Heeheehee. Out with another chapter already! I don't know what it was... I just had an inspiration and here I am, writing this at 2 o'clock in the morning. So, I didn't get that many reviews for the last chapter, but that's okay with me. This one goes out to the reviewers, of course: Silver Horizon, kOorI cHaN, Regulus, and Synthetic Iris. Thanks for all your help and I hope you enjoy this one. I'll probably get the next one out within a week or so, since it's a four-day weekend and all...
Happy Thanksgiving, folks!
..::--*--::..
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Willow, Chapter Five: Confession
..::--*--::..
A young girl stood in the corridor, gazing out the window at the rising sun. She loved just to wonder how many colors there actually were, and how beautiful the morning light was.
"Hikari, what are you doing up so early?" A blonde boy, about her age, walked up to her and leaned on the windowsill, gazing like she was. "Ah, watching the sunrise as usual?" he asked her.
"You know me too well, TK. Have you met Prince Daisuke yet? Last time we saw him was when we were, what, nine?" She looked at the boy next to her to see if she was right.
"Yep. Nine. He was fun then. Remember we played in the kitchens and the cooks yelled at us for covering ourselves in flour. We were pretending to be ghosts." He smiled at the memory.
"Oh yes! And my mother wouldn't let me out of my room for a week because she blamed it all on me. She never thought young princes would cause so much trouble."
"But me and Davis climbed up a ladder by your window and helped you out. You were so surprised to us and then he said...."
"My Princess I have come for you!" a voice behind them said. Both of the young teens turned around to see a well-dressed Prince, with Indian red hair smiling at them.
"Daisuke!" they both said, surprised.
"Kari, my love. And... um... TP..." he said, having trouble with Takeru's name.
"TK, Davis. You never could get that right," Takeru said, a hint of jealousy at what Daisuke had said. "So, Davis, how have you been?" he asked, but Davis wasn't listening.
"Kari, my darling. You look so radiant. It must be the sunlight, making you look like an angel," Daisuke said to her, and then placed his arms possessively around her waist. "Maybe you and I could get married, just like Jun and Matt."
"Hey, Davis. Stop that!" Takeru said, getting behind Hikari.
"Davis, get off of me. You're hurting me..." Kari said, trying to pull him off of her.
"It's okay, Hikari, you're my angel. We're meant to be together." Davis pulled her closer and Kari coughed, from Daisuke squeezing her too hard.
"Daisuke! Get off of her!" Takeru said, now pulling Davis's hands from around Hikari and freeing her. She ran behind Takeru, scared.
"What are you doing, TM? Me and Kari are meant to be, so why don't you just butt out? You're just jealous she doesn't want you." Davis smirked at him, trying to taunt him.
"Obviously she doesn't want you either, Davis, since she ran away from you." Takeru turned around and held Hikari's shoulders. "Come one, let's go find Tai, okay?"
Hikari sniffled softly, still afraid of what had happened. With TK's arm around her shoulder, they started to walk down the now bright corridor.
"Wait just a second!" Davis said, and then Takeru cried out in pain.
Kari turned around to see Davis holding out his sword, now with a thin line of blood on it. She looked down and saw TK knelling in pain, holding his shoulder. She saw his shirt cut and covered in blood.
"Don't you dare, my Prince," a gentle voice said from behind him.
Daisuke turned around just in time to see a blue haired boy knock the sword out of his hand and grabbed his arms, holding them behind his back.
"Ken! Thank you so much!" Kari said, immediately at Takeru's side. "Are you okay?"
TK got up slowly, saying he was fine. He walked up to where Ken was holding Davis and just stared at him. "You coward," he said, then punched him fully in the eye.
"Takeru!" Kari said, shocked at the sudden show of violence from her normally gentle friend.
TK turned around, with a look of regret on his face. "I'm sorry, Kari. I couldn't help it."
Hikari grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hall to her room, calling out to Ken, "Take Prince Daisuke back to his room. I'm going to take care of TK's arm."
