Chapter Thirty: Why They Call It Falling
Late Monday morning at the headquarters of the Hero Public Safety Commission, Misaki walked merrily into the President's office to collect her empty morning teacup while smiling and humming to herself.
"I take it your date went well?" The President asked with a tilt of her manicured eyebrow at her secretary's unusually upbeat attitude.
She grimaced slightly in response before asking, "Is it that obvious?"
The President smirked and softly shook her head. "You've hardly been able to keep the smile off of your face all morning."
Misaki smiled back giddily, dropping her gaze as she softly told her, "It was an amazing weekend."
The gemstone in the young woman's necklace caught some of the sunlight streaming in through the wall of windows behind the President's desk, drawing her attention. Misaki hardly ever wore any jewelry at the office, so the sight of the small, golden pendant hanging from her neck was a bit of a shock. She cast her secretary a knowing glance as she commented, "I notice you have some new jewelry. A gift from the mysterious boyfriend?"
Misaki glanced down at the pendant fondly. "Turns out he had the same idea you did."
She leaned over a bit to show the President her necklace. The older woman smiled softly as she lowered her eyes to appraise the piece of jewelry. The swirling fire opal in the center gleamed and sparkled in the sunlight, casting a colored shadow around the edges of the two golden feathers wrapped around the top and bottom of the stone.
Her smile immediately dropped from her face like an anvil off the edge of a cliff.
"Well... It's quite a statement," the President trailed off tersely.
Misaki straightened, too distracted by her musings apparently to notice the President's sudden change in demeanor as she continued, "We agreed not to get each other birthday gifts unless it was something we could both share or benefit from. He passed it off as a memento to remind me of our feelings for each other.; said that it would give him peace of mind while living so far away. And I'm totally rambling, I'm so sorry!"
The more the young woman spoke, the more she confirmed her sinking suspicion.
The President offered her a tight smile, her sharp blue eyes glaring suspiciously at the small golden pendant as she said, "I wish you two the best."
"Thank you, Madam President. That means a lot," Misaki replied sincerely, gathering up the empty teacup and walking out of the office.
The President stared after her with a concerned expression. The message behind that gift had been as clear to her as the cloudless sky spread out behind her, as well as the obvious feelings of the man who had gifted it to her. She clicked her tongue and turned to stare out the wall of windows behind her desk. She thought he would have known better than that.
The state of affairs concerning Hawks's current assignment made it difficult for her to feel any appreciation for them. He had accepted the difficult assignment they'd asked of him with a bit of reluctance, but she never would have expected that he would have done so while harboring such a close, personal attachment to someone. He knew the stakes involved with that kind of work; to think he'd wittingly drag an innocent into the crosshairs with him didn't seem like something he would even consider, let alone actually do. Which told her all she needed to know about how serious the situation was.
He really had pulled the wool right over her eyes. And there wasn't a doubt in her mind that he'd done so intentionally. Nine months, Misaki had been working for her. She didn't know exactly when their relationship had taken such a serious turn, but it was highly unlikely that it had been anytime soon. They were both far too busy to have developed such a deep bond so quickly. Putting Hawks's proclivities aside, she knew that Misaki tended to keep her emotions pretty close to the vest.
The President sat back in her chair, her blue eyes widening slowly in shock. 'Had they already been dating when he'd brought her by with him last December?'
Neither one of them had given her any indication that they were that close. They'd acted more like childhood friends than lovers, with the way they'd bickered when Hawks had been informed about Misaki's sudden change in occupation. It was no wonder, really, that he'd become so enamored with her. Smart, beautiful, and witty. The single men around the office had been falling over themselves for months to get a chance at a date with her. Hawks's situation was much the same. He'd been dodging advances from his adoring fans practically since he'd made his debut four years ago. They were like two peas in a pod; or perhaps, two birds of a feather would be more appropriate.
