Ello, ello! I am so glad I was able to get this one up faster than the others! Haha. This chapter is one of my favorites. Not because of the content but I felt I wrote it better than the last one. Having no Word sucks, but I gotta give another shout out to my buddy Faux Promises for being my beta! She is so freakin' awesome. XD I'm currently working on the next chapter now. I really hope I get more reviews, the lack of them makes me a sad panda but I will write on as long as there are people who like what I write. ;) I can't wait to start writing the sequel to this. I'm just a machine right now. Please tell me what you think of this one!

Here's Chapter 10!

Chapter Ten: Caged Birds

A great scarf of birds fluttered through the sky that evening, the rippling blackness tarnished the swirls of pinks and oranges and star-speckled purples of the impending night. I took in the scenery in slow spoonfuls, not daring to disturb the meticulous universe.

And, with a groan from the heart, I prayed that the universe that I no longer wished to disturb was my universe once again. I was a blue bird pinned to the wall by the wings, agonizing in pain, and longing to fly.

But I couldn't. I was to be married within the hour.

I had remembered watching Mizuhoan marriages as a young child, marveling at the formal dress of the people, the intimacy of the ceremony itself, and the thousands upon thousands of symbolic flowers spread throughout houses and monuments the village, like a harmless, sweet-scented disease. The thrill riled me, but not this time.

Because this was my own wedding.

A wedding to someone who I did not love.

But what was I supposed to say? How could I refused the wishes of my own grandfather and my Vice-Chief? Worse still, how was I to tell Orochi that his feelings for me were not reciprocated?

It wasn't possible.

My tongue had to be held.

I was a button-eyed doll, a mid-air arrow and a sour apple all alloyed together.

At the pinnacle of that small amount of time between day and night, I stood before a long mirror in the chief's office, absorbing the outcome of my beautification ritual with resolute disdain.

The kimono I wore had belonged to my Grandma Yuri, who had left it behind for me. It was a gorgeous red with a gold flower print and a matching gold obi. My untamed black hair was tied neatly in a bun atop my head, three loose strands of bangs hanging down in front of my forehead for style. The wooden shoes were far from comfortable, but wearing something that belonged to the grandmother I'd never met brought her spirit close to me, and I knew she was beside me now, hopefully thinking that I was just as beautiful as she had been on her wedding day.

The difference being, of course, that she had wanted it.

As my grandfather asked Orochi and I to kneel before the altar that marked the entrance to Mizuho, mortification made the redness on my ears swell to the rest of my my friends who I'd traveled with, plus more had greeted me with enraptured smiles and unneeded tears. Especially Colette. If I hadn't of known any better, I would have thought she'd just seen a dog die right before her eyes.

But I couldn't see Zelos anywhere.

I did my best to blank out during most of grandfather's "Why Marriage is Important" speech, and tried to scan the crowd of people without being too barefaced about it. But he was no where to be found. I wasn't sure whether to be dismayed that he had left me alone or relieved that he wasn't there to see everything; had I seen him, I probably would have fled without looking back once.

We joined hands, and grandfather sealed us together in the old language, which I loved to hear. Orochi's palms were soft, but mine were mucid and itchy. Adoration oozed from his, while mine secreted doubt. Could he tell I didn't want to do this? Or was he so wrapped up in "loving" me that he'd failed to notice what I felt.

When grandfather finished, he place a wreath of thorn-less red and white roses, which symbolized our unity as husband and wife.

And then Orochi pressed his lips to mine, the lightest kiss I'd ever had...or at least that I could remember.

And I felt absolutely nothing. No spark. No jolt. No shiver. Just two body parts colliding at random.

The rest of the evening and part of the night was spent with Mizuho in festival mode. Singing, wine, dancing, music, and flowers all spun around me in a rainbow tornado, Orochi never once leaving my side; he clung to me like a vines to a brick wall.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" He whispered in my ear as we watched some of the village women dance with pink and white laurels in their hair.

"The dancing?"

"Everything..."

"Oh! Oh-yes. All of it. It's gorgeous."

Orochi chuckled under his breath; too intimately, in my opinion.

"You're nervous? I've never heard you stutter like this before."

"Where did your stuttering go all of a sudden?"

He flushed as our eyes locked.

"I suppose our marriage made me a bit more...comfortable with you..."

I shot daggers at him with my eyes.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Orochi rose his hands.

"Don't take it the wrong way, Sheena. My affection for you was returned. I no longer have the fear of proving myself to you."

At the joy plastering his face, my eyes softened. He truly cared for me, but he was painfully oblivious. He had no idea that my feelings for him were only those of friendship. A companionship that would never grow into anything more.

I couldn't tell him the truth. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had become the innocent fly caught in a spider web.

So I fled. I snuck away; back to the room where the whole day had began.

The tall mirror hadn't moved. I was still just as beautiful as before, but I could see a dark difference.

I was a wife now. Orochi Azumi's wife.

