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'Rose of Jericho'

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Prologue

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I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm hangin' on another day
Just to see what you will throw my way
And I'm hangin' on to the words you say
You said that I will, will be ok
The broken lights on the freeway left me here alone
I may have lost my way now, having forgot my way home

(Lifehouse, Broken)

-

Yuuki stared out the airplane as the coast of Japan began to form beneath it. She sighed and rested her forehead against a clenched fist. It was her first time back in a year and a half, and she wouldn't be returning if it wasn't for the fact she couldn't be a British citizen and compete for England. Apparently divorcing your parents was the same as divorcing your country of birth, even so, Yuuki wanted to compete in the Olympics enough to face her apprehension and haul across Europe, the Middle East and most of Asia to do it. The girl would have to live in the country for at least six months, training, trialling and preparing before heading back to London to set-up in the athletes village.

There was a bang and Zero snorted next to her, he had finally woken up and regained his regal composure that was often lost in sleep. The horse didn't like the turbulence; even Yuuki had to admit that the flight was unusually rocky. The horse flattened his ears against his head for a moment before widening his eyes and throwing his head in fear. Yuuki stood and moved to him.

The girl caught his halter and ran a hand up his cheek. "Bumpy huh?"
The horse snorted.

"Yeah, know." She replied coyly. "It's going to be worse on the ground. You better be good there too."

Zero's ears flickered forward at her voice and stood with his legs braced against the lurching of the plane.

"Good boy." Yuuki blew into his nostril; her mother had told her to do that in order to bond with a horse, to let it know who you are. It should have worked like that for humans."If I say 'Simon says, be still for the rest of the flight' would you?"

He stared at her. His ears still laid back.

"Okay. Simon says." Yuuki went and sat down again, one eye on her horse. He stood in his box, staring at her, his body rocking with the plane but otherwise unmoving. The girl laughed, knowing how uncanny it was that he had understood her and then actually obeyed as a result. The stable hand behind her grinned, everyone knew about Yuuki Cunxin. She was the youngest Olympian in equestrian, talented, pretty, smart and extraordinarily oblivious to it. Numerous men had asked her out, to each she had flatly refused, saying she had no interest at present and that she only had time to ride. Which, was true to a certain extent. When she wasn't riding, no one knew where she went.

Only Yuuki knew that, in her rooms at night, she would stare at the ceiling and play with a pendant at her throat. It burned to touch it, the memories it brought back were painful, but they were all she had left of the man she thought she had loved but didn't know if it had ever been reality.

She had stopped crying for him and only thought of him a few times a day. Her life had become riding and she had become her sport. She had cut herself off from the world and saw only one thing – Olympic gold.

The plane touched down, finally. It taxied to a halt and the stable hands leapt to their duties. Yuuki lead Zero down the ramp onto the tarmac and walked him in a circle a few times to ease his flight jitters and stretch both their legs. Something struck her. Things looked to familiar.

Yuuki stared at the car as it raced down the runway parallel to hers...She was watching them, her fingers pressed to the glass. Her face written with grief. It was like she had lost a loved one, like someone had died. Kyoya wound down the window and watched Yuuki's face change as she saw his head appear in the night. "YUUKI!" The wind whipped at him and carried his voice away.

Yuuki blinked. It had taken almost a year to get that image out of her head and it had attacked her so suddenly she had to pause. She forgot what she was doing for a second. The girl shook her head and moved to the car waiting for her, horse float attached. She led her prized possession into the carrier before signing the necessary papers.

"Welcome back." The official said, closing his clipboard and giving her back her passport. "Good luck with trials. Good thing you can't ride for Britain, more gold for us." He winked.

Yuuki smiled and nodded once at the man, she had become rather shy over the year; cutting herself off from unnecessary human contact in order to preserve herself – in order not to get hurt . She thanked the stable hand who put her bags in the trunk and waved at the pilot as he finished his checklist before sliding into the car.

"'ello miss." A familiar voice sounded. It was the man who had driven her the night she had fled. "I 'aint think I'd see you again, eh?"

Yuuki smiled. "Hey. Well, neither did I."

"Yeah, I gots a job now, workin' for the academy. We all come back sometime eh? Couldn't stay away from this place?"

"No." She leaned her head against the window. "No, It seems I could not."

"Well, welcome back anyhows. Me thinks you'll love this place more than ol' Brit. Just like me."

Yuuki closed her eyes, tired from her trip, hoping he wasn't right. Her insides were already searing around the edges, sizzling as old wounds got re-opened. They would eventually leave her raw and naked, a prime target for more hurt, and she hadn't even run into anyone she knew yet. Running into people was an odd talent she possessed, unwanted, but odd none-the-less. What would happen if she ran into Kyoya? Would the world pause? Halt entirely for them? Cease to exist?

The girl pushed her thoughts aside and focused on what she would do when she arrived at the academy.