The President sighed heavily as she turned back around to face her computer. Putting aside the issue of Hawks's current assignment, Misaki's situation was steadily becoming more complex with every new task she'd been given. The development of her tracking software and her usage of it to monitor and evaluate potential threats, most recently in concerns to the League of Villains, had all but skyrocketed her value within the organization. She'd taken a potentially detrimental mistake and turned it into a golden egg; and the President wasn't the only one who had noticed that.
If what was soon to be coming down the pipeline actually arrived as she expected it would, the President would be forced to make a very harsh decision very soon.
Later that morning, the President stood in front of the television screen on the wall in her office with a dour look on her face. Clicking the power button on the remote in her hand, she switched off the news report she'd been watching. The League of Villains had ambushed the transport detail escorting Overhaul to a holding facility before he was scheduled to be transferred to Tartarus later that day. They hadn't attempted to rescue the captured yakuza boss; they'd mutilated him instead, cutting off both of his arms and rendering him effectively quirkless for the rest of his life.
"She was right," the President roughly sighed, walking around the desk and tossing the remote on top of it.
"Who?" Shadou, who had been standing next to her, turned to her and asked as she sat down in her chair.
She placed her elbows atop the desk and leaned forward, resting her chin on her clasped hands. She remained silent for a moment, staring fixedly at the wall across the room before sitting back with a grim expression on her face and answering his question somberly, "Misaki. She predicted that Shigaraki would strike against Chisaki when he was vulnerable."
He sat down in the chair opposite her and pinned her with a calculating stare. "I wondered why you'd assigned Snatch to ride along with the convoy. After the raid, the police believed that the League's involvement with the Shie Hassaikai was limited to the addition of Toga and Twice to their group, both of whom disappeared during the takedown."
The President turned in her chair to stare out the windows behind her. "Misaki took the analysis of Shigaraki Tomura's personality profile and applied it to the crime scene at the warehouse. She inferred from the League Task Force's report that the breakdown in negotiations would have angered Shigaraki, who's made a bit of a name for himself as an overgrown man-child. Any continued involvement of any League members with the Shie Hassaikai would therefore be, from the League's perspective, a means for them to strike out at Chisaki for revenge."
She turned back around in her chair to fix her counterpart with a pointed stare. "What better time to do so than when he's in police custody, restrained and unable to use his quirk. Taking all of that into consideration, I decided to assign Snatch to the transport detail. I thought he would be a good match against their quirks."
She fell silent for a moment, looking down repentantly. "Had I given Misaki's analysis more weight, I might have assigned more heroes for backup."
"Too late for regrets now," he replied commiseratively. "You finally gonna bring her in?"
The President sighed, her brow drawing down in a deep frown. "There's something I need to settle first."
There was no getting around it now. Before any more lives were lost to her ambivalence, it was time to take swift and decisive action.
She looked up, nodding to the man who returned the action before rising from his seat and disappearing into a shadow in the corner of the room. As soon as she was certain he'd gone, the President reached down to the intercom on her desk phone and pressed the button to call her secretary. "Misaki, step into my office, please."
The young woman opened the door and walked in a moment later, carrying a pad of paper and her pen. She strode quickly up to the desk and quipped, "Yes, ma'am?"
"Please arrange for a condolence package to be sent to Snatch's family," the President ordered gravely. "I'll also be making a trip down to Kyushu tomorrow afternoon. "
"I'll notify the flight crew to prepare for your trip," she mentioned, jotting down a few quick notes before turning around to walk back to her desk.
"Misaki," the President's voice halted her as she reached the door.
She stopped walking and turned back around, asking, "Yes, Madam President?"
The older woman turned in her chair to stare out the windows to her right. "I want you to start working with the League Task Force to compile any relevant data on potential activities and contacts and filter it through your tracking software."
The secretary's reflection in the window blinked a few times, her expression revealing her shock at being handed the sudden assignment. "What should I be looking for, exactly?"
"Anything and everything," the President stood, clasping her hands behind her as she walked over to glare out the window. "I want to drag a net across this group. We can't afford to let even the smallest crumb slip through. I'm tired of being side swiped by these villains."
Clearly recognizing the magnitude of the task she had just been given, Misaki squared her shoulders and replied resolutely. "Yes, ma'am."
