to your eternity
I'll Meet You Where the Flowers Bloomfrogguchi
Summary:
Recurring dreams, places he'd never seen, a voice he'd never heard before, and a feeling so achingly familiar. It's almost all the same: a field of purple flowers, a girl in a green dress. It certainly doesn't help that he feels that as if a part of him is incomplete, a feeling of longing for something he doesn't understand blossoms in him, hoping that one day,maybe, he'll finally know why.
Notes:
Hello! Glad (and also sad) to be the first fic of GuguRean on ao3, they need the love. Keep in mind that therewillbe slight spoilers, and this fic followsonlytheir arc (Takunaha Arc), I haven't read the manga yet, sooo hehe. You'll be able to understand (and enjoy) this better if you have watched/read up until their arc, so yeah. Enjoy and I hope you like it!!
ps. I made myself sad outlining and writing but also happy bc well u know
pps. I was supposed to put a "no beta we die like *cough*" but I feel like you'll kill me so no
ppps. I wrote this in my sleep deprived self who thought of the plot at probably around 12 midnight
ToMishaandVwho introduced me to To Your Eternity (and screamed together with me), thank you (even though it broke me), this is for u3
(See the end of the work formore notes.)
Work Text:
Gugu dreams of the same scenery. A field of purple flowers. A girl in a green dress. He doesn't understand what it is, or why almost every time he dreams about it, he wakes up crying. He has never seen that place before, nor the girl, andyet, everything feels so familiar. Familiar in a sense that he couldn't explain if asked.
Or maybe he could stop thinking about it because he's about to be late for his first day of work. He gets ready, does his morning routine quickly, trying to get the dream off his mind. He has done it before, he could do it again.
There isn't really a specific uniform that they're required to wear as workers in the museum, as long as it's appropriate. He's slightly ecstatic hearing about that. He really didn't like wearing too much formal clothes.
Before leaving, he decides for a whole five minutes on whether or not he was going to wear his face mask. Not that he's afraid of catching sickness, but for some reason, he just wasn't that comfortable showing his bare face. In the end, he decides to go with it. He grabs the grey cloth face mask that covers half his face. He's more comfortable like this.
He leaves a note for his brother who's still asleep.Shin, I'll be off. I made breakfast, just heat it up or something. Bye.
He makes his way to the museum with a couple of minutes to spare. Having a walking distance from his place to it has its advantages, and this is definitely at the top of the list.
At the top of the hill by the cliff overlooking the sea lies the museum that has been standing for centuries. It has always been a tourist attraction, many people would come and go as they please, but the place never seems to be crowded. That's one thing he loves about this place.
A shiver goes down his spine the second he steps in.
He's greeted by another worker. He replies with a small "good morning" in return. The few workers of this museum have been told that they don't have a specific assignment, just accommodate the visitors after they punch in their time cards.
He wanders around for a bit, looking for an area to settle in. He had already made himself familiar with the place when he was still training, but he didn't look at the paintings that much. He learned that people don't necessarily like to betalked towhen they visit places like these unless they ask, so he doesn't bother them.
"March!"
He whips his head to where that voice came from. Just as he does, a little girl appears beside him. He almost gets startled, that is before he noticed her running towards him. "Woah, this one's pretty!" she says, pointing at the painting in front of them.
Another girl runs up beside them. "Don't run off like that!"
The little girl, who he assumes as the one calledMarch, looks up at the girl with wide eyes. "Sorry, Paronanee-san! But look at this, it's pretty!"
Parona holds March's hand and looks at the painting as well. She smiles. "Yeah, it is."
He leaves them be as he heads to another area.
He passes by a group of friends, five of them, trying to talk in hushed voices but also failing. They laugh and joke about something he doesn't catch.
One of them takes a step back, unintentionally bumping into Gugu and stepping on his foot. He winces in the small amount of pain, but doesn't show it. The girl yelps out of surprise and faces him. "I'm sorry!"
Gugu raises a hand and smiles despite them not seeing his mouth. "Don't worry about it."
