A Whiskey Lullaby
I have revised this story . . . I made it longer :D
Thanks for all the comments on the original story! :)
Enjoy~
"Amu, I have something important to tell you." Ikuto said, getting the 24 year old woman's attention.
"What is it?" Amu asked sadly as she glanced at her fiancé in his army uniform.
He almost hated to say this to her because they were to be married in a couple months, but there wasn't much he could do. He had to tell her even if the stars in her eyes vanished.
"The captain has asked for my return to the field, and I'm leaving tonight." He told her.
"Alright, just promise me you'll come back alive?" She requested, but as he predicted the shine to her smile and eyes vanished.
"Of course, there's no way I'm going to die and leave you alone." He said, caressing her check, and looked lovingly into her eyes.
"Love you." She said holding back her tears.
"Love you, and see you in four months." He said as he kissed her cheek, and left.
He had hoped to be back one month before their wedding.
~*~ Four Months Later ~*~
Ikuto was getting off the plane, and looked around. He didn't find what he was looking for, so he headed straight home hoping to find his beloved. As he past through the crowd he got hand shakes from many strangers and thank-you's for his service in the military.
When he got home he truly did find Amu but not in the way he was expecting to find her.
He walked up to the front door and quiet opened it, stepped inside and closed the large oak door. He heard some sounds but thought nothing of them as he set down his bags and continued up the stairs. The moans got louder as he got closer to the door of the master bed room.
"Amu!" Ikuto exclaimed in shock, when he opened the door. There in the king size bed were his love, Amu, and a man with blonde hair and light red eyes having sex, well until Ikuto barged in.
"I-Ikuto!" She said as if she couldn't believe her eyes. She pushed the blonde boy off of her, wrapped a sheet around herself, and walked over toward Ikuto. She tripped a couple times as she stumbled over to him, and then fell down in front of Ikuto.
"You couldn't have any faith or even trust in me could you!" Ikuto yelled down at her as the tears streamed down his face.
"I told you I'd come back!" He told her still crying.
"Ikuto, I'm so-" she tried to say.
"No you're not." He stated and ran out of the house, got on his motorcycle and drove away quickly. Amu ran after him.
"Come Back!" She screamed. When he was out of her sight she cried and mumbled about how she ruined her own life. It wasn't supposed to be like this, she knew she shouldn't have trust what Tadase and his group of friends said last month.
Ikuto drove to the willow tree that he and Amu use to dance under, and watched the stars at night. He lay under it and thought about what had just happened. He remembered each smile he earned from Amu and all the laughs and all the kisses. Pain stabbed a knife into his heart and twisted it.
He pulled out his whiskey bottle and drank it all slowly. Then he fell as sleep once the bottle was empty, and woke up at about eight at night. He had even dreamed about her; she was everything to him when he was away in the war she was the only thing that he thought of. She was what he was looking forward to; the only thing keeping him alive.
He got on his motorcycle and went to the nearest bar. He drank at the bar until he was kicked out and he threw up beside a taxi cab. He stumbled to the inn neighbouring the bar. His sister owned this inn, but he didn't realize that until she stared at him.
"I told you she was no good." Utau sneered and marched out of the inn.
Amu was driving all over the town trying to find Ikuto but he was nowhere to be found, and when she gave up she headed back to her house only to find a guest waiting for her.
It was Utau who was sitting on the bench outside the door of Amu and Ikuto's house.
"Hello." Utau greeted Amu in a not so friendly voice.
"Hi, please come inside." Amu cringed. Utau, however, refused to go inside the house.
"How could you Amu? My brother, of all people, had fallen for someone like you." Utau said. Amu tried to explain herself but Utau wouldn't let her.
"I'm over my brother complex, and you knew that. That's why I was fine with it, but I was always a little . . . not sure about it. Do you have any idea how much my brother, Ikuto, loved you, trusted you, and now he's somewhere doing something trying to forget about everything you created. Which by the way was his whole personality because you made him smile when he couldn't, and, unfortunately, you made him cry when he never had to." Utau screamed and roughly brushed by Amu and went home to her husband.
When Utau left, Amu broke down crying. All she could think about was what had happened just months before, it wasn't what she truly wanted from her life.
"Amu." Tadase called as he knocked on her screen door. His friends behind him were snickering.
"What?" Amu stated as she walked closer to the door, but she never opened it.
"Hey baby." One of his friends slurred.
"Are you drunk?" Amu growled and then without a moment of hesitation she tried to shoo them off her property.
"Don't do anything stupid because when Ikuto gets back-" Amu tried to threaten, but then Tadase cut her off.
"He isn't coming back." Tadase stated sadly.
Anything emotion in Amu flew out of her body with her soul.
"What did you say?" Amu asked with a weak voice. It wasn't hard to believe that it was Tadase who came to tell her because he worked closely with the government and it was part of his job to tell the widow. Well, she wasn't technically a widow, but she sure as hell felt like it.