She turned on her heel and left the office, sliding the door shut behind her. The President slid her eyes closed and sighed, reaching up a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. She was not looking forward to the conversation she would be engaging in shortly. It wasn't the situation itself that was causing her grief, but the aftermath that was likely to follow. One of two things was bound to occur. Either she would be handing her secretary an important opportunity in the near future, or she would be back to the graduate pool very soon.
Hawks carried a teacup over to the seating area of his agency, carefully setting it down on the table in front of the President before flopping down on the couch opposite her. "This is pretty unexpected."
The President reached out to pick up the cup and saucer. "I was in the area; thought I'd stop by to see how things were going."
He shrugged, lifting his arm to lay against the back of the couch and leaning his head against his hand. "I'm staying busy."
She took a careful sip of the steaming tea before commenting, "Your office has been reporting an uptick in incident resolutions since Kamino. It appears the effects of All Might's retirement are quite widespread."
Noticing how she had yet to meet his eyes, and that she wasn't really saying anything of importance, he elected to cut the chitchat and dryly asked, "You didn't really come all the way down to Kyushu for small talk, did you?"
The President's cool blue eyes slid upward to meet his narrowed golden gaze. She set the teacup back down on the table with a small sigh, folding her hands into her lap and fixing him with a keen stare as she replied, "I wanted to speak to you about Misaki. Once you're able to successfully infiltrate the League, there's going to be an even bigger target on your back than there is now. I'd like you to think long and hard about how close you want her to be to that strike zone."
He was very careful not to let any of his surprise at her knowledge of their relationship show on his face, keeping his reaction as minimal as possible as he asked, "What makes you think we're involved?"
The President met his dry gaze with one of her own. "I saw the necklace you gave her. Pretty. The feathers were a bit much."
He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, turning his head to the side before trailing off, "I wondered about that..."
"It's a very personal statement, especially to those who may be looking for one," the President's tone took on a sudden edge. "Don't give them a reason to look."
Hawks slid his narrowed gaze back over to her, tilting his head a bit as he inquired, "You gettin' sentimental on me now?"
"Misaki has proven herself to be an invaluable asset. I'd rather she not be involved with anything that may jeopardize her continued service to my office," she replied formally, though he didn't miss the veiled threat in her tone.
He frowned, his tone low and dark as he asked, "That a suggestion? 'Cause it kinda sounds like an order."
She narrowed her eyes as she stared back at him shrewdly. "Take it however you wish. But I trust that you will do what is best. For everyone."
The President gathered up her coat and stood, glaring down at him coolly for a moment before saying, "I'll see myself out."
His cold golden eyes stared after her as she walked away. Clicking his tongue, he turned his face into his palm and slid his recalcitrant stare to the side. From the moment Misaki had made the decision to join the Hero Public Safety Commission, he'd been careful to keep the true nature of their relationship an openly guarded secret. It would have been suspicious if he'd played things too close to the vest, seeing as he'd been the one to bring her to headquarters the day the President had hired her. He'd elected to maintain a lightly flirtatious atmosphere around her in the office; not enough to seem like he was interested in pursuing a meaningful relationship with her, but enough that it wouldn't seem out of place for them to be familiar with each other.
They'd been able to successfully avoid any scrutiny that way for the last nine months. There had been a couple of close calls here and there. He hadn't exactly told Misaki what his intentions were, mostly because he hadn't seen a need to. He knew she wasn't the type to divulge that kind of personal information about herself to anyone without good reason. She'd been suspicious when he'd asked her if she'd told the President about their relationship just before Kamino, but she hadn't pressed him about his concern on the matter. She was just like that, intuitive and respectful of his feelings.
It had almost blindsided him how invested the President appeared to be in her career at this point. He knew Misaki was brilliant; it was one of the reasons he'd always been so persistent in trying to recruit her to work for his office. Something must have happened since the Hero Killer incident to put her back on the President's radar in a big way, if she'd come all the way down to Kyushu just to threaten him to keep her out of his current assignment.