He sees her friends suppress laughter. She smiles at him awkwardly. "Okay… uhm, sorry, again."
He waves his hand one last time before walking ahead.
"You should be more careful, Tonari," he hears one of them say, followed by a laugh.
"You could've told me that someone was behind me, at least!"
They laugh and continue to tease her. Their voices fade as he goes further.
He starts to learn that there will be different kinds of people he'll encounter. He doesn't mind at all, he loves to see families, and also friends, being so close to each other.
Gugu then sees a glimpse of green. He whips his head as he sees it at the corner of his eye. He sees it amidst the crowd. A blonde girl wearing a green top and white pants, a purple flower clipped on her head. He loses sight of her as she takes a turn.
Something inside Gugu gets drawn in. For some reason he couldn't understand, he tells himself that hehasto see her.
He needs to.
So he follows her, tries to see her face, but can't. She walks too fast, and she keeps disappearing in the crowd and every twist and turns in the different hallways and areas of the museum. He accidentally bumps into a couple of people as well, apologizing profusely without taking his eyes off the color green.
Until he loses her completely. He scans the crowd, but it was to no avail. He sighs frustratedly, one, because he lost her, and two, because he doesn't even know why he's doing this.
But still, a voice inside him whispers,"Go meet her."
He wanders around, not looking at his surroundings, in hopes of getting another glimpse of green. Someone grabs his arm.
He looks back in surprise. An old lady is smiling at him. "She went that way," she says, pointing to the west of them. She removes the hand she used to stop him.
"I'm sorry?"
"Pioran!" Another boy calls out. They both look in the direction and see a young boy with an old man approaching them.
"Fu-chan, I told you not to follow me!"
"You're gonna get lost," the boy says with a frown.
"Oh, I know my way around here," the woman argues. He then looks at Gugu who slightly widens his eyes in surprise. She smiles at him, enigmatic, and for some reason, he starts to believe her.
An ache in his chest rises up as he looks at the three in front of him. He looks at them and wonders why the seemingly empty space in his soul that he was always feeling is slowly starting to fill up.
They wordlessly walk away, voice fading as they go further.
"Who was that?" he hears the boy ask.
"An old friend."
"You seem to have a lot of old friends," the old man says.
"What can I say, I'm a charmer."
He manages to take his eyes off them, the ache in his chest slowly starts to ease, but the feeling of longing still lingering. He tries to ignore it, and goes where the old woman pointed at. He doesn't know why, but something in him believes her.Pioran.
He thinks he might be going crazy, but then again, since he started receiving those dreams again and again, he doesn't know what to make of it anymore.
He turns to another hallway, but he can't find who he was looking for anywhere. He sighs, thinking that the old woman might've been wrong, or that she really doesn't know what she's talking about, and also thinking that he should just stop.
Maybe—
"Oww."
"Oh I'm sorry—"
He stops in his tracks. Lilac eyes meet his. He feels as if time has stopped. His breath hitches as he stands face to face with the very person he was looking for. He's finally able to see her closer. Green top and white pants. A purple flower clipped on her blonde hair flowing above her shoulders. She looks at him, mirroring his expression.
She was also the first to recover, averting her eyes to her right for a split second, before looking at him again. And after another second, she turns her head back to her right, stepping back as she looks at something with wonder and surprise in her eyes.
Gugu looks at where she's looking, and then he sees it. A painting. Not too big nor too small. Just enough to see the meticulous details.
A girl in a green dress and blonde hair. A boy wearing a chameleon-like mask covering his whole face, grey-colored pants, and no shirt. Even if it's just a painting, he could see the movement behind every stroke of the brush, on how they appear to be dancing, barefooted on the grass, purple flowers blooming around them.
The boy's right hand is on her waist, the other holding hers in it, slanting upwards towards the sky. The girl's dress and hair is flowing behind her, for the boy seemed to take a step back, dragging her along. A joyous laugh is on the girl's face, and despite having a mask, heknowsthat the boy is smiling, too.
