Seventh of July 七月七日晴
Star crossed lovers without a happy ending...Fate has woven its inescapable red thread around their souls. On a day when stars aligned, those two so deeply in love, met again. History has given them another chance, and prays for their happiness. Please, grant her wish this time.
Ceramic Petals, Slowly They Lost Their Color.
"Sakura-chan"
I turned at the sound of my mistress' gentle, lilting voice, and saw her patiently waiting by the worn steps of the gate. It was hard to believe that this fragile beauty, with the cascade of violet hair and bell-like laughter, as the source of controversy and talk throughout Heian-Kyo.
"Yes Tomoyo-sama" I hurriedly bowed and rushed over to her side, giving a gauze umbrella to her porcelain hands. Pausing, I admired her skin, pale as a cut paper moon, and just as delicate. At her shoulders, one could see the striking contrast where her hair, dark with many secrets, whispered just so against her skin. A classic Heian-Kyo(1) beauty, she could've easily found any husband she wanted.
Except she hadn't wanted it. She took the tablecloth by the edges and pulled it in one fluid, violent motion. People gawked when she wore men's gear outside to buy groceries, that she wouldn't even send servants to do the purchasing. People gawked when she refused to plaster on a fake smile to impress royalty. People gawked when she started studying.
My mistress' mother was already a force to be reckoned with, and she insisted on her equally formidable daughter learning everything from politics to biology in addition to the more 'ladylike' subjects of koto, and dance. Being a divorced woman herself, Tomoyo-sama's mother never bothered to introduce suitors to her daughter, and her daughter, in turn, rejected all outside offers.
However, my respect and devotion for my young mistress wasn't entirely based on the poise she had above the rough and tumultuous world of Heian-Kyo, or the noble air that separated her from the bristling rumors, but rather for her kindness.
"Sakura-chan, let's get going." I snapped from my reverie and, befuddled, I asked, "Where are we going?"
She giggled. I blushed, it was very easy for me to be familiar with her. After she had extended her hand to release me from the streets and the slums, she had insisted on my equal education with her. A thousand days, and a million painstakingly learned words couldn't describe how grateful I was to her. I owed her my life. Gently, she reminded me with a wink, "To the palace, remember?"
I blushed harder, but I did my best to contain it as she smiled again, and opened her umbrella. She pushed back my dusty, messy locks of auburn with a practiced hand, "One must take care of their appearance when meeting the person one admires." She murmured softly, a hint of pain in her voice. I looked down and didn't say anything.
The Imperial Palace never ceased to impress me. With an exterior of rooted gold and slippery silver against a backdrop of brilliant red, it roared with all the might of the carved tigers and dragons around its length. Deafening. Inside, the space was stunning, but in another type of way. The space took one's breath away with its openness and simplicity and the pressing feeling of Japan. The wood always seem to be humming a tune too low for our ears, one that shivered the petals of my namesake flower.
Tomoyo-sama always said that this palace was built for two.
Tomoyo-sama insisted on me choosing a name, but I hadn't decided yet. But, she said, when she brought me along to the Imperial Palace and saw me amidst the tentative, young blooms of spring, she knew what my name was. Sakura -cherry tree's blossoms. The other person, according to my mistress, was the Prince.
"Ah, welcome once more to my humble abode Tomoyo Daidouji-san." The Emperor, Clow Reed, crossed the threshold to our kneeling forms, and bade us to sit up. I shuffled, feeling infinitively more clumsy following Tomoyo-sama's graceful movements. I kept my eyes lowered, out of respect for the royal presence I was in, but also hoping to avoid the dark honey brown eyes of the boy-no, man- behind the Emperor. And the man I loved.
"Welcome." Tomoyo-sama smiled and although I couldn't see her face, I had a vaguely unpleasant sensation come over me. My fears were realized when she straightened and boldly asked the Emperor "May I borrow some of your time? Oh I'm sure Syaoran-kun and Sakura will be fine by themselves! I believe your inner library might be free at this time, shall we?" I barely stopped myself from throwing my head up and staring at her in horror as I heard footsteps padding down the hallway. So instead of chasing after them when the Emperor called back to remind the Prince of proper etiquette for a guest, I focused on calming my heartbeat resonating as deep in my chest as the ceremonial drums for the new year.
"Daidouji-san." I kept my eyes lowered as I responded, "Yes, your highness?" "Raise your head, and give at least some thought to the person you've known so many childhood summers with." Flushing, I slowly lifted my eyes to meet his. Only the whispers of half-forgotten memories in the blossoms disturbed the room. And surely, he could hear my fast-beating heart. "Pardon my rudeness y-your highness." I forced my voice to work, even if it was in a half whispered sentence. "I'm not only to eat you, honestly." He laughed, though it sounded nervous and awkward. Like it had been since we grew up.