"You headed out?" The voice of one of his sidekicks asked as he noticed him stalking toward the balcony door.
Hawks stopped walking and took a short moment to collect himself. He hadn't even realized he'd risen from the couch he'd been sitting on until his sidekick had called out to him.
He carefully schooled his expression into its usual carefree countenance before turning to address the others. "I'm gonna go on patrol. You guys can head home. I'll close up."
"Sure!"
The sidekicks began to pack up their things, one of them calling after him as he took off, "See ya in the morning!"
Hawks flew out across the early evening sky, headed for the top of the Fukuoka Tower. He always seemed to find himself there when he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. As he stared out across the familiar skyline, his mind began to run through all of his memories of Misaki. Meeting her at the bank, comforting her after the second robbery attempt, eating pancakes with her on Sunday morning. All of the arguments they'd had, and then making up after. All of the holidays they'd spent together: Christmas, Valentine's Day… Their birthdays.
So much of his memory of the past year was filled with nothing but her, and the realization that he'd have to let go of it all hit him like a sucker punch to the gut.
He sighed deeply before pulling out his phone and calling Misaki.
She answered on the second ring, her light and open tone ringing out through the speaker. "Hey. I don't usually hear from you this early. Get bored on patrol?"
He didn't reply, a warm expression spreading across his face at the sound of her voice.
"Keigo?" Her hesitant voice asked after a moment.
He blinked, clearing his throat before replying in a voice that sounded husky, even to his own ears, "Yeah, just hanging around, thinking about you."
"Everything okay? You sound weird," her tone was concerned.
He made a conscious effort to lighten his tone, not certain that he'd really succeeded as he replied, "No, I'm good."
"Are you sure?" Her still concerned voice asked carefully.
Forgoing his failing effort at keeping the emotion out of his voice, he decided to try distracting her instead. "You still at work?"
"Yeah, the President took an impromptu business trip and left me with a mountain of homework."
She sounded a bit more chipper about her assignment than he would have expected by the way she'd worded it.
"Why do you sound so excited about having homework?" He asked a bit jokingly.
The sound of her giggling in his ear sent a rush of emotion cascading through him that stole the breath from his lungs for a moment. "Well, after my huge screw up with the Stain assignment, I've been pretty much relegated to strictly secretary status for the last three months. But she gave me an opportunity to look into another case recently and I think I finally managed to work my way back into her good graces."
He clenched his teeth and forced himself to breathe, managing to somehow force out a tight, "Congratulations."
Under any other circumstances he would have been happy to share in her excitement about the opportunity she'd been given, but at the moment it only felt like she was twisting a knife into his gut. She had no idea that the President's business trip had just been a pretense for her to come down to Kyushu and order him to break up with her. Her innocence was one of the things he'd always admired about her. That and the depth of her care for others. He had always done his utmost to protect that trait for her, to support and defend her ingenuousness, to keep her pure and untainted by the darkness surrounding her.
Like a beautiful songbird sitting in a window, crying out a clear and hopeful melody from the safety of its enclosure. He'd set her free from one cage only to lock her inside another.
"Are you sure you're okay?" The concern in her voice was back.
He shook his head to clear his negative thoughts, clearing his throat before asking, "So you're gonna be pretty busy soon, huh?"
"I kinda hope so, you know?" Her hopeful voice replied.
"Yeah, me too..." He trailed off, considering his own pending assignment.
He'd finally managed to set up a meet with a recruiter for the League after tracking down a decent middleman to introduce him. Since they had been in hiding after Kamino, it had taken him a lot longer than he'd expected to get an initial meeting set up.
"You sound really off. What's wrong?" Misaki's voice over the speaker broke him out of his musings.
"Just missing you," he replied truthfully, hoping the feelings behind that statement would overshadow his negativity about what he knew he'd have to do next.
"I miss you, too," her soft voice crooned through the speaker.
He closed his eyes tightly and focused all of his effort on steeling his resolve. "There's actually something I need to talk to you about. Think you can pry yourself away from your homework this Sunday?"
"Should I buy a Shinkansen ticket and come down Saturday night?" She asked, her tone light and hopeful.