"Tomorrow, I'll buy you another flower."
"We'll go pick it ourselves. I know of only one place where this flower blooms. Do you know of it too?"
"Of course. We'll definitely go."
"'I'll Meet You Where the Flowers Bloom'." Gugu is snapped out of his thoughts when the lady he's with speaks. It took him a couple of seconds to understand that she read the title of the painting. "It's beautiful."
He hums as an agreement, managing to take his eyes off the painting and back at her. He whips his head back to the painting, and he looks at the lady in surprise. "You look like her."
She looks at him. "What?"
His gaze goes back and forth between the girl in the painting and her. "You… look like the girl in the painting. Just younger, I guess."
The lady looks at the painting, stares at it for what seemed like a minute, and chuckles. "Maybe I do."
"You're not… weirded out by this?" he asks, unsure what to say.
She simply shrugs and walks closer. She looks at the information beside the painting, a small background. "I'll Meet You Where the Flowers Bloom. One of the original paintings from this very palace," she reads. "What does that mean?" she asks and looks at him.
He was surprised with the sudden question, and when she suddenly looked at him. "Uhm, this place used to be a palace. Renovated over time, until it became this museum," he explains, recalling the history of this place. "I heard that once, this whole place crumbled to the ground, until it was rebuilt."
She nods and returns her gaze at the information panel. "No records show who the boy in the painting is, but the young lady is believed to be the one who painted this herself. A letter was attached to the back of the painting, now preserved and can be read beside the painting," she continues. "A letter, huh?"
Gugu walks and stands beside her, now reading the old letter enclosed in a glass case. Even centuries old, they could still read it clearly.
My love,
It pains me whenever I remember you are no longer here. I painted this in my memory of you, of us, and what could have been. We did not have enough time. I regret every day that I was not able to tell you how I truly felt, how I wasted the little time we had together, and I'm sorry for that.
The next time we meet, the next life, we are going to fulfill the promise we made to each other. When the time comes, you will know who I am, and I will know that it is you, and we are no longer tied to a tragic destiny in which we suffer in.
I love you. I love you, and I always will.
Forever yours,
R
A wave of memories of his dreams overcame him. Or rather, he thinks that maybe, these are really his own memories themselves. He feels tears escape his eyes, as the ache in his chest grows.
The lady looks at him, tears also evidently wanting to flow from her eyes. She smiles and wipes them with the back of her hand. Gugu does the same.
"You know," the lady starts. "When I first saw you earlier, my first thought was,'Have we met before?'." She looks at the painting, the letter next, and finally back at him. She smiles once again. "Can I see your face?"
Without hesitation, Gugu reaches out to the strap on the back of his ear, and removes it, the other end just hanging on his left ear.
He should be weirded out by this, but all logic had been thrown out the window the very moment he saw her.So familiar. Like a distant memory. "Gugu," he says, awkwardly stretching out his hand. "That's my name."
She chuckles. "Rean."
Rean also reaches out her hand, meeting his. The moment their palms meet, he thinks on how they fit perfectly on each other, how they seem like they complete the other, and how it seems like the empty feeling in his chest has finally been completed, as well.
Gugu smiles at her. "Do you want me to tour you around, Rean?"
She smiles back, slowly letting go of his hand. "I'd love that."
He doesn't know what's going on with them, the painting, and the letter, but he may have an idea of it. But he can ponder upon that later. All he thinks about now is how everything seems like it was finally put together, a missing puzzle piece was found, and that the aching feeling of longing for something he can't understand was finally gone.
He glances at the painting once more, and catches a glimpse of words scribbled at the bottom right corner. He smiles, reading the words.
I can't wait for the day to come where we meet again, and pick flowers that bloom in the place only we know, my love. I have an eternity to be with you once more.
Notes:
They deserve a happy ending and all the love and a life together I love them so much. I'm sorry if this seemed kind of fast-paced? But yeah, I enjoyed writing this (may or may not have teared up) (I definitely didn't). I hope you enjoyed it, too!