..::--*--::..
"Have you seen Yamato-kun? I haven't seen him all day! The banquet, when our engagement and our love is to be proclaimed for all to know, is tonight and I don't know what he's wearing!" Jun circled the room, playing nervously with her hair.
"I've told you, Jun, I haven't seen him since yesterday when he was trying to kill you with a stick. Now can you please leave me alone? I'm trying to treat Takeru's wounds\ here." Kari glanced up quickly at the older girl, then went back to her work, tenderly bandaging the cut.
"How did you get that, Takeru, little brother? I wasn't listening before." Jun looked at him with distaste, but a thirst for gossip.
"From your brother. Daisuke." TK gasped from pain and Kari quickly apologized. "I would've hurt him, too, if Hikari and Ken hadn't stopped me. He is so lucky he had a sword and I didn't."
Hikari shook her head and applied more medicine to the wound, which got another cringe from Takeru. "Well, I know he deserved it. I was about to hit him myself, but he's visiting royalty, Takeru. That would not look good for you or your brother."
"Hello?! Your brother's fiance here. What did Davis do?" she paced some more, suddenly not wanting to find Yamato.
"He tried to hurt Kari! He grabbed her around the waist and hugged her, saying she was his. When she told him to let go, he wouldn't! What was I supposed to do, sit and watch?!" TK spat out in anger, all the while remembering that morning. He looked tenderly at Kari, who was finishing up the bandage.
"Violence isn't always the answer, Takeru. You know that," she said, tying up the cloth and standing up.
"I do thank you for helping, however, try talking next time, okay?"
Takeru nodded and stood up next to her. "Do you think I should go apologize? I bet he's got a pretty bad black eye."
Kari chuckled softly. "Yes, go apologize. You guys need to be friends first if you're gong to be brothers."
"So what does this have to do with Yamato-kun?!" Jun cried from the corner.
..::--*--::..
"The Princess is being irresponsible and hasty about this! She shouldn't be trusted with it all by herself. I don't see why the council doesn't have all of us helping her! She's going to keep going on, flouncing around with that blonde and not get any work done!"
"You shouldn't be so hard on her, Jyou. She is young still and is already a Princess. Sora is doing the best she can. Not many faeries have to deal with the mortal world, and she's taking it as best as possible," a young boy told an older man, who was sitting across from him on a long, wooden table, covered with plates of food.
"Iori, you wouldn't understand. You're too young. Sora and I were... we were engaged at one time. She broke it off so she could work on this legend of the Chosen Children." Jyou shook his head, remembering those painful times. "I actually think she didn't want to go through with it."
The young brunette and the older blue-haired man were seated at a lavish dinner, accompanied by two others. Both were tutors and researchers of the mortal world.
One was a young girl, looking like a mortal of fourteen or fifteen years. She had long purple hair and bright eyes. Just looking at her told others that she was not to be doubted.
The other was older, maybe sixteen. He had short red hair and was shorter than most, but was very, very intelligent and the leading faerie mind on the mortal world. He was the girl's mentor and teacher.
"Jyou, you know as well as I do that your betrothal to Sora was Gennai's doing. He wanted someone to protect her. Sora is an independent person, and no one can make her commit to something she did not want," Koushiro, the red head, said.
"I agree completely with Izzy. I mean, think about it. She wants adventure, a spontaneous lifestyle where anything can happen and she has that right now. Sora is happy, and we should be happy for her."
"Miyako, you don't understand. I love... loved her. All I wanted to do was to protect her and give her something she could depend on. Nothing more. I wasn't going to stop her from her life. But this Prince... Prince Yamato! I don't understand why she and Gennai are so interested in him of all people." The man shook his head again and picked at the food on his plate. *And I don't understand why she even needs to know him. She's going to...*
"None of us understand it. But when the time comes, both her and Gennai will be able to explain it all to us. We do not have to worry about her. Sora is a strong faerie. She can handle anything." The young boy, Iori, looked upon his friends as they nodded in agreement. "For now, let us eat and be comfortable in our home."
