Hatsukoi
[First Love]
English can be a beautiful language if you know the right words. You must choose your words carefully, though, because meanings of words are constantly changing. Take, for instance, "I love you."
Three words, presumably the most powerful in the language, but not so any more. Those three words are thrown around so carelessly these days, and for one who only knows what Webster tells him, there is considerable danger in being hit.
Someone told me he loved me once. He only loved the way I looked though. He loved my smile and my eyes and my sense of humor, but not me.
From then on, I never trusted those words. I suppose I would have known better what they meant if my parents had ever had the chance to tell me, but my parents had died long before I was capable of articulating a response.
Never once did I utter those three words in their deadly sequence, for I had vowed not to until I was absolutely sure that their context would do them justice. I felt that I would know love when it hit me.
But love didn't hit me. It coughed politely, tapped me on the shoulder, bowed courteously when I turned around, and smiled. Love came in the form of young blonde boy with sparkling aqua eyes and a heart-melting smile. I felt guilty when all I could reward it with was a slight twitch of my lips upwards.
I asked him what he felt love was one day, and he looked at me with his beautiful eyes and smiled. He drew from his pocket a small book and opened to a page he had book marked long ago. He cleared his throat and began to read in his lilting little voice.
Love is patient, Love is kind
Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud.
Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
He closed his little book and placed it back in his pocket. So that was love. Kind and patient and humble… I looked down at the blonde boy and was finally able to return his smile. Standing before me was the incarnation of love. He embodied every virtue, every holy aspect of the word.
At that moment, I turned to him, and uttered those three little words. I was a little out of practice, so I stuttered a bit, but in the end, I didn't even need to voice them. He knew. And that was what it meant to love and be loved. We needed no words to communicate what our hearts already knew.
I took him in my arms and kissed him. I thanked him for showing me what love was… because I loved him.
~*~*~*~
Oh, and to whoever said I should stop writing 3x4, I support Douseiai (which a good part of America and the Catholic Church doesn't). They can date whoever they want in real life *cough*PrincessAndJenn*cough* but in the Fanfiction realm, everything is determined by those with the pens, er, keyboards. And who knows? They may just be stuck in those little closets of theirs! *cough*ShamelessClosetMonstersPlug*cough* Sorry, I seem to have something in my throat…