𝖲𝖺𝗍𝗎𝗋𝗇

chapter eight

There's a place across the sea, hidden in a tiny cove, with golden sand as fine as a breeze and crystalline waters as serene as raindrops.

A place where time doesn't flow, where the sunrise paints the sky awake with the colors of springtime, and the sunset brings a stillness so sacred it's like being witness of the universe taking a breath.

Both the moon and the sun arrive at twilight every day to take a bath in an ocean as pacific as its name swears - melting into an eclipse that could rather be seen as a secret kiss under the titillating stars.

Down the hill, carved in the rocks high as the pinnacles crowning an ancient gothic cathedral, sits a tiny white house made of light and limestone, with a garden full of lilies and seashells, and windows as wide as the ocean they lead to.

And inside the house lives a man who died thrice - one by accident, one by need, and one by fate.

And inside the house lives his killer too - lanky arms always tied around his victim's neck in an embrace that instead of bringing death down upon him only holds a love so tender and sincere it must remain within the walls of their home, so the world outside can't threaten or taint it again.

It may sound like a tale from a kid's fable or even some twisted fairytale - and coming from a life where curses shaped like the most terrifying nightmares one can succumb victim of, roam freely into the night, it wouldn't be difficult to believe that's actually the case.

Sometimes, Megumi thinks his current life is actually the one out of a dream - conjured by the depressed, hopeless boy who lost everything he ever held dearly at age eighteen.

But the warm, orange haze grazing his skin as he trails down to the beach every sunrise and sunset, and the smell of salt, seaweed and liberty luring him towards the sea are very much real.

And he has the privilege, -the luck he never once had in his past life-, of waking up and sleeping in to the lulling sound of shifting tides every morning and night.

Of waking atop a wide chest and sleep between strong arms, tangled in the soft linen sheets they set on the bed together every Sunday's midday, after having breakfast and taking a walk on the beach.

It's been a year since they made it here, to a place that's only theirs, a place no one can reach, no one can destroy - a place by the beach, as Megumi wished and Yuuji longed for.

It wasn't easy, leaving everything behind and running away with Yuuji to somewhere far enough they wouldn't bother to look for him - but it was definitely worth it.

Megumi can only hope the family and friends they both left behind understand this was the only way - this was how it had to go.

It was scary, at first.

But if they needed any more proof of their fate being linked to this little piece of paradise hidden somewhere along the Pacific ocean's coast - the natural, perfect way in which they immediately fitted in as soon as they landed there, was all Megumi needed to never look back again.

They found their home while running after a stray dog that soon enough turned into their first son. A little bit after that Yuuji took back his firefighter job, and Megumi is now studying to become a vet - in part to cover up the expenses of being a forever foster fail to all the dogs they take home after deeming they're not getting the love they deserve in the shelter both Yuuji and him volunteer at on the weekends.

They also have a little routine now, one that's only theirs: Yuuji is an early bird, so he always wakes up first to go for a run at dawn and seizes the race to bring freshly baked gingerbread cookies for Megumi and treats for the dogs.