..::--*--::..
Yamato ran down the hallway, minutes before the sun would rise. Under his arm was the book he had found the night before; the book Sora had asked him for. The book that showed the twelve Chosen Children.
The book that showed himself.
He was shocked to look at the colorful picture, drawn years before he was born, only to find himself as one of the Children. His little brother, Mimi, Tai, Tai's little sister, Ken, and Jun's younger brother were also in it. He had to find out what sort of cruel joke this was. He had to go see Sora.
He would've left the moment he found the book, but it was after sunset and the gates were closed and guards were at every other exit. So he waited till dawn, when the gates would be open once more to merchants.
Swiftly, he ran down the halls he knew so well, until he came to the door that led to the stables. He grabbed Starlight's bridle and got her out of the stall, quickly brushing her down.
"Come on, girl. We've got some questions for the Princess."
They rode together out the gates and across the meadow to the edge of the Odaiba forests, his father's royal hunting grounds. Through the trees and brush, down the path both knew by heart, until they came to the well-known clearing and the immense, gleaming willow tree.
Yamato jumped down from Starlight's back, even before she had fully stopped. He walked, now angry with the Princess and her kingdom, wanting to know answers. He flung the branches away from him and saw her, sitting on a low branch, her head in her hands and her red hair falling in front of her.
He threw the book on the ground close to her and walked towards her, his eyes flashing.
"Why didn't you tell me?!" Yamato pointed hastily at the book now on the ground and then pointed to her. "Why didn't you tell me who the Chosen Children were? Why didn't you tell me I was one? That you were one?!" he spit out at her, anger filling up his normally ice blue eyes.
Sora carefully picked up the book and flipped through the pages, until she came to that one, colorful pictures. Matt heard a small gasp escape from her lips as she looked at the page. "How was I supposed to know? Even we didn't know who the Chosen Children were... I would've told you if I knew." she continued to stare at the picture, intent on her and Yamato's faces.
"But I know most of them! Prince Daisuke, me, my little brother, Tai, Mimi, Ken, Kari, you... that's eight! There's only four others!" He pointed again to the book she was still holding, still staring at. "Eight people I know that are in a book more than fifty years old and in a legend from another world! What are the odds that whatever you guys are fearing or whatever the hell it was, is coming right when that... that... monster Jun decides she wants to be married to me? Too many coincidences if you ask me." He sat on the ground, calming himself down from the adrenalin he had worked up in his system.
"Koushiro, Miyako, Iori, Jyou," she whispered softly.
"What?"
"They're faeries... Izzy, Yolei, Cody and Joe. The other four." She turned the book towards him and pointed to the four figures as she said their names. "We know who all twelve are." She sighed, and looked up sadly at the Prince.
"Sora? What's wrong?" His previous anger had faded quickly, and he was worried about the Princess. "Isn't this what you need? Isn't this what you and Gennai were looking for?" He walked up to her and knelt before her, like he had always done. "What's the matter?"
Sora turned to a blank page and stared at it. "This is what I needed..." she whispered, more to herself than to him. "This is it." She continued to stare at the blank page, reading words that weren't there, as Matt tried to understand.
"What is it? There's nothing..."
"Nothing there to mortal eyes." Sora quickly looked up from her reading and glanced at his confused look. "It tells of a secret that only one faerie has ever found. It tells of how to leave the boundary of the magick in the mortal world and walk around freely. I needed to find this... and use it."
"So you wanted me to find this so you can leave this tree, didn't you?" Yamato leaned in closer to her. "So... what are you going to do once you can walk around this mortal world," he asked, waving his hand around to show the place they were in.
Sora stayed silent for a few moments, still reading the invisible wording. "I... I don't know. There were a few things I wanted to do that we don't have in my world... but never mind about that..."
