Melody of the wild

It was already late, 3:00 A.M. He was surely asleep, but when I went into his room he was there all alone, and awake, sitting on his bed looking through the window to the darkness beyond. His face was so full of sorrow…

"Where is Mario?" I asked.

"Right here." Matthew replied as he pointed his chest. His face seemed to be terribly hurt. "I'm so confused right now…"

"I'm listening."

"You can't imagine what these years have been for me." Yeah, I could not possibly figure that out "When Mario 'died', I felt that something inside me died too, and when I saw him alive, when I remembered him all the sudden… I felt so relieved, so happy… but when I saw him fighting Wolf I became suddenly too scared, like I was losing my father again. Wolf… has been the closest thing I ever had to a father since he died, thus I don't want to lose him. I can't bear that again, yet Mario is like…"

The words were abandoning him as the tears came by his face. I came to get used to people's tears by this far, it was so usual, after all these years we all cried and shed tears so much, like if world was reaching its end. And yet it moved me, no matter how much tears I saw, his tears made me feel alive. I sat next to him and I hugged him. His face rested on my chest as my chin rested on his forehead. I sniffed his hair a little bit, remembering the smooth scent that came from that cupper like hair.

"I don't know what to do…" Matthew's voice was broken "Wolf always knew what to do, he guided me through everything, he always knew what to do…"

"You have to move forward." I said "You can't depend so much on anyone. When you were a kid and you joined the judo dojo you were helpless… your father was the reason why; whenever he came around you didn't care about anything else. I can understand that, but you must be able to walk for yourself."

"I don't want to…"

"I know."

I really did; whenever I was around Richard everything felt good, I felt loved and cared, in a way mom could not show me. My dad was everything for me too, until… the memories made me shed tears too and I laughed.

"What's so funny?" Matthew asked.

"I just remembered my own father." I said as I rubbed Matthew's face "D id I ever tell you… that he abused me?"

He was the first person I ever told that. Matthew raised his head and stared at me confused as he saw my tears coming down.

"He was everything to me." I said "He made me feel safe… cared… and then one day he kidnapped me; mom told him he could not see me any longer and thus he took me away and…"

My voice broke on crying as my face leaned on Matthew's shoulder. His hands rubbed my back as I cried out loud with a growing pain on my chest.

"There, there." Matthew said softly "I won't go anywhere."

I looked at him; those words were the only thing I really needed.

"I was thinking…" he said "if that day off, the one we had so much time ago, I just said that I loved you, everything would be different…" he sighed "things can be different now…"

I kissed him and he kissed me back. We went all out; he was starting dressing me out, opening the buttons from my blouse as I ripped of his shirt and got him off his pants as he got off mines. We were completely naked before each other. I kissed his neck as I could feel how he started feeling excited. As time passed by, so our touching did and there was only one tiny interruption before we made love, protection.

It felt so right; below the blanks I could feel how he was spreading it all out, four years of waiting, four years separated, when all we ever wanted was being this close, feeling like we were one.

As soon as we finished I felt how Matthew fell asleep, mumbling a little bit. I was tired, but I managed to get away without awaking him. Then I dressed up as I headed towards the door and silently I started closing it.

"Don't worry honey." I whispered "I'll stop this for you."

And then I walked away. Melanie and Ash waited for me upstairs.

"Amazing." Ash said silently "You just used sex as a weapon!"

He was slapped by Melanie, before I could reply.

"That's my brother you sick bastard!" she sighed as she looked back at me "Are you sure about this?"

"Totally."

"You look a bit tired." Ash commented.

"It doesn't matter." I replied "The sooner I get over with this, the better. Where is he?"

"Near." Melanie replied "You'll meet him at the school backyards."

"Cool." I said "It's good to see that you can still foresee some things."

"You sure you want to go alone?"

"I must." I said as I stretched "You must look out for Matthew."

"Wolf is not an easy opponent, not even without Matthew."

"I know." I said "But I'll figure it out, like always."

And so I opened the door and walked through the night's darkness; every step made me feel loner and loner, it wasn't very usual for me to leave without allies, especially Melanie. I took a deep breath as my feet passed through the concrete towards the school. As I got nearer I felt nostalgic; I closed my eyes and kept walking as I thought I could hear the song bittersweet symphony by the verve. I laughed out loud, what a better music theme for me, walking towards the battle, nothing ever stopping me, and I would never stop walking until it was all over. I smiled as I arrived to the school. It had been four years since we all graduated; those were innocent times.

