Thanks again to the lovely reviewing people, and everyone who complemented my writing style, I just hope it gets better with age and practise as I am a relatively new and young author, but thanks for the encouragement anyway. Now lady ice phoenix what's this I hear about giving my muses chocolate???? I don't have any muses but you can give the chocolate to me ^.^
Reflections in Water
Yusuke leaned against the white marble pillars of the archway that surrounded the dining room. He wasn't angry at Hikari for her response; in fact he found her forwardness attractive. His brow was creased in confusion; he didn't know what he felt.
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Hikari's senses were no longer functional. She was alive, but was no longer able to interact with her environment. Her mind was still conscious, but it was as if her essence was trapped inside her, and in each mind numbing, void of a moment she could feel it slipping away; like sand from an hour glass. She was in a realm in between death and life; it was like a dream where you are nothing and your surroundings are nothing, nothing in the true sense of the word, not that everything was empty and everything was black –that's something; this was nothing. Yet through nothing she felt herself; her true self not her body, herself, but she knew she was there but that didn't mean she became something. Slowly even that 'knowledge' faded when she no longer felt herself, she would no longer feel the 'nothing' she was, she would be dead. She would pass on to something. Dead.
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He wasn't disappointed with her, or maybe he was partly disappointed with the response. Whatever it was it was a negative feeling, not very strong, not even enough to even have a vague feeling of dislike towards her; he just felt he needed to sort out whatever it was he felt before he next saw her.
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Nothing. Disappearing. Dying.
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She was being forward, she told him the truth. That was it; he wasn't disappointed at the response, at her, but at the truth. The way she said it was laced in emotion she had always been so careful to hide. She felt neglected? Alone? Hurt? She was so careful to hide it before and he had always sensed something; like when he found her crying, she had been slapped, she was hurt. Her outstanding smiles and glowing radiance nearly made him forget that she was aching inside, about something. On reflection he was annoyed with her, he loved her –well he thought he did, it was rather soon, well he definitely deeply cared for her and she didn't see his affection? No maybe it wasn't anger it was frustration, he hadn't succeeded in making her feel loved. Frustration that his love wasn't enough.
He stood cursing himself for her current depressed state. He was suffering with the misinterpretation of her emotions; as she had been suffering for misinterpreting his. He felt his love was inadequate. She had felt he no longer loved her; she felt no more.
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Escaping. Only a drop of her fleeting soul. Can we call her dead yet? No, not yet still dying –but barely.
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But there was something else; the truth was her truth, and therefore her pain, however some of it was the evident truth. He knew what his father thought of Hikari, although he tried not to judge her by it; He saw of her and thought of Dilandau. He knew his father couldn't avoid it; it was part of his 'soldiers instinct' but is caused him hurt as it drove Hikari away.
He understood now; he needed to show Hikari that he cared, that he would be there for her. His negative emotions had derived from her grief, if that subsided than the empty pit in his stomach would disappear.
His emotions sorted, his head felt clearer, he became sure of himself once more. Yusuke ran towards the palace gardens, towards the lake, where he often saw her standing idly to pass time.
He stood by the lake, his head darting around, looking for any sign of Hikari. His movements became relaxed as he walked over to the mud edging of the lake, in one of the four clearings in the low metal decorative skirting. Yusuke stared directly in to the calm blue depths, the light shining off the surface like glitter. He stepped back taking a deep breath, his gaze falling on the mud edging. He crouched down as he saw a hand print, and finger marks that clawed over the edge of the surface. He thought it was unusual and his brows knotted in confusion, and stood back up again. He stared at the lake one more time, as if to capture the scenery in his gaze.
As he turned around, his legs collapsed beneath him, and he was forced to balance himself in a crawling position, his head once more hanging over the mud edging. His pupils dilated as he felt his mental self was elevated to a different dimension.
He was standing behind Hikari in the garden by the lake, where he was standing moments ago. He called her name; she didn't even stir. He walked closer to her and placed her hand on her shoulder to turn her over only to find his hand went straight through her. He waved his hand over his face, pinching it to see if it was real; it was, why couldn't he touch her then? He saw her talking to her self, although he couldn't hear her, he saw her face was etched in sorrow, tears streaming endlessly down her cheeks.
'Hikari?'
'Hikari, what's wrong? Turn around please! Hikari?'
She turned around. His face lit up in a smile, he walked over to her arms wide open to hug her; she faced him, looking directly at him with a look of scorn on her face.
