CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Beneath Starry Skies (II)

Kaede could not believe how quick everything progressed.

From the jet ride, to a summer house, to sitting in a curtained room with Hanabusa with plenty of iced coffee, to nightfall, and her dragging Hanabusa by his hand to the private shore. This lifestyle screamed wealth, but how could Kaede not resist the prospects of looking up at nights so black and clear and sharp against bright, shining flecks of silver?

The sand warmed her toes as Kaede flitted to the shoreline. She felt the sand cling to her feet, damp from the approaching and retreating waves. The wind crept alongside her back and shoulders, carrying her hair to all sorts of places, namely her face, wild and tangled and she did not mind it at all. She pushed it all back and turned around, squinting to see Hanabusa at a safe distance. He looked at the water with something like disdain, and then he bent his head to look at his shoes. "Scared of getting them wet?" she called out.

"They cost as much as five of your telescopes," he merely commented. Then, he looked surprised and almost apologetic and just as quickly, a smile appeared. "But I can take it off," he amended as he began to slip off his shoes. "Just let me know when to stop."

And Kaede watched as he put his shoes to the side, and then his sweater, and then his shirt. It took her a moment and, with a laugh, she decided to remain silent. She watched him, eyebrow raised, as Hanabusa's confidence waned and his strip slowed. "Uh, Kaede." She only smiled, and shrugged.

But he saw a different kind of Kaede. A Kaede with twilight as her background, the ocean behind her, her hair flying, and her smile, bright. Hanabusa laughed and shook his head, and at last Kaede could not hold it and turned away as his finger slipped under the waistband of his shorts. "It's so strange to be able to go outside without a jacket," she commented as she faced away from him. "Do you ever just want to go another country for their climate and just leave?"

"Sometimes," he admitted.

Something about his tone sounded wistful. She looked back, and could not help but smile again. Kaede had no idea how she got here, how she had been this lucky. She thought she had been content before, but this thing she had with Hanabusa felt...personal. It was strange. Despite the date and the late nights and the countless trifles and, of course, the fact he was a vampire — it felt new and strange yet normal all at once. "I have no idea how I'm going to repay you for this, Hanabusa."

He laughed at the notion, and took a step towards her. "Monthly installments for up to three years with compound interest sounds like a start." Kaede nudged him on the side with her elbow, but said nothing.

Inhaling deeply, she asked, "So when are we going to go up?" she asked as she pointed at the cliff. The moon did not quite hang over them yet, but the skies were dark enough that she could imagine how the rest of the night will pan out. The truck stood behind them, and in the back was the telescope. It taunted her, and she wanted to turn to it and go up but Hanabusa's eyes remained on the moon's reflection off water that practically shimmered.

Not often, but more than it usually had, did Kaede stop to realize that Hanabusa was here. A person like Hanabusa, a life like this, was happening. It made her feel a sense of gratitude and wonder but just as quick as she thought those two words, she took a deep breath and cleared her thoughts. If Kaede were to be aware of Hanabusa, it made everything about her feel...forced. She didn't want to manicpixiedreamgirl Hanabusa, but she wanted to grab his hand and take him up to the cliff and showed him, no, convince him of that feeling that consumed her whenever she saw stars: the bright constellations shining down on thousands and millions of people and things and cities. Stars that made her feel tiny, as if looking at them allowed her to zoom out and see all it can. The billion year old balls of fire, galaxies apart.

"...right, Kaede?"

She blinked. Hanabusa seemed as if he had been saying something, but for the life of her she did not know what. "Yes?" she agreed hesitantly, squinting at him. And then Hanabusa said something and she nodded without paying attention, but she caught the gist of it. Reaching into her pocket, she took out the little tin box and barely looked at the pill before she swallowed it.

xxx

I felt the same sensations from the last time: something burned through me, not altogether painful, and almost too close to pleasurable. A tingling sensation, really. And then my eyes felt as if a film was being pulled over by thousands of tiny microbes. Or maybe, my optical nerve endings regrowing itself, I don't know. But I wanted to scratch it off, to peel back the murky filmy shield that was covering my eyes.

"Kaede?"

I felt his hand on my shoulder, but I did nothing more than squeeze eyes shut. And then, just like before, all the filminess disappeared and suddenly my eyes felt...cold.

And so, so clear.

The world bloomed again in colour.

The brown of the sand, the shimmering mirage of white and blue and black hues of the ocean. Green moss. A tinge of yellow on the olive branches. The black, black skies that felt so familiar. My chest ached. I felt something pull up tight inside me, making me feel inexplicably tiny all over again. Was this what awe felt like? Because it sure felt like it. I felt like I was standing in front of God. Well, in truth, I was standing and looking up into the universe. That had to be awe-worthy.

"So...how is it?"

I laughed. "The same as before." I couldn't find the words for it. I looked at the skies that seemed to endlessly stretch over my head, and I felt as if I could see the way each star, light years away, pierced into earth's heavens. Clarity was beautiful. Colour was beautiful. "I still don't understand how you could do this, Hanabusa. You're a genius." And then a thought dawned on me. "Are you planning to...distribute this?" I had been a part of an achromatic society as a child in New York, but I fell out of touch with others that had the same condition as me. To think that I see colour now, and they do not.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, looked at the ocean. "I don't know. It was...exhausting to make."

"Do you mean expensive?"

He only shrugged. I decided to say nothing further. I simply stood at the shore, watching the water and wind and even the sky move. Everything felt perfect. No, perfect wasn't accurate enough. I felt like everything in the world — each star, each gust of wind, each strand of hair, each speck of sand, each drop of water, and each molecule of carbon was perfectly in harmony, and that the world was right. The moment could have been frozen into eternity, and I would be content. I still could not quite believe that I was here in Australia with the ability to see and appreciate the starry night. And that I was here with Hanabusa.

