Hello! It's been a while hasn't it? I have no real excuse other than it's been a long uphill battle. But here I am finally back with a new story. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy writing it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Candy Candy manga and all the characters in it, but the talented Kyoko Mizuki does. This fic is a product of my own twisted imagination and inspired by Mizuki's masterpiece. If any of the plots, specific scenes, or dialogues appears to be similar to that from another fic or story, it is purely unintentional and coincidental. 'Great minds think alike', after all.

The characterization in the fic is based on the Manga and not the Anime.

Acknowledgement: Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement despite the lack of updates. And I especially want to express my gratitude to my dear friend, Keila Nott for her candid feedback. This fic is here because of her and each and everyone of you, and I'm dedicating this chapter to you all.

So without further ado, please enjoy!

Awakening

by forever

Chapter 1

Bliss. What is bliss?

Candy thought she knew bliss, had felt bliss, had experienced bliss.

Bliss is indulging in your favorite dessert. Bliss is spending time with your loved one. Bliss is having your wish come true. Bliss—plain and simple—is extreme happiness, a feeling of utter contentment. It's a generic notion. And that's all there is to it.

Apparently, she was wrong. Not completely—partly—but she was still wrong.

The moment of realization came when a conversation that began as harmless as a mindless blather over tea and chocolate chip cookies with her friend Tina unexpectedly dived into a topic that made her blush in ten different shades of crimson.

Three years her senior, Martina Rozenberg—that was Tina's full name—happened to be one of Dr. Martin's new patients. Candy met her a month ago, when a pretty red head frantically pounded at the door of the Happy Clinic on one late afternoon, just before closing time, screaming she would die from a knee infection.

The red head, Miss Rozenberg, wasn't dying, of course, and it wasn't even an infection—it was just a scrape, deeper than a superficial wound but not deep enough to be considered a laceration. Dr. Martin was not amused. He was in a hurry to go to a nearby town to visit a relative, and Miss Rozenberg caused him to miss his train. Unaware of this important fact, Miss Rozenberg kept her excited babbling about things that had no relation whatsoever with her minor injury. It came to a point where Candy had to jump in to whisk Miss Rozenberg out of the clinic before the oblivious woman could exhaust what was left of Dr. Martin's dwindling patience.

But instead of bidding Candy farewell, Miss Rozenberg, turning deaf ears on Candy's stuttering protest, dragged Candy by the elbow along the street into a small restaurant, about a block away from the clinic, and insisted that Candy stayed there to have dinner with her. Candy didn't have the heart to abandon the seemingly distraught Miss Rozenberg and ended up sitting through a full recount of the woman's life, which turned out to be quite riveting, even compared to her own life that never seemed to run out of excitement. And that was the beginning of a friendship between Candy and Miss Rozenberg—Tina.

Beautiful, brimming with youthful ardor, and fierce to speak her mind, Tina was one remarkable woman, none like any other Candy had ever met. When Dr. Martin commented Tina was what would he describe as another version of her with twice the amount of vigor and bravery, Candy couldn't find a reason to object and laughingly agreed. Tina was certainly that and so much more. Her rebellious nature reminded Candy of Terry, but her free spirited way of living, moving from place to place, perfectly modeled after Albert's nomadic lifestyle (what used to be his lifestyle—for having not recovered his memory, he seemed keen to adopt a more stable lifestyle, currently assuming a role as her friendly roommate).

In the short time they had made acquaintance with each other, Candy couldn't help but be drawn to Tina, and likewise Tina found Candy to be quite endearing. So it came to no surprise that the two women became fast good friends.

"Oh, Candy, my dear, dear, Candy, my dear, sweet, innocent Candice. Haven't you experienced bliss from a night of unbridled passion with a man?"

Violent fits of cough broke out of Candy's mouth. Of all the things her friend could ask...

Tina snickered. "That answers my question."

"What do you mean by that?" Candy pressed a folded napkin onto the trickle of tea hanging at the corner of her mouth.

Tina folded her arms across her chest, an expectant look crossing her face. "So... Have you? You know, have sex, make love, copulating, humping-"

Candy scrambled to reach across the table and slapped a hand over Tina's mouth. "GOOD LORDS, TINA..." Her eyes darted from side-to-side. Then as she noted the curious looks directed toward her, she retracted her hand and leaned back in her chair. "How could you talk so casually about such... unseemly things?" she continued in a near whisper.

"Unseemly, you say?" Tina huffed, her voice rising, but she quickly brought it down at Candy's warning glare. "I see nothing wrong with sex. It's not like we're talking about legalizing prostitution or selling opium. Trust me. It's the most mind-blowing experience you'll ever have in your entire life. The ultimate pinnacle of bliss."

"You must mean, something we shall experience after marriage, right?" Candy asked hesitantly. Tina spoke of the matter as though it materialized straight out of her own experience, but to suggest that would be an unspeakable offense—Tina was not married.

