Gold Dust and Honey.
He was falling…The air was being pushed violently into his lungs, so violently it made him cough and choke. He couldn't keep his eyes open; they would burn from the wind rushing in.
It had started so suddenly he didn't even remember how. He only recalled himself sitting somewhere, and then he was falling into a cold, windy nothingness.
And then it stopped, as surprisingly suddenly as it started.
Matt coughed one last time and swallowed, feeling his throat hoarse. He blinked into the darkness. Thankfully he had fell on his butt and now his nails were digging into something moist and mushy. "Dirt?" he wondered and frowned. Weird it was he didn't feel any pain from the fall…
"Hey! Anybody here?" he asked into the darkness, but there was no reply. His frown deepened and he half closed his eyes. "Hello?" he shouted again. "Damn…where am I?" he muttered and crossed his arms.
"Now, that's the right question!" a voice cheered next to him. Matt literally jumped on his feet and paced some steps away from the voice.
"Who are you?" He really had meant to sound threatening and scary, but it is hard to sound like that when your voice trembles like a goat's. So he just gulped in fear and tried to remember his basic knowledge of karate.
"Hmm, keep asking the right questions! You can do better!" the voice cheered again, jingling happily around him. "Come on, try again!" it encouraged.
"What do you want from me?" Matt's voice trembled and he wished, oh, he so wished he had his shotgun with him.
"Three out of three…Not bad at all, Mail." Said the voice, and a small light appeared in front of his eyes.
His arms fell on his sides, not in fear, but in awe and surprise. (Ok, maybe there was some doubt in there, too…)For in front of him stood a short girl with pale skin, long, red, wavy hair and bright green eyes. Her hand was holding a small lantern which shone a vivid golden color. When he looked closely, he saw a handful of tiny shiny creatures dancing inside the glass.
'Fireflies?'
But the girl's wavy red hair and green eyes, though it was a beautiful combination, was not the source of his awe, surprise or doubt, but a shimmering, golden, sparkling pair of almost transparent …
"Wings…?" he whispered. The golden ovals on the girl's back flapped smoothly, and she smiled playfully, showing her pointy fangs. "What are you, the Tooth Fairy?" Matt gazed her again, from her red hair to her toe nails – painted in a dump green color. The fairy laughed a gargling laughter and the fireflies in the lantern jumped in surprise.
"Oh Mother Earth, you are so funny!" she squeaked and, in a blink of an eye, hovered above his head. "I like you!" And she fled upwards, leaving a trail of Gold Dust behind her.
"Hey, wait! Where are you going?" Matt screamed, paralyzed for a moment. "You can't just leave me here!" He sighed, left in the darkness again. "Fairies…" he cursed under his breath.
"Asking for my help nicely is another option…" Matt raised his head and stared at the fairy. She had found shelter in a nearby tree and was now lying on a thick, strong branch with her head on her palm.
"Look, I'm sorry, but I don't even know you! I don't know where I am or how I ended up here!" His words made the fairy giggle, but she stopped when she saw a vein popping on his forehead. She shook her head negatively.
"I don't know that either. I can only guess." She mused and stretched out a pale hand. "But I can tell you my name!" she giggled. "I'm Essaria, the tree fairy!"
Matt took the hand and held it for a moment, testing if the fairy was real. Her flesh was pulsating, she felt warm in touch so, yes; he assumed she was real. But it was so unrealistic….
"You know…" he said, leaving her hand "fairies do not exist. So, I guess I hit my head pretty hard when I fell. Yes." He nodded seriously at the fairy. Essaria glared him suspiciously.
"Sometimes I really believe you are thicker than a rock, dear." She teased and, with a flap of her wings, she left the tree. Her body drew an elegant, curvy line and slowed down just before her feet meet with the ground. Where her toes touched, a dim light shone. "Whenever you say fairies do not exist, a fairy dies. Don't you know that?" she scolded and gave him a serious glare.
"Whatever…" Matt muttered and followed the shining footsteps of Essaria into the darkness, where was no longer dark. As they walked, a forest of fruit trees appeared shyly, until they were surrounded by the smell of apples, pears, oranges and honey.
"Damn it!" Mello cursed pacing up and down the Hospital's hallway. "Damn!"
A frowning doctor put his head outside an examination room and fixed his eyes on him. "Sir, can you please calm down? The other patients need to rest." And he got back where he came from.
