Disclaimer: Not the creator of Vocaloid, not the person who made this particular English rendition, don't sue.
Chapter 9
It was cold, very cold; and it was also very dark and very lonely and very frightening. It was almost as if he had fallen into a dark sleep in which dreams would surely turn to nightmares, in which surely everything seen and felt and heard would be evil.
The gentle press of lips onto his, however, awoke him from this terrifying sleep, and he felt as though he had been pulled from the depths of a cold ocean and that this crushing pressure had finally been lifted from him.
Slowly his green eyes fluttered open, and he saw his lover's face, those usually smiling and loving and mischievous eyes filled with tears. Those familiar arms helped him sit, but before he could utter a single word, a single sound, a beautiful smile, radiant and reassuring and sad, graced his lover's features. And softly, like a fading echo never to be heard again, he heard in his mind Akaito's loving voice speak that gentle phrase he often said to him. Only now, however, it sounded like a final farewell.
I love you.
And in a fleeting instant, Mikuo saw it. He saw his lover's form shift and warp and change, and the person before him was no longer his red-haired lover he had been so madly in love with. Instead, it was-
Akaiko?
And like broken glass shattering in a single, powerful burst, his lover, his friend, his everything, disappeared before his very eyes, a single alabaster feather all that was to remain as evidence that Akaito had truly been real, had truly existed, that everything he had lived with that person had been a reality.
That's when he began to remember.
He remembered the broken look on Akaiko's face when he had rejected her, remembered how much Akaito had looked like her when he had met him, remembered how inhumanly enticing his lover had been to him, how easily he had swept him off his feet; remembered how he had thrown everything away without a second thought for the redhead he had so completely fallen in love with, remembered the other's unconditional love.
Mikuo remembered the blue-haired man whose bullet had pierced his chest.
And that's when he realized that his lover's spell had broken, that his lover's life had been a trade to save his own.
Hot, stinging tears fell down like a torrent down his cheeks as he wept and screamed, all the while clutching that black feather that was all that was left of his lover, that was all he could hold onto now that Akaito was gone.
And he kept on weeping and weeping, the sins that they had committed finally claiming the price they so demand.
And Mikuo could only hope through his tears that blinded him and the agony that racked and tore at his heart that they could meet once more. At least one more time so that they could say a proper goodbye.
Even if it would be in their dreams.
A/N: Please review! Constructive criticism and your general thoughts would be very much appreciated.