The Tokyo Academy, sponsored by the Jockey Club, was one of the most prestigious riding schools in the world. Located at Tokyo University, it had large grounds, all sorts of arenas, stables, accommodation and cafes. It was a city unto itself, created for riders by riders. Olympians trained at it, trials were held in it and the world praised it. Yuuki's world would revolve around the academy, prepare within and compete through in order to get back into the Olympic team. Nothing else mattered. Nothing. At least, that's what she wanted to believe. Deep down, she knew that many things mattered besides her riding, there were other things she loved and wanted to do. Like study, travel for leisure, laugh. But they could wait; they could lie dormant until something woke them up. She didn't know what, and she didn't care. Not yet.

Kyoya's face filled her mind as it did every so often. It scared her. The lines of his chin were fuzzy and his eye colour undefined. His voice almost a guess and his smile an illusion. She was moving on, and inside, she found she didn't want to. Yuuki wanted to tear herself apart trying to cling to a person she had let go of.

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Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

(Fire and Ice, Robert Frost)

---

Kyoya roared down the highway in his car. The same Maserati he had taught Yuuki to drive in. It was fast and he often imagined it could catch a plane. The gearbox was still stiff from its abuse that fine summers day, and he couldn't bring himself to fix it. He hung onto everything that reminded him of Yuuki, even the fact that she had close to wrecked an automatic car, which is impossible for normal people. She wasn't normal. She understood him, and he her. They were cut from the same cloth, but from opposite sides of the fabric. Made to be stitched together and useless apart.

The engine shifted itself into a higher gear. Kyoya was on his way home from Washington where he had to collect the debts of another financial crisis. The flight had done nothing to ease his nerves, the airport had been advertising the Olympics. He had the gold medal Yuuki left behind in his luggage; it was his lucky charm of sorts. What she had been, only packaged for convenience and a painful reminder of what had been.

Up ahead, the lane began to slow. There was a large truck causing a lag in the left lane. The Ootori pulled into the right and overtook the clot, discovering that the inconvenience was not a truck, but a horse float. He gripped the wheel and pressed his glasses higher with one hand. Ever since Yuuki had left, everything reminded him of her. Everything. Even the weather. It was absurd and he knew it, he should be letting go but found he couldn't. Kyoya knew he was being held back, but found himself not caring. Anything to keep her for a moment longer, even in memory.

The horse in the float was a bay, just like Zero had been. Kyoya glanced in the window as he roared past; the driver was leant over the steering wheel, peering ahead through a pair of oversized glasses. He was obscuring the person beside him. The passenger moved slightly, Kyoya saw a knee, covered in denim and an elbow before he overtook and left the trailer behind him. Dismissing the thought as an obsession of purgatory, he moved on. It would never be her. He had a deadline and had to get home to type his report. Kyoya told himself that nothing mattered but work. He had sacrificed everything for what he was becoming and he would live with that and do it to the best of his ability.

He would move on. When he found the will to do so.

An hour later he pulled up in front of the Ootori mansion. A servant handed him a disk containing what his professor at the Tokyo Institute of Medicine had recorded while he was away. Kyoya had to study to be a doctor in order to fully inherit the business; it had unified hospitals and management after all.

"Kyoya." A stern voice called as he headed for his room.

The man stopped outside his father's study and stood in the doorway. "Yes."

Mr Ootori was crouched over an oak table, surrounded by papers. "I trust things in Washington went well?"

"They did."

"Good."

There was a long silence as Kyoya waited for something, anything. Welcome home maybe. Glad it was a good trip. Go rest, you look tired. Something to prove he was less of a business advocate and more of a son. There was nothing.

His father looked up; a little annoyed to see the man still there. "That is all." His voice was hard, unfeeling.

Kyoya nodded once and pushed his glasses up before continuing on his way. Before reaching his room he paused outside a closed door. A room that hadn't been touched in over a year. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it behind him. Shutting his eyes, Kyoya imagined Yuuki sitting on the floor behind her laptop or pulling on a riding boot or ballet flat – depending on where she was going. He imagined her smiling at him like she had when he had come to her. She had valued his openness, cherished its rarity and worth. Opening his eyes Kyoya was surrounded by the stark reality that the cold room emitted. It was lifeless, tortured, empty.

Sighing he disappeared and went to his room. He downloaded his lectures onto his Ipod and sat on his couch, listening to them. This was his life now. A life void of anything but memories and hard work to attain what he thought he wanted, but had lost something greater.

-

Sew this up with threads of reason and regret
So I will not forget. I will not forget
How this felt one year six months ago
I know I cannot forget. I cannot forget

I'm falling into memories of you and things we used to do
Follow me there
A beautiful somewhere
A place that I can share with you

I can tell that you don't know me anymore
It's easy to forget, sometimes we just forget
And being on this road is anything but sure
Maybe we'll forget, I hope we don't forget

I'm falling into memories of you,and things we used to do
Follow me there
A beautiful somewhere
A place that I can share with you

So many nights, legs tangled tight
Wrap me up in a dream with you
Close off these eyes, try not to cry
All that I've got to pull me through is memories of you
Memories of you
Memories of you
Memories of you

I'm falling into memories of you and things we used to do
Follow me there
A beautiful somewhere
A place that we can share
Falling into memories of you and things we used to do

(One year, Six months, Yellow card)

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And thus, the journey continues.

Don't try to predict it. I have a lot in store for this sequel.

Your reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated.

Tell me what you thought.

Blessings,

-pp.