Mello clenched his teeth, itching to tell the doctor how many fucks he gave for the other patients while Matt was probably dying in the OR. But, for his sake and only, he held his tongue. He bit his lower lip in frustration and seated himself on the edge of a chair.
Running his fingers through his messy hair, he mentally cursed Matt's stubbornness. He had always been one of the best drivers he knew, let alone the fastest. He had a thing for fast cars, for racing even, but he had never crashed. Not once in his entire life….
Earlier that afternoon, it was raining. Better say it had been pouring down for two whole days; so the rain had not been the greatest of surprises…But the roads were slippery, the main lane closer to their apartment had turned into a fucking river and the downhills of the city rivaled the Niagara Falls! No matter how many times he told him to stay the fuck inside, no matter how much he insisted on him waiting until the rain stopped, Matt wouldn't listen.
"All right then, go! But don't come crying to me if you crush your head against the nearest wall!" he had shouted as Matt, with his brightest smile of victory exited the house, keys on hand.
"I hope I'd never said that…" Mello whimpered now, sitting on the uncomfortable hospital chair. He looked towards the semi tinted doors of the OR. It had been four hours since they put him in there, and in the meantime only once had he been informed about Matt's condition.
He was all messed up, he was told. The brakes could not stop the car from hitting a nearby lamp post due to the heavy downpour. Matt was dashed though the frond glass of the car and onto the hood with his head cracked open and severe injuries on his chest. He even had internal bleeding in his stomach. He didn't count the many minor cuts on his face, hands and legs…
Just in time he was about to lose it, the same nurse popped her head outside the door. Mello snapped and stoop up straight. "What happened?" He really hoped that extremely bad feeling in his guts would be proven wrong.
The nurse shook her head in disappointment. "He has lost too much blood, sir…" she whispered, staring at her white flat shoes.
"What…what does that mean?" said Mello, choking as if someone was sucking all the air from his lungs. "Is he going to live?" When the nurse hung her head even lower, his heart sunk in his feet.
"I…don't know sir. Our doctors are doing their best." She apologetically said and sighed heavily.
"But…they can fix him, right?" Mello gasped as his heart pumped hurtfully again. "Right?" he desperately repeated.
"Don't give up, please. He is young and has the will to live on!" the nurse tried to cheer him and walked closer to him. She placed her hands on Mello's shoulders and pushed him down on the chair gently. "Take a deep breath, sir." she instructed as Mello paled. "If you panic, you aren't helping him." she lightly said and sat next to him.
"I…I didn't stop him. I let him go, into the rain…" Mello gasped devastated and hid his face in his palms.
"Remorse will not help him either…" noted the nurse and huffed, taking off her apron. A mane of short, messy red hair fell into her eyes. "Your name is Mello, right?" she asked and the man next to her raised his head and a pair of sad sapphire eyes to look at her.
"Yes…How do yo-"
"He mentioned you, as we were taking him to the OR. " she smiled encouragingly as Mello's expression became a little less desperate.
"He did?" So Matt thought of him even at his worst time…
"Yes." The woman smiled and pushed her hair under the apron again, then tied it tightly and stood up. "He has a reason to live, Mello. Have some faith in him, yes?" and she opened the door to disappear again into the corridor leading to the OR.
"Wait!" Mello shouted, and the irritated doctor came out of his office again, ready to scold him. But, strangely, he paled when he saw the nurse standing on the doorframe and snuck back in, closing the door behind him.
"Yes?" the nurse turned and a pair of shimmering emerald eyes fell on him, pierced through his eyes and touched his heart.
"What's your name?" Mello whispered as he felt his knees weak and collapsed on the chair. But the nurse smiled, revealing her pointy fangs and opened the door, turning her back at him.
"Call me Essaria…" she breathed. The doors closed behind her.
When she left, Mello took some shallow breaths and his head fell back on the wall. His hands stretched involuntarily to the seats right and left to him for support. When he raised a hand to rub his eyes, something shone golden in front of him. Stunned, he lifted his palm upwards; it was covered in tiny pieces of…
"Gold Dust?"
"So, you live here?"
A feast was held under the shadows of an old Cedar tree, tall enough to be the house of three fairies. His branches expanded far enough to cover many meters from his bole. It was an old Cedar three, really. Essaria informed him that it existed over ten decades and had always been the center of gathering for all the fairies.
