DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH! YOU HEAR ME? GOOD. THAT'S ALL I WANTED TO SAY. ENJOY.
The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn.
I always dreamed that love would be effortless, just something that would… you know… fall into place; just like that. Something that you grow out of in time, something that should stay on the movie screen and on the pages of a novel. What I didn't realise was that love grabs you by the throat and refuses to let you go until you have resigned yourself to your fate, even if the person your affection is directed at doesn't feel the same. It's strange that a man such as I, a guardian of the Pharaoh's tomb, should be reduced to this. The turmoil inside me is over now, and I find that now I am apart from her I can finally put down into words what it is truly like to love.
She takes up every inch of my soul, but at the same time leaves me as free as the desert Crane flying up to the heavens and back without a care in the world. Even now, there isn't a day that passes where millions of "what-ifs" and "buts" don't rush through my head and when a girl with fiery auburn hair running towards me doesn't make my heart skip a beat; a day never passes when I don't think of her.
Ra only, knows what could have attracted me to such a girl. A young girl on the verge of blindness who has never laid eyes on me. To this day I have only seen those glistening orbs once, and even as I gazed upon her, her condition prevented her from seeing me. Only once have we spoken, a brief exchange of words but a conversation that will stay with me forever.
I had gone to see her in the hospital; I had decided that I had to leave. She didn't need me so I felt no ties at all to the Japanese city. I sat on the end of her bed and she groped forward until she found my hand and grasped it tightly. She said it would be a while before her sight returned completely even with her bandages off. I blinked back tears and spoke, not expecting an answer.
" I love you Serenity."
She looked in my direction with sad eyes glazed over with brewing tears. But I did not want her sympathy or an explanation; just by existing she had given me something that I could treasure forever. She didn't need to be with me for that to happen. She went to speak but I put a finger over her quavering lips and whispered in her ear.
" The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. You taught me that. Thank you."
She lowered my finger and replied.
" I do love you Malik."
She forced a smile as a single tear escaped her eye and ran down her cheek; she knew I had to leave. I smiled at her then quickly got up and left the hospital for I do not think she would have let me leave if she had seen my tears.
I left Domino and returned to Egypt where my sister and friends were waiting for me. They didn't understand when I isolated myself in my room, waiting for love's grip to lessen on my bruised heart. The pain refused to subside but the nights I spent crying myself to sleep brought a sort of revelation to me. I remembered what I said to Serenity at the hospital and even though the pain is still here and I will love her always, I've remembered that the greatest thing I ever leant was just to love and to be loved in return.
FIN