Author's Notes: I have had good intentions of writing a Shiine-focused Chacha fanfiction for a while, and this chapter is the result. Please R&R, as I am quite aware that my writing skills are significantly rustier than they once were. Hopefully, I'll have another chapter for you soon. At any rate, I hope that people will enjoy it. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Akazukin Chacha, or any of the characters used in this story. Insert sufficiently witty comment here.

Resolution: Chapter 1

A frenzied heartbeat. The rusty squeal of an old swing, so rarely visited since childhood. An occasional rustle as wind plays through the trees, bows spreading above, pierced by sunlight. Your universe: constricting, narrowing, suffocating.

And the fear. Acrid in your mouth, burning your eyes.

Today; a resolution.

That same frantically beating heart will be broken. Ripped. It couldn't happen any other way. You've known since the days when you used to play on this swing; you've known since the first time you saw her step away from you and towards him. You've seen her eyes, you've seen those high spots of colour marking her cheeks when she sees you looking at her in the way that you do.

You've seen her turning away.

You know all about the sickness. The desperate sweat slipping on your hands. A decision must be made between you. And you feel, somehow, that it will be made today.

A memory stirs, burning bright within the confusion of so many other memories as they congeal into a twisted mess of life. She asked you to come here today. Riiya is away and she wants to speak to you. Alone. Here, where you played as children. Where you felt her small waist under your hands as you pushed her towards the sky; giggling and breathless, both of you. Riiya would push you aside and take his turn, and you'd be angry, but soft in your anger because you could still feel her silently beating heart on the tips of your fingers. You could hear the squeal of her laughter in your ears and you'd be glad, because even then you loved her so. The soft curve of her cheeks, next to her smile. Her eyes, radiant with laughter.

Always turning towards him.

A wrench. A new memory now. Please.

You kick the ground and send yourself up higher on the swing, watching the tiny puffs of earth sway in the air far below you, rising above a now elusive scrape of brown within the green. It pleases you that the grass hasn't grown back completely, that some remnants of your childhood still remain, still fighting against the passing of time.

Things have changed, so much. She found her parents. You found yours. Her elevated status should have made a difference, but it didn't. She was still yours, fiercely, you still wanted her more than ever, loved her more than you thought possible. You threw yourself into your studies once you realised that she didn't feel the same. You tore through books, fought the hardest exams with a single-minded ferocity, became the strongest wizard since Seravi. You didn't know how to fight for her in any other way. Or maybe you just wanted to forget, to grow up and move past her. On to something, someone else.

You are the strongest wizard in the world, and you are still only seventeen. You wonder if that counts for anything, with her.

You know that it doesn't, where it matters.

Now you are glad you came to this place early, to think. To prepare. Things have been different lately, and you can feel your friendships tearing. Where she used to run to you and Riiya, now she hesitates to run to you at all. A guilty blush when you come to tutor her, when you see her in the palace. When you touch her with your eyes. Suddenly, she has a knowledge of you.

It terrifies you.

You know that you should step aside, graciously give her to your rival, your curse, and your best friend. But you can't. Something within you howls at the thought, screams and sobs and dies. Being left aside, watching hungrily as the years pass, wanting what you know you can't have. Shrunken. Desperate. Destroyed.

You would be living a lie. But then, you already are.

A different rustle now, beyond the trees. She is coming.