HELLO, as promised the prologue, of the sequel to Ice Prince...Enjoy

ps. All Ryoma pov unless stated otherwise

pps. Granted Ice Prince was done in three days. However I will not post chapters unless I get five reviews of constructive critisism. Seriously people, I will post the prologue but people need to review(or how will I know what needs to be improved- granted i'm cocky, and have a big ego, but even I know I mess up some things), and then I'll post the second chapter. R&R XD

Withered Heart

Prologue- Trapped

'Two years already,and I've been in here for months.' I look around me and all I see is white. The bed, windows, sheets, shades,seats,walls, ceiling, tiles, everything that single color.

'And yet I feel... surrounded by nothing but darkness.' I feel so TRAPPED. On the outside I haven't given up, my body continues to fight, and my heart continues to beat. I have to keep myself alive for the one I love now. Eighteen years of age is too young to die.

'But for how much longer can I withstand. I originally had only two years, and today marks that milestone'. Now I sit here, wallowing in the possible loss of my companion. The person I love most in the entire world.

'I can't lose him. Though he will fight. He will be strong like I am. If only I could give him my strength. When that time surely comes.' Then I remember with a bitter smile, just how little strength I have.

My face holds a paleness akin to that of a ghost, a transluscense of wax paper. My bones hold a certain frailty similiar to talc( substance in drywalls, or baby powder-so soft, it dissolves upon contact). My lips are cracked and are no longer plump with color. My eyes no longer glisten.

'My heart is failing me, slowly but surely my heart is failing, all I can hope for the one before me, is that Kami-sama allows a heart to come to me.' I can't leave him, he needs me. I realize now my reason to live, the reason my heart continues to beat.

'It's true, I love the person before me with all of my heart but a part of my heart remains frozen in the moment I saw Fuji with another. Even now I don't know who it was. I know we wanted Sei to join us, but obviously he had other plans that didn't include me.' I thought with a bitter, useless smirk.

'Maybe when I get my new heart in a few months, this heart can take with it all the pain I feel. I mean, that's what it's for right, to rid me of the pain. Even me, being the masochist I am, had no preparation for this. The pain I feel now is uncomparable to Fuji.

There was a time when I wanted our love to grow, to include another and I don't mean a child, I know that would be physically impossible. At least with another male. Two years ago, on the night I left Syuusuke, everything changed.

It's December 24, Christmas Eve, my birthday and yet here I sit in this damned hospital bed. The loss of Fuji is but a bitter memory, the possible loss of the one I have now is what plagues my withered heart.

'If I were to die now, what would I leave behind?' The one I can't lose. I sit next to him, in hopes of seeing his shimmering golden eyes peering at me, caressing his small two-year old form. He lay pale against the frozen moonlight, my son.