A/N: Here's the last chapter! :)
Chapter 4. A Battle Lost
Fukuzawa Yumi was anxious.
Why was it that her heart was racing ever since she stepped in this mansion? And her hands, they wouldn't stop shaking. And her knees, why did they feel so weak? What was wrong with her? She had been here a few times, spent some night here a few times also, and even if she was nervous in all those times, they were nothing compared to what she was feeling right now. Why was that?
'Is something going to happen?'
And Ogasawara Sachiko.
Sachiko seemed different, too. She couldn't exactly tell what, but she could feel it. There was just something…different.
"Yumi, I just need to talk to my mother about something. Is it alright if I leave you here for a while?"
There.
What a beautiful sound coming from the lips of the person she loved the most, the person she was in love with. She flushed at the thought.
"I'll be fine here, Onee-sama. Please don't worry about me. Take your time," Yumi said, trying to cover up her anxiousness with a smile. However, she must have failed, because those blue eyes of her beloved were staring at her intently. But oh, a smile broke her lips. It was so beautiful, just like the rest of her.
"I'll see you later, then. Please make yourself comfortable, Yumi," Sachiko said with a smile, before she walked out of her magnificent room, leaving Yumi in half-anxious and half-dreamy state.
Yumi stared at Sachiko's luxurious bed. She had slept here for the first time when she came here last time. She was full of worries then, and happy at the same time. And now, she was more worried than before, and deeply hoping that everything would be alright tonight.
She carefully sat at the side of the bed, enjoying its softness. She would wait for Sachiko here. And she waited nervously, waited until several minutes passed, and then waited some more minutes.
"Onee-sama said that she'll be gone only for a while. Why is she taking so long?"
She waited some more. And after a few more minutes of waiting, she decided to start preparing herself for sleep. After getting a pair of pajamas from her small traveling bag, she headed to the luxurious bathroom of Sachiko. She stopped for a minute in admiration, awed by the beauty of it. It truly befitted the only daughter of the wealthy Ogasawaras.
---o---
Sachiko took a deep breathe before she entered her room. Her talked with her mother was supposed to be short only. However, they had to settle some things first and so it took longer than she had anticipated. Yumi must be lonely being alone in her room. And there were things that she needed to tell Yumi, things that made her nervous. When she first decided upon it, she was full of confidence, but when Yumi arrived in her house, her confidence wavered. What was wrong with her? When it came to Yumi, she was always in a battle to herself.
Once Sachiko stepped in her room, she readied a smile for Yumi. However, the latter was nowhere in sight.
"Yumi?"
Where Yumi could have gone into? Did she get bored and left?
She started to panic. Searching her huge room for any sign of Yumi, her eyes settled on a brown bag at the floor.
"Yumi's bag?"
Once again, she looked around, searching for Yumi. And then her eyes settled on the bathroom door. Yumi was probably in there. With hurried steps, she knocked at the bathroom door while calling Yumi's name. Getting no response, she opened the door in worry and stepped inside.
And then she stopped in her tracks.
She couldn't move.
She couldn't breath.
She was frozen with the sight that greeted her.
Wide-eyed, she stared at the person whose whole body was covered with nothing but droplets of water.
A sweat trickled in Sachiko's brow.
---o---
Yumi thought she heard something, or rather, someone calling her name. It must be Sachiko. She quickly finished her shower and as she was about to reach the towel, she heard a loud gasp. She turned around, and then stopped dead.
There, larger than life, stood a beautiful statue.
No.
A frozen with shock Sachiko.
They both stared at each other with shock.
Sachiko was the first to recover.
"I…I'm sorry, Yumi, I didn't…"
Unable to continue, Sachiko turned and went out fast as if the devil was after her, closing the door not so gently.
Sachiko was gone for quite some time before Yumi recovered from her shock. Embarrassment crept in. Her face colored and her hands trembled as she quickly reached for the towel to cover her nude form, covering herself hastily as if the incident hadn't happened yet. She was embarrassed to the core. What would Sachiko think of her ugly self? She was nothing compared to Sachiko's gorgeous body.
She wished that the floor would open up and swallow her whole. But of course, unless an earthquake would happen and destroyed the floor she was standing in, there was no way she would be swallowed up by the floor in this circumstance.
How was she going to face Sachiko?
---o---
Sachiko was trying to control her breathing as she leaned at the closed bathroom door.
