Disclaimer : Pandora Hearts is not mine and English is not my first language.
"Take my hand."
She smiles. Radiant. Cheerful. Bright. Cherry cheeks. Eyes sparkling of thousands colored sequins. And at the sight of this sheer beauty, every second makes him increasingly blind.
But it does not hurt. Oh no, it does not.
He gives her what she wants. As ever. Because he can not resist. No matter what she wants, he will always be able to give it to her. No matter what it involves.
His hand. And she takes it with all the sweetness in the world. As if she grabs something fragile. As if she is afraid that at any sudden movement he will disappear like a butterfly whose life only lasts one day.
And it does. The slightest gust of wind could turn him into dust, the slightest breath could blow his heart in his chest.
It's more than a goodbye, but it's not yet a farewell.
Her eyes are full of water, but she does not cry, because she's sure his skin and bones will turn into something beautiful.
And so she dances a waltz with him. Because a waltz, it is the same thing as life. Two steps forward, one step back. We live and we must die, we must go back.
He must go back. But not now. Not yet.
The time of a waltz.
One step, two steps, three steps.
Her hand in his.
One step, two steps, three steps.
Her angelic smile that enlighten his world. The last thing his defective vision can see.
One step, two steps, three steps.
He feels her fingers tremble between his own.
"What are you afraid of, my lady ?"
His voice runs along the walls, slips into the air and hits her right in the heart. She blinks. She looks into his ruby eye. His smile is the same as always, kind, loving. It covers his face as a conqueror who would win a promised land. She is his promised land.
"What I'm afraid of ?" she repeats slowly, feeling the tremolos spoil her voice. "Me." There is a silence that lasts centuries. Silence where all the words in the world are said together in order to make them deaf. Her silence is noisy. And then nothingness. "Well, me without you."
She offers him another of her smiles, which flies with the wind like the petals of a flower. He hesitates for a moment to raise his hand to try to catch it. But he doesn't.
She has always known him. He was always there. And all her memories are based on the pillar he represents in her life. Memories. There are many memories but someone has electrified and connected them to our eyelashes, as soon as we think about it, our eyes burn.
He does not answer. It is still two steps forward, one step back, pressing her against his chest. What remains of his life may turn into an eternal waltz with her and if it means he had to hold her until he dies, he'll certainly enjoy it.
This is the beginning of winter. The beginning of the end. The cold is so stunned that the birds froze in midair before crashing on the ground. The noise they make in their fall is incredibly soft for a sound of death.
One step, two steps, three steps.
They do not care, because they are their own sun. She put color in his life, he kept the colors in hers.
One step, two steps, three steps.
What he built in her will never collapse.
One step, two steps, three steps.
And they always have the time of a waltz to love each other again.
Again and again.