"Won't you spare some time to walk with me in the garden?" Numbly I nodded, and bowed low, lower than I usually I would, even to someone of his rank. It was a reminder to both of us, and I saw him flinch ever so slightly. He shook it off and instead led the way to the quiet wooden hallways bordering the Zen garden. This palace truly was meant for him, and I do suppose, in a way, it reflected myself as well. The yards always in constant flowering, whether it be spring or winter, the blossoms swaying delicately in the wind. The eternal slumber of the Zen garden, solemn and deep yet comforting in its simplistic strength. The strong front, an international gift from the Chinese Embassy, and the quiet interior, designed by the great Japanese architect Kenzo Tange.(2) It felt as if so many souls had seeped into the momiji(3)wood that I felt alive just standing still.
Automatically, we both paused on that familiar section of the wooden bridge connecting the garden with the main building. A stream, humming quietly under us, tumbled gentler as the cool of spring hinted at the warmth of summer. The dapples of the afternoon maple swayed at our feet. We always stopped here, right above the velvet moss rocks of the intermittent stream.(4)Our beautiful secret, frozen in time. Then, we walked on.
"It's almost your sixteenth birthday Daidouji-san." He didn't look back as he addressed his question to me, and I didn't look up when I answered. "As it will be yours your highness." Of course, our birthdays were the same, for Tomoyo-sama had found me on the anniversary of the Prince's birth- April 4th. "Mm. Ah, here we are Daidouji-san." He started down the rock path towards the center of the garden, surprising me. Usually, we sat at a hidden spot surrounded by fast-growing bamboo and the great sweeping branches of the willow tree. Instead, he was leading me towards the very center of the garden, an elegant pagoda that stood in poetic beauty atop a rock as the waters of the pond caressed its sides. It was an rather open place, only wide waters, gritty rocks, pale water lilies, and ink-painted koi(5) fishes. I couldn't very well say anything about it, as I had to keep acting my role, so I didn't say anything.
He paused and turned back to look when I stopped following him. "What's wrong?" He stood on the last step of the pagoda, and stretched his hand out. "Perhaps," I choose my words carefully, delicately. "your highness would be satisfied with entertaining someone of my status in another part of the Palace?" His hand fell to his side and I heard quick footsteps coming in my direction. I gasped and finally looked up as he took my hand in his and led me onto the sturdy wood floor of the pagoda. "Your highness!"
"Sakura." He held a sad look in his eyes, one that implored me to call him by his name. Silently, I shook my head and started to lower my eyes again. Sighing, he kept his grip on my wrist. "Please." When I looked up again, my eyes were misty and tears threatened at the corners. "I'm sorry." I whispered, glad that the wetness formed a blurry film over my eyes, preventing me from seeing his pained face in clarity. The fact that I stood on steps that felt so familiar, next to a warmth that seemed natural, did not help.
We both lapsed into silence as we remembered. Something seemed to change in his face, and although his grimace had not entirely faced, he looked determined. Taking both of my hands in his, he stared straight into my eyes, so close that he took up my entire view, that I could look nowhere but his eyes. "Sakura," His gaze held my feet frozen to the floor and I could not move, only stand and stare. "Come to my birthday celebration. For a day, that's all I'm asking. A day." And then with a sweep of his expensively tailored robe, he swept past me, and it wasn't until I couldn't hear his silken slippers on the stone pathway did I finally dare to breathe. The air had grown chilly, and it hurt to drag it through my lungs. So I turned around and started walking towards the palace again, not looking back at the silent trees. The silence remind me that the spring blossoms didn't speak then either. They had waved, and shivered, and grew indulgently as we made what seemed then like everlasting promises. So they waved and shivered and kept the memory, the memory when we were young, and naïve, and helplessly in love.
carry your heart with me(i carry it in here is the deepest secret nobody knows i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
-E.E. Cummings
Oh, I don't know what I'm doing uploading another one when I have so many things to do, and so many unfinished stories. I couldn't resist! Yet another SXS love story, but don't like the premise fool you. When Fate chose them as eternal lovers, their story stretches across ages, and soon, perhaps you'll be reading about another Japan.
(1)"Ancient Heian-Kyo": Japan's old capital, now Kyoto.
(2)"great Japanese architect Kenzo Tange": Internationally recognized Japanese architect during the late twentieth century. One of his most famous works include Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Shibuya, Tokyo, built for the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 1964.
(3)"into the momiji wood": Japanese maple, Fruits Basket character
(4)"velvet moss rocks of the intermittent stream.": a stream that flows only for a part of the year.
(5)"and ink-painted koi fishes.": decorative carp fishes, symbolizes love and friendship.