AN: Kevin and Earnest! Sorry for the delay! Here's your long awaited chapter dedicated just for you! My only reader who reviews all the time!
Chapter Four: Mrs. Black
These days were one of the rare ones. When the sky cries its heart out, I have to step out to what I've shut myself from. The world. I have to walk that lonely gray road with a slightly gray colored pink umbrella- one of the less possessions that doesn't hurt me much to touch because I feel a certain spirit linger by my side. The only one out the sidewalk with me in the midst of the downpour.
When I'm certain that I can go back to our apartment without aching too much, I go home.
I take the elevator, but as soon as it opens. I remember that someone will be waiting down the hall. A somewhat new companion- not as energetic like the baka I had. Not like a lover, not like a friend. But something in between an acquaintance and a stranger. Someone who strangely cares about me.
Her back is bent like a worn down iron, she was half my height with colorless hair tied in a prim bun- but her face always retained its soft yet goofy toothless grin. And she's grown accustomed to my activities on such a day. She knows I go out of the apartment for only minutes and so she waits outside her door,she waits until I come. Then she smiles and hobbles by me and walks silently by my side, like a guide, and we both silently head down the hallway.
Her name…?
"Mrs. Black."
I was taken aback by confusing announcement. Frowning slightly at the pink haired boy whom I love as a husband, I repeated after him, "Mrs. Black." Pushing myself from the door frame of the kitchen I resumed my position, leaning, on the counter. I watched my ever so genki lover reading the pie recipe for the millionth time that morning.
"Yes. Mrs. Black. The wisest woman that walked earth." he said again.He grinned at me and stuck a tongue out, sheepishly handing me the boxof chocolate jello, "Will you help me now? I really don't know how to make this american pie thing."
I smirked, "Are you going to give me some?"
"But Yuki!!!" he whined, taking away the box from my hand and huffing an irritated air out of his system, "This is for her!" he smiled moments later- and it really did make anyone's heart take a soaring trip to the sky.
I watched him mix the american concocted chocolate. Truthfully, it was only six in the morning when I heard clinks and clanks from the bedroom, curious, I stumbled out of bed and observed my little boy running about in the kitchen trying to find the pie crusts. He found it after rummaging everything inside and out. I had watched, but curiosity got the better of me and I asked what he was doing, and he said 'making pie' when I inquired whom it was for, he replied casually 'Mrs. Black.'
Pushing myself off from the counter, I stood behind him and wrapped an arm around his waist, kissing his cheek teasingly. He squirmed, and he looked torn between finishing the task before him or turning my way. He decided the pie was more important.
"Yuki." he tried to grumbled, "I have to finish this!!"
"Oh?" my voice softened increasingly, my breath hot on his nape, "why?" i whispered, kissing his neck.
"Be-" he giggled, "Because! Now-" another giggle, "stop it!"
"Because?" I asked again, even more determined, "Why? Tell me who she is. I don't remember a 'Black' before." suddenly all his movement stopped, and his hands came to my wrist, gripping me as if I would disappear on the mere mistake of bringing up the subject about the time that I had left him.
Twining our hands, I reassured him I was there.
"She's the lady that lives down the hall. In the room that was once vacant." his breathing calmed, and even though my nose was still buried on his scent, my movements stopped as well as his. He continued, "I met her, just a few days before you…called, before you informed me you were finally coming back." he took a deep breath, "Mika left to go to the store that day, and when she was gone, I had more time to devote thinking about you…and I missed you terribly."
One of my hand came across his chest and crossed to his shoulder, gripping the sie of his arm and pulling him tighter to me.
"I tried to get out of this apartment, but I didn't get far when I looked over the balcony and saw an old woman crying on the sidewalk. I was drawn to her…because I felt sad at such an age she was crying. Old people should be happy, their lives full of everything they've dreamt of, but this one lady. She was crying.
I came to her, and she was reluctant to talk to me. But she finally spoke to me and she told me she was very lonely. That she had left her home city behind where all her family was. When I asked her why, she just said she couldn't take it to be on the same land her husband left her."
While Shuichi spoke, I noticed his head lowering until his bangs hid away his precious amethyst jewels. But I let him continue.
"She was crying because only two weeks before her move to Tokyo, her husband died in Kyoto. Her name's Mrs. Black because her husband is American, and after knowing a little more about her family- she let know why she'd been crying.
Earlier that day," Shuichi mumbled, taking my hand and placng it on his cheek, "she awoke and became confuse as to why she was in a city she didn't know, she became frantic and she looked all over the apartment calling for her husband, and it wasn't until she stepped out on the streets that she realized that her husband was dead and remembered the whole reason why she was in Tokyo."
Then Shuichi returned from his sober state to his full of energy state. He presseda soft kiss on my lips and said as finality,
"We became best friends, and y'know, we make something new for each other every month." he giggled, tasting the mix, "You should meet her. She really is the smartest woman I've ever met."
Before answering, I heard a soft knock on our front door. Sighing and giving Shu's cheek a last peck, I walked leisurely down the hall…and opened the door.
"He almost fell." she chuckled. I snapped away from my thoughts when I heard her words. It was unsual for Mrs. Black to open a conversation. She was quiet often times, but today was different.
"What was that?" I asked as politely as I could. My eyes unshifting towards her, though I felt her black beads looking at me.
"When I met young Shuichi...before he came down to me, I saw him go to your balcony from the streets, and he hefted himself on the railing and called to me 'Don't cry Obaa-chan! Don't cry!" Mrs. Black chuckled again, "But he was crying too."
All of a sudden her smile was gone and her voice was calm again. Still talking to me.
"He related to me how he was the same to me then. Can you imagine the two of us, me, a lady past her young years and a pink haired man sitting on the sidewalk talking? Both crying? He told me how he too awoke some nights and would wonder why he was alone. Why his special man wasn't at his side when he was dying."
I didn't reply. I didn't think I could, not with my voice choking on itself.
Finally we came to a halt. We were in front of my door.
Mrs. Black smiled up at me as I looked down at her, and then she outstretched her hand where a cinnamon pie rested, the warm smell on it traveling up my nostrils as I took it with a grateful nod.
"I told him that we were both very different" she said, her voice creaking in over use, but she continued on, "I corrected that lovely man that you'd come back unlike my husband, and that there would be time for you two to catch up on things.
I'm glad that you proved me right dear. I said it at that time because I knew in my heart that he was too young to be crying like me. I'm so glad you proved me to be wise in his eyes." she gave me a toothless smile and then limped off with her cane, leaving me speechless.
Only when I closed the door behind me did I realize, that that one morning when I opened the door to a 'Black', I opened the door to someone who could share a little more of Shuichi's heart that I couldn't see. Someone who showed me that my husband's world was hunted by me, and revolved only for me.
AN: For those who are confuse. This is the 'aftermath' of 'Till Death We Part' and basically everything are memories that Yuki recalls in the short time he spent with his lover after finding out about his incurable disease. This story will deal more about Yuki 'present' life after Shu's death later. Lots of angst. Fluff, romance. Whatever- and anyone can request a little something too. Please review