I felt my heart skip a beat at the sight of her long ebony hair, ivory skin, and eyes the color of sakura petals. My first thought was that I must be dreaming beause there was no way that this amazingly beautiful woman could ever exist in this world. She stood under the bright light of the moon near the tree at the center of a nearby park, her eyes turned upward towards the moon; her calm demeanor conflicting with the tears that streamed down her pale cheeks.
I approached her slowly, as if she might become startled by my presence. "Miss, are you hurt?" I asked softly. Now closer, I could see that she seemed to be around the age of sixteen but was clearly overr a foot shorter than I. Her dark colored dress looked like something that one might wear to a funeral.
Unaffected by my presence she sighed deeply and I saw a slight shiver course through her even though it was a warm summer night. "Just lonely." She turned her pale pink eyes to me then, allowing me to see all the pain and suffering that she contained to her eyes.
For reasons unknown to me, it broke my heart to see that amount of pain in this strange girl's eyes. Without realizing it, I had reached my hand out and caressed her cheek, sweeping away some tears. My heart sped up when she leaned into my touch briefly before turning her eyes back to the lovely full moon. I let my hand rest on her shoulder, giving her silent comfort. It felt as if this girl was grieving the loss of someone important to her and she either was determined to do it alone or she had no one to lean on but my guess was on the latter. As the tears continued to flow I decided that I could be the one for her to lean on if she would let me. "I'm Morinozuka Takashi." Introducing myself to the petite girl.
She turned her head to me, lips slightly curving at the corners. "I'm Takihara Miyako, but you can call me Miya. May I call you Takashi?" I nodded once, my heart nearly stopping when her smile grew, reaching her eyes. "Is it okay if I talk to you? You seem like a good listener."
"Yeah." I brushed my hand against her cheek again. "Do you want to sit somewhere?" I swept my arm across the expansive landscape of the park, motioning towards some benches near the playground equipment.
She threaded her fingers inbetween mine and pulled me towards the ground. "I like it here." She regarded our intertwined hands with curiousity before suddenly pulling back. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to grab you like that." She averted her gaze and chewed on the corner of her bottom lip.
I reached onto her lap and placed my hand on top of hers and gave her a gentle smile when she peered up at me through her bangs. "It's okay if it helps you." I felt abnormally drawn to this fragile, shy girl in a way that no words could accurately describe. The warmth that burned in my chest at the sight of her breathtaking smile and unearthly beauty spread through me like wildfire.
"Thank you Takashi. I suppose I should talk now since I asked you to listen." Her smile dropped and the sadness returned to her eyes. "My mother died from lung cancer last week. I feel so lost without her, like I've lost a piece of myself. I want to believe that she's in heaven and I know that she's no longer suffering but I desire nothing more than to her her voice again." She wiped a stray tear from her eye. "But we argued a lot and she didn't approve of most of the things I had done with my life so far, mostly my choice of guys. We hadn't talked in a long time and she didn't even notice when I held her hand in her final moments when she was crying about missing me." I rubbed my thumb in circles on the back of her hand. Content to let her talk but to let her know that I was still listening.
"She was all I had left in this world and I'm not sure how to move on without her." Her tears flowed freely again while keeping an unsettling serene look on her face. "I've been coming to this park for a while now; I like it here, I feel completely disconnected here, more so when the moon is full." Her face turned up to the sky once more. "Here the world is bathed in its beautiful silver light, it swallows me up and I feel like I'm floating among the stars. No one has even noticed me here until tonight." Her eyes met mine and she smiled genuinely once again.
We talked for what seemed like hours but the moon had barely moved from its position in the sky. I learned that her favorite color was plum, which happened to be the same color of her dress. She enjoyed eating peppermint ice cream and pizza though not at the same time. I learned that her laugh almost sounded like musical notes when played with a piano and I learned about some of the genuinally awful guys she had chosen to date in her past.
I found myself answering her questions and telling her about myself as well. In my entire life I had never spoken so much and never had it felt so natural to talk to someone. "So what brought you out here tonight Takashi?" She asked casually.
"I was just out for a walk, not really paying attention to where I was going and I ended up here." I shrugged and casually leaned back onto my elbows, looking up to the stars.
"It must have been fate that drew you here to me." She gazed at me longingly "Do you believe in fate Takashi?"
"I'm starting to." I shifted onto my side so that I was facing Miya and brushing my knuckles across her cheek. She held my hand against her cheek, the warmth spreading through my hand and traveled up my arm, my heart pounding loudly in my ears. I leaned in close, my lips just inches from hers. She started to lean in towards me, her lips just barely brushing against my own before she jerked back suddenly.
