Call of Revelation
"Lugia?"
"…"
"Lugia?"
"…"
That's it, he thought.
Ho-oh knew well something was up. He knew that the Psychic-type wouldn't just pull him from his comfortable nap 'roughly' – as it to mean, having to suddenly wander in his dream and forcing him to fully awake due to nightmare he had caused ( when, at this point, the phoenix thought that Lugia could make a team with Darkrai in horrible way to spread nightmares while laughing evilly at their 'crimes' ) – then sending him a mental message to go to a certain place, which where he was now.
Up from the sky, Ho-oh could see the clearing that Lugia had mentioned him before. A stream of river constantly went flowing to the north, where it led to the sea that he didn't bother to look up because of the importance of the call ( as he thought so ). He landed softly on the plain grassy land, and from the distance he could see Lugia sitting at the river bank, his eyes transfixed to his feet which were underwater, but Ho-oh soon learnt that his eyes were blank. Must be in deep thought, Ho-oh thought to himself. He wasn't a psychic type so he just couldn't join the snowy white bird in his mind.
Ho-oh must have been thinking too long that Lugia suddenly lifted his head, acknowledging his presence – which was rather slow considering he was a psychic type – and weakly smiled. They barely exchanged hi and then Lugia went back to his blank-staring and neither he nor Ho-oh spoke for the next few minutes. Ho-oh studied his counterpart's countenance, and he did see hint of sorrow in his eyes. The usual Lugia would have just brushed any sadness he had at the current moment and laughed it off, so this one must be in another level. Because he understood that, the fiery bird didn't want to ask first in hope not to annoy the guardian of the sea much more. However, the more he kept silent, the more anxiety in his gut swirling back and forth, and his own curiosity was in need to be satisfied as well, so…
"So… what's up?
As the question flew from his beak, he mentally slapped himself for not picking another question because he must have looked so dumb that he saw Lugia twitched and lifted his gaze just a moment, then he shook his head while mumbled 'nothing'.
There it was. Something must have been gone wrong. He frowned at the thought. After all, if the guardian of the sea had decided to invite him over there must be something. But Ho-oh had no idea what was going on. There were rarely occasions when Lugia had been this upset.
The last time he remembered his counterpart gone upset was when he missed the whole feast set by Latios and Latias because he had fallen asleep and no one remembered to check for him. At that time, Ho-oh had forgotten about him when he went to Alto Mare by himself, but as soon as he arrived, something hit him hard in his mind that he actually remembered that he was supposed to see Lugia first. So he took his time to go back to pay a visit to the Orange Island, which he found out soon that Lugia was literally asleep during the feast time. After knocking some sense back to him, they both raced back to Alto Mare and what they found was the feast had been ended.
Ho-oh should be the one who was upset because he had flew back and forth and it was tiring, but in fact, Lugia was far more upset that for the next good three days he locked himself away from everyone, especially him, and even skipped a meeting just because that incident. The ruler of the Beasts had to flinch at the memory ; the memories of Lugia's dead glare casted toward him was terrifying to remember.
So he learnt, and learnt, to never make Lugia upset.
And here he found him upset, and if he didn't do something, he knew well something worse would happen. It could range from another series of dead glares to massive storms. Choosing the best option to prevent the worse, he moved closer to his partner.
Lugia noticed the move, and he opted to stay silent. He sighed again, way too loud that it resounded throughout his hearing.
'Well, I'm overreacting anything' he silently thought to himself. The feelings in his gut started to spin again, whirling against his will. He cursed himself non-verbally for not being able to control his emotion.
A soft tap of feathery appendage on his shoulder caused him to jerk and violently spin his head back. As soon as he realized that it was just Ho-oh, he sighed again. Damn, he must have looked like a lost guy.
"Sorry," Ho-oh slowly said as he perched beside him.
"It's okay," Lugia replied quickly. The last thing he wanted to do was ruining his friend because of his moody phase.
"So, mind to tell me what happens?" Ho-oh asked carefully. He studied the avian-dragon's countenance again, and found a mixture of dread and regrets there.
