Je Te Laisserai De Mots

Finale - Kiss Me Whenever You Want

The wind travelled softly between the blades of dancing grass, between the leaves of the flowers and the branches of the trees as he finally awoke nestled in the green blanket of the earth. His eyes hazy as he arose to sit, his mane following the breeze as he finally regained his strength to stand to his feet. The sunflowers' petals shook quietly in the wind, the only distinguishable sound the sound of his own heartbeat.

It was unnaturally quiet, no birds, no animals, even the wind distinctly lacked a noise. As he started to wade through the long grass he could tell that even his paws did not make a sound in this world, and as he looked to the sky he saw nothing but the bright stars, twice as many that had shined before. The sky erupting in galactic colours in a display of astrological beauty. While this would usually bring calm to someone who beheld it, it brought him nothing but closure.

He knew where he was.

"I'm dead, aren't I?" He asked, his voice carrying with the wind until the universe spoke to him.

"You have simply left your mortal body, here is where you will decide your next life, such is the way of rebirth. So, please, tell me about yourself," the universe answered back warmly, the other tearing up slightly as he looked to the sky.

"I am not a good man, I do not deserve to be reborn anew," he stated, his voice wavering as he straightened up, his eyes failing him as he felt hot tears sting his eyes. "I have caused nothing but pain."

"Now, if that was true, and you were truly the most evil being, you wouldn't even gain an audience to be reborn. Please, do not be as harsh on yourself. Tell me about your story and I will judge on what I feel you deserve," the universe stated back quickly, not condoning his pity party. "Please, start over."

He sighed, taking in a deep breath before looking up towards the stars, sitting back down in the tall grass as he started his explanation.

"My name is Azure Lion, former Jade Emperor," he introduced himself, though he was sure they already knew who he was. "And I believe I have done too much to receive such a relaxed death and rebirth."

He took a moment to steel himself before continuing, his hands gripping tightly in his lap, "I was once a Celestial Warrior, I was meant to protect the mortals and save them from anything unfortunate that were to happen to them. I was loyal to my emperor and I questioned little... Until I met him."

"Until you met who?" The universe pushed, intrigued as it listened to him carefully.

"Until I met Sun Wukong, the Monkey King... He was, undoubtedly, an infatuation of mine, I found him so interesting, unique... I found him to be the best leader I had ever gazed upon, dare I say even better than the Jade Emperor himself. I needed to know more about him, I needed to talk to him..." Azure admitted, sighing softly.

"So you were close with the Monkey King?"

"I suppose you could say that. Though he saw our relationship more as a friendship than what I saw it as... Dare I say I loved him... I wanted to lay my life down for him, to hold him, to make sure I could see his beautiful smile every day. However, I knew his affections were elsewhere, his love..."

"And how is that? Did you ever tell him you loved him?"

"Ah, no," Azure choked, shaking his head quickly as he looked into his lap, his heart aching as he thought about Wukong once more. Someone he had cared for greatly. "I never confessed as for the moment I was going to, it was too late... I started sending him infrequent letters, written with my non dominant hand so my handwriting was unrecognisable, slid under his door with a sunflower to compliment. I believed that if he truly loved me he would come and find me, but as the assault on Heaven we planned became nearer I feared we would never be able to lay side to side. So I sent a last letter the night before our banquet, signed."