"Aw, come on, Sora! You can tell me. I mean, I am the one person you know who knows the most about the mortal world. After all, I live here." He flashed a charming smile at her and the depressed look on her face disappeared. "Come on, Sora... please?"
She smiled faintly and looked him seriously in the eyes. "What's the one thing you're afraid of, Matt?" she asked quietly, but firmly.
"The one thing I'm afraid of?" He thought to himself, whether he should really tell her or make something up, to make himself seem stronger than he was. He pondered, and she watched him with a sort of half fascination of this being so close to her, yet so far away. "The one thing I'm afraid of is losing someone I love. I'm afraid that my little brother will fall in love with Hikari and get his heart broken if it doesn't work out. I'm afraid my father won't let me compete in the trials to see if I'm as good as I think I am and to prove that just because I'm a Prince doesn't mean I get away with no training. I'm afraid I'm going to..." he trailed off at that word, knowing what he was going to say. "I'm afraid of a lot of things."
Sora nodded and looked at him carefully. "I have to find out what I'm afraid of." She closed the book and placed it on a branch of the tree, and then looked at him again.
"Why is that? Don't you know already know?" Matt looked at her quizzically.
"I do, but I don't want to have to do it..." she looked down at the ground, trying to think.
Yamato looked even more confused than ever and just stared at her. "What are you talking about, Sora? You're the strongest person I know."
Sora just kept staring at the ground and sighed. "I'm so scared, Matt..."
He moved in closer to her, blocking her view of the ground. "Sora, what's wrong? I have to be able to help you in some way..."
"Do you know what I'm afraid of?" She looked him in the eyes and turned her head to the side, a sign she wanted an answer.
"Pink bunnies?" He smiled when she smirked slightly and then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, Sora. What are you afraid of?"
"This."
Sora leaned forward, closing the space between them. Then in one moment, she gently placed her lips on his, clumsily, almost hastily. Matt sat there, for one confused second, taking in what had happened. He began to kiss her back, passionately, and wrapped his arms around her. For them, the world had stopped and they were kissing and letting out those feelings that had been bottled inside for those few short days. Regretfully, Sora pulled away from him very slightly, her lips still trembling on his.
"I'm free," she whispered, and then collapsed, unconscious, into his arms.
..::--*--::...
always,
lily-angel
Happy Thanksgiving, folks!
..::--*--::..
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Willow, Chapter Five: Confession
..::--*--::..
A young girl stood in the corridor, gazing out the window at the rising sun. She loved just to wonder how many colors there actually were, and how beautiful the morning light was.
"Hikari, what are you doing up so early?" A blonde boy, about her age, walked up to her and leaned on the windowsill, gazing like she was. "Ah, watching the sunrise as usual?" he asked her.
"You know me too well, TK. Have you met Prince Daisuke yet? Last time we saw him was when we were, what, nine?" She looked at the boy next to her to see if she was right.
"Yep. Nine. He was fun then. Remember we played in the kitchens and the cooks yelled at us for covering ourselves in flour. We were pretending to be ghosts." He smiled at the memory.
"Oh yes! And my mother wouldn't let me out of my room for a week because she blamed it all on me. She never thought young princes would cause so much trouble."
"But me and Davis climbed up a ladder by your window and helped you out. You were so surprised to us and then he said...."
"My Princess I have come for you!" a voice behind them said. Both of the young teens turned around to see a well-dressed Prince, with Indian red hair smiling at them.
"Daisuke!" they both said, surprised.
"Kari, my love. And... um... TP..." he said, having trouble with Takeru's name.
"TK, Davis. You never could get that right," Takeru said, a hint of jealousy at what Daisuke had said. "So, Davis, how have you been?" he asked, but Davis wasn't listening.
"Kari, my darling. You look so radiant. It must be the sunlight, making you look like an angel," Daisuke said to her, and then placed his arms possessively around her waist. "Maybe you and I could get married, just like Jun and Matt."
"Hey, Davis. Stop that!" Takeru said, getting behind Hikari.
