Title: 008 - Magic

Author: schyra

Rating: ?

Pairings/Characters: Gale

Warnings: ...Vague.

Summary: Believe in wonder, if not life itself..

Author's Note: Bahahahahha. Arghs.

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008 – Magic

Believe in wonder, if not life itself..

The first time Gale held her in his arms, his heart had felt like it was about to burst. Nothing could be better. Sakura was beautiful, kind, gentle. Her very presence by his side warmed his soul. He loved her. Truly, madly, deeply. She was the light he hadn't known he was missing.

"I love you," he told her. Words he had been dying to say.

When they got married, he'd thought that heaven truly did exist here on earth. He had found it in a woman. He wondered at her existence. Bliss truly existed, here on this little island, isolated from everything.

When Cattleya was born, heaven became an understatement.

He gazed upon his daughter in awe, nestled in her mother's loving arms, and felt that if he were any happier, his heart would break. He wondered at the glory of life. When his baby first smiled and gurgled his name, Gale knew that he would give up everything, everything for this innocent girl, this beautiful gift of his and Sakura's love.

But those happy times soon came to an end. Darkness came, and Gale went with it.

His best friend, King, fallen into the clutches of evil. And, without meaning to, Gale followed him and led Sakura to her death. Two lights in his life, flickering, and being snuffed out. He couldn't weigh one against the other, for the loss of both hurt just as deeply.

He was just sad. Sad, sad, sad.

Life lost meaning.

It became hollow, empty. A heavy burden on his chest that kept him from breathing easy in his sleep. The guilt would not let him rest. Every sleepless night, every waking moment, Gale tried to find a reason for still being alive.

Go home, to pain? To continue wandering, lost in chaos and a haze of hate?

Restlessly, he tried to find meaning to his existence.

"Where can I go?"

The barren desert was all that was fit for him now, and he wandered it, trying to regain what he had lost. In his dreams, he scrabbled uselessly at the scraps of memories, trying to save the pieces of what was so very important to him, long ago.

Years later, with more than a decade of time between them, Gale looked down at one of his remaining treasures and smiled. He had found it again. Light.

"Don't worry, son. I'll protect you."

These words he had always wanted to say.

Simple and short-lived magic.

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END.