Chapter 3

Green Envy

"Miyu..........."

Larva's smooth voice glided along the spring breeze to Miyu's ears. She barely had a single moment to react before his still form was at her back. How could she be so inattentive?

"Yes, Larva," Miyu replied as she rose up her face to the ivory mask she knew so well. A gentle hand suddenly clasped at her waist reverently; she returned the caress.

"Do you love him?"

Miyu pushed away from her protector as shock etched her every feature. Larva removed his mask slowly as his crimson gaze settled upon her.

"What do you mean?" Miyu pleaded as she took a step backwards. An aura she had never felt around Larva exuded everywhere.

"This," he motioned to her cowering stance, "your lack of concentration, your emotions........... The human. Aya.........." The name clung ominously in the air as tangible as a wall. Miyu looked away shamefacedly.

"It's.......... It's not like that."

-

Aya blushed softly as Miyu continued to type mechanically onto the Macintosh, completely disregarding his every attempt to voice his emotions. It was just unbearable. Was it not enough that she had shunned his affections? Did she honestly have to continue encouraging them?

The letter.

That despicable piece of parchment. He had written in his finest hiragana on the most elegant stationery he could find and had then folded it into the most complex origami he had ever orchestrated. All in all, it had taken him over an hour to accomplish. And yet, Miyu, the girl of his dreams, the epitome of his female counterpart, could not even bother to come to his face and tell him that she was not interested. No, his punishment was far worse: she teased him.

A stolen glance in class.

A whispered statement across the room.

A gentle hand beckoning a request at his arm.

Her subtlety, her indifference, her elegance, her stance, her demeanor, her fire, it seared him to the soul to even be near her. What torture!

"Yes, Kawai-kun," Miyu said as she turned to face Aya.

"What? I didn't say anything," he returned carelessly. Miyu motioned discreetly to his hand so obviously placed atop her own, stopping her from the assignment she was attempting to complete.

"Oh. Sorry," Aya apologized profusely as he pulled away his hand. Already he could feel his heated blush creeping along his cheeks. Smooth, real smooth, he chastised himself.

"Kawai-kun, is there something you want to say?" Miyu asked as she ceased her work to stare deeply into Aya's icy cerulean eyes. Aya looked away suddenly, unable to even hold a glance before the girl's intensity.

"Oh........ er...... Would you like something to drink?" he inquired stupidly. What could he dare say to her? "I love you?" Yeah, he thought inwardly, that would really work........

"That's okay," Miyu declined politely. "I'm done typing up the final section of the report, anyway. Let me just print it out." She made quick work with the printing machine, and Aya could not believe how suddenly they were both at the door. He preparing to depart from the one whom he wished he did not have to. She preparing to depart to a place he could only imagine, impassive, indifferent, and beautiful as always.

"Well....... Goodbye, Kawai-kun," Miyu saluted courteously, but........ Had it been Aya's imagination, or had she just hesitated in leaving? She was still there before the front door, the very image of an immaculate goddess. But for what?

"Goodbye, Minakawa-san," he whispered softly. There was nothing more that could leave his cowardly lips.

Miyu hesitated but a moment longer before she turned around and made to cross the threshold to the awaiting world beyond, when...........

Gossamer kiss.

"I love you."

Quiet whisper.

Miyu whirled back in a flash of mahogany hair and scarlet ribbon to see the human she had become so interested in staring in part humility, part exhilaration, and part fear. But for once, no faint blush came to his pale cheeks. And seeing him so self-empowered as he was now, Miyu was in a state of awe before her.

Aya was human. Aya was free. Aya was everything she wanted.

The only beings with the ability to break the chains of destiny are the beings that can rewrite their own destinies and fit them to their will: humans.

She ran.

And she did not stop until all her breath had escaped her lungs and her legs crumpled beneath her, suddenly unable to uphold the weight they had carried for so long.

She heard his blatant cries after her, his attempts to make amends for an immense offense he had committed. No. That was not true. It was she who had committed the offense. It was she who had committed the crime. It was she who had to apologize. And not only to the human who loved her.

-

"Forgive me, Larva," Miyu whispered with a tear into the enveloping night.

"You love him," he returned more question than statement. But he already knew the answer, and had known it for some time. The Guardian of Japan, his Guardian, his love, her heart belonged to another now, and it burned him to admit it.

"Please, Larva, forgive me......." The Guardian whispered inaudibly into his ebony cloak upon his chest, her delicate hands and fingers clasping and searching for a returning reassuring caress. But it never came.

Larva was numb. Why? How?

Finally one stiff hand came to Miyu's vainly grasping one and a sigh filled her being. He enclosed her slowly within his embrace. There was nothing more Larva could do in his desolation. A human loved the Guardian, and now she too returned the emotion.

Larva softly lifted up Miyu's face, now streaked pitifully with tears he had caused, and encompassed it lovingly with his slender hands. He lowered his face to hers and gave her a kiss of his own emotions: sorrow, pain, hate, envy, and before it all, love. He gave her his kiss of his amorous farewell, and as he felt her stiffen in his very arms at his self-directed display of unreturned affection, he stepped away lightly as he replaced his mask.

This was it. This was how it was meant to be: Guardian and Protector. Not Miyu and Larva. And most definitely not lovers.

"Larva?" Miyu pleaded softly in the vanished wind.

"Yes, Guardian?"

-

How could I do this!!!!!!!!!!! :: Howls maniacally to no one in particular:: Even I'm in shock at this installment! ::Sigh:: Miyu........... Larva............ NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review Responses

Tankbbg: Yes, I have priorities....... And you're weird. You said you didn't like shopping....... But who cares if the last chapter was both short and cannon, aside from you? Most probably all of the other readers/reviewers, but I'm willing to look past that....... Don't worry; I swear it'll get better.

BlueDragonsGirl: You know I keep hearing that Aya must die and burn very often these days........ One of my friends has actually started a comic called "Killing Aya". Cute, huh? But believe me, your desire for Aya's death will only escalate from here.......

Illusionist: You like my story? ::Sighs:: I feel so special.......

Jen-Chan: I understand that your computer was evil, which is why I'm writing to you anyway. Aren't you happy? You and BlueDragonsGirl have a great deal in common....... You both desire Aya's hideous and grotesque death, though I do consider you more partial towards the burning..........