"No," he replied almost harshly, reaching into his coat pocket to pull out the key she'd given him for Christmas and staring down at it grimly. "I have some business to take care of in the area. I'll come to you."
"Okay," she said a bit hesitantly, apparently still suspicious of his attitude.
"I'll see you soon," he said softly, hanging up the call before his rioting emotions got the better of him and caused him to chicken out.
Sliding the phone and the key back into his pockets, he crouched down to perch on the balls of his feet on the edge of the tower and dropped his face into the L of his hands. He'd been warned during his training with the Safety Commission that close personal attachments were dangerous; and he finally understood why. Just hearing her voice on the other end of the phone had him wavering like a flag in the wind. Logically, he knew that it would be safer for both of them if they didn't have any close, personal connection to each other that the League could exploit if things ended up going south. But in his heart, breaking up with her because of the gravity of his assignment felt like such a cop out. What was the point of pursuing a relationship with her at all if he was just going to leave as soon as things got dicey with his job?
He wouldn't come to her with that kind of shallow reasoning. He had too much respect for the feelings they shared to do that. If he was going to end their relationship, it was going to be for the right reasons, not because of the job. The only thing that awaited them down that road was resentment, and he couldn't let their story end like that.
He'd known from the moment he'd accepted such a dangerous assignment that he would eventually have to address his involvement with Misaki. He had tried telling himself that it was for the best, that it was better to let it go now than to drag it out. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to hurt her as much as it was hurting him. So he just kept putting it off, rationalizing with himself that it could wait until he'd found an in with the League. Unfortunately, that had happened right before her birthday, and there was no way he was going to do it then. That day, at least, he wanted to make sure would be a happy memory.
The necklace he'd given her had been his way of leaving behind a ray of hope in the darkness that was closing in around them. Even though their current relationship was coming to an end, he couldn't close the door on the possibility that they could rebuild somewhere down the line. Turning his back on the first real, heartwarming love he'd ever experienced felt like it would be the biggest mistake of his life. However, if there was one thing Hawks had an overabundance of experience with, it was burying his emotions. He would lock them down somewhere deep inside himself until it was safe for him to let them out again. But not yet. He had too much respect for her not to come to her with an open heart. He would share in her grief for that moment; he owed her that much at least.
Regardless of what his intentions might have been in the beginning, he couldn't deny that he'd been sheltering her from the truth about himself and the extent of his involvement with the Hero Public Safety Commission. He hadn't told her anything about his parents or how he'd been raised, other than what he'd confided in her about on his birthday nine months ago. She had asked him to trust her, and he'd kept himself hidden behind his fear instead. He wasn't afraid that she would turn her back on him if she found out the truth, he just didn't want her to pity him. Anytime he'd mentioned something that hinted at the darkness he'd endured as a child, she wound up walking on eggshells around him for weeks afterward.
He didn't take it personally. He knew she was just overly compassionate when it came to the hardships of others, and he didn't want to make her feel bad about his. It was a long time ago, and he liked to think that he'd moved past all of that. However, that didn't change the fact that he had intentionally kept that part of himself away from her. And maybe in some ways she had let him. Misaki had never pressed him for information about his past. She patiently waited for him to be comfortable with coming to talk to her about it on his own. She trusted him to confide in her without coercion, and he had taken her trust in him completely for granted.
She deserved so much more from him than he was able to give her right now. He had failed her as a partner by only allowing her to love his mask, and at the fault of his own deception, by accepting that shallow form of love from her. Now that he'd taken such a dangerous covert assignment, he had lost any chance he may have had to try and rectify that misconception. They were in too deep. There was no other option but to let it go, break it all down, so that once his sordid business with the League was finished, they might have a chance for a fresh start at a new and stronger relationship, one built upon a foundation of honesty and trust.
He took a couple of deep, shaky breaths before letting his arms drop forward. His golden eyes stared out across the skyline, his expression despondent and resigned, before he stood and pitched himself off the ledge, letting his wings break his fall about fifty meters above the ground and carry him back to his agency.
