Chapter 2

In the morning, I watched her sleeping face. The sunlight shone through the trees and I watched the shadows creep across her. I traced the patterns they made with my fingertips. Her face looked so innocent, like a child's. But that appearing innocence is an illusion, only emergring when she's asleep. When she's awake, the innocence is still there, tucked deeply away. She blames herself for all that has happened to her. She believes that her innocence is gone, so she never lets what is left of it show. It pains me to be the only one who can see that.

I brushed a strand of hair that had fallen on her brow behind her ear. I bent over and kissed her lips tenderly. Oh, how I will miss those lips, those eyes, that face. They had become a comfort zone for me. I felt that no one could ever be angry with me when I'm with her. Now, my comfort zone is going to Canada, leaving me behind to face my cursed family alone. I'm glad she knows about our curse, but I still can't help feeling sorry for her. She even wanted to learn the memory surpression technique with me. She puts extra burdens on herself for no reason. It makes me happy yet sad.

I sat up and leaned against the headboard. The previous day seemed like something strait out of a fairytale. I wonder how Shigure's doing, I thought. Mikaru seemed fine. The fact that she was going to Canada tore her apart more than her break-up with Shigure. I decided to throw on a shirt and head out of the room so she could sleep. I went to the washroom which was three doors down the hall and washed up. When I came out she was sitting on the couch with another note and a plane ticket in her hand. "What's wrong?" I asked, not knowing what to expect.

"It's my mom," she mumbled, trying to stop her tears, "her condition has worsened so instead of leaving at the end of the summer..." I feared what came next, "I leave tonight."

She couldn't keep her tears from spilling down those soft cheeks. I would have given anything to take that pain away from her. I would have put it on myself if it would make her stop crying. I knelt down in front of her, "there, there," I comforted, "everything will be alright."

Something deep inside of me said that it wouldn't be alright, for her. I put my hand in hers and squeezed it gently, yet reassuringly. With my other hand I wiped away her tears. She looked at me, her eyes red from crying. I held her face in my hands and kissed her softly, hoping that it would make her feel better. I knew I couldn't take the pain away from her, but I knew I could stop it for a while. I broke the kiss and grabbed her hands and helped her off of the couch. "C'mon, let me take you somewhere you want to go."

We went to see Shigure and Ayame. Shigure was a little upset, first he gets dumped (personally, I didn't see why someone would want to be with a jellyfish in the first place) and then one of his best friends is leaving. Ayame was also upset. When he heard the news he had to go into this dramatic outburst on how the gods had cursed him. There was a hint of a smile on Mikaru's face but other than that she was worse than all three of us. After going for ramen we went back to her house. I sat on her bed and tried to divert the conversation to something a little happier, to no avail, while she packed her bags to leave.

I drove her to the airport and waited with her for the plane to arrive. When it did, I helped her with her bags and walked as far as I could go with her. I kissed her on the cheek and uttered my goodbye, just as she was about to leave, I said, "I'll always be here for you, if you ever feel that you're alone or that no one will understand you. If you feel like everything in your life is spiralling downwards or if things aren't going the way you planned, you can call on me. If it's for you, I'll always be there."

"You promise?" she asked.

"I promise."

She kissed me softly, one last time, and then my angel walked away, leaving Japan and me behind, and I didn't know when she was coming back, if she was even coming back at all.

Years passed. I became a doctor and spent my time taking care of Akito whose condition remained the same from since she was a child. I also looked after Yukis athsma. Mikaru always remained on my mind. I often found myself sitting in her old chair. All of her things had been moved to the main house after she and her family left. I would sit and wonder when she would be back. She called me for about the first two months after her departure. I have not heard from her since. Before long, I had taken on an assistant, Kana. When she walked into the room that day, I forgot that I was ever in love Mikaru. I felt as though I could start over and forget about my past sorrows.

I can remember that day clearly... I was organizing todays charts when there was a knock at my door.

"Hello in there, Im Kana Sohma, its nice to meet you! Ill be your new assistant as of today so whatever you need me to do, just say the word." I thought she was annoying, at first. "This is a little strange, huh, I guess we're part of the same family but I've never even seen you before; but when I told all of my friends Id be working with you, they all warned me you'd be handsome."

As if I had ignored her, I walked over to her desk and replied, "This will be your desk, and these are todays charts I suggest you start looking over the-" I was interrupted.

"Ah, its snowing! I knew it would snow today! Say, heres a question for you. When the snow melts - what does it become?"

