A/N: Once again, I wrote more than I thought that I would, but that isn't bad at all, right?
I hope you like this story.
Far away from human civilization, in the middle of a forest that looks like one of those magic places from fairy tales in which the loudest sound you can hear is the tweet of the birds, there is a little house.
There isn't anything special about that house, there isn't any girl living with 7 little men or a family of three bears, things like those only exist in bedtime stories.
That's what everybody says after reaching that house, normally kids, they are always full of curiosity and energy so it's obvious that they want to inspect the house that was built surrounded by trees instead of buildings, they expect something magical, they refuse to deny that the world is so boring that magic doesn't exist, that's why they don't doubt when they decide to visit that place, because they expect a witch living there, making strange potions to bewitch someone, after all, there are some rumours about a woman that is able to turn into stone whoever look at her eyes.
Children are scary creatures, they don't know what does fear mean, that's why they run with a smile on their face towards the small white house that is lost at the middle of the forest.
When they finally reach the spot, the so called house is finally standing in front of them and they all hold their breath. Their eyes are sparking with emotion, they are excited, they are living an adventure and they can help but smile.
One of them knocks the door, completely decided to reveal that there is magic in this word. Probably an old lady with white hair and a lot of wrinkles is going to come out, completely dressed in black and angry, shouting at them to go away.
Or maybe the woman tries to trick them with sweets and delicious food, but they know that they have to run away after seeing who lives there, they don't want to die converted in stone because of her magic eyes.
After waiting for a time that seems like eternity for them, the wooden door opens slowly, emitting an ugly and loud squeak that makes the children's eardrums hurt
They take a deep breath, just a quick look and they will start running, but just in case they prepare their "weapons", some sticks that they found on the floor while walking in the forest.
But instead, when the door is finally fully open and they can see who's standing inside the house, they all open their mouths.
There was a woman, she had, indeed, white hair, but that was all, she was completely opposite of the image that they had about the owner of that mysterious house. A beautiful lady, probably at her twenties, with long and fluffy white hair that reminded them of a cloud, the only estrange thing they could find on her was the strange colour of her eyes, but they weren't converted to stone after looking at them, so they supposed that there would be a logical explanation to her pink eyes.
"How unusual, we have guests" the kids were, once again, surprised. They thought that whoever lived there was because they hated humanity and that they would attack whoever tried to talk with them, but instead, the woman greeted them with a gentle smile and a soft voice "Are you looking for something?" Asked observing every kid and smiling once more after realizing how surprised they were. She was already used to it. Sometimes, curious kids that heard rumours would get close to have a look to the owner of the house expecting a witch but would leave disappointed because they only found a lady. It was weird how they didn't realize that the woman wouldn't get older, it didn't mater how many years passed, she would stay the same or almost the same.
"No..." answered the kid who knocked the door "we are..."
"What's wrong?" interrupted a third voice.
"Oh dear... You shouldn't get up..." the woman walked towards the owner of the voice and she helped him to reach the door.
An old man, with a smile on his face showing more wrinkles than the ones that he already had and a hair that in the past used to be black but with the pass of the years became almost grey, he had a really soft voice, which made that the kids immediately thought that he was a kind person.
"Can I help you?" asked the old man.
"No... We are fine" answered the same kid, this time being able to finish the sentence. "Excuse us" and after that apology, they left the place while talking to each other.
"So it was only a woman taking care of her grandpa after all..." commented one of them.
The woman couldn't help but laugh.
"They think that you are my grandfather" it was funny for her, after all she was the older one from both of them.
"Well, that's because you still look young, Mary" he sounded more tired now, almost like if it took effort for him even to talk. Mary looked at him worried, she knew what was happening and she didn't like it, yet, she knew that if her husband, Kousuke Seto, realized that she was worried about him, he would be sad.
The truth was that the old man wasn't other but her husband, and even if he looked old, he was in fact much younger than her.
One of the disadvantages of being a medusa like Mary is that they grow up much slowly than humans, and even if she was just a quarter of medusa, one year for her were like ten for humans.
That's why even if she looked at her twenties, she was more than two hundred years old, making her the one who should be called old instead of her husband.
"Why did you wake up? I told you that you should rest on the bed" even if she was scolding him, she was using a softer voice tone than usual.