"He said he's dead." Tadase's drunk friend exclaimed.
"Get off my property." Amu stated as firmly as she could.
"Now, come on." The drunken friend tried to touch her, but she shoved him away.
"Get away." She screamed and then slumped against the door frame.
Tadase nodded and then led his friends away. It wasn't too long before they heard her sobs. Tadase's heart was hurting listening to her cry, but he did what was necessary for her to love him.
The next day Tadase showed up at her doorstep and she let him in without much question. Tadase realized after several days, that Amu was no longer capable of love because he killed it. Amu was like a rag-doll.
As Amu remembered the memory she realized that she should've gone to Utau right away because the more she thought about it the more it didn't make sense and then the more she hated herself. Amu wasn't married to him yet and so the government shouldn't have told her. They would have gone straight to Utau, his sister.
Amu was in her kitchen as she slammed her hands down on the table and then rested her head on the rough surface and wept some more.
Utau arrived back at the inn, and called Kukai.
"What would you like, Hun?" He asked
"I'd like you to write a duet with me." She suggested. Kukai nodded, and they began to write. She didn't ask much of Kukai and so when she did he never failed to help her out.
It's been two weeks since Ikuto walked in on Amu and the blonde man, and every day since then Ikuto has gotten drunk and danced with hookers, but every woman he saw always had something to remind him of her. Be it the jewellery they wore, or the way they laughed something always reminded him of her as he stumbled drunkenly around the town. He was banned from every bar, until finally he bought rum and whiskey and brought it to the inn.
Not only did every woman remind him of Amu, but suddenly in his drunken mess Amu was everywhere.
"Go away." He would cry.
For the next couple of days he would sit in a wooden chair in the room and drink. He wouldn't eat, until finally he got alcohol poisoning, but even that didn't stop him from drinking.
His sister tried to stop everything he was doing, but it never occurred to her that he would have wanted to see Amu. In fact she blamed Amu for everything and refused to allow Ikuto to go back to her.
But then one morning Utau came to his room to clean up and mess he might have made the day before. She knocked, and there was no answer so she opened the door and found him on his bed, his head dug into the pillow clinging to Amu's picture for dear life, he was not breathing, and there was a note on the bed, but she didn't read it.
Utau cried and became hysterical. She shook him wildly be the shoulders, but he didn't wake up, his arms only loosely flailed until they knocked the note off the bed and onto the floor.
"Ikuto." She screamed through her tears, "Don't leave me."
She cringed when she heard herself say that, but she meant it because he was her last living relative and now she was alone. She hated being alone.
"Ikuto." Utau sobbed.
Foot steps were heard running up the stairs and Kukai arrived at the door.
"Utau." He whispered and tried to help her stand, but she refused the help.
"I don't want to be alone." She cried.
"You aren't." Kukai tried to get her to look at him, but she stared at Ikuto with no strength.
"Utau you aren't alone." He whispered again.
"Yes," Utau cried "I am because Ikuto left me."
Kukai knelt beside Utau and she finally glanced at him, "What about me?" He whispered, "I won't leave you."
Realization slid over her features, "Kukai." she whispered and caressed his face before hugging him.
"I'm sorry." She cried into his shoulder.
"I understand." Kukai sighed as he rubbed her back in a comforting way.
When she was relaxed, "I think I'll tell Amu." Kukai stated, but then Utau shook her head, "I'll tell her."
She picked up the note and stared at it. Kukai asked her what it said, but Utau could only show him because she was choking on more tears. The note read; I'll love her 'till the day I die.
"I have the first half of the song done," Utau whispered as she looked at the note, "It's your part, but I think you should sing it at his funeral."
Kukai nodded and helped Utau up. She walked to her car and drove to Amu small house on the edge of the city. She took several deep breaths and walked up the steps, but Amu was sitting on the bench looking as life-less as ever.
"Amu." Utau whispered. She was planning to yell and accuse Amu, but then when she saw how distraught Amu was the thoughts vanished.
"Ikuto's dead." Utau decided to tell it like it was.
Amu looked up at Utau and tears slid from her face, but Amu made no sound. They were silent tears.
"I've killed him." She whispered with so much sadness behind her words Utau rushed to side in fear Amu might have committed suicide right there.
Utau and Amu comforted each other and Amu was finally about to tell Utau what happened with Tadase and his drunken friends weeks ago. It was no excuse for what she did, but it was all she could do to explain to Utau what had happened.
They buried Ikuto beneath the willow, as Kukai sang the first part of the song Utau had written, and because Ikuto was part of the army as Kukai sang guns were fired.
During the funeral a little girl with long flowing blond hair felt sorry for Amu, whom was staring sadly at the coffin before her. She was the only one who felt something for Amu because all the elderly people around the young girl were spreading rumours about the affair. Unfortunately no one, not even Utau or Kukai, knew how much Amu blamed herself. Because even if Amu told Utau what had happened weeks before she still blamed herself one hundred times more than she needed to and it was destroying what was left of her heart.