What was she thinking barging in the bathroom like that?
Stupid!
She couldn't help but scold herself for panicking and thus, bringing both she and Yumi in an embarrassing situation. It wasn't included in her plans for tonight.
How was she going to face Yumi now?
More importantly, how was she going to look at Yumi without remembering her look at the bathroom, how the droplets of water look alluring in her, how her beautiful body…
Sachiko groaned as if wounded, then quickly covered her mouth lest Yumi heard her. She moved away from the bathroom door and went to her bed with wobbly legs. There, she waited for Yumi with racing heartbeat.
---o---
Yumi reluctantly went out of the bathroom and found Sachiko sitting in bed. She couldn't meet her eyes. Timidly, she went to her bag.
"Yumi, are you mad at me?" Sachiko asked uncertainly, her insides were in a knot with worry, worry that Yumi was mad at her.
Yumi forgot her uneasiness and stared at Sachiko with surprise.
"Why should I be mad? It was…it was an accident, Onee-sama, you didn't…" Yumi stammered as heat crept on her cheeks once more.
"Of course I didn't. I thought you got bored and left me. It was silly of me," Sachiko said as she let out a relieved sigh. Yumi wasn't mad at her.
"It never even crossed my mind to leave, Onee-sama," Yumi said in surprise. Why would Sachiko think like that? Unless Sachiko told her to leave, she would never. She wanted to stay close to Sachiko. Even if she couldn't say what she truly felt, she was still happy just to be near her. She treasured any moment she spent with Sachiko. And she woul do anything just to be with her.
---o---
It was really awkward. The silence was deafening as both Sachiko and Yumi were lost in their thoughts as they lay in bed. Their thoughts were almost the same. It was the incident at the bathroom. Where Sachiko was burning Yumi's image in her mind and trying to battle the urge to feel what she saw, Yumi was worrying herself to death about what Sachiko thought about the bathroom incident. It was killing her. And yet, she couldn't find the courage to ask, to open up. Suddenly, Sachiko got up and walked towards the door leading to the terrace. Worried, she sat up and followed Sachiko with her gaze.
"Onee-sama…"
Sachiko heard Yumi's call but she remained quiet. She was steeling herself with what she had to do, what she had planned. She had to forget for the moment Yumi's nude image in her mind, although it was a very hard task. She almost didn't want to pursue her plan and instead have Yumi right there if she would let her. But she must not. She must do it the way as she planned or else, she might scare Yumi away.
"Yumi, would you come with me for a moment," Sachiko said in a strained voice, trying to calm herself.
"Of course, Onee-sama," Yumi agreed uneasily as she got up from bed and walked towards Sachiko. She shyly reached for Sachiko's hand when the latter offered hers.
"We should wear something to keep us warm."
Later on, Sachiko and Yumi were walking at the garden, hand in hand. They walked for some time. Sachiko led Yumi to a big tree near a small stream. It was an area where the light from the lamp posts almost didn't reach. Sachiko, of course, had made her way in this place many times so she didn't need anything to light the way.
"Onee-sama, what are we doing here?" Yumi asked just to have something to say.
"Are you scared, Yumi?"
"No, I'm not, Onee-sama. After all, you're here with me," she said, and was glad of the darkness that hid her flushed face. She really wasn't scared of the darkness because she was with Sachiko.
"I'm glad. There's something I want to show you, Yumi," Sachiko said with a hint of smile. She stopped walking as soon as they reached her intended destination. They stood there in silence, the darkness enveloping both of them.
Yumi looked around with a frown.
"What are you going to show me, Onee-sama? It's so dark here. There's nothing that could be seen in…" Yumi stopped talking as her eyes caught something that almost made her jump in fright.
A little flash of light.
Unknowingly, Yumi gripped Sachiko's hand tighter as she moved closer to her while staring hard to where the flash of light had been. She stared hard but it was gone. Must be her imaginations. She relaxed a little and opened her mouth to talk again when another flash of light appeared. And then another. Before she could think again or act on her fear, her eyes grew wide as she gasped aloud at the sight. It was like lights were raining from the thick canopy of a tree. One after the other and soon, the whole tree was lighted with small lights, making the place bright.
"Do you like it, Yumi?" Sachiko asked with a wide smile at seeing Yumi's astonishment.
