~*~*~*~
Winter Wishes
by Sharo
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~*~*~*~
{will you lift me up with tender care}
{will you wash me clean in the palm of your hands}
{will you hold me close so I can thrive}
{when you touch me that's when I know I'm alive}
~*~*~*~
They met in the silence of night, under only the eyes of the moon and stars, clad only with the familiar lies and barriers that separated them.
She was the first to break the silence, sitting forward to hug cool arms around her knees.
"What's it like? To fly, I mean."
He blinked at the open sky, not quite sure he was understanding her question.
As if listening to the silence, she continued, still speaking to the moon.
"It must be nice, soaring above the city, higher than the cares of everyone you know." Another cloud passed before the glowing rock above them. "Is it different at night? Seeing everything in shades of black and gray and neon lights?"
He remained still on the roof, silent and somewhat confused, though his heart began to pick up its' tempo.
"I suppose it must be a thrill, knowing that you're the only one out there; that noone can drag you down from the sky." Her voice took on a dreamy tone, her eyes looking far into the distance. "A white bird, on a journey... I wonder where he's going..?
"I wonder if he's lonely, flying by himself?"
~*~*~*~
{down here in the valley}
{every shadow you see}
{has its own story}
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It had been a long while since Nakamori Aoko had thought about the Kid. About the jerk that taunted her father, constantly stole things, and made a general wreck of the police department, and consequently, her life. Everyone at school loved him, crowds cheered him on at the public heists, and even her best friend was infatuated by the low-life thief.
~*~*~*~
{down here in the valley}
{every puddle of mud}
{comes from tears and blood}
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It was lonely, Kuroba Kaito reflected, out on your own; no one to back you up or to depend on. No one to talk with, to boast to, to have smack you over the head with a mop when your ego got the best of you.
When your best friend hates who you are. Who you chose to be.
~*~*~*~
{and its so hard just to get warm}
{that the chills just turn to despair}
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The moon watched over them on its brief journey across the night sky, seeming to chase the gathering clouds before it, not wanting the two hidden from its sight...
Nowhere to run tonight...
"How l-long has it been? Since your first flight?"
The silence stretched out, encompassing even nature around them. The wind dropped to nothing, the trees stilled, the world ceased to breathe.
"I'll only ask tonight. I'll only ask once, and I only ask for the truth. If you chose not to answer, I'll believe that I'm asking the wrong person. I'll believe whatever lies you tell me, but don't ever ask me to trust you again..."
And the snow began to fall.
~*~*~*~
{will you lift me up with tender care}
{will you wash me clean in the palm of your hands}
{will you hold me close so I can thrive}
{when you touch me that's when I know I'm alive}
~*~*~*~
His very presence still brought up more questions than were ever offered answers. 'Why did he steal things?' It wasn't an honest deal; some things he simply stole, then returned to the same owners. He wasn't just out to help people, like some church saint. And he practically asked the police to follow many of his heists - what kind of criminal did that? Oh, there were figures in modern literature that got away with nearly everything under the sun -and the inspectors' noses- but that was all fiction. Along with detectives that could solve cases from their easy chairs at home, deducing everything from a photograph and a cigar stub. They just didn't exist in real life.
But the Kaitou Kid did.
He stole things in 'style', with a magician's air and love for an audience. He was kind and polite, even while taunting and escaping the police in citywide chases. He commandeered a presence that spoke volumes of confidence and security, while unsecuring private properties.
What kind of friend was that?
~*~*~*~
{down here in the valley }
{nothings able to grow}
{is there light to hold}
~*~*~*~
Her presence beside him shone like a beacon in his eyes - a savior, a condemner, an angel, a fallen soul, all in one. She alone held the power that could make him or break him; the only person on the planet that could tell him whether or not his life held any meaning at all.
Would she demand he give up the cloak, or never speak to the angel again? Even angels guarded the Tree of Life once Adam & Eve were cast from the Garden. Would she deny him his life at her side, or his life as the searching avenger?
What was more important - his angel, or his prize?
Would she make him chose again?
~*~*~*~
{folks spend their days}
{digging up diamonds and gold}
{'till they just get old}
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"I kept thinking about how I wanted to ask you, and every time I tried, all I wanted was for you to come out and tell me. No more lies, no more half-truths, but the real, honest story.