I looked at her, she now struck me as stupid and annoying. Her bubbly personality was starting to get on my nerves. This talk about snow was bringing back memories of things Akito had said to me. She told me that I was as cold as snow. I knew it was true. Since Mikaru had left, I began to realize that what she said had more truth then even she realized. The most obvious answer came into my head, "The answer is water, of course."

She attempted to immitate the sound of the buzzers on game shows when you get a wrong answer. What did she take me for? An idiot? She looked at me with a smile on her bubbly face, "Nope, it becomes spring. I think spring is my favorite time of year."

I didn't expect that. I guess it was true. As winter comes and goes, it turns into spring. That fact was inevitable. Seasons changed from winter to spring and from spring to summer. Kana and I had become good friends. I knew that there was a tendency to overly-romanticize the people I care about. But still, for me, she was spring. It seems almost inevitable, how we were drawn to eachother; almost like a dream. She found out one night about my curse. As Shigure had always teased, I'm the dragon's bastard offspring. She freaked out. There was a dilema about whether or not to throw me into fresh or sea water, she could have just left me there and I would have been fine. She threw me into my bathtub.

When I transformed back, I dried off with a towel and got dressed. I didn't dry my hair. It felt good to have my head wet in this summer heat. Kana insisted on drying my hair because I could catch a cold. She grabbed a yellow towel and threw it over my head as I sat down on the floor. She knelt down in front of me and started rubbing my head with the towel.

"You know, if you threw a real seahorse into a tub like that, it would probably die." I said to break the silence.

She chuckled, "I was afraid of that, but I was so shaken up, I couldn't think, but, now I guess I finally know the reason. I was beginning to wonder why it was you never wanted to hold me. It's because you were afraid. Is that it? You were afraid of what might happen, if I found out? You don't have to be afraid, not of me." Her voice was cracking. I could tell she was crying. Tears started to well-up in my eyes. She was the second person to ever accept me for me. She didn't care if I was cursed or that I turned into a seahorse when embracing or being embraced by a member of the opposite sex or if my body comes under a great deal of stress. She reminded me a lot of Mikaru. I truly felt stupid for thinking the things I did when I first met her. My thoughts were interrupted. "Hatori, I'm so glad to have met you, and I'm even happier to have fallen in love with you, I wanna stay with you!"

She rested her head gently against mine. Tears started rolling down my cheeks. I squeezed my pant leg, weeping like a child. For the first time in my life, I felt as though I was allowed something, as though I had been saved from something. When Mikaru was here, there were always certain things I wasn't allowed to do. I wasn't allowed to forget about the Zodiac or to think about this painful bond being broken. Mikaru made my life easier. She shared my pain with me and took on extra burdens so that I wouldn't have to face them alone. But you can't save someone from something you can't save yourself from. Mikaru couldn't save me from the curse because she had fallen under it, as well.

I reached up and gently put my hand on her cheek. She doesn't have to cry for me, she doesn't. Could it be that this is the frozen snow being melted by the first warm breath of Spring? I pulled my head away from hers and gazed at her. She was the only thing I saw, the only one I wanted to see. I cupped her face in my hands and whispered, "Thank you." I kissed her softly. I could feel my tears stop and hers kept flowing down her cheeks. I decided that on her birthday in a few days I would propose to her.

Her birthday came in a blink of an eye. Kana, Shigure, Ayame, Mayu-chan and I went out for dinner that day. Up until this day, we never told anyone we were together, not even our best friends because sometimes you're better off not saying anything at all. We tried to act as friends when we were out in a group and we always acted as a couple when we were alone, even if it was for a brief period of time. I was trying to figure out away to get Kana alone so I could propose to her without making a scene. I was totally ignoring the conversation everyone was having. I needed to be alone for a few minutes to think. I stood up.

"Excuse me, I will be right back." I left the table and headed towards the door so I could get some fresh air when I felt a tug on my shirt. I turned around, it was Kana.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's nothing" I was making her worry. I didn't want this to happen. "Hold on a second."

I turned to the rest of the resturaunt. "Excuse me," I called, "Everyone can I have your attention please?"

All eyes were on me. "Thank you, I've wanted to this for a long time now and I should have."

I turned to Kana. "I'm sorry if I've been acting weird lately. The truth is, I had absolutely no clue how I was going to this. I pulled a royal blue case out of my jacket's inside pocket. I slowly opened it to reveal a diamond ring. She gasped. I got down on one knee.

"Kana, before I met you my life was spiralling downward. I was in this dark place with no light. I was lost. But then I met you and you changed my life. I knew that day, when I first saw you that you were the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. So I was wondering... would you would marry me?"

I held my gaze. Her eyes were watering. She put a hand over her mouth. All eyes were on us. Come on, Kana, answer me!