The months past and she too slowly tried to drink away her memories of him as more rumours were started. Utau started to understand what Amu was trying to do and because Utau didn't want to lose another person close to her, she started to console Amu.
"Amu." Utau whispered, "Please stop this."
Utau took the bottle away from Amu.
"Why are you trying so hard for me?" Amu mumbled, "I killed your brother."
Utau looked at Amu and tried to form the answer that would help Amu the most, but all she came up with was, "I don't want you to die because you were almost my sister."
"No, you are my sister." Utau smiled at Amu, but Amu just stared back with her empty eyes.
Utau eventually noticed Amu was still drinking, and was now trying to hide to smell of alcohol on her breath from Utau and neighbours.
When Amu went to the bars, like Ikuto, she noticed the littlest details on people that remained her of him, but this only made her drink larger amounts of vodka and strong wines. She kicked out any men who came her way for a good time. Once no one visited any more she never ate, and would only drink.
It was agonizing to her because the more she drank to forget, the more she remembered and then the more she drank in hope she would forget. She hoped to forget his smile, his smirks, his eyes and the way he would call her. However, all she remembered were the ways his hands held her and all the love she felt when he was just simply around her.
And she destroyed him. Amu had had enough as she looked for a way out. Out of the pain she had created and only one way came as she stared at Ikuto's smiling picture.
Utau came to visit the next morning, only to find Amu with her face down in the pillow, clinging to Ikuto's picture for dear life. Much like when she found Ikuto.
She felt herself crumbling away. She should have seen this coming and then she began to blame herself. What if she allowed Amu and Ikuto to see each other? Would they have talked it out, would they have repaired each other, or saved each other?
Kukai drove to the house when he realized how long Utau was taking. He got there and saw Utau sitting on the stairs crying. Kukai ran to her and held her.
"Is it my fault?" Utau asked.
"No." Kukai stated firmly before Utau thought of doing the same thing, "Don't leave me, Utau."
She looked at him with bewilderment, "I won't." She whispered.
"Promise me, Utau." Kukai begged, "I hate to be alone just like you."
She gave him a hug and promised.
The next day she was buried next to Ikuto under the willow, and Utau and Kukai sang the song together as people came to give their respects.
"She put him out," Kukai started after a moment of guitar, "Like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette. She broke his heart."
"He spent his whole life trying to forget," Kukai took breath, "We watched him drink his pain away, A little at a time."
"But he never could get drunk enough," Kukai looked to Utau who was preparing to join him, "To get her off his mind."
"Until the night," Kukai sang and then Utau joined in quietly, like background music, "He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger."
"And finally drank away her memory. Life is short but this time it was bigger, than the strength he had to get up off his knees." Kukai noticed as they sung Utau's voice shook slightly, "We found him with his face down in the pillow, with a note that said I love her 'til I die."
"And when we buried him beneath the willow, the angels sang a whiskey lullaby." They sang the last line of the verse three times, "La la la la la la la."
"The rumours flew, but nobody knew how much she blamed herself," Utau sang by herself with a shaking voice, "For years and years. She tried to hide the whiskey on her breath."
"She finally drank her pain away, A little at a time, but she never could get drunk enough
To get him off her mind." Utau looked at Kukai for help because she was getting too emotional. He nodded his head.
"Until the night," Kukai joined after the three words were sung, but only as background support. It seemed to be enough. "She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger."
"And finally drank away his memory, Life is short but this it was bigger," They took in a breath and began to notice that people were slowly trickling away, "Than the strength she had to get up off her knees. We found her with her face down in the pillow, clinging to his picture for dear life."
"We laid her next to him beneath the willow, as the angels sang a whiskey lullaby." They sang the last line eight times with multiple breaks in between every two times they repeated, "La la la la la la la."
Utau cried, as she walked away with Kukai. Everyone had gone home except for the little wanderer named Rima. She was the small girl with long blonde hair who was at Ikuto's funeral. She started to walk away, but when she took one final glance at the graves she stopped in her tracks, and the tears streamed down from her eyes. A smile graced her lips as she walked away to find another story to watch the ending reveal what fate had in store.
What, you ask, did the wanderer see to make her ice cold personality melt? Well, that is but a simple answer because what she saw that day was the ghost of Ikuto Tsukiyomi greet the ghost of Amu Hinamori, they stared at one another. Amu tested the waters and took a step forward.
She used her eyes to ask for forgiveness and he responded by opening his arms and smiling. Amu ran to Ikuto and they hugged. He twirled her in circles as he lifted her off the ground, and when he put her down with smiles on both of their faces, they shared a kiss, and walk off towards the golden gates of heaven, to spend eternity with each other.
There you have it
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