Title: Whenever I Call You Friend
Anime: Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP
Author: mizamiko
Rating of Chapter: PG

Whenever I call you Friend: Chapter 6 Interlude 1

****Larfaga****

I looked down at her gently sleeping face and watched her breathe. She was beautiful; I still could not believe she chose to be with me. I had long since stopped asking why. I was only glad that she did.

It has been, what? Five or six years since she came into my life? And still I was filled with that giddy feeling whenever she looked at me, or when I held her.

Six short years, six long years. I remember... She was so different from all the other women whom I had met in the past. She was young, bright, and full of life. And yet when I looked in her eyes, I saw someone old. An old soul, Lantis said, and in one of our rare times, I agreed.

She told me of her childhood once, and only once. She was not comfortable talking about it. Though in years she was certainly young, she had seen and done more that would normally have been lived by far older persons. I never pushed for more than what she was willing to speak of. But what little she had told me filled me with anger, pain, and sadness. I would never let anything like it ever happen to her again. That I promise.

I brushed a lock off her face and wondered on how smooth and how few lines could be seen. Actually, she was smooth all over, as I found out just lately. Her dusky coloring, her pink hair, her graceful movements, I loved it all. I remember the very first time, the night of our handfasting. It was like a dream and every night that I spent holding her, I knew. I was lucky to have someone like her.

She was strong, though she would never hold a blade longer than her daggers. She was my strength when everything was crashing down around me as Cephiro slowly died after the death of the Princess Emeraude. Maybe for once I should thank Lantis. If it weren't for him and his... I still did not know how to address Eagle. Maybe, I would still be wishy-washy and not proposed to Caldina.

If those two only knew how romantic they had been portrayed in the stories around the castle, they would be blushing. Or at least Eagle would be. Zazu was the one who told the story on how they were back in Autozam. Oddly enough, it was Caldina who wanted to gut Lantis afterwards. I, on the other hand, ended up feeling guilty. I had treated him badly when he had just lost two of the most important people in his life. But even though we felt differently about Lantis, we wanted the same thing for ourselves. A slice of happiness of the like that we saw when Eagle first awakened from his years of sleep, or like what Zazu talked about in his stories.

The two of them weren't always happy. Everything didn't go happily ever after, even after the ceremony. They went through a lot and they still were going through a lot, but the bond had yet to be broken. And I doubt if that bond would be easily broken. Not after all that had happened. And I wanted that. And here was my chance for it. And here I had that person whom I would be willing to die for. And more importantly, the one I would be willing to live for.

Maybe after understanding Lantis, even just a little, I had become a bit wiser. I had a lot to thank for, when I fell for Caldina and she fell for me. And more now as the child inside her grows.

It would not be easy. There would be a lot of thing that we had to adjust to. But this was one thing that we both wished. And I knew this would be something that will hold as together more.

I might never have the kind of bond that Lantis had with Eagle. I would never hear her voice in my mind as Lantis 'hears' Eagle's thoughts and feelings at times or, I think, be able to accept things, had she been born male, as Lantis accepted Eagle.

I pulled her closer to me, my love, my strength, my wife. I was glad I found her. I was happy about the child. At this moment I was contented.

Now if only the others were so.

****End Interlude 6.1****

Draft December 3, 2000

Revision January 19, 2003

Disclaimers: All characters belonged to their original creator, CLAMP, I just commandeered some of the characters for a night out into my own demented world.

Note : Thanks to the UAWC or SW for reading through this installment especially to Melissa Koh.