I climbed up the grid and got in without any trouble. Then, with just a couple of steps, I was on the backyards. I took a seat on a bench as I waited for Wolf to appear. My eyes were tired, they started closing, but I managed to keep them open. I could understand why Wolf would attack us so late on the night, yet it made me so mad, I just wanted to sleep. I blinked and then I stood up.

"Flashy as always." I sighed

Wolf was in front of me, it took him a split second to get here apparently. His only eye glared at me with hatred, as my eyes stared them with pity.

"What's with that look?" He asked.

"Wolf this fight is stupid." I said quickly "I don't understand why we are fighting anymore."

He frowned, but he didn't move at all, probably he thought I was trying to confuse him. I kept talking.

"We first met on the subspace four years ago, and we fought you because you appeared out of nowhere and you seemed like an enemy, but even afterwards… there was never a reason to really fight you, we were the ones who struck you first, we were just afraid you would harm us, but even now you always avoided it, so why are we fighting?"

"What's the meaning of this?" he asked pissed "Couldn't you think of this before you got Matthew back? Couldn't you for an instance think on someone else's pain?"

"Wolf, you killed people in front of my eyes," I replied "I couldn't accept it, even if they were strangers and you also killed off Peach; you can't imagine how much damage you caused to Mario and Bowser. I couldn't join you, I just… remembered my own pain and I couldn't take it, I hated you because of the suffering you inflicted on so many families, and on our own allies! But now..."

"Now what!"

"Why don't you come with us?" I asked "You can take care of Matthew by being at his side! We are no longer Pit's puppet; we can take him and Palutena down together!"

Wolf laughed, at first it was just a giggle, but then he started laughing his laugh off. I waited until he replied, and my eyes kept set on him, exploring how his body shook as he laughed, how the first thing his hands touched was his chest.

"Oh… if it only was that easy Maquiel."

"Everything is simple; we are the ones who make it complicated."

"I can't argue with that." He said "But, please tell me, do you really think I would drop everything I worked for only to please you?"

"It's not about me and you know it."

"But it is about you." He replied "Matthew might be important, but you are more important."

Now I was the one frowning.

"I'm sorry." He said "I've really tried to avoid this, but there is no other way around."

I shape shifted and avoided the first strike. The claws slashed as a pair of short swords against me and I was barely able to jump backwards. As he was about to slash again I grabbed his right hand and hit his face with my left hand, but he didn't lose time and he kicked me at the same time on the hips. He stepped backwards and I fell on my knees; then he kicked my face and I shot him a small charged shot that he reflected. Just as expected, he was mighty strong even without Matthew, but he was certainly a lot weaker, now I could keep with most of his attacks with not so much trouble.

I stood up and I caught a split second chance to dodge his claws and to start punching his face. My fists came so fast that he couldn't stop them until he turned his reflector on and sent me backwards. Then he caught me on his telekinesis and pounded me on the ground with might, yet I could break it in a matter of seconds with effort and then I shot him several missiles. The first ones were rejected, but three made there way around Wolf's body and then I ran towards him to release a flamethrower off the cannon which burnt Wolf's right arm. He jumped backwards and his eye burnt on rage and rampage as he prepared his final smash. The Land Master fell from the sky as I prepared. I wouldn't bother trying to survive on equal terms; I just went towards the final form. This time it wasn't hard at all, I just focused my aura and then the suit changed. Wolf shot several great blasts at me, but with the power of the gravity suit it was no trouble at all to avoid them all. Then he drove the Land Master to crash against me, yet I could stop it with both hands. He made a barrel roll and he trapped me within it and then he shot several lasers against me. That hurt, even with the mighty guard of the dark suit, I could feel like the blasts would tear me apart. Despite that I got up and kept dodging the rest of the blasts. If his final smash was already this strong, I feared his final form, so I decided to end this quickly. I jumped high, and under the moonlight I released five Zero Lasers that hit the Land Master. In a matter of seconds Wolf was leaving the airship and I took that chance to head towards him. I adjusted the gravity so I would get him as fast as I could and I grabbed his neck as I pounded him on the ground. I pointed the cannon towards his head as I charged a powerful Zero Laser, an ending blow. I would finally finish him off, but as I looked through his eye, something passed through my heart.

"Do it." He said sighing "Let's end this."

I released a charged shot instead. The shot was powerful enough to leave him unconscious, but not to kill him. I stepped backwards and I shape shifted back as I covered my mouth with my hands and stared at Wolf who lay on the floor asleep.

When our eyes meet before, I swore I got a glimpse on Matthew's scent.