AN: A year ago tomorrow is when I stopped writing a fic called: "My Teacher and His Student" I really loved writing it but I screwed it up without careful planning. After being inspired by Erza's first-voice in her fic "One and Only Soulmate" I decided to transform this fic into that. I hope that you enjoy it – Fay

My Sensei

Kuon 1: Sacrifices

When you're a celebrity, you start to see the world from a very skewed perspective. You could even start to think of yourself as immortal. I know that I've felt that. I've felt the rush of panic when swerving my car to avoid a small boy and his grandmother who have run out to the crosswalk. I have had the spine chilling fall when pretend to be somebody else and throwing yourself and someone else off of a great height. However, this is different. Right now, this is so different.

I feel the pain in my arm and the sting in my right shoulder but that isn't what hurts. What hurts is that I tried desperately to be a hero and swerve in the car to avoid two young girls and that had led to this situation. My wife of two years, my strong and daring wife, my princess with her golden eyes and her beautiful features is in front of me on life support. My pregnant wife is on life support and just as had been the case with my best friend in my youth, there is nothing I can do to stop this or save her.

I hear the slow beeps from the machine and I am urging her to fight. I know how strong she is but I fear that she won't make it. I stand up and move over to her side, I pick up her hand and squeeze it tightly. Maybe I can give her some of my own strength. I look at her belly, two months pregnant and only a few people know about it.

"Kyoko, princess," I start to speak. I feel so guilty that I am here with her, that I'm able to form words and it looks like she might vanish from this planet at any moment. "Please fight for us?" I ask her, my body becoming tense and that iciness returning. "I love you, princess, I know you can fight," I tell her before feeling tears in my eyes.

Am I to lose her? Is this what happens when I get close to people? They burn out? I hurt them?

"If I could give my life for yours," I whisper and pick up her hand, kissing it and letting a few tear drops fall onto it. I should never have fallen in love. I don't deserve to have anything precious, not being who I am. "If I could do anything to save you, if -"

"There is one way, Hizuri-san," I hear a woman say and I look up, feeling the pain in my neck again. How was I the one who wasn't hurt that badly in the car wreck? I'd give anything for it to be the other way around. I stare at the woman who is standing in the doorway, she doesn't look natural for some reason.

This woman looks in her early twenties, she has white hair that is cascading down her shoulders and is wearing a white lace dress and sandals. I wonder if I've modeled with her before. I watch her and try to figure out what she has just said. Impossible. There is no way that -

"Hizuri-san," she says slowly, "Are you really willing to give your life for her?"

I sit stunned. Of course I would give my life for her and the slow beeps from the heart monitor only make me more confident in my decision. I nod and the woman approaches me. I pull back. On the back of this woman are a tiny pair of silver wings. Was Kyoko right all this time? Did fairies truly exist? Was I just….wrong?

"Yes," I respond, my voice showing how much pain I am in.

Maybe I'm in a coma or Kyoko's healthy and I'm the one about to die. If that was true then that would be better than this. I just want her alive. The fairy approaches me.

"My name is Freya," she tells me as she lifts up my hand, "and I can take your life energy and give it to her, I can save her but you would be sacrificing a great deal. Life energy is limited and -"

"And I would die," I ask her. It's the best tradeoff. I would have loved to have met my first child and to continue my love story with Kyoko but it feels as if someone needs to die today and I need to save her. I only hope that she has a rich and fulfilling life and that after a few months, she can move on from me and start to forget me.

"I don't need that much," Freya says and I stare at her, "but there are other consequences, you wou-"

I get caught by Kyoko's breaths slowing even more, my face is panicked and I'm definitely not the cool and laid back Kuon Hizuri that the media seems to write about. I shake my head and look at Freya, I know that my expression is most likely that of a scared child but I am willing to do anything for Kyoko. I will make any sacrifice if she is able to live.

"I don't need to know the consequences, whatever happens will happen, please though, do what you can to save her?" I plead and see Freya nod. She grabs my hand and I feel a cold chill run down my spine. This reminds me of when I had fainted before, when Kyoko had been my stand-in manager and I had become so ill that I had passed out. This feels like that but increased ten times. I feel myself get weaker and fall onto the ground, my bones seem to shrink and become more frail, my skin is loosening, I look at my hand with my wedding ring on it and see the wrinkles as if it is one belonging to an older man.

I close my eyes, are these the consequences?

