Her breath tickled my skin teasingly as her soft lips graced my neck in gentle kisses. Her hands caressed my body tenderly, grazing down my sides to my thighs and in between. My breath hitched in my throat as her hand trailed to my most secret place and my body reacted to her touches and ached with a desperate need that I had never felt before.

I held onto the sheets and let out a choked moan.

Feeling her shift in position, my eyelids fluttered open to see her gazing at me with those haunting eyes of hers that always seemed to penetrate through my naked soul. I reached out my hand and touched her cheek. She closed her eyes momentarily before opening them again as she leaned against my palm. I closed the distance between us and locked our lips.

I stroked her cheek as I broke the kiss gently. Staring into her eyes, I whispered my adoration for her.

"I love you…"

Emotions unknown to me flashed through her crimson colored eyes. Turing her gaze away, she removed herself from me. Confusion filled my mind as I attempted to reach for her.

But I never did manage to.

"No." I heard her say. "You don't."

I awoke to the blinding sunlight that shone through the windows. I lifted myself to a sitting position and wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead. Clutching my hand against my chest, I tried to ease away the ache in my heart as I recalled the dream that I had.

When will I ever be free from you…?

Transcending Love

-Chapter One-

I inhaled the aromatic smell of freshly brewed coffee and relaxed myself to the soft jazz that played in the background while people-watching the streets outside the local coffeehouse The Cafe. A vague reflection of myself with long chestnut hair and lavender colored eyes stared back at me as I gazed through the glass windows. I took a taste of coffee and swirled the drink inside my mouth, savoring it with my tongue before letting it flow down my throat.

I turned at the sound of a bell tingling and smiled when the person I was expecting came through the doorway with cheeks flushing from the still wintery air eminent outside. Standing from my seat, I raised an arm and called out. She turned toward my voice and when our eyes met she waved excitedly.

"Nanoha!"

I waited for her to reach my table before locking her in a hug.

"Shamal, it's been awhile."

Shamal Klarer-Wind was my senior back in college. Although we pursued different higher education after graduation, we continued to remain in contact. She was currently a well esteemed general practitioner and surgeon at Uminari Hospital. As for me, I managed my own bridal studio.

We pulled away from each other and I took in her features. She was the same as I last remembered. Short blond locks were trimmed just above the shoulders and cerulean colored eyes still held that familiar twinkle in them. Once we had settled down comfortably opposite of each other, I asked the question that was on my mind since I arrived.

"Is there something you wanted to talk about?" She had called at daybreak, requesting for a meeting as soon as possible.

Shamal blinked. "Ah, yes. Let me get to that."

She never had the chance though.

"May I take your order, Miss?" The waiter interrupted our conversation with his pencil, notepad and a smile. Shamal flipped through the menu and closed it shortly afterward.

"I'll just have a cup of coffee with milk."

I stared at the woman with surprise as the smiley waiter wrote down her order and left.

"As long as I remember you only take it black. Anything else you said they are diabetes catalysts."

"Once in a while is fine." Shamal hummed.

I was skeptical; this woman was not the normal Shamal that I know. "Alright, what is it?" I demanded and reached for my cup of coffee.

Shamal locked her fingers together, a habit of hers whenever she felt nervous. "Right, well, how should I put it…" There was a pause and with an exhale, she spoke again.

"Nanoha, I want to hire you as my wedding planner."

I gaped in the middle of sipping my coffee, the liquid threatening to drip from my opened mouth. Even though I had instantly closed my mouth and swallowed, still droplets of it managed to escape my lips.

"You're getting married?" I exclaimed behind my hand and a hastily grabbed piece of napkin.

"Yes!" Shamal squealed happily.

Emotions filled through me as I looked at her glowing face. I was happy, excited and yet upset at the same time. Even with our years of friendship, our frequent calls to each other and our occasional meetings, I was not in the know about her involvement in a relationship that had since advanced to marriage. Heck, I had not even met her soon-to-husband and now I was going to arrange her marriage to said man.

Shamal looked at me expectantly.

"Congratulations!" I said ecstatically.

"I would be blind not to notice how stiff your face is when you said that." Shamal frowned. "I know what you're thinking and I'm sorry for keeping it from you. It's just too difficult for me to tell you."

It was my turn to frown. "What is it that's so hard to just tell me that you're dating a man?"

Shamal sighed. "That's the problem."

What did she mean by that? I stared at her but my view was obscured momentarily by an arm belonging to a hand that was placing a cup of steaming milk coffee on the table.

"Enjoy your coffee." The smiley waiter from before said. He bowed and left promptly. I briefly noted how there always seemed to be interruptions at the crucial moments of our conversation. Casting the waiter aside, I voiced my thought. "What do you mean by that?"

Shamal heaved a heavy sigh and leant against her chair. "What I meant was…" She paused and fingered the silver ring that sat comfortably on her left ring finger. My eyes trailed the ring that I had not noticed before, ascertaining that it was her engagement ring. I brought my attention back to her when she spoke again. "You assumed the person I'm marrying is a man…" She looked at me with an even stare. "But in actual fact I'm marrying a woman."

My expression at the moment must have been ghastly because Shamal instantaneously reached across the table and held my hands with worry. "This is why I kept it from you. I know how much you detest homosexual relationships."

She was right. I hated the idea of same sex relationships; because it was wrong, because it was against Mother Nature, because it was a sin.

Because of her…

I willed the memories of the dream away and gazed back at the woman. "Then why do you still approach me?"

"You wouldn't believe how happy I was when the policy of gay marriages was approved," I felt the grip on my hands tightened as Shamal continued, "because my dream is to have my friend, to have you, to be the person who makes the most important day of my life to be the greatest in the world."

Her eyes were pleading and I did not have the heart to reject her. It would be unfair to have her dream crushed just because of my own selfish reasons. I relented and sighed. "Alright, I'll be your wedding planner."

A huge smile adorned her lips as she pulled us up the hands and embraced me across the table. "You don't know how much this means to me, Nanoha!"

Shamal would have had continued to hug me if not for her cellphone ringing. I was thankful for the interruption this time as it was getting embarrassing. She retrieved her cellphone from her bag and flipped it opened. She looked at the screen momentarily before turning back to me excitedly. "My fiancée is here!"

Incoherent words came out of my mouth in weird noises. It was not my intention to sound like that but I had not expected to meet the woman so soon. I heard the bell ring from the doorway and hastily rummaged through my bag for my compact makeup case for a quick spruce. Turning my back toward the entrance, I checked my makeup and reapplied some foundation.

Soft footsteps stopped behind me and short exchanges were made between Shamal and the newcomer. I immediately dropped the case into my bag and turned around to give my greetings. But no matter how hard I tried, the words never came.

The air around me felt as if it had thickened and I found myself in difficulty of breathing. As I stared directly into the very familiar looking face, the striking crimson eyes and golden locks of flowing long hair, memories of the dream came flooding into my mind against my will.

"I love you…"

"No. You don't."

I hazily heard Shamal's voice but I could not move my body or remove my eyes from the woman in front of me. She, too, stared back at me with an expression that seemed almost surprised. As I looked into the deep crimson orbs, snippets of memories from a different moment in time flashed through my mind.

The hospital…

The beeping of the life support machine…

Her last words…

I tried to block them out but they were relentless and invading.

The rain…

The black umbrellas…

The cemetery…

Her burial…

When I found my voice again the only words that came out was a name that had haunted me for years.

"Alicia…"

A/N: Hello to all who read chapter one of Transcending Love. This is my first story and I hope you guys had enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed myself writing it. Feel free to leave a review or comment about the first chapter and I hope to see you guys again in the next chapter.