"Sorry, sorry" he apologized, it was obvious that he wasn't being serious, he laughed while saying it and after that he was still smiling "I heard the door knocking and I wanted to check who it was" he closed his eyes and with Mary's help, he lied on the bed. "Those kids... They reminded me of the first time I saw you" he smiled once more remembering how scared she was the first time she saw him.
"That was long time ago..." replied remembering too how cheerfully he smiled. That didn't ever change.
"I knocked the door and I heard a sound coming from it" he started telling "I was scared because I thought that I scared the person inside and I made them have an accident" the woman laughed a little bit after hearing that.
"You surprised me and I accidentally dropped the tea" explained. It was the first time for her hearing the knock, and that made her nervous.
The old man laughed.
"You covered your eyes because you didn't want to convert me into stone..." he stopped for a moment. It was making hard for him to speak, but he didn't want to stay quiet. "In that moment I thought that you were a kind person" another pause. This time he took a deep breath, and almost like a sight he said "I still think it" and then he opened his eyes a little bit to look at her, who was keeping a smile with her eyes full of tears.
She knew what was happening, she knew it since a long time but she didn't want to accept it, it hurt too much. It was the same that happened to her mother, and to her father before that.
Life was escaping from him for every second that passed and she couldn't do anything to help.
She grabbed one of his hands with both of hers, she couldn't talk any more, if she started talking she would cry, but she wanted to keep a smile for him, because the last thing that she wanted to show to him was her smile, because there wasn't any other thing that could do.
He gave her happiness for years, he took care of her, he showed her the world, he did everything he could and even more for her.
And in his last moments of life, all she could do was stay next to him.
She always feared that he thought that she was a monster, after all, it didn't matter how many years passed, it didn't matter that she was actually older than him, she would stay young. But he always stayed with her, he didn't fear her.
"You are beautiful" he said moving his other hand to touch her face. Everything was difficult for him now, even breathing took him more effort than it should.
The woman closed her eyes and tilted head down embarrassed. She didn't know what to do. The tears were filling her eyes and she wanted to let them go out, but doing that Kousuke would be sad, for his sake she had to fake a smile.
"Every day, since I met you..." the breathing was irregular, but even if he stopped talking his condition wouldn't get better, it was a miracle that he still had enough strength to stand up and move as he did before. But for every minute that strength was fading away, she had to grab his hand tighter to make sure that he was still there, that he didn't become dust "I wanted to help you, I wanted to be brave for you" he smiled, remembering his days with his adoptive siblings and how he thought that compared to them, he was a coward "I wanted to be a hero for you" those words made his eyes start filling with tears "I'm happy because I was able to live with you until now, I'm lucky because a woman like you fell in love with me" the hand that was touching her face was slowly going down, he didn't have forces to keep it up, but Mary released the other hand and grabbed the one that was previously touching her face and she placed it in the same place. She kept listening to his words not being able to answer, if she did she would cry. "I..." he sighted and then smiled, he knew it, the next words would be the last ones.
He had a good look to her. Her beautiful face, her fluffy hair, her smile... Everything was perfect in her. And he knew that she wanted to cry, he could see her eyes full of tears, he could see how she was forcing a smile.
And he understood why was she doing that, after all, his eyes filled with tears and the smile on his face were the same. They didn't want to see each other cry.
But they did.
"I will miss you" said the girl letting her tears go down her checks but keeping the smile "I'm really glad that you knocked the door and took me with you, you showed me the world that I wanted to see" her voice was cracking, almost at the end of the sentence she couldn't even vocalize, but Kousuke knew what she said, he could understand her not matter what the situation was.
And he cried too, with a smile on his face.
"I love you" he said before closing his eyes for last time.
"I will always love you" replied the woman before she started crying more than she ever did. "Kousuke..." She called while sobbing, even if she knew that he couldn't hear her any more, even if now she was just talking to the air, she hoped that her words would reach him in the afterlife "thank you" it was difficult to talk, her throat hurt and for every word she said new tears appeared "thanks to you I was happy" she smiled, crying like she never did, with tears that never seemed to stop coming, going down her checks, she offered to the body that was losing his warm the brightest smile she could.
A/N: I wanted to write something like this since a long time, if you think about it, this ship is really sad because it doesn't matter how much Mary tries, she will never be able to age like Seto, and this could happen, I realized this when an anon on Tumblr asked me what I thought about this ship and after that, I decided to write something about them.
I hope you liked it.
Once more, I will try my best writing my next story too.