"Well... sweetie, there's nothing wrong with guarding your virginity for your beloved future husband, if that's what you prefer. But..." One manicured eyebrow raised, Tina leaned to pick her cup up, slender fingers curling around the porcelain handle. "You shouldn't deny yourself a delicious morsels of carnal pleasures." An impish smile curved her rouge lips as she took a gentle sip.

Candy's mouth dropped open at the scandalous suggestion. "TINA—" Candy quickly lowered her voice, wary of the deprecating glances from the two older women sitting two tables across from them. "I hope you're not just suggesting-"

"Do you even know what sex is?" Tina interjected, her tone mocking, as she put her cup back on the table.

"Of course, I do," Candy asserted, struggling not to cringe at the vulgar word being tossed about without the least bit of care, like a child's toy. Openly discussing the subject discomfited her to no end, but it was downright irksome whenever someone perceived her as a dingbat—she most definitely not a dingbat. "I read all about it in the book."

Tina's blue eyes widened with astonishment. "Is that right? Now, I must say that's surprising coming from you, Candy. But do tell... So which book have you read? Maybe it's something I haven't come across previously. I'd love to add that to my list. Who's the author?"

Candy clasped her hands to her chest, retrieving from her memory of what she could still remember. "Mmm... There are several. The biology of reproduction, the-"

Tina's fits of laughter, grating and excessively loud, attracted every single patron in the small cafe to direct their eyes toward the table she shared with Tina.

"Those... Those are school textbooks," Tina uttered in between gasp of chuckles, paying no heed to the scowl on Candy's face. "Did you just tell me that you learned about sex from textbooks? Candy, you're not serious, I hope. That's just simply hilarious."

"Fine. Laugh all you want. I thought those books provide all the details I need."

Halting her laughter at once, Tina stared fixedly at Candy without blinking for a good few seconds, as if there were horns growing on Candy's head, before swiftly flipping her purse open and pulling a book out. "Tell you what. Here, you can have this." Tina passed the book to Candy in a quick thrusting move, urging her to take it. "Read this. Then you'll know what I mean."

Candy examined the plain cover. It looked like an ordinary notebook, one she used for jotting down observations made during patient visit in the clinic. She thumbed to the first page and noticed the rows of neat handwriting from top to bottom. "What's this? Is this yours?"

"Well, yeah. Let's just say it's my poor attempt at writing a novel." The ever confident Miss Rozenberg cast her a bashful smile, adorable almost, something she had rarely seen.

"I didn't know you were an aspiring writer."

Tina's gaze lowered and landed on the book. "It was a side hobby. I traveled a lot from place to place, so whenever I felt lonely or just overwhelmed I would channel those feelings into my..." Tina let her voice linger for a moment before she finished in one beat, "creative writing."

Candy could totally relate to what Tina was saying. She had been there herself, alone, engulfed in pitch-black darkness, feeling as though everyone she had cared for had turned their backs on her. Although unraveling her mind loose and pouring everything out, from her fear to her dream, into her journal had helped from time to time, it was the constant awareness of having someone nearby that had managed to diminish the dreadful feeling of loneliness. Undoubtedly, Albert had become a part of her normal life, and that must have imparted the assurance that she needn't have to worry about being alone—at least not until he finally recovered from his amnesia and decided to return to his vagabond days.

"Say Candy... " Tina grasped Candy's hand, blue eyes sparkling with determination, lips stretching wider and wider into a grin. "Read it. It would give rise to an awakening of some sort. You would thank me later."

Candy's cheeks grew warm as she could only imagine what Tina was alluding to. "Oh all right, Tina. I would do it. I'll read since it's your writing. Nothing more."

Surely, it couldn't be that bad if Tina had written it. So she thought.

To Be Continued

Author's Remark:

A new story? What happened to Ninety Days Epilogue? Let me just say that I still stand by my word that I won't abandon any of my ongoing stories, but I don't want to ramble too much about that, so if you're interested you can read more about what's going on with Ninety Days (and other stories) in my profile and my wordpress.

Back to the story.

The rating for this fic may change to M in the future. Why the M rating you ask? Well as you can see even from the description, it's clear the fic will touch on a more mature theme than my other CC stories, brushing on controversial topics (well as controversial as it was during the era). But considering the policy on this site, despite the M rating, I will only post the 'tamed' version here, and if you're interested, you can read the full, non-censored version in AO3

It's going to be challenging to write, but I'm all up for the challenge. So I hope you'd find this entertaining at least.

As for the writing, I think I'll go with shorter chapter length instead of long ones, maintaining the word count to up to 2000. That way it'll be easier to read, and I can update faster. :D

Once again, thank you for taking the time to read this.

So what do you think? Is it worth reading? Should I continue? Let me know :D

Stay tuned for chapter 2

Till next time

-forever-