Somehow, a distance grew between us. Hanabusa's eyes remained still on the faraway waters, so I walked to him and touched his shoulder. Not an ounce of heat came from his skin, I noticed. "Thanks for this. For everything." Blond hair, blue eyes. I tried to name each and every colour and engrave them in my head. I wanted to memorialize everything before, eventually, time would take it away.

"Stop thanking me, already," he said, but his tone was playful. He turned back to look me, smiling. "I was thinking about something."

"Oh?"

Hanabusa's eyes seemed alive. It looked like an ocean blue. It was night and there was not a single sources of light close to them but I could still see the tinges of blue and green in his eyes, moving and shifting. And he was looking at me so closely, his eyes roaming across my face.

I have never been really self-conscious. Sure, I had moments when I vowed to eat better and take up running with Akira, but then I usually agreed that I was happy enough with how I looked and returned to old behaviour. But the way Hanabusa was looking at me right now, as if he could see each pore and each fleck in my face, and the surface under the skin, and past the flesh and organs, and deeper than the physical —

"Hm," he said. He leaned back. "Did I buy you a telescope?"

I blinked and stared. "Yes, you did."

"And a horse smashed it."

"It did."

"And at one point, you were at my window?"

"That happened, yes."

"And you met my cousin?"

My mind scattered. A cousin? Right. A cousin. "I think so."

"And I bit you. And your memory was gone."

Not it was sounding ridiculous, especially when he was saying everything that happened in a list. "You did. You also told me you're a vampire, if that's the next question," I inputted casually. He only nodded.

"And I tutored you. And at one point, I met your father, and you met mine. You came to my home. I took you on a date, and you got sick."

I nodded along. Everything he recounted seemed so long ago, so uncertain. "You were a jerk, too." When did everything change and become so...settled? Or maybe I just felt like this because I was, like every quintessential movie character, lost in the moment.

"Huh," he said thoughtfully. And before I knew what he was doing, the distance between us disappeared and my his hands held my face as his mouth pressed against mine, kissing me, his lips yielding mine apart and drawing me in. Eyes shut, hands roaming —

Things happened. The earth rotated. Wind travelled. Waves met the shore, and continents trudged on ever so slowly but all of that seemed not only too fade but be relinquished altogether in a kiss.

For a brief second I had to pull away to catch my breath, but Hanabusa's lips did not leave me. He kissed my face and the side of my neck and my collarbone and my shoulder and, dazed, my eyes fluttered open just for a moment to recognize wisps of his golden hair and with a start, I remembered where we were. I laughed and touched his face, my fingers in his hair, pulling him back up. "Hanabusa, we can't do this here."

"Says?" he challenged in between kisses he left on the crook of my neck that sent shivers down my spine and legs.

"Hanabusa," I said again, but my shakiness and laughter outdid any seriousness.

And then I remembered that this man loved me.

He had said it. It nearly slipped my mind. No, it did. How had it slipped my mind? Hanabusa said he loved me. A living human being — well, not quite — but a person nonetheless loved me, and for the first time in my life.

Don't say anything back.

He had provided me with an out the last time, but I wanted to say something now. "I love you, too."

He stopped, and straightened to his full height so that now he was looking down at me, eyes wide. For a second, he looked startled, but then his mouth cracked into a smile and his eyes were bright; bright as stars. "Too?" he echoed, but his the corner of his lips was etched in that perpetual smile.

"You said it once," I explained. "And I didn't say anything back, but I am now."

"Are you sure you're not saying that because I flew you out of the country?" he asked and despite the joke, I felt he really needed an answer.

I kissed him quickly, sweetly. "No."

But he wasn't satisfied with the answer. In the same way I could see the shifts of light in his eyes, I saw it the very moment they darkened with concern.

xxx

"I love you, too."

Something in Hanabusa's chest stopped. Even as a vampire, his heart still beat, and blood stilled moved through his veins. But for a moment, everything stilled. He heard nothing. Not his blood rushing, her blood rushing, the waves rushing, the winds rushing, nothing. Nothing slowed. It just stopped. I love you, too.

"Too?" he heard himself say, breaking the silence at last. Everything rushed back, and he almost felt lightheaded. He felt human. He felt vulnerable.

"You said it once. And I didn't say anything back." No, you didn't. "But I am now."

"Are you sure you're not saying that because I flew you out of the country?" he said, feeling the lingering remorse. But it was set aside the moment Kaede's warm, soft lips kissed his in a way that made his heart physically lurch out towards her, as if it was desperately trying to find its way to hers.

"No," she said. And he could feel that she meant it.

"So don't go."

She turned her head to the side, confused.

"What?"

"Don't leave when the year's over." Hanabusa never begged, and yet: "Just stay. With me."

And he had put everything in those simple words, words he did not imagine ever saying. But when she responded, he felt everything drop.

"We sound like Rachel and Ross."

Hanabusa sighed, and then he rolled his eyes.

Kaede. My Kaede.

And so he kissed her again. And again. And again. Until they did not remember where they were, or even their own names.

I can't believe it's been ten months! Honestly, everyone, I meant to update. No idea what happened. Please show this story some love if you're still reading - I'd love to pick it up again now that exams are nearly over! This really was a super, unnecessarily romantic cliche chapter but ah well. I promised a story with no angst, and I will fulfill that.

Thank you so much for reading after this unintentional hiatus! Hope everyone the best!

(Also, in wake of a recent huge act of plagirism, I'd really appreciate it if you would let me know with a quick message if you see any of my work — whether fragments or chapters or the entire story — anywhere else. This is my only writing account. I do have a wattpad, but nothing is published. Thanks!)