'What is it Hikari? Have I done anything wrong?'
He saw her gaze move slightly, and turned around over his shoulder to see Sadhura moving towards her, whilst he had previously standing behind him. Deciding they could not, see, hear or feel him, he stepped back to observe them.
He stopped when he was standing opposite her, his face mocking. Hikari spat at him. He shook her violently, punching, and then slapping her. Yusuke lunged forward, only to find once more he went straight through them. He regained his balance at the other side of them, seething silently, taking in what was to happen. He watched Sadhura's cruelty turn in to affection as his features softened and he caressed the side of her face; Hikari looked extremely unsettled and stepped back further. Sadhura only stepped closer, now the distance between them was even smaller than before. He watched as a smile crept upon the blonde's lips as he licked the trail of blood up her chin. This caused Hikari to push away falling backwards in the lake. Yusuke ran forwards to catch her; only to find her slip again through his fingers. He redirected his gaze to Sadhura, who stood there watching a smile on his face.
He looked desperately back on the water looking for any sign of Hikari, knowing he couldn't help her. Finally the surface of the water broke and he saw Hikari, choking on water, trying miserably to keep her head above the water, screaming, pleading hopelessly for Sadhura's help only to find as a response he walked off laughing.
Yusuke couldn't take it any more he jumped in trying to save her; he saw her dress blanket her legs rendering them a dead weight along with the many petticoats of the dress, pulling her down. She frantically, with only her arms available tried to break her way to the top. Yusuke swam towards her trying to grip around her waist, only once more to find it failed.
'Well done, clever girl, I love you' Yusuke blurted out, his voice toned with happiness and sorrow; but mainly desperation.
He watched her as she triumphed in partially pulling herself up with the edging of the lake. His smile faded instantaneously as he watched her body slip down as if something was holding her back. He watched her swim back down, trying to block her way knowing that it would be harder for her to come back up to the surface; why was she swimming down anyway? He saw her tug at the grassy-weeds that managed to find a way of wrapping them selves around her ankle. She couldn't manage it; she had very little strength left in her body. She swam away from the bank, Yusuke watching, tears falling from his eyes; he saw her chances for survival growing bleaker as she swam towards the middle of the lake hoping to break them off. It hurt him to watch her but he needed to see what happened, if she survived. He moved towards her; she stopped. She stopped moving, she still had energy left in her, although most people wouldn't, she just gave up. He saw the image waver in front of him, but just as it left he saw a faded of her, naked, back turned walking away, fading in to nothing.
His body awoke with a jolt, his hands trembling beneath him, his longs demanding, gasping for breath as if he were the one to have drowned. He panted heavily over the edging and saw a single silver long hair partially covered in mud; he stood up and walked backwards away from the edging shaking his head in disbelief. He looked down at the floor beneath him momentarily; he suddenly looked up running and finally jumping in to the lake. He swam to the bottom of the lake hurriedly, knowing exactly where to go. He saw Hikari lying at the bottom of the lake, her long silver hair floating up forming an Aurora around her, the fabric of her white dress slowly lifting at the end; most strikingly her scarlet red eyes remained open, they had not even rolled to the side like one would expect but stared straight ahead. He encircled his left arm around her waist and used his other arm and legs to swim back up. He was pulled back, and remembered the weeds; he swam even harder breaking them, freeing her. He hoisted himself with one arm to the surface and quickly wrapped the now free arm around Hikari's body bringing her up.
He lay her down on the path way. She didn't stir; she didn't breathe. How long had she been down there? He sighed exasperatingly, slamming his fist on the floor beneath him, causing his knuckles to bleed. He immediately started to pump her heart in rhythm with his with his hands; he parted her purple lips and breathed in to them. He continued this with fierce vigour and determination five times. He lifted his head and slapped her across the face hoping to rekindle her senses; nothing. He continued to try to resuscitate her, slapping her once more, on the verge of giving up.
Hikari winced at his slap this time. Her body racked as it choked out all the water within her. He sat her up supporting her upper body, as he watched all the lake water being pushed by her coughs out of her lungs. She took in one deep breath, and panted slowly, collapsing back in to unconsciousness. Yusuke quickly leaned over her body to check her state, and found her to be breathing softly; she was exhausted. Her essence had flooded back to her like water that had been collecting behind a dam that has just broken.
He sighed in relief and sat back down, half crying and half laughing out of joy.
~Owari
Oh what's Yusuke going to do to Sadhura???????????
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