"And when everyone else pretended it never happened, so did you. Pretended that you didn't nearly sacrifice yourself for a chunk of rock. Pretended that no one else's feelings mattered, so long as they didn't know the full truth."
He beat her to the finish. "Pretended that it was too good to be true."
She didn't want to look at him. Looking would mean acknowledging his pain as well as her own. Would mean accepting... finally accepting the facts that had paraded themselves before her in the last few weeks.
She didn't want to admit... that she didn't hate him.
~*~*~*~
{and they don't know anything else}
{they don't know they're breathing bad air}
~*~*~*~
Even spoken so quietly, he knew she heard him. Knew she couldn't have missed the words had they been spoken only in his heart.
She knew
She knew. Had known, now. Yet she still talked to him, still went to school with him, still played out their mundane, everyday lives as if nothing had changed.
Of course, there hadn't been a heist in all that time. No mention of the Kid on the news, or in the papers. Nothing to force a reaction from her. From either of them. And they needed to react. That reassurance of motion resuming.
He could admit it to himself... that he was afraid of her. He was afraid of her reaction.
~*~*~*~
{but I'm tired of living like this}
{and my soul cries out if you're there}
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But she's still here. She's still waiting... for you.
He leaned back against the roof tiles, settling deeper into his warm coat and brushing snowflakes from his nose.
"Actually, it's beautiful at night."
His soft voice carried across the rooftop, rich in the cool air.
"The city is like a theme park in the moonlight. You can watch the lights of the highways bend around each other like twisting roller coasters, and the parks light like carousels -couples everywhere. Skyscrapers tower over the little suburbs like castles beside the booths. And the neon lights can lead you anywhere you want to go within the park."
His poignant sigh wasn't lost on his companion. "But a theme park was always better with two..."
She bit down on a smile even as tears slipped from her eyes. "Then why didn't you ever invite me?"
"Would you have said 'yes?'" He shook his head and sighed even as she thought about her answer. "Maybe I'm using the wrong analogy here. It's beautiful, yes. Exhilarating when you have the chance to see the world below you, when you're not tied to the ground by someone else's rules and choices, when you can move freely on your own. But it's so much more dangerous. There are no retakes. There are no safety nets; it's never a 'practice.' If you fail, you make sure you don't take anyone else with you. Because there's no recovery if you fall."
"That didn't seem to stop you."
"It stopped me from asking."
"Maybe it shouldn't have."
~*~*~*~
{will you lift me up with tender care}
{will you wash me clean in the palm of your hands}
~*~*~*~
She finally screwed up the courage to turn around and really look at him. Blue eyes met crimson across the longest distance of their lives. The future was uncertain, their hidden past only now coming to light. Like carousel horses tired of traveling in an even circle, they prepared to breach that final barrier. To break that last constant, to tear down the remaining rules that had governed their actions until this point.
They would start over. Maybe not from the beginning, but they would have to rework some things, now. Reevaluate their standards, reaffirm their boundaries, and compromise their positions. Their identities.
But they were willing to make it work. They held the future in their hands, and decided to hold on to each other, and make it stronger.
~*~*~*~
{will you hold me close so I can thrive}
{when you touch me that's when I know I'm alive}
~*~*~*~
And when he thought long and hard about it, that was all that mattered. She was willing to hear his story. She hadn't run.
And neither had he.
~*~*~*~
{will you lift me up with tender care}
{will you wash me clean in the palm of your hands}
{will you hold me close so I can thrive}
{when you touch me that's when I know I'm alive}
~*~*~*~
Sharo: *gushes* Thank you SOO much, Icka!! Chocolate helps, as well as bribes! And new fics as well. Think I missed the deadline for the contest, tho'...
Kaito: *munching away on his chocolate bar*
Sharo: *checks her pocket* Hey! That one was mine!!
Kaito: Heh, mine now. Consider it advance payment since you've still gotta' write another chapter.
Sharo: Hah! Who says there's another one?
Kaito: *wags his finger* Ah, I saw you typing! You're working it out, and noone's gonna' let you drop it now!
Sharo: ... Dangit...