"Oh!" She jumped up, looking slightly panicked. "I'm sorry but I have to go. I have to be somewhere soon." She gazed up towards the moon, it had started its descent and was now barely peeking over the distant tree tops. "Meet me here tomorrow night Takashi?" Her eyes pleaded as much as her voice.
"Yeah." I stood up to see her smile then take off in the direction of the nearest street before vanishing from sight.
I wandered back home in a daze, feeling slightly lost and puzzled by her sudden departure. The clock in my room told me that it was nearly five in the morning, seeing as I didn't have school tomorrow, I resigned myself to sleeping in and dropped myself onto my bed without much thought to discarding my clothes or shoes and fell into a restless sleep.
The next few days or well nights, I met with Miyako at the same park, each time our conversations would become more extensive and the flow of time seemed to stop or at least slow while we discussed matters like school or friends. We talked about trival matters and serious ones. She told me about how she used to cut in middle school and had gotten into a bad place then. Her father had been abusive both physically and mentally since she was a little girl and her mom refused to believe her when she told her that he had been sexually abusive as well.
After her had raped her when she was thirteen, she left the house on her own, hoping couches with various friends and boyfriends over the course of the next two years until she learned of her father's death from a car accident. By that time she had already been working odd jobs for anyone who would hire and underage girl and had saved quite a bit of money. She returned home only to be greeted by a sobbing and angry mother who was simultaneously begging her to stay and blaming her for her father's untimely passing.
She had left home again after that, being a roommate to a close friend of hers even after she heard that her mother had been diagnosed with cancer. It broke her heart to stay away but in light of circumstances, she selfishly stayed as far away from the house where she had grown up.
Despite her difficult past, I found myself caring about her more and more with each passing night. If anything, her past made me even more drawn to her. It made me want to heal those wounds and show her that not all people are as selfish and abusive as her parents had been. I would often cradle her in my arms as she retold the stories of her past and kiss away the tears as she would start to cry during the most difficult parts. This girl that I had come to care about was brittle, dysfunctional, and damaged beyond belief but she was also kind, beautiful, and smart.
It happened one night when she had been retelling her most recent relationship with a guy named Seiko Eishero who had become physically abusive when she tried leaving the relationship. Silent tears dripped from her eyes as she sat in my lap, staring up at the moon once again. On reflex I kissed each of her cheeks and then her lips. "Takashi... You don't need to care for me so much..." She whispered as she buried her face in my chest. "I have nothing left to give you..."
"You are perfect just as you are Miya. You don't need to give me anything more." I kissed her lips again and gently ran my hand down the back of her hair.
"Here." She pulled a long chain with a dragon pendant, its claws curled around a deep purple stone. "I want you to have this. Its the only thing I have ever cared about. Its a silver dragon with flourite. My mom bought it for me when I was little and I've worn it ever since." She slipped the amulet around my neck and kissed my forehead.
"If its that important to you, then I can't accept it." I lifted the pendant to examine it more closely.
"I insist. Plus I don't think I'll need it anymore." She smiled sadly.
"Why not?" The odd statement causing my stomach to churn.
"Because you showed me what it feels like to love and be loved. Because of you, I finally feel like I can move on." Her smile turned gentle but happy.
"Move on?" The bad feeling in my gut increasing.
"You see Takashi..." She pulled my face into a chaste kiss. "I'm already dead."
My heart stopped and my eyes widened in shock as my mind started to process what was happening. Her once warm body was no longer emitting any heat, her already light weight became nonexistant, and her skin that was so beautiful and full of life moments before was becoming more and more transparent by the second. I had fallen completely for this girl and now she was disappearing from my life forever.
"Thank you Takashi." She tried to brush away a tear that I hadn't noticed had escaped from my eyes. "I love you Takashi."
"I love you too Miyako... I'll never forget you." She was nearly invisable and my hand slipped right through her face when I tried to cup it. With a final smile she faded away, leaving me there, sitting alone in the park, bathed in the light of the moon and clutching onto a beautiful dragon pendant that was all the proof that remained of our love.
A/N: The wine-induced plot bunnies were running rampant and I had to write this. I apologize to any loyal readers that have been following my other OHSHC story. I had to neglect it in order to get this done but I promise to get another chapter out soon. Anyways you're welcome for the feels. And as always, Stay Awesome!
Oh yeah and I don't own OHSHC.