Misaki laid atop her bed on Sunday evening, propped up with a few pillows against the headboard while reading a book. She looked up suddenly when she heard the sound of the living room balcony door slide open. Closing the book, she set it on the nightstand and swung her legs over the side of the bed before standing up and walking toward the door. She opened it and stepped out into the darkened living area, reaching out to turn on one of the table lamps.
"Keigo?" She asked, as the light illuminated his form standing by the bar and facing toward the kitchen with his hand resting on the counter.
"Hey," he replied tersely without looking up.
She stood frozen by the lamp with her arms crossed over her chest, suddenly sensing even more distance between them than she'd heard from him over the phone. She'd gotten the feeling that something was off with him when he'd called her earlier in the week, and his current countenance was doing nothing to assuage that feeling.
She cleared her throat softly before saying, "I was starting to think you weren't going to show up. I tried to call you."
He ducked his head a bit, keeping his left hand atop the counter while he shoved the other into his coat pocket and replied in a low tone, "Sorry. I got hung up."
Given his uncharacteristically tense body language, Misaki's tone was apprehensive when she asked, "What did you want to talk about?"
He was silent for a moment before he removed his hand from the counter to reveal the key she had given him, and he stepped back.
Her eyes travelled over to it and slowly widened, her apprehension blossoming into full blown dread when she recognized the small metal object sitting atop her bar counter.
She whispered shakily, "What is this...?"
"I can't come here anymore," his gravely calm, low voice replied as he finally turned toward her.
Misaki tucked one of her arms under her breasts, tightly pressing it into her rib cage as her heart jumped into her throat, and she reached up to grasp her necklace. There were the beginnings of tears settling in the bottoms of her wide eyes as they shot over to him and she gasped in a frightened whisper, "What are you doing?"
His sharp golden eyes stared back at her resolutely as he said in a low, even tone, "I'm breaking up with you, Misaki."
Her heart clenched painfully, and she gasped, dropping her hand from her necklace to clutch her chest as she whispered in shock, "Tell me this is a joke."
"It's not," he stated definitively as he dipped his chin and looked down.
She shook her head slowly, still reeling from the shock as she uttered brokenly, "Why are you doing this? I don't understand."
"I know," he said, clenching his hands in his pockets from the look of his suddenly tense shoulders. "I didn't really expect you to. I know it's sudden."
She drew in a sharp breath, the first trickle of the tears that had been swimming around the edges of her vision beginning to fall as the dam broke loose on her emotions and she cried out, "Sudden? Are you kidding me? After the weekend we just shared, now all of a sudden you want to break up? I can't—! How is this even possible? You better have a damn good reason, Keigo! Start talking!"
He sighed heavily, reaching up to run a gloved hand down his face before lifting his eyes back up to hers. He shoved his hand back into his pocket before replying with a heavy tone, "It's not real, Misaki."
She pulled back as if she'd been slapped. "What?"
"All this time, I've been lying to you about who I am, always keeping you at arm's length, never letting you close enough to see behind the mask. I can't keep trying to build a relationship with you based on that lie," he replied with a heavy tone filled with sorrow and remorse.
"So, what? You just decide to throw away the last nine months instead of talking to me about it? How is that fair?" She exclaimed, throwing her arm out to the side, and glaring at him incredulously with hot tears streaming down her face.
He stared back at her forlornly, his face a stony mask of resignation. "It's not fair. For either of us. I wish I could tell you the truth; about me, about everything… But I can't."
She sniffed, staring back at him despondently as she whined, "Why not?"
He shut his eyes, dropping his head and sighing before lifting it again to stare back at her as he sullenly told her, "You asked me to trust you, to be vulnerable with you, and I want to—more than anything. But I'm just not able to do that right now. I'm sorry." He glanced down at the pendant hanging around her neck as he continued, "I hope that someday, when I'm ready and able to give you my whole self, that you can fall in love with all of me, completely and unconditionally, the same way I have with you."