"Davis, get off of me. You're hurting me..." Kari said, trying to pull him off of her.
"It's okay, Hikari, you're my angel. We're meant to be together." Davis pulled her closer and Kari coughed, from Daisuke squeezing her too hard.
"Daisuke! Get off of her!" Takeru said, now pulling Davis's hands from around Hikari and freeing her. She ran behind Takeru, scared.
"What are you doing, TM? Me and Kari are meant to be, so why don't you just butt out? You're just jealous she doesn't want you." Davis smirked at him, trying to taunt him.
"Obviously she doesn't want you either, Davis, since she ran away from you." Takeru turned around and held Hikari's shoulders. "Come one, let's go find Tai, okay?"
Hikari sniffled softly, still afraid of what had happened. With TK's arm around her shoulder, they started to walk down the now bright corridor.
"Wait just a second!" Davis said, and then Takeru cried out in pain.
Kari turned around to see Davis holding out his sword, now with a thin line of blood on it. She looked down and saw TK knelling in pain, holding his shoulder. She saw his shirt cut and covered in blood.
"Don't you dare, my Prince," a gentle voice said from behind him.
Daisuke turned around just in time to see a blue haired boy knock the sword out of his hand and grabbed his arms, holding them behind his back.
"Ken! Thank you so much!" Kari said, immediately at Takeru's side. "Are you okay?"
TK got up slowly, saying he was fine. He walked up to where Ken was holding Davis and just stared at him. "You coward," he said, then punched him fully in the eye.
"Takeru!" Kari said, shocked at the sudden show of violence from her normally gentle friend.
TK turned around, with a look of regret on his face. "I'm sorry, Kari. I couldn't help it."
Hikari grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hall to her room, calling out to Ken, "Take Prince Daisuke back to his room. I'm going to take care of TK's arm."
..::--*--::..
"Have you seen Yamato-kun? I haven't seen him all day! The banquet, when our engagement and our love is to be proclaimed for all to know, is tonight and I don't know what he's wearing!" Jun circled the room, playing nervously with her hair.
"I've told you, Jun, I haven't seen him since yesterday when he was trying to kill you with a stick. Now can you please leave me alone? I'm trying to treat Takeru's wounds\ here." Kari glanced up quickly at the older girl, then went back to her work, tenderly bandaging the cut.
"How did you get that, Takeru, little brother? I wasn't listening before." Jun looked at him with distaste, but a thirst for gossip.
"From your brother. Daisuke." TK gasped from pain and Kari quickly apologized. "I would've hurt him, too, if Hikari and Ken hadn't stopped me. He is so lucky he had a sword and I didn't."
Hikari shook her head and applied more medicine to the wound, which got another cringe from Takeru. "Well, I know he deserved it. I was about to hit him myself, but he's visiting royalty, Takeru. That would not look good for you or your brother."
"Hello?! Your brother's fiance here. What did Davis do?" she paced some more, suddenly not wanting to find Yamato.
"He tried to hurt Kari! He grabbed her around the waist and hugged her, saying she was his. When she told him to let go, he wouldn't! What was I supposed to do, sit and watch?!" TK spat out in anger, all the while remembering that morning. He looked tenderly at Kari, who was finishing up the bandage.
"Violence isn't always the answer, Takeru. You know that," she said, tying up the cloth and standing up.
"I do thank you for helping, however, try talking next time, okay?"
Takeru nodded and stood up next to her. "Do you think I should go apologize? I bet he's got a pretty bad black eye."
Kari chuckled softly. "Yes, go apologize. You guys need to be friends first if you're gong to be brothers."
"So what does this have to do with Yamato-kun?!" Jun cried from the corner.
..::--*--::..
"The Princess is being irresponsible and hasty about this! She shouldn't be trusted with it all by herself. I don't see why the council doesn't have all of us helping her! She's going to keep going on, flouncing around with that blonde and not get any work done!"