"Onee-sama, it's wonderful. It's so beautiful! It's like a Christmas tree," Yumi agreed, breathless, as her face broke into a beautiful smile that Sachiko had to suck in her breath.
"Yes, it is. When I first saw this place, glowing brightly, I was drawn to it. It was so beautiful, beautiful like I've never seen before. But now, this sight is only second to what I consider beautiful," Sachiko said, sparing only a brief glance to the surroundings before looking at Yumi again with a smile.
Yumi gazed at Sachiko with puzzlement.
"Only second now?"
How it could be, Yumi thought. Was there anything more beautiful than a beautiful tree lighted by hundreds of fireflies? If it was more beautiful than this, then it must be really something very beautiful for Sachiko to say that this now only came second.
"Yes, only second now," Sachiko agreed, not taking her eyes off Yumi.
"Then the one you considered as the most beautiful must be something incomparable," Yumi said eagerly. She wanted to see it, too, the thing that Sachiko considered as the most beautiful of all.
"Yes, there is nothing that can be compared to it," Sachiko agreed once more.
"Onee-sama, is it here also? Would you show it to me, too?" Yumi asked excitedly, and then she colored for the nth time. Why did she say that? Surely it was something very special to Sachiko alone, that was why she only showed her the second best. She chided herself for not thinking before asking.
"Yes it is here, just right in front of me," Sachiko said tenderly.
"Here?"
Yumi looked on her back, but she couldn't see anything but darkness.
"Onee-sama, where…" Yumi stopped, her eyes widened as her heart beat in a frenzied motion. In a slow motion, she gazed at Sachiko who looked back at her with loving eyes.
Impossible!
This couldn't be real!
Yes, this must be a dream.
It couldn't be possible that Sachiko would say in reality that she was…Yumi couldn't even think about it. It was embarrassing. She shouldn't jump into conclusions like that. Especially of Sachiko thinking that she, Yumi…she shook her head. It was preposterous for her to think something like that.
Sachiko cupped Yumi's cheeks tenderly.
"Yes, Yumi. You are the most beautiful thing, the most beautiful that ever happened to me. You're incomparable. The light that you gave me shines brightly, brighter than a thousand or even a million of fireflies could ever do. You gave light to my life. You gave me love, Yumi. For that, I want to thank you."
Tears stung Sachiko's eyes with the emotion that she was feeling right now, the love that she was feeling for the person in front of her.
"Onee-sama," Yumi didn't know what to say. Instead, she raised her hand and wiped Sachiko's tears tenderly. "Please don't cry. I don't want to see you crying, Onee-sama. It hurts to see you like that. I'd do anything, Onee-sama, anything, so that you wouldn't have any reason to cry. I would do anything to see you happy, to make you happy."
Yumi didn't know why she said it, but it was what came into her mind. And she meant it. She meant it with all her heart. She didn't even notice that she just said in a subtle way to Sachiko that she loved her, that she was in love with her.
Sachiko gasped softly. What Yumi said was so near to what she wanted to hear, to what she wanted to say.
"Oh, Yumi, you just don't know how much you mean to me, how much I love you. You are everything to me, Yumi, everything," Sachiko confessed. Her mind wasn't in a battle anymore. She had surrendered, and accepted the lost without any regrets.
After freezing for sometime, Yumi slowly absorbed what Sachiko just said. It was music to her ears. Sachiko saying that she loved her, that she was everything to her, was almost too much to bear. She didn't have to worry anymore. She didn't have to fear anymore. She wasn't in danger of a heartbreak anymore. Because the person she loved, loved her back.
"I love you, too, Sachiko, so much," Yumi said emotionally, before her lips were covered by Sachiko's. Under the dancing leaves of the tree and the swirling lights of fireflies, they shared a tender kiss. And later on, Sachiko had once again saw the beautiful form of her beloved, not covered with droplets of water but with droplets of sweat, just as Yumi saw hers.
---Wakas---
A/N: That was longer than I expected. Honestly. It just kept on popping in my mind and I had to write it. Though somehow, the story changed from my original intent as I was writing it. So, can I have my break now? :)
And yeah, where do you think they ended? Under the tree or in bed? :):) Your guess is as good as mine :)
The next story that I will post have something to do with the word 'under'.
Salamat (thank you) for staying with my crazy ideas!
---Arvendell---
15 April 2008