Out of love for you, I have forgiven the world. – Alexandre Dumas (basically, the story was inspired by this quote, all while listening to Moon River by Aurora haha)
NOTE: Kaiser has been on my mind since I caught up in the manga. I had to write something just to get him out of it. haha. It will be short though.
Warnings: abuse, hurt, suicide, dying, trauma, cursing, strong language, mature content, soft smut and detailed smut in the future chapters, maybe? Who knows….
Set after Kaiser retired from football.
She'd lost count of how many times she had done this. Each time she closed her eyes, ready to welcome the silence of death, when darkness was about to swallow her and her body screamed in agony—there he was. Standing at the edge of her consciousness. Bruised. Scarred. His messy blonde strands falling over his brow.
The one who promised a place better than heaven.
Next time…
Next time…
Hope was a poison, keeping her bound to a life she couldn't bear but couldn't let go.
Not yet.
Not until she saw him again, until he gave her the heaven she craved. Until then, she would endure. She would feed the grief and the longing, until nothing remained but the ashes of what should have been.
Because in his arms, she had lived.
And in his arms, she would die.
Michael Kaiser had it all. Success. Fame. A successful career in soccer that seemed to stretch beyond the horizon, a name etched into the country's very soul. No one, from the cities to the quietest towns, would fail to recognize his face or his achievements. He had conquered everything. There was no higher peak to scale, no more records to break. He stood at the summit, looking out over his kingdom of fame, and yet... he was empty.
The golden weight of success had once been enough to sustain him, a fleeting sense of joy in the rush of accolades, the shine of trophies, the roar of adoring crowds.
For a while, he had felt alive. The glory had been enough to feed him for a time, but like a feast on stale bread, it had long since lost its taste.
Now, all he had was emptiness, the peculiar ache of a man who had everything and, somehow, nothing.
He stood by the sliding doors leading out to the balcony of his house, perched at the highest point of the town, the sprawling landscape of city lights below him. The view, magnificent as ever, barely registered. His eyes were fixed on the horizon, but his mind drifted, caught in a fog of discontent, unaware of the faint hum from the television behind him.
It was there, just a whisper at first, a soft brush of sound that grazed the edges of his consciousness.
He didn't pay it much mind. It was just another background noise, nothing worth noticing. But then, it shifted. The tune bent into something... different. A melody.
A voice.
It was like the sound of a thousand voices, soaring in perfect harmony, yet not quite of this world.
The air around him seemed to shimmer, as if reality itself was bending to the force of the song.
The voice, lilting and otherworldly, floated in the room, too beautiful to be human, too pure to be real. It wove through the silence of the room, filling the space with a strange, haunting magic. The sound was almost like a sacred prayer and Kaiser knew it was beyond him.
For a moment, he stood still before turning his head ever so slightly toward the television.
There, amidst a hushed crowd, stood a girl.
Her form was delicate, like a wisp of smoke caught in the evening breeze, as though she were not entirely of the earth. Her fingers danced across as she breathed every note, harmonizing like of a celestial being. And her eyes, they were closed, completely lost in the music.
Kaiser's gaze remained fixed on the screen, his expression unreadable, yet something about the song kept him rooted in place. Each note resonated with something deep inside him, something long buried, something restless, stirring as if awakening from a long slumber.
The sensation was unfamiliar, almost intrusive, and it made him narrow his eyes in quiet irritation.
Then, the door clicked open behind the television, cutting off his irritation and quiet curiosity.
Ness.
He had a habit of showing up unannounced, always carrying souvenirs from his travels, sometimes dropping by just for a drink, as if making sure Kaiser hadn't collapsed under the weight of his own solitude. What is Kaiser doing these days? Drinking every night, occasionally dating different women, but never quite wasting away. He isn't rotting in bed. That much Ness could say. Although he had tried, time and time again, to drag Kaiser along on his adventures, but the man was too fixated on his own carefully crafted routine. Life wasn't like before, when every second revolved around soccer. That was behind them now. This was the part of life where they were supposed to be enjoying everything. And yet, Ness couldn't shake the feeling that Michael was simply existing.
"Kaiser, I brought you— Ah." Ness paused mid-step, glancing at the screen before smirking. "Didn't know you like her."
Kaiser barely moved, only lifting his eyes a little toward Ness, the words not sitting right with him.
Like? Who? "Hah? What are you talking about?"
Ness blinked, then pointed lazily at the television. "Her. She's the singer everyone's been talking about lately. Don't tell me you don't know?" Even for Kaiser, who never cared for trends, it would be a little odd to be this out of the loop. He wasn't exactly living under a rock.
Kaiser scoffed, walked over to the couch next to his bed, and leaned back, his body sinking into the cushions. "Why should I care about some nobody? If anything, it should be her who knows me."
Ness sweat dropped, then let out a short, awkward laugh. Yep, that's Kaiser for you.
"I see, I see." With nowhere else to sit, he dropped onto the bed, stretching his arms behind his head. "I kinda like her, though. Her songs are nice."
Kaiser gave a half-hearted grunt, barely interested, but his gaze flickered back to the screen for just a second before he decided it wasn't worth his time. Without another thought, he grabbed the remote and turned off the TV.
A waste of time.
"I have tickets to her upcoming concert," Ness said, tone light but teasing. "Wanna come?"
Kaiser scoffed again, unimpressed. Why would he bother?
But Ness wasn't letting it go. He leaned forward, grinning as he started going on and on, something about how hearing her in person was different, how her voice was like an angel descending from heaven itself.
It was ridiculous. Kaiser couldn't take Ness seriously with his endless blabbering.
And yet… somehow, he was a little intrigued. After all, everything had felt the same lately, predictable and unchanging. Maybe this would be something different. Just a distraction, even if only for a day or two. Besides, he thought with a smirk, if she was truly as angelic as Ness claimed, it would be fun to show the world that even angels bowed before him. He was Michael Kaiser, after all, no one could resist him.
He tapped his glasses with a finger, his head lazily dipping back against the couch. With a bored tone, he muttered, "Fine. I'll tag along."
NOTE: I love Ness, I love all Kaiser ships but for the love of me, I cannot—do not know—how to write a BL fic. HAHA