Okay, I don't have much time, so I'll get right to the point. I'm so incredibly sorry about the lack of updates. I haven't abandoned this story, and I'm not going to. My biggest excuses are that I work full-time, I'm an artist who got bit with inspiration (some of you will be happy to know that much of my new art has been illustrations for this story...still haven't got a home lined up for them though...), and probably the biggest of all: dial-up internet. It is an absolute chore sometimes just to get online, so I don't really do it often. But I haven't stopped writing this story. In fact, I'm probably up there around the twenty-something chapters mark. In very rough draft. Written, not typed. So, I still have much work to be done on them. I will try to get them out in a more timely manner from now on. I promise.
That aside, I was really touched by all the reviews. I mean really. Thank you all, your words mean so much to me. I hope you continue to like my story. I'm really enjoying writing it. It seems I have found a muse in Aki. I find myself falling more and more in love with his character, cannon and my own spinnings on what might have been. I hope you all are liking him as well.
Btw, just a note real quick to Reilly Black: I have saved your fic to read the next time I have a moment to get online. I am definitely interested. Although I'm not sure how I feel about an Aya/Aki story where they're unrelated (the angst/drama of that taboo is part of what has drawn me to the pairing after all), I will certainly check it out. I'm not sure what I can tell you to get through writer's block, as I too suffer from it from time to time. The best thing I've found is just to write, and not think too hard about what's going to happen next. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't. But anyway, I just wanted to give you a quick response to let you know that I am going to read your story.
Anyway, I think I've made everyone wait long enough. On with the story!
Steps
Aya + Aki
By: L 0 K I
Bridge
"You can't be serious." Aya turned the single sheet of printer paper over and over in her hands. Then she noticed something strange--Ceres was silent.
Her eyes shot up to her brother's, wide with surprise and wonder. And not a little amount of fear. It wasn't as if Ceres was loquacious, but since they had unbound that box at her grandfather's house, and in turn unbound the past sleeping inside her, the Celestial Maiden had no problem whatsoever in expressing what she thought, and what she knew, and what she expected. Especially when Aya's twin brother was within view. To suddenly have her silence...well, it was a little unsettling.
But NOT unwelcome.
"What is it," she whispered, quieter, her fingers gentling on the pure white paper, almost reverently.
Aki stared down at it, too, traced the curves with his eyes, and felt himself growing quieter as well. "It's sort of like a ward or spell-scroll. But apparently the spell rests in the actual lines of the symbol. I'm not sure what it all means, but it's old. The Kurata family has been marking their daughters with it for hundreds of years. The Tennyo blood is passed down, but doesn't manifest in physical form." He frowned slightly, his eyes full of distant thoughts and bitterness. "The Kurata's never kill their daughters. They're treated with honour and respect, as the descendents of a Celestial Maiden should be."
He hesitated, then reached out and touched a lock of her gold hair as the wind played with it. "I'm glad we're getting away from the Mikage family, Aya. I won't allow them to hurt you."
He dropped his hand almost abruptly, taking a small step back from her and turning to stare off into the shadowed distance. Soon morning would be peaking over the horizon, not that you could really see much of a horizon from here.
Aya glanced at him curiously at the move, but thought nothing more on it as the ward drew her eyes once again. It seems she had seen this image before, but she couldn't force the memory to the front of her mind...
Aki's hand fisted shakily at his side, but he quickly shoved it in his pocket and bit his lip.
"This is wonderful," she went on obliviously, then pouted slightly, "but impractical. I can't carry this around for the rest of my life, Aki." She waved the sheet at him, as if to make her point.
"You don't have to, Aya. Listen, let's get out of the open, and I'll explain the rest to you, okay?"
"Okay," she said without hesitation, turning to follow him back across the bridge.
Bridge
n 1 a : a structure carrying a roadway over a depression or obstacle b : a time, place, or means of connection or transition 2 something resembling a bridge in form or function 3 something that fills a gap
vt 1 : to make a bridge over or across; also : to traverse by a bridge 2 : to provide with a bridge
To find a way of getting over, as a difficulty; Anything supported at the ends, which serves to keep some other thing from resting upon the object spanned, as in engraving, watchmaking, etc., or which forms a platform or staging over which something passes or is conveyed.To open or make a passage, as by a bridge.Connect or reduce the distance betweenSynonyms: viaduct, overpass, link, connection, conduit, association, channel, passage, join, relation, crossing...
TBC...