~Spoiler alert~
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She comes to him in his dreams.
Then again, maybe come is not quite the right word, because he knows that she doesn't see him. She only has eyes for Alibaba – who he can't figure out whether he likes or hates or admires. Maybe it's a bit of all three. Or perhaps it's not. He's an unfathomable mixture of stubborn and naïve and good –
– and he is the sun to his moon.
Even when Morgiana is with him, all she sees and thinks of is her sun. When everyone is there, she is blind to him altogether because why should she be satisfied with the moon when she can have the sun? The sun is warm, the sun nurtures. And he - he is just a pale, pale imitation.
Tonight is no different and when he drifts off to his black void of lost chances and haunted pasts, she's there.
"Hakuryuu!"
It's her. He turns; he is on the beach again and the bile is rising in his throat because oh God, he is going to be rejected again.
("I like you, Lady Morgiana." There's only shock on her face.
"You really are a magnificent woman! Strong, gentle, beautiful…" The shock doesn't fade and the dull light in her eyes slowly drains his confidence.
"And that's why..." He wants to stop because this is not how he had envisioned his confession, but the words pour out and out and out.)
This time she is the one who is smiling, and her hand reaches out to him. She is hope and light reincarnated, and her light is different from Aladdin's king candidate's light.
Alibaba's warmth is the kind that touches and brings out the best in everyone; he gives off light because he shines. Lady Morgiana is different in the sense that she is the light and her light shines.
(Or maybe he's just spouting nonsense because isn't that what he's best at nowadays?)
Morgiana is closer now and her hand clasps his. She is still smiling and it strikes Hakuryuu how beautiful she is like this. How pleasant she looks when she is not shocked, taken aback or crying. Funny how his love brings out all three in her.
"Where have you been? I've missed you a lot," she says, and her free hand brushes against his cheek; a feather light kiss. Her eyes are still bright and he can see the tiniest hint of need in them.
Does she want him like he wants her? Because God, he would give anything for that. Anything.
His chest tightens and for a second he forgets how to breathe because Morgiana is looking at him like this, and not at Alibaba.
He smiles back. "I've missed you too, Lady Morgiana. I've been… how do I put it? Just…" He isn't quite sure how to phrase it because how exactly do you explain it to someone you left on such awkward terms?
"I've been travelling, here and there. I went back to the Kou Empire for a bit, and even Sindria for a day or two." He scratches the back of his head.
The Rukh fly bright around the two of them – white and bright, a sight he hasn't seenbeheld in so long. (There's pink too, of course. He doesn't need Aladdin there to remind him.)
She laughs and the world around them falls away. "We've been traveling around too. We went to Reim, and I met other Fanalis there. Oh, and we visited Balbadd too. Hakuryuu," she begins again, eyes cast downward ever so slightly. He nods, waiting for her to continue.
Her silence doesn't bode well, and he feels that he will not like what he hears next. But like a man possessed, he can't stop. He can't get enough of her voice.
"Aladdin and Alibaba miss you too. Won't you come back?" she tries again.
This time he can almost pinpoint what his unease is from because something about her is off. She isn't mentioning what happened the first time on the beach at all and Morgiana… Morgiana has never been this carefree.
Perhaps she is free and maybe freedom means everything to her, but this happy and innocent soul isn't her.
(His demons come back to haunt him – "She's changed. She's better off without you, because to her you are nothing but pain.)
Something rustles behind him and he whirls around, hand still held by the Morgiana-but-not-really-Morgiana. Alibaba, he thinks, and there is malice in the thought but resignation as well. He feels the hand in his slacken and slide.
She's leaving him.
She has his heart and she's leaving him; she's spurning his gift by placing it under her heel. His eyes shutter close.
A breath in. A breath out.
The air changes and there's a faint scent of charcoal but he pays it no heed.