"… Yveltal and Latios happen," Lugia finally said, and while saying so, he shut his eyes tight. He had been thinking carefully whether to say it or not, but it was him who requested the phoenix to come over, so he had the right to know his problems.
"… I see…"
There was a long silent afterward. Ho-oh was unsure what to do, so he just wrapped his wings around the mourning legendary.
"… sorry for that," he whispered softly.
It was a common thing to do for both of them. There was once when Ho-oh's mood completely broke due to something that he didn't want to tell, and Lugia was there to comfort him. It eventually worked as Ho-oh slowly recovered, and even laughed together with his partner, when just two hours ago he was bawling like hell.
Based on that, Ho-oh thought it wouldn't be bothering him if he did the way Lugia comforted him.
The trail of his thought was interrupted when drops of water began to hit his wings. He moved his face closer and rested it on Lugia's shoulder, and he finally realized that Lugia was crying.
"Lugia…" the phoenix said, but no words continued afterward. It hurt him to see his counterpart in such state, especially when usually he was damn cheerful.
"… why…" Lugia muttered, his palm-wings clutched into a fist. Tears kept streaming down his face, and it started to make Ho-oh's wings rustled.
The ruler of the birds was torn, and Ho-oh could barely do anything. Something inside him cracked when he saw Lugia's solemn cry.
"Lugia, please…" he hugged him tighter, and before he realized it, he was crying as well.
Lugia flinched when he felt his shoulder got wet, and he took the moment to glance backward. There, he saw Ho-oh also had tears in his eyes.
"Ho-oh…" he trailed off. Normally, he would have laughed because Ho-oh face when he was crying was really priceless, but this time was different.
Ho-oh did nothing but nodding his head. He released his hug and smiled a bit. "Everything's going to be okay-
"Everything is not going to be okay!" Lugia suddenly shouted, interrupting Ho-oh's attempt to comfort him. It also surprised the guardian of the sky, as seen on his shocked countenance.
"Don't just say it to calm me down, Ho-oh," Lugia continued, still sobbing. He knew he shouldn't be that rude to his partner. He knew Ho-oh just wanted to calm him down, but he definitely had no idea how it felt.
"… you don't know how it feels… of seeing your love with someone else, instead of you," the guardian of the sea said, his words were filled with mixture of negative emotions. He sobbed again, and his attempt to stop his cry was futile. He wiped some of the tears off his face, but he couldn't wipe those memory of seeing his love with someone else got engaged in a kiss.
It hurt. Never in his life he felt such pain.
"… I do," the low whisper from his back forced him to spin around.
"What?"
"I do, Lugia," Ho-oh said. As he lifted his gaze to meet his partner's one, he smiled bitterly.
"I feel you. It's just that I have better poker face than you," his expression went rough, and he frowned as he threw his face away.
"What are you talking, Ho-oh?" Lugia asked. The memory of dread was still there, but he was more focused to why all of sudden, Ho-oh started to do weird talk.
It was then when he realized that Ho-oh had distanced himself from him. The warmth of his feathers was no longer there, and the calming sensation of his hug was gone.
"… You said I didn't know how it felt, Lugia. But I did," the phoenix started. His eyes were now fixated on the majestic snowy bird in front of him. "I do. Up until now I do," he continued.
"Ho-oh, I just don't get it," Lugia replied. Seriously, what the hell he was talking about?
"Ho-oh, wha-" before he could continue, Ho-oh cut him off.
"Have you ever looked at your back, Lugia?" the guardian of the sky said. In the deepest of his heart, he didn't want to open up now, for fearing to make Lugia to be upset more. But, he was hurt from Lugia's statement before.
'… you don't know how it feels… of seeing your love with someone else, instead of you,'
He felt it. From the first time he had realized how his counterpart was a marvelous legendary, with silver yet snowy painted the blue of the ocean. From the time he heard Lugia's story that he fell in love with the guardian of Alto Mare. From the time he had forgotten to wake him up to go to the feast, and gotten silent treatment afterward.
It was the worse. Being hated by the one he loved so much.
And he broke. His breakdown was soon ended, thanks to the ruler of the birds who actually apologized to him.