I try to control my breathing but for some reason, my own lungs are finding it hard to release and take air in. I feel cold and weak but as I hear the heart monitor beat stronger and stronger, I start to feel warm again. I start to feel stronger. Whatever has just happened to me. Whatever this strange pain in my back is, the looseness of the skin on my face, it's worth it because she's waking up. She's alive.

"I'll change a few more details in honor of your sacrifice," Freya says as she gently lets her fingers go through my hair. "Sir, I will help you create your new identity," she tells me and I look at her before freezing. My eyes feel as sore as my throat.

She places a mirror down in front of me and I pause. My reflection is so different now. My emerald eyes blink back at me, but my blond hair is now a startling white and my face isn't that of a man's in his late twenties but that of a senior citizen in his late seventies or early eighties. Was my youth what she had taken from me? I managed to get to my feet but have to immediately sit down. My foot hits a walking stick and I pick it up. Do I need this? I'm not sure what I need?

I look at my clothes and pause. I have never seen these clothes before. This plaid shirt with cardigan, these high waist pants, this…am I wearing something in my pants. I just feel horror throughout my body but I see her start to open her eyes. I don't want her to know about this. I need to get out of here.

I look at my hand where my ring is loose but I have it, I take that off as well as the chain around my neck. Nothing should connect me to Kuon Hizuri. I need for her to believe that I am somebody else. I have to come up with a story and fast.

Kyoko blinks at me, her golden eyes taking me in. I know that she doesn't recognize me, why should she? I see some confusion in her eyes and hope that it hasn't registered in her mind yet. She sits up as if she hadn't been in an accident at all.

"Hello, sir," she says and I feel relieved that she is treating me this way. "Can I help you?"

"You look," I begin, it sounds like a frailer version of my voice and I see her look down at the sheets of the hospital bed as if attempting to place it. Does she know that much about me? I change my voice immediately, I need for her to not recognize it, "like my granddaughter," I say and then look around the room. "My granddaughter died alone in a car accident, I didn't want you to die alone as well."

Kyoko puts a hand on her forehead and I have to fight the desire to kiss her, to wrap my arms around her, to tell her that I'm here for her and that I love her. "My husband," she says, her voice showing her concern, "He isn't here? Kuon would be here," she tells me and god, I am the person who knows that better than anyone but I have to hurt her to protect her. My body isn't right for hers anymore. I can't let a twenty-three-year-old woman know that she's married to a senior citizen.

"He didn't make it," I tell her, "I regret to tell you, young lady," I freeze as I say this realizing that this might be the final time that I ever see her again when it wasn't on a TV or movie screen. I hope that she'll recover enough to continue acting. She looks at me with all the color draining from her face. "I really am sorry for yo-"

"Kuon didn't make it?" Kyoko asks and I feel my stomach twisting. This is the right approach, right? I can't curse her into a relationship with this big an age gap. Fifty years, there's at least fifty years separating us now, half a century. She freezes, the tears in her eyes as she just stares out into the world like a little girl. I want to hold her and tell her that I'm here and that I'm sorry but I can't expose myself. She deserves so much better.

"I really am sorry, I'll let you get some space," I tell her and grab my walking stick as I notice how my spine has even changed making me seem shorter than I used to be. Kyoko watches me, her face conflicted in her emotions.

"Take care of yourself, ojii-san," she says and I look back at her with a half smile. That is what I am to her, a grandfather, I nod and start to walk out slowly. It really is harder for me to walk but if I train this body then it's not going to hurt as much.

"You take care of yourself too, young lady," I tell her and she nods, wrapping an arm around herself.

I don't want to see her this way but the loss of Kuon Hizuri she will be able to overcome. She won't hurt as much as if she were with me, as if she were exposed to the truth. I want her to fall in love with someone else who will be able to protect her the way that I did. She deserves so much happiness and in this body, I can't give her that any longer.

As I get to the doorway, I hear her start to sob and I pause. She will get over this, Kuon Hizuri was just one person, one single man that she will be able to get over in just a few months. She speaks through her sobs and I pause, I want to make sure she's okay but taking myself out of her life is going to be what's best for her.

"Ojii-san," she says and I nod, trying to not let my own heartbreak show, "You have really nice eyes," she says and I pause. Should I get color contacts? Would that help her if I didn't show these emerald eyes.

"Thank you," I tell her before walking out of her life. I will forever be haunted by the sound of her sobs.

She will be able to get over Kuon Hizuri, won't she?