Tears fogged my vision, and it took many ragged breaths to keep them from flooding my face. I cleaved to the thought of being able to run away, but I knew in my heart of hearts that thinking such incorrigible thoughts would only further crush what joy I had left.

"Sheena?" a soft voice called out from behind me.

I twisted my head around.

And felt what was left of my sanity burst.

Zelos.

Still handsome as always, his long hair fell down around his hair like red ocean waves. He wore an pearl white button up shirt, vest, slacks and shoes all black. I admired his suave attire, but only when I saw the small bouquet of yellow roses his hands did I fall back into the chasm of the present. I threw my eyes up to meet his, hoping that they were just as easy to read from that time so long ago, but there was so much light and cheer in them, it knocked me for six.

He was...happy.

Zelos was happy...that I marred by marriage.

"Look at you," there was an almost inaudible gasp as he spoke. "Sheena, you're... a breath-taking bride..."

I opened my mouth to thank him, but nothing came; my voice had died when I saw him standing there, content crowding every corner of him.

He his body language was jaunty as he walked, shoving one hand in the pocket of his slacks and leaving the one holding the flowers by his sides.

"You must be embarrassed. Nervous, too." He winked. "You're pink with it."

How was it that I was so easy to read? I nodded, but he never reacted. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to fall to pieces like all of the broken vases and never be seen whole again. My love for him burned like wood under a fire, and I wanted so badly for him to take me away from here, from Orochi, from marriage.

So he could be my world, my sun, my light, my air. My everything.

No matter how hard I tried, there was no escape. I couldn't tell him how much I loved him now; how he haunted my dreams and played prodigious tunes on my heart strings. His love for me had died long ago, and we could no longer be what we once were, no matter how much I'd do for it.

"Zelos," I whispered as though he were my lifeline.

"Hmm?" He piped up, plucking one yellow flower and placing it in my bun, the ends of his fingers glancing off of my forehead. I felt so much good energy flow from him into me, and it took all I had not to take his hands back; to reconnect. "I'm glad I picked yellow. It matches your outfit so well..."

And then we were a breath apart, the tip of his nose centimeters from mine. In his eyes, I saw swirling emotions, but none were those of regret. I could only hope that he saw the same in my eyes, but he was always so much better at hiding his feelings than me; I had to look away.

"Zelos," I sighed, imagining his lips on mine, lighter than a lazy summer breeze.

"Say it," his urge was breathy. "Whatever you need to say, say it now."

My eyes found his again, and that was when I saw it. The unbridled compunction. The recalescent desire. His mask had fallen away. There was nothing hidden between us anymore. We were stripped bare like a tree in autumn. Exposed like an opened wound.

I closed my eyes, half of me wanting this moment to end, the other half yearning for it to last forever. Zelos, with delicacy, took my face in his hands, holding it as if it were an injured bird he was trying to rescue.

"Say it." When his spoke, his lips brushed mine; it was like static electricity in the dark; the passion between us was blatant.

But I didn't know what to say. Telling him I loved him-it was too late for that. Orochi and I were married merely minutes ago. I was moving on without him. We had had our test, and we failed. There wasn't a do-over. There were no second chances.

I had stalled for too long for him-he acted.

Tenderly, Zelos fused our lips together, and they moved in awesome synchronization.

Feverish, I wrapped my hands around his neck, pulling him closer. My hands found his blood-colored hair and braided themselves with it. His own hands rested on my back, but with the slightest force, held me in place. He smelt of waterfalls and open fields and tasted of marmalade and meringue. Decadence had us cornered, and our passions merged for what seemed like a painful eternity.

And even though I walked cloud nine, the horrible ache of adultery was what pulled me out of the unimaginable reverie.

"I-I can't..." My voice cracked at refusing him. "...It's too late."

He smiled. A mid sized grin appeared on his lips. He looked down, shuffled his feet, and looked back up. The longing in his eyes was overbearing as he reached out to caress my face-it might has well have been another kiss. His touch was so loving, something that I didn't think I could go without. Two fingers tilted my face up to meet his, and the love I had for him turned into painful, spiked spires in my veins.

"Be happy. For me, Sheena, please be happy..."

"...The love in my heart is caged like a bird..."

"I'm sorry..."

"...I hear it singing every day, and I wonder why..."

"...that we couldn't have been..."

"...but that is just a lie..."

"...what we should have been..."

"...Because I know why..."

Zelos Wilder pecked my bottom lip one last time.

"...it's praying..."

And he placed my hand over his heart.

"...praying for flight..."

And walked away.

Heartache metastasized to every nerve ending in my legs; I was seconds away from meeting the floor. His steps were crawls, and as I stared at the red and black of his back, I felt my love-bird pounding at the bars of it's prison, fighting for it's stymied freedom. I wanted all of him, and I wanted him to want all of me. To give Zelos all of me, and vise versa. To be in his arms again, just like it was during those long months of bliss.

But it was too late; too late for change.

My legs gave way as soon as the sliding door closed, taking him.

And our love would remain in our sweetest memories, where it was supposed to be.