Like Birds in the Wind
Chapter 5: Nightingale at Dusk [Eriol Interlude]
An Eriol/Tomoyo Alterfic
Lime Warning
/Did you inform Miss Windsor?/ Tomoyo asked calmly. Rationally and utterly emotionlessly. Other women in her place would be crying, bawling perhaps, or maybe throwing a hideous fit of rage. Eriol closed the ancient oaken door gently, and turned to face her. He leaned against the polished wood in a deceptively casual and suave manner. He nodded briskly.
It was too dim in this room, he thought absently. It was all very old and beautiful, the rich colors of oriental carpets, leather-bound books, gilt, and polished wood giving a glow of their own. The massive rotunda-library was his favorite room. On the ceiling, painted on the rotunda, were all the constellations.
A fire crackled merrily in the fireplace that stretched half its marbled length across a far wall of the room, and it made this corner by far the coziest. He would often take a book and sit on this ridiculously long leather couch, its back almost as high as he was tall, and covered with thick throws and tapestry pillows.
/She knows./ It was suddenly very hard for her to face her after he uttered those two words, very hard to make himself look at her when he knew, truly and irrevocably, that it was his fault.
/What did she say to it?/ Tomoyo's voice was quiet now. It was still as beautiful as anything, as a single century-old violin, as a harp from the North of Italy, as an angel or siren or anything that make you want to laugh and cry to hear it. A nightingale at dusk, perhaps. Eriol looked at her carefully. She was dressed impeccably, and always at the height of fashion, definitely Versace and perhaps Coco Chanel perfume that drifted around her. Her hair was up in elegant, jeweled pins, those old-fashioned ones designed to hold in a Renaissance lady's voluminous amounts of hair. They were studded with pearls, set in silver, and done in swirls and scrolls.
All of it was designed to impress, sometimes intimidate others. But Eriol was not intimidated. He closed his eyes briefly, unable to face the look she would wear when those fatal words came from his mouth.
/She agreed./ He told her. Tomoyo flinched only slightly, but her breathing was increasing enormously. She bit her lip hard.
/Just as I thought. Your future is safeguarded, Hiirarizawa-kun./ she said mildly. He frowned. No. He was yearning, starving for her to say his name, to watch her poetic, lush lips form its sound. He was thirsting to hear it, as he thirsted every day to see her face, to touch her, to kiss her. This was like taking it all away.
/You may rest in peace, now. Marrying Anna to prevent Belisarius from doing it will not only stop him from being able to touch her powers, but it will also let you be able to revoke it./ Tomoyo continued. She still showed no sign of disturbance, save for that slightest tremor in her silvery voice. His yearning for her and for her to say his name, was like a physical addiction. She was as potent as belladonna, as any drug that had ever caused addiction.
/But,/ he said, /but I must stay married to her, and stay faithful to the day of her death, or all will be lost./
/Yes./ Tomoyo watched him. she breathed in sharply. /That is true./ Eriol opened his mouth, but she interjected sharply,
/But you cannot help it./ Her voice was severe. It made him flinch as if someone had struck him. No, he would not have flinched if someone had hit him. When she saw this, her voice softened, as did her expression. Her eyes like pools of deep amethyst became warmer, more luminous.
/Sometimes, Eriol, there are things in this world that are more important that we ourselves./ It was as if she were speaking to herself, as well as him. He wanted to savor the way she said his name, savor everything about her, for she would leave him tomorrow at noon.
/Sometimes, there are things that must be set before ourselves, and this is one of these things./ Tomoyo turned her head to look out the window at the serene moon, or to hide an anguished expression.
/You are good to me Eriol, to erase my memory of you./ Her breath caught, and she inhaled painfully.
/For if I remembered you for any more time until tomorrow noon, then I could not bear it./ And she gave a tiny sob, and she was shaking. His heart was hurting almost as if it were a physical pain, and in a swift movement, he held her so tightly he was afraid that he had broken her. She was so slight and fragile, it was like holding a delicate little bird, a glass figurine, or a child.
Tomoyo touched him, and his pulse leapt. At her very touch, his heart started to pound and strange elixirs mixed in his blood. She did not know how much she unnerved him. Only she could do it. Her pale skin like snow was flushed, from the fire or from his physical proximity he did not know, and her hair fell through his fingers like cool water. He touched her tall column of throat, and felt the pulse in it pound furiously. He put his mouth there, and she melted into his arms as if she had been fitted to him, melded to him. Her eyes were darker now with some unknown passion awakened.
His hands of their own volition traveled across her back, up to her neck to caress it, and into her hair to tear out her multitude of pins. They fell to the floor like fallen angels, and the inky hair framed Tomoyo's face to make her look like an erotic painting, a seductress.
He traced the pale line of her throat with his lips, then of her shoulder bared from where he had pushed aside the silky fabric. Her breathing was as ragged as his own, and a passion dormant was sparked alive and had exploded into existence. Their passion was created from long yearnings and heartbreaking despair, and would not be sated. His hands and mouth and embrace became hotter, more persistent, and more passionate. He did not know what he was doing, only that he had to do it. He was breathless from hot, passionate kisses that made Tomoyo pliant in his arms.
/Stay the night with me./ He said softly, voice gone husky and sensual. She nodded feverishly, and brought his head back down to hers. He ravaged her mouth thoroughly.
It was as if the scent of her hair and body were an aphrodisiac, and it intoxicated him as the finest wine might. His mouth and hands roamed over her, traveled over the pale, bare skin, making her demand more, and more than he could ever give. He touched her, and drew out every pleasure that he could give her until it bordered on pain. She writhed in his arms, her touch like fire and only serving to add more to his own fires. Tomoyo's eyes were so dark now with the hum of the passion that filled the air, and he still could not get enough of her as he sank into her, and as the world exploded. There was nothing but her and the pleasure that bordered on pain. And he could never have enough of her, because he loved her.
He woke to painful sunlight, bright and harsh and sterile. Tomoyo was still asleep, looking like a sleeping angel. It was eleven o'clock in the morning, almost noon. It was almost time for the spell to take effect, and it would do no good to be there when she had forgotten. About him. He dressed quickly. She was still asleep, thank the gods. Tomoyo was laying in a most provocative manner, elegant and sensual at the same time, amongst a tangle of sheets in a huge, cavernous bed. Pale, silky skin was exposed and iluminated to a translucent alabaster color. It was time to go.
Her lids were closed, and long, black lashes lay themselves curled up on her cheeks. He drew a finger over a high cheekbone. She was his for only a few minutes more. Dainty oval-shaped nails that were perfectly buffed and manicured, lay on the crisp white linens, and he closed his eyes as he remembered how those slender, beautiful hands had touched him. Eriol was torturing himself, but he wanted to do it.
Eriol could not bear to tear himself away, but somehow he did. He placed a last gentle, lingering kiss on her lips, and forced himself out of the room, out of her life forever. He looked back for one last time, before shutting the door and walking away.
Er, I think that that was a bit overdone. *Hides head under a folder* Don't shoot! Please! I REPENT!! I REPENT!!!!! Oh Please, forgive my angst! I should have known better than to do such a self-fulfilling deed, but oh, I REPENT!!