A breath in. A breath out. She's leaving him. He doesn't want her to leave. He gropes for the warmth that enveloped his hand moments before and reaches – searches and scours. His hands close around hands, and instead of finding her warmth and light, he realizes that the warmth is in him and the cold is in her.
He gasps, feeling oddly out of breath. Eyes open now, he notices that the beach is gone. No, now it's a building and it's burning downdowndown.
He glances up – he's shorter too; younger – and the hand which holds his is cloaked in crimson red.
For a second he's sure it is a glove. His mother used to wear gloves before his father died. Then the glove drips, staining the ground and Mother glances down to smile at 's a hand on his cheek and it's warm too, but not the earlier Morgiana type of warm. It's a scalding heat he wants to move away from but can't.
"My little Hakuryuu," she coos, her other hand smoothing down his hair gently. She's crouching so she can look him in the eyes and a strange feeling of hate mixed with longing wells up in him. He's trembling now.
She laughs, throwing her head back. The heat doesn't seem to bother her at all. She looks perfect, as always. He can feel the sweat trickling down his neck.
"My cute little boy." The hand in his hair slides down to cup his other cheek, and he grits his teeth.
"Poor baby, are you lost? I can see it in your eyes. The confusion. The rage," she notes. "It's beautiful."
She stands again. "You have beautiful eyes, Hakuryuu. So did your father and his eldest sons, right before their deaths. Eyes like yours; they're exquisite bright and dull. And I - I have made sure they will never fester." Her hands leave his cheeks and he reaches up to touch them.
They come away red and wet and as he glares up at Gyokuen, his sight blurs. "You t-traitor!" His voice fails him, and she has the nerve to giggle.
"Aw, are you crying now? Hush, hush." She wraps her arms around him.
Darkness envelops him. It isn't like before, when he chose it. His eyes are open and he's looking around desperately and yet… nothing. He's blind. He can still feel her around him, and it infuriates him to no end. (It's comforting to a level – but not really.)
He can't breathe.
His thoughts are jumbled now and his eyes fall closed – he just wants her to go away, as far away as possible. Preferably underneath the ground.
His eyes open once more and he finds fresh air rushing into his lungs. The world is visible again. Not by much though – it's still dark and the sun is still hiding and Hakuryuu thinks he rather prefers it this way. He's leaning against something hard - a tree trunk, he thinks.
And his cheeks – they're still wet.
He touches them daintily and his hand comes away stained. It's not red this time, but it's cold.
"Aw, is our poor little baby crying?" It's Mother again he's sure and oh God she followed him here.
He jerks up, half crouching. He can see the gold ornaments even in the poor light the barely-dawn provides and he relaxes ever so slightly. It's not Mother; it's close, but it's not her.
"You wish," he snarls back, furiously dabbing at his eyes with his sleeve and turning away from Judal. The Oracle snorts.
His companion crosses his arms. "We're leaving for Sindria now, get your stuff. We have a short visit to pay to a certain dear friend." A grin. "Afterwards, you can call it."
Hakuryuu frowns, lowering his arm. "It's still dark," he argues weakly. Judal laughs.
"Isn't it always?"
And he can't help but concur. They leave in a flurry of black Rukh, and really, black is all he sees nowadays.
He's not bothered by it. Not anymore. (But sometimes, just sometimes...
Morgiana.)
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the end
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word count: 1,483
dated: July 2, 2014 – July 3,2014
edited/beta'ed by: hannaadi88 (thanks :D)
a/n: I SWEAR I'LL UPDATE MY OTHER FANFICS SOON. BUT MAGI. MAGI FIRST. Oh, and you have to admit Hakuryuu's a bit messed up. Poor kid. :'(
Even though he hates his mother for what she did, I think it is important to remember how the two were close beforehand, and he must still love her to some degree (seen from how he didn't want to believe his brother at first). Really, love and hate can be ambiguous at times since it's so easy for strong emotions to morph into one another. Yep, poor kid.
Reviews are loved. Encouraged. Please. Yes please reviewwww.
-Azure