
" Five." Fuu corrected with a proud smile " Mon Petit Prince has turned five years old ten days ago: he's a so dear boy, he.... he looks very much like you. He attends the first year and is one of his class' most intelligent children; he speaks Japanese, English and French very well and he has an exceptional inclination for Math."
" You must be very proud of him..." Ferio said the same with voice proud. " Fuu, may I... "
" Oh, oui. " She said lifting and understanding what he wished. " Follow me, but don't do too noise: he was so tired that he didn't stand up."
Ferio sat on the boy's bed while Fuu stayed on the door. Ferio fondled his hair gently and started hearing Hiroyuki whisper something.
" Don't worry: Hiroyuki talks in the sleep."
Fuu whispered quietly. Ferio smiled her and went back to look the child.
" It's the most beautiful thing that I has never seen in my life; after you, Fuu-chan. I.... I can't still believe that this gorgeous boy has born from our love: he seems so fragile..."
" /He is/ fragile, more than as you could imagine." Fuu cried painfully "you... you won't take him away from me, will you?"
Ferio got up and joined her; he then placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered:
" But what are you speaking about?"
" You haven't come to take Mon Petit Prince away from me, are you? Ferio, you... you could marry another woman, have children with her, but I... I have nothing but Hiroyuki! Please, if you have loved me in the past... don't take him away! Please..."
Ferio watched puzzled Fuu cry in his arms.
" Why should I take Hiroyuki away? And what are these nonsense about other women to marry?!"
" I... I can't have other children, Mon... Mon Petit Prince is all that I have! And then... Hiroyuki have the sick heart: don't you need a sick son? Don't take him away..."
Fuu begged between tears. Ferio tightened her and caressed her hair to soothe her: those words had been like a cold shower. Fuu's biggest fear was to lose Hiroyuki and seeing Ferio there worsened the thing: Fuu was firmly convinced that Ferio was on Earth to make worth his claims on the child. He understood her fear, and whispered:
" Fuu, I.... I came only for you, to be again with you.... to not be more parted from you..."
The woman lifted her eyes and stammered:
" Aren't you... are you here for me? R-really?"
Ferio nodded with a smile and kissed her cheeks and her lips gently: the first kiss after five years. Fuu felt the bitter taste of her own tears on his lips. Soon, the heat that both thought dead went back at new life.
Ferio started: a dream in which Fuu was again with him. He looked around: the room in which he had waked up, was very simple, with a closet, a desk, a bookcase and a bed; the walls were of a delicate pastel green and the half open Venetian blind lets glimpse a rip of a turning white sky, thousand clouds gray and rosy had swept by the wind and ran on the unknown city. On the bedside table a woman and a four-five years boy's photo stood out and two cases were on the carpet. The room had a particular fragrance, as almond blossom and gardenia: Fuu's same fragrance.
A movement at his right caught his attention. Close to him was a gorgeous woman: ah, yes; it wasn't a dream; Fuu was really with him. Ferio watched the sleeping woman studying each detail of her: her long, curly and blonde hair covered the pillow in a golden cascade; her breath was so imperceptible to seem a bird's breath; her smooth and pale skin seemed to shine in the dawn's light and her naked and soft body pressed against his was a temptation. Following his instinct, Ferio stooped and kissed her leaning on an elbow. Fuu opened her eyes and after a second of surprise smiled:
" Bonjour mon cher, are you already awake?"
" Ah-a, but I think that I will go back to sleep: it's just the dawn."
Fuu peeped at the alarm clock: 06: 59 AM. Fuu embraced Ferio and kissed him:
" It's still seven o'clock of Sunday morning: go back to sleep."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This idea has come me some time ago and at the end I have decided to write it. The second part is already initiated, thus soon you'll know what will happen between Ferio and Hiroyuki.
For what concerns Alexandre.... well, it's logical that he speaks with French accent: "th" sounds "ds"; "h" isn't pronounced and "to be *** " becomes "to have ***". I have extrapolated these "technical information" from the thirteenth chapter of "Magic Knight Rayearth, Medieval Mystery Series" by C-chan.
This is the sequel of "What is happened" and I dedicate it to Suzamani, the only one who has left a review affirming that it must be more: you could consider it a kind of Christmas' gift.
Pat-chan