"Not only me, but also my sisters and brothers." Essaria nodded and gulped down her drink, a mixture of apple juice, honey, grapes and sunflower leaves. "Ah…Tasty!" the fairy squeaked happily and gestured Matt to drink. The latter looked down inside his cup. The smell was good, so he brought the cup to his lips and took a big gulp down his throat.
Which he immediately regretted, for the drink tasted awfully to him who loved alcohol beverages.
"I don't really like fruit juice." he made a hasty excuse and put the cup down.
Essaria and five other fairies were sitting in a circle, all of them sipping their drinks in a state of nirvana. Matt at first gaped at the varieties of hair color and length, wing shapes, even ear, eye and nose types of the fairies. They shared nothing but the basic characteristics of their race in common.
For example, the fairy talking to him now was a really thin one, with vivid pink hair and yellow highlights, long pointed ears and enormous eyebrows that extended past the frames of her face. Her eyes were pale white like someone had brushed the color off. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Essaria was the most beautiful among the fairies inside the circle.
"No, not the Elves! Maybe the dwarves or even the leprechauns. But the Elves are all too high and mighty." was now saying the fairy sitting on the right side of him; her hair was blond, messy, and a pair of horns was planted on both sides of her head. One of them was broken almost from the base.
Right when he wanted to ask about the difference between Fairies and Elves, he felt it; a sharp pain in his chest, like someone was stabbing him with a knife. "Ugh!" he gasped and touches the side of his chest in pain. The pain hadn't seized; on the contrary, it became stronger by the minute, like the person who had stabbed him was now pumping his heart violently with his hands.
Out of breath, he looked around to ask for help, but none of the fairies seemed to notice him. "Help…." he gasped and a spasm threw him, face first, on the ground. The cup spilled the juice on his hair, but again, no one noticed. "Damn , it hurts…!" he choked and his hand stretched out in vain.
"Don't resist, Matt…" a voice whispered in his ear.
"Ess…" he managed, but the pain was too strong and stole his words.
"Don't resist…He is waiting." Essaria encouraged and cupped his hand with hers. "Mello is waiting for you…" she whispered.
"Mel…"
And he remembered.
His memories came rushing to him, images of Mello floated in his mind and set him at ease. The color of his eyes, the sound of his voice, his touch, his lips…
"Go."
He didn't need encouragement anymore. But he felt a little disturbed for having forgotten of him. He blamed himself for that as his body rose from the ground on its own accord and moved upwards. He was so going to apologies for that later! Also for taking the car and crashing it against that lamp…
'Fuck, the car!' he thought and frowned. 'Mello is going to murder me for that. Man, I'm screwed!'
Eight hours. He had been waiting on that chair for eight freaking hours, without a sign that Matt was alive inside that room!
More than desperate, he felt tired. Above all, he was mad, so very mad at the whole world. At the uncomfortable chair, at the doctor next door, at the doctors operating Matt, at Matt himself!
And the idea of losing him was driving him madder than all those things together. He couldn't stand the image of himself returning to their shared apartment alone, knowing that Matt wasn't waiting for him inside. He wouldn't sleep in the same bed where they used to lye together; he would destroy the table they used to share their dinner on.
'I can also burn the house…' he thought 'Then all the memories will burn along.'
But no, it wasn't his type. He shook his head in denial and stood up, listening to his back bones cracking. He had to believe Matt would survive…
…enough for Mello to kill him, that is.
"Such a tiny thing as Death cannot deprive Matt of me." He sternly said, staring at the wall.
"That's the spirit!"
He turned towards the voice and saw Essaria exiting the doors. She was smiling widely.
"Matt….?" He didn't dare to complete the sentence.
"We almost lost him in the Operation Room, his blood pressure fell and his heart stopped for almost a minute. We had to directly massage the heart and bring him back." Her smile grew even wider. "We did it. It will take some time for the wounds to heal and the cut in his chest might leave a scar, but his is going to be alive and healthy."
"Can I see him?" Mello ask as he leaned against the wall and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"We're moving him to a quiet room on the other side of the Hospital. Then you can visit him. But…" Essaria fixed her eyes on his, somewhat strictly "…don't tire him out. Yet." She giggled and left Mello gaping at her back with a blush creeping up his cheeks.