He was basically telling her "it's not you, it's me". What was she supposed to say to that? She gasped in a breath and hiccupped, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth as she began to sob. This wasn't happening. It was a dream. A really, really, really bad dream. She couldn't breathe. Her blood rushed through her veins so loudly she couldn't even hear herself think. She didn't want to think. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare. Right now.
An overwhelming feeling of hopelessness welled up within her and she brokenly whined, "How am I just supposed to let us go?"
He lifted his gloved hand from her neck to reach up and cup her face. She felt a glimmer of hope spark inside her a moment before it was cruelly stamped out when he stopped himself. He dropped his hand to his side and hung his head as he stepped back and choked out, "I'm sorry."
"You're breaking my heart!" She cried out in anguish before drawing in a shuddering breath.
"Mine too," he turned his head away and whispered so softly she almost didn't hear it from across the room.
Her sobs stuttered to a stop and she sniffed, swallowing heavily, and blinking away the tears blurring her vision. She still didn't want to believe it. She couldn't even begin to process the impossible suddenness of the situation. But as she stared across the room at his desolate form, she came to the heartbreaking realization that it was hurting him to break up with her almost as much as it was hurting her.
She swiped at the bottom of her eyes with the heel of her hand and sniffed again. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she asked in a low, husky tone, "Can I make a selfish request?"
When his eyes met hers, she gasped out, "Kiss me... One last time."
A look of sharp, real pain flashed across his face and he sucked in a breath before gasping out, "Misaki—!"
She dropped both arms to her sides, clenching her hands into fists and glaring at him sorrowfully as she said, "You owe me that much. Please..."
He marched forward at the sound of her broken plea, pulling her into his arms and kissing her deeply.
She reached up to cup his face in her hands just as he pulled back, his eyes still closed, and whispered against her lips, "Goodbye, Misaki."
He disappeared in a flutter of feathers, leaving her standing all alone in her living room. Her knees suddenly gave out and she collapsed to the floor in shock, her wide eyes staring ahead of her blankly for a moment before a fresh round of tears began pooling around their bottom edges. Her hand rose to cover her mouth as she started to sob heavily, and she hunched over, crying out her anguish to the empty walls around her.
- Author Note Section -
TT
I'm so sorry! Please don't hate me!
I know this is a terrible way to cut it off but unfortunately it had to be done (character development and all that). But, you know what they say: it's always darkest before the dawn, right?
Chapter one of Winds of Destiny: Rising is now up! I have also posted a new story, which is a collection of special chapters and extras, titled Winds of Destiny: Converging, which includes the Valentine's Day extra, Red Thread, and a brand new extra, Cherry Blossom.
- Here's a sneak peak at Chapter One of Winds of Destiny: Rising -
Misaki's eyes snapped open and she let out a startled gasp, her chest rising and falling in quick succession as she stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom in shock. She laid there for a long moment to catch her breath and calm her racing nerves. It had already been almost a week since the breakup. She lifted her arm to cover her eyes, blaming the intensity of her dream for the sudden onslaught of emotion that clenched her chest and brought a fresh round of tears to her eyes. She'd told herself so many times already that she was going to stop this. It wasn't like her to cry so much over things that she couldn't control or change.
Sniffing a few times, she swallowed down the pain in her chest and sat up, wiping her eyes with the heels of her hands, and shaking her head. She slid her legs over the edge of the mattress and made her way into the bathroom. She was usually an evening bather, but she'd soon found out that having so much quiet time to think was only feeding her grief; so, she'd switched to taking showers in the mornings. It wasn't like she really slept much anymore, with dreams like the one she'd just had often making several appearances throughout the night.
Stripping out of her night clothes, Misaki stepped into the bathroom and turned the handle on the wall to start the shower. She leaned her forehead against the tile and let the hot water wash away her pain and stress, sliding her eyes shut and breathing heavily through her mouth. Spending too much time in here was dangerous as well, especially since she had to go to work soon. Pushing away from the wall, she reached out for the soap and proceeded to finish her morning shower.
Thank you so much for coming along on this journey with me so far, and I sincerely hope you'll join me in the next one!
XOXO
LOLSAT