Author's notes: Found this while digging around on the computer.. it's a "brief creative stimulation" I had and originally wrote it April 8, 2001. Untouched since then. Please review? :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Butterfly

You are my butterfly...you are arrogant and erratic, but so very beautiful, just like the butterfly. It's something you will never comprehend. You are too egocentric, too ignorant to understand something like this. So hide behind the walls you put up between us and wish like I did. Wish to understand, because you will never learn on your own.

We met as caterpillars, crawling slowly along the road. You were the one that kept me from the birds that wanted to devour me whole, though you vehemently deny it, even to this day. You have no idea how much I depended on you those years ago. You were the force of gravity between us, the only thing I could ever count on. There were so many times I wanted to give up. I thought everything was consuming me, but you held out your hand to me and kept me safe. Even then, at such a young age, you were beautiful. You were beautiful like a flower, like a rose. Perhaps I was the only one to see it, but I knew what you would evolve into.

I was so wrapped up in your importance to me, I didn't even see you begin to shy away. It must have been gradual...you were never one to rush things like this. They were tiny things at first, like an empty seat at lunchtime or a forgotten phone call. But I didn't worry. You were still there for me to steady myself upon. I was taking such a risk then, going against the other gender standard to do what I loved. You understood, though, and kept the pillar standing, though you were slowly crawling into your cocoon on its curved surface. And when I beat the odds, you were thrilled. I was pleased with your delight - I was always begging for your praise, so unconsciously that I never realized my need for it. You always offered it, though, bringing me closer while pushing me away.

But of course...there was always your true intention, wasn't there?

Before you crawled into your hiding place to mature into the butterfly I love so much, we approached a road that changed my life forever. At that moment, I took a different path from you. The path made me different from you. I would never become a butterfly on the path I took. Whatever I became, you took it and encaged it with your words. It was through that praise that I loved so much that I became the shackled angel that would never win. You were able to use that praise to manipulate me, and you did it so subtly, so strikingly that you would not notice until it was too late.

I pointed out your true intention...what was it again? Of course, now I remember. It was him, the one whose standard I was able to break. He and I became fast friends with our match of skills. Of course, you were always at my side to watch, the now-mature butterfly resting on her flower. And you were so beautiful...he noticed it too, of course, but he couldn't have the two things he wanted at once. I let him take you away from me, and I hated him for it.

That was the lie I told myself once upon a time, my butterfly.

You took him from me, though I did not care for him the way I cared for you. You maneuvered your way around me, floating gently with your wings, trying to steal the prince from the angel with your chains. You knew every step to take, every desire to whisper in his ear as I stood in my cage, blindfolded. It was so hard to see the truth in the mirror, but I knew it. We all knew it. You wove a netting of lies I was unable to understand until it was all just out of my grasp.

Now you are the ignorant one. You will never understand the concept of the butterfly, what it means to reject a miracle so you can break free. I have broken free into the truth, but it still binds me. You are glazed with the innocence you were born in, hiding your underbelly every time you land near someone.

Shiori.. you are the butterfly. My butterfly, so brutally pure.

And one day I will rip your wings off, for on that day I shall be truly free.

Fin.