"It didn't even cross my mind." he murmured, knowing he was lying.
'Oh, great…'
The mask for Oxygen was cutting the sides of his lips, the tubes on his chest… well, they were a problem of their own. And he felt gauze traveling round his head.
"Splendid." He mocked and rolled his eyes, grimacing in pain as he did.
"Next time you have a death wish, let me know. I would gladly lend you a hand." A bitter voice was coming from his right side. He did his best to turn his head without removing either the gauze or the mask, and smiled at his best friend and lover.
Said best friend and lover had spent the entire night by his side, sitting on another uncomfortable chair, unable to sleep or at least lay down a bit. He had purple bruises under his eyes, but his smile as Matt faced him was genuine and bright.
It slo lasted for an instant.
"Hey Mello…" Matt breathed and grinned, hoping Mello could see it through the mask. But the blond leaned closer to his bed and brought his face centimeters away from his, waving a finger in the air accusingly.
"Don't hey-Mello me, you bastard." He threatened. "If you so strongly wish to kill yourself, do it all the way through next time, so I don't have to run behind you and finish the job." He seemed pretty serious about it, so Matt decided not to push his luck and just nod.
"That's good." Mello grinned and pulled the mask down. For a moment he thought of leaving it smack Matt in the face, but regretted it. Capturing Matt's lips between his, he smelled the methadone in his breath and tasted the numb narcosis on his tongue. Ignoring those, he searched for something unique, Matt's taste. He found it and savored it, along with another taste. Something like…
"Honey…?" he muttered.
"Yes?" Matt said, still dazled and intoxicated from the kiss.
"Not, not you…You taste of honey and something fruity." Mello said, puzzled and he leaned closer to kiss him again. The taste was faint but it existed. As he withdrew again, they shared a suspicious glare.
"When was the last time you ate something? To taste honey and fruits in our kiss, you must be starving!" Matt exclaimed.
"Are you sure you didn't drink anything?" Mello asked, putting his mask back, gently this time, on his face.
"Yes, they treated me orange juice and honey in the OR, among the stitches and the tubes." Matt rolled his eyes.
"No, I would have known…" the blond muttered, still lost in his thoughts. Matt gazed him in suspicion.
"How?" he asked.
"There was a nurse, a very kind one. He resembled you, now that I recall her face." He smiled at Matt's jealous expression and ruffled his hair. "Green eyes, short red hair; but I can't remember her name! Esser…Essiria…."
"Essaria?" Matt suggested, surprising himself.
"You now her?"
"No…weird, right? It just made sense."
They stopped talking for a while. Mello was staring at Matt, thinking how grateful he was feeling for having him here alive. And Matt…
Well, Matt was trying to remember if he knew that Essaria girl. The name rang a bell in his mind, as well as the green eyes and red hair. He was given the impression of having met with her, somewhere…
"Oh, whatever…" he murmured and closed his eyes, instantly forgetting everything about that strange girl. "Maybe she is a fairy, who knows."
Mello stared stunned at his lover. Had Matt just said 'Fairy'?
'He had a hard time in the OR, he is tired…' he thought to himself. 'And he might be still under the sedation.' He nodded and left a last kiss on Matt's forehead. "Sleep." he told him. "I'll go grab a coffee downstairs." Matt closed his eyes, still smiling.
He waited until he saw his chest heaving and falling rhythmically. Only then did he stand and walked for the door.
'I'm just glad he is alive…' he thought, and his heart jumped in happiness in his chest as he closed the door behind his back. 'But, Fairies?' he laughed at the thought and rolled his eyes at Matt's words.
Something crunched under his feet. He looked down and his eyes grew the size of saucers.
The clean, white tiles, right outside Matt's door, the floor was shining, like someone had poured liquid gold on them. He was standing in the middle of what seemed to be a pond of…
"Gold dust?"
It's my first time writing Fantasy, I truly hope you like it. From the beginning I preferred MattxMello stories and this one takes me a step forward ^_^ (At least, that's what I feel!)
So, if you liked this, let me know. (Oh, note that I also prefer reviews over my stories being "Favorites". Don't take me wrong, I love them both!) There might be a sequel, but only if I get enough reviews requesting it!
'Till my next story
xxx