"You shouldn't be so hard on her, Jyou. She is young still and is already a Princess. Sora is doing the best she can. Not many faeries have to deal with the mortal world, and she's taking it as best as possible," a young boy told an older man, who was sitting across from him on a long, wooden table, covered with plates of food.
"Iori, you wouldn't understand. You're too young. Sora and I were... we were engaged at one time. She broke it off so she could work on this legend of the Chosen Children." Jyou shook his head, remembering those painful times. "I actually think she didn't want to go through with it."
The young brunette and the older blue-haired man were seated at a lavish dinner, accompanied by two others. Both were tutors and researchers of the mortal world.
One was a young girl, looking like a mortal of fourteen or fifteen years. She had long purple hair and bright eyes. Just looking at her told others that she was not to be doubted.
The other was older, maybe sixteen. He had short red hair and was shorter than most, but was very, very intelligent and the leading faerie mind on the mortal world. He was the girl's mentor and teacher.
"Jyou, you know as well as I do that your betrothal to Sora was Gennai's doing. He wanted someone to protect her. Sora is an independent person, and no one can make her commit to something she did not want," Koushiro, the red head, said.
"I agree completely with Izzy. I mean, think about it. She wants adventure, a spontaneous lifestyle where anything can happen and she has that right now. Sora is happy, and we should be happy for her."
"Miyako, you don't understand. I love... loved her. All I wanted to do was to protect her and give her something she could depend on. Nothing more. I wasn't going to stop her from her life. But this Prince... Prince Yamato! I don't understand why she and Gennai are so interested in him of all people." The man shook his head again and picked at the food on his plate. *And I don't understand why she even needs to know him. She's going to...*
"None of us understand it. But when the time comes, both her and Gennai will be able to explain it all to us. We do not have to worry about her. Sora is a strong faerie. She can handle anything." The young boy, Iori, looked upon his friends as they nodded in agreement. "For now, let us eat and be comfortable in our home."
..::--*--::..
Yamato ran down the hallway, minutes before the sun would rise. Under his arm was the book he had found the night before; the book Sora had asked him for. The book that showed the twelve Chosen Children.
The book that showed himself.
He was shocked to look at the colorful picture, drawn years before he was born, only to find himself as one of the Children. His little brother, Mimi, Tai, Tai's little sister, Ken, and Jun's younger brother were also in it. He had to find out what sort of cruel joke this was. He had to go see Sora.
He would've left the moment he found the book, but it was after sunset and the gates were closed and guards were at every other exit. So he waited till dawn, when the gates would be open once more to merchants.
Swiftly, he ran down the halls he knew so well, until he came to the door that led to the stables. He grabbed Starlight's bridle and got her out of the stall, quickly brushing her down.
"Come on, girl. We've got some questions for the Princess."
They rode together out the gates and across the meadow to the edge of the Odaiba forests, his father's royal hunting grounds. Through the trees and brush, down the path both knew by heart, until they came to the well-known clearing and the immense, gleaming willow tree.
Yamato jumped down from Starlight's back, even before she had fully stopped. He walked, now angry with the Princess and her kingdom, wanting to know answers. He flung the branches away from him and saw her, sitting on a low branch, her head in her hands and her red hair falling in front of her.
He threw the book on the ground close to her and walked towards her, his eyes flashing.
"Why didn't you tell me?!" Yamato pointed hastily at the book now on the ground and then pointed to her. "Why didn't you tell me who the Chosen Children were? Why didn't you tell me I was one? That you were one?!" he spit out at her, anger filling up his normally ice blue eyes.
Sora carefully picked up the book and flipped through the pages, until she came to that one, colorful pictures. Matt heard a small gasp escape from her lips as she looked at the page. "How was I supposed to know? Even we didn't know who the Chosen Children were... I would've told you if I knew." she continued to stare at the picture, intent on her and Yamato's faces.
