Hey...I would like to try something here. Anyone who is interested to continue this story, please email me with the next chapter using this chapter as the starting point. I would like to feature a different author for every chapter. So let me know if it's a feasible idea...alright everyone?

Undecipherable

Doumeki x Watanuki

28 April 28, 2008

The fire was white hot...the tree was burning up inside the inferno. He stood infront of it in a trance, unable to pull himself away. Why was it burning? He doesn't remember...

He woke up and blinked against the sunlight floating through the window. He never figured out what the dream was about, it was always the same thing...watch it burn and burn until he woke up. He took a deep breath to rid himself of the unexplainable melancholy feeling he experienced every time he had that dream and dragged himself up..

The cold floor gave him a momentary shock and jolted the sleep out of him and he cursed a bit and glanced about the area by his bed before locating his bedroom slipper laying under the bedside table. He briefly wondered about how it got there before he got interrupted by the rambunctious tumbling ball of fur on his lap.

"Oh...morning, Mokona... you sure am happy today." He said with a goofy smile on his face. The black poodle replied with a wet lick across his face before leaping clumsily off him and skidding across the linoleum flooring. Watanuki gave a soft laugh and then thought it would do no harm to sleep in for another hour. He was in no hurry to go anywhere.

He was absorbed in his irrelevant daydreams when he heard that same lilting melody of the flute, he closed his eyes enjoying it, feeling contentment and peace flood into his being. The tune speaks to him...reminds him of a life he used to lead...of a person he used to love.

How was it possible that he made it this far without falling apart? Would they be together now if he chose to stay in Japan? There were so many possibilities...so many regrets and questions unanswered, there would never be closure because he was a coward. But Watanuki did not want to put him in a difficult position. His parents had expectations and Doumeki was expected to carry them out as the duty of the only son. That was his destiny and Watanuki was not going to be the one to break the strings of fate. If anything, Doumeki is the only one who can change their course in this life.

He gave a loud sigh when he realized he was thinking of the past again, it was never a good thing to be at home without a distraction. His mind was only good at reminiscing when left alone to it's own devices. He glanced at the clock on the table and was finally reminded to tend to the needs of his body when his stomach gave a loud rumble.

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO

The abstract oil painting of the heart seemed to come alive, beckoning him with every beat. The orange red paint liquidized and flowed down the wall the painting was hanging from creating a realistic vision of someone slowly bleeding to death. The thumping sound that was so deafening just moments ago now barely a whisper. He walked towards it, awed and with morbid fascination of the scene before him and saw the name engraved on the tag below.

Doumeki...

He startled awake. The dreams were getting more and more frequent...trying to decipher them was like trying to connect invisible dots on a piece of parchment. It was a vain attempt. He heaved himself off the bed and tried to shake off the drowsiness of sleep at the same time as he walked towards the phone.

"Hello...Dou..." he was cut short by the exuberant, high-pitched voice of his daughter.

"Daddy! Daddy! It's me! I miss you and when are you coming back?" Kumiko yelled through the phone, happy to hear her father's voice. He was gone for so long and she hardly remembers his face anymore if not for the photo by her bed.

"Haha...I miss you too Kumiko! Have you been a good girl? Listen to what your mother says, alright?" Doumeki answered, ear still jarred by her loud exclamations.

"Mummy's boring! She says no to everything!" Kumiko whined.

"When I come back I'll bring you to the carnival. How does that sound?" Doumeki gave a soft laugh and closed his eyes as gulit came over him. He knows how Chiyo can get sometimes and it is hard for a kid to live by her standards.

"You promise! You haven't answered me yet? When are you coming back?" Kumiko asked still bearing that childish wistfulness that only children expresses.

"I don't know baby..."

"You never know! Mummy's always telling me you're not coming back...is that true?" Kumiko asks, her voice getting more and more sullen by the minute.

"You know it's not baby...where's your mum by the way? Is she alright?" Doumeki asks trying to divert the subject. He just couldn't bring himself to tell her that he might not be back...even if he does, things will never be the same. He was no longer the man she knew as her father.

"Ask her yourself...MUM! Daddy wants to talk to you!" Doumeki pulled the phone away from his ear when a sudden loud clang surprised him, he smile, she's still the rough and tumbling kid he remembered.

"Are you still there...Shizuka?" Chiyo asks after several hellos.

"Yeah, so...how have you been?"

"Same as always..." she answered distractingly, both were appearantly relunctant to talk to each other. They had not parted on good terms and Chiyo was still in denial that her husband left her for another man.

"Well, I'm moving again so..."

"I know, I'll tell her later..." Chiyo answered curtly, wanting to end the conversation as soon as possible.

"Hey...Chiyo...I..."

"I'm sorry, the food's burning on the pan...gotta go. Talk to you some other time, k?" she hung up before he could say goodbye.

"Ok...bye then." Doumeki reply to the dial tone and sighed as he hung up the phone.

He looked out the window at the grey dull sky. Five years, he has been away, five years since that man left...five years and everything at a standstill in his life and he has still not accomplished what he set out to do in the first place. He didn't realized what a fool he had been till he vanished from his life. All those feelings that he kept in the recesses of his heart, all the things left unsaid and the most precious thing he had given up just to live to someone else's hopes and expectation. In the process, he had indirectly taken away the happiness of three other people. He would never be able to make up for his mistake to his daughter, his ex-wife and most importantly...him.

The day when he left was the day his world came crushing down...that day...he understood the meaning of fear and despair. He understood then how it felt to have half your soul missing. He understood what his heart has been telling him all along...that he loves him, unconditionally and eternally. He was the one who always made the choices for them and that last decision he made broke everything they built together.

He packed his bags and left once he learned from Yuuko where Watanuki was headed but it seems the man was determined to be out of his life. So many times, he wondered if he should give up and return to the life waiting for him in Japan but he knows that if he returns, his days will be empty, unfulfilled and he...both of them will be unloved for the rest of their lives.

He reached for the flute by his desk and started playing, a tune so familiar to him...a reminder of the man he love...