a longed reunion of two lost, lovers | scaramouche

2. One's recollection of lost times

CHAPTER TWO,
The mischievous human and
the porcelain doll.

"You think I don't see you from there?" I speak, my eyes leaning onto a certain familiar shadow, desperate to blend in with its surroundings. "C'mon, Kunikuzushi."

I could almost hear his playful chuckle from afar. 

The sky is almost too perfect even to comprehend, and the quaint settling for the evening leads the surroundings to become... The most peaceful of times. The orange sky shone upon his features, making him all the more angelic to the eye. I could not help but feel a quaint smile coming from my lips, and so did he. 

Under his gaze, I felt... Embarrassed, and hid mine. Kunikuzushi dared to come closer, I yearned to witness his expression under the stars.

As lame as it sounds, he is the only friend I have. Sometimes I wonder where he came from, or his backstory - yet I feel like he would react strangely.

"Thought you wouldn't notice." His voice now evident. 

"'Course I did! I found some flowers on the way here," I say, quietly, now looking up. "I feel like this painting needs more element in them, but how..." I take Kunikuzushi's hand in mine, gently taking him to a spot. I've planned it all perfectly! A canvas stood by my side while before that, an amazing view was bestowed just before us. I imagined my next painting will be a tranquil purple lake, accompanied by the pink-orange hues of the sky, and in the distance stood a mysterious tree with indigo leaves. Not as beautiful as his eyes, though.

I hurriedly put down my supplies, thinking that I might miss this perfect moment.

"Seriously, what is the purpose behind this?" He says whilst he sighs.

"Does anything really need a purpose?" I reply back, my smile widening. "Please do this with me, I feel like I might get bored without someone to talk with."

He sighs. "...Fine."

"Yay!" I squeal. "I'll make this quick, I promise."

He could only stare at me, then sitting beside me on the grass. He laid down, covering his face with his large hat. 

"Right."

From our... promise, he'd grown more comfortable with me. I realized that we've been spending more time together. We'd spend our days by talking and running errands around the distant village for the mora, and for my supplies.

"Say, (Y/N)..." He began to speak over the creaks in sunset. I hummed, attempting to mix the colors to match the hue of the sky perfectly.  

"Why do you not hate me?" 

"Hm?" I turn towards him, asking him to elaborate.

"I did destroy your village." He says. "...Normal people would atleast feel a tiny bit of remorse. It's where you came from, after all."

"About that." I laugh at his comment. "Well, I've never felt more free than ever," 

"What did they even do to you?" He asks with an amused tone.

I respond with an absentminded shrug. 

"You never really noticed it, did you?" I began to finally put down my strokes as carefully as possible. He lets me continue, 

"They wanted to kill me." 

"What?" Before Kuni could ask I answered,

"You saved me from my execution," I sighed. "And, no, that was not my real village, I would have ripped your head out if it was."

"Wow? And how in the world were you sentenced to execution?" He snickered, standing up.

"...You really wanna know?" I put down my brush. The sudden seriousness came, my eyes showing no emotion - looking into his.

"What?"

"I... stole bread from the head villager." 

He broke into laughter. "Tell me you're kidding."

"I'm not," I sigh, embarassed. "He caught me in the act, and it wasn't only because I stole the stupid bread of his," I glare. "Another reason was because he thought I was an inazuman curse! How stupid." I mumble. "Just because I haven't slept that night. Geez."

And again, his laughter became even more louder. "H-hey! You're gonna alert the people here." I try to quiet him down, the red in my cheeks evident enough.

"You're right," He wiped his tears. "How stupid."

I glare at him again, while he could only grin. "I regret talking about that."

"He's right. You do look like a ghost sometimes."

"Stop."

"Never."

"But... You did save me." I went back to my painting, hurrying to capture the evening color, before it's washed away by night. "So, thank you." 

He stayed silent, uncharacterizingly, I waited for his response yet it never came. I turned to face him, and there he was, that same expression from our conversation at the seashore — that same expression I couldn't read. The tone in his eyes were different, and they were staring into mine.

Of course I was flustered. It felt like he was trying to discern something inside my orbs