"But I know most of them! Prince Daisuke, me, my little brother, Tai, Mimi, Ken, Kari, you... that's eight! There's only four others!" He pointed again to the book she was still holding, still staring at. "Eight people I know that are in a book more than fifty years old and in a legend from another world! What are the odds that whatever you guys are fearing or whatever the hell it was, is coming right when that... that... monster Jun decides she wants to be married to me? Too many coincidences if you ask me." He sat on the ground, calming himself down from the adrenalin he had worked up in his system.
"Koushiro, Miyako, Iori, Jyou," she whispered softly.
"What?"
"They're faeries... Izzy, Yolei, Cody and Joe. The other four." She turned the book towards him and pointed to the four figures as she said their names. "We know who all twelve are." She sighed, and looked up sadly at the Prince.
"Sora? What's wrong?" His previous anger had faded quickly, and he was worried about the Princess. "Isn't this what you need? Isn't this what you and Gennai were looking for?" He walked up to her and knelt before her, like he had always done. "What's the matter?"
Sora turned to a blank page and stared at it. "This is what I needed..." she whispered, more to herself than to him. "This is it." She continued to stare at the blank page, reading words that weren't there, as Matt tried to understand.
"What is it? There's nothing..."
"Nothing there to mortal eyes." Sora quickly looked up from her reading and glanced at his confused look. "It tells of a secret that only one faerie has ever found. It tells of how to leave the boundary of the magick in the mortal world and walk around freely. I needed to find this... and use it."
"So you wanted me to find this so you can leave this tree, didn't you?" Yamato leaned in closer to her. "So... what are you going to do once you can walk around this mortal world," he asked, waving his hand around to show the place they were in.
Sora stayed silent for a few moments, still reading the invisible wording. "I... I don't know. There were a few things I wanted to do that we don't have in my world... but never mind about that..."
"Aw, come on, Sora! You can tell me. I mean, I am the one person you know who knows the most about the mortal world. After all, I live here." He flashed a charming smile at her and the depressed look on her face disappeared. "Come on, Sora... please?"
She smiled faintly and looked him seriously in the eyes. "What's the one thing you're afraid of, Matt?" she asked quietly, but firmly.
"The one thing I'm afraid of?" He thought to himself, whether he should really tell her or make something up, to make himself seem stronger than he was. He pondered, and she watched him with a sort of half fascination of this being so close to her, yet so far away. "The one thing I'm afraid of is losing someone I love. I'm afraid that my little brother will fall in love with Hikari and get his heart broken if it doesn't work out. I'm afraid my father won't let me compete in the trials to see if I'm as good as I think I am and to prove that just because I'm a Prince doesn't mean I get away with no training. I'm afraid I'm going to..." he trailed off at that word, knowing what he was going to say. "I'm afraid of a lot of things."
Sora nodded and looked at him carefully. "I have to find out what I'm afraid of." She closed the book and placed it on a branch of the tree, and then looked at him again.
"Why is that? Don't you know already know?" Matt looked at her quizzically.
"I do, but I don't want to have to do it..." she looked down at the ground, trying to think.
Yamato looked even more confused than ever and just stared at her. "What are you talking about, Sora? You're the strongest person I know."
Sora just kept staring at the ground and sighed. "I'm so scared, Matt..."
He moved in closer to her, blocking her view of the ground. "Sora, what's wrong? I have to be able to help you in some way..."
"Do you know what I'm afraid of?" She looked him in the eyes and turned her head to the side, a sign she wanted an answer.
"Pink bunnies?" He smiled when she smirked slightly and then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, Sora. What are you afraid of?"
"This."
Sora leaned forward, closing the space between them. Then in one moment, she gently placed her lips on his, clumsily, almost hastily. Matt sat there, for one confused second, taking in what had happened. He began to kiss her back, passionately, and wrapped his arms around her. For them, the world had stopped and they were kissing and letting out those feelings that had been bottled inside for those few short days. Regretfully, Sora pulled away from him very slightly, her lips still trembling on his.
"I'm free," she whispered, and then collapsed, unconscious, into his arms.
..::--*--::...
always,
lily-angel