It wasn't the apology he was looking for.
It was his presence in his life. Like sun and moon, seas and skies. After that, the seas kept the skies, and the skies accompanied the seas.
But the seas were chasing the land. And the skies could only watch in pain. Luckily, Ho-oh was good in hiding his own emotions, so that everytime Lugia told him his plan to get Latios on a date, he always agreed and even gave better plans.
And when he finally knew that Latios was taken by someone else, he didn't know what to feel.
He was undoubtedly also upset knowing that Lugia would be hurt much.
But at the other side, he was grateful that yet he had a chance to make Lugia his own.
Ho-oh was skeptical. He knew it very well.
"…I hate to say this now, but…" Ho-oh muttered painfully, and he turned around so that his back was facing Lugia.
Lugia was left speechless. Not because of his confusion, but because he felt the atmosphere of pain and sorrow surrounding him.
And it hurt him. He felt the pain, and it was way over his own.
He flinched, the mental pain starting to cause physical damage on him. He fell down to the ground, making a loud thud.
"Ho-oh… why do you hurt so?" and it was a shame for him, for being a Psychic type but only now he realized that his very counterpart was hurting that bad.
And he watched his counterpart turned backward, facing him. Seemingly seeing him in physical pain, Ho-oh rushed toward him.
"… I'm sorry," Ho-oh said. He had completely forgotten that Lugia was sensitive with mental damage. And he had also forgotten that the reason why he kept it by himself was because he didn't want to hurt Lugia.
"…I'm sorry…" he whispered as he cradled Lugia closer. He pulled him into another embrace as he hid his face on the white bird's shoulder.
The pain was lifted. This time, Lugia felt warmth.
It was really warm, like the presence of the sun itself. Like the sun light.
And it surrounded him, comforting and mending any mental pain he had suffered before. It rejuvenated his pain of losing as well.
He knew all things he felt was coming from Ho-oh. But only now he realized that what he felt was that complicated longing he felt toward Latios.
It was love.
Coming to a conclusion, he remembered how Ho-oh had been his partner from long time ago. How he told him his crush. How he asked him to help him to get his crush. How he bashed him for trying to comfort him.
He couldn't fathom how Ho-oh could withstand those all. It was far worse than his love tragedy.
"…Ho-oh," Lugia spoke up. He stood up, bracing his own feet. He lifted Ho-oh's face toward him.
And he couldn't hold the stream of tears in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, being such an asshole," he said. "I'm so sorry, I was simply blinded by someone who didn't even see me, when there was you here keeping me safe," he closed his eyes, allowing more tears to break through.
"Please…" Lugia continued. Ho-oh was left stunned. Lugia just looked gorgeous within his eyes. Plus, he had just realized that it was dark already, and Lugia's features were all shining in bright moonlight.
He fell again. And he knew he would keep falling and falling.
"… allow me to make amend," the last words of his partner made Ho-oh went back to reality. He was then pulled into a hug, a physical affection he loved so much from him. The scent of the ocean was flowing freely, and it was really nice. It felt like you were kept safe by the vast sea itself.
"…" Ho-oh said nothing but he returned the embrace.
The rushing river and the sound of rustling leaves accompanied their silence. Just after minutes, they broke the hug.
"Lugia?" Ho-oh started. Lugia blinked, but then he nodded.
"I do too," he grinned. "You don't have to say it. I know already," he added as he winked at him.
Rushing heat went to Ho-oh cheeks, but he just smiled.
"Let's go home," Lugia said.
"Well…" Ho-oh interrupted, but he trailed off.
"Oh yeah, I asked you way too far to come here," the snowy bird spent his time to think. Then, he smirked.
"Want to come along? We may do something there," he grinned mischievously. He grinned even more when he saw Ho-oh moved uncomfortably.
And Ho-oh couldn't come up with even an excuse, so…
"Let's go then," he mumbled softly, his mind was out of function due to the reality he had never imagined would exist.
"Well" the phoenix thought. "Even nightmare has unexpected outcome," he smiled.
Way too rushing, right? I'm just never good at description so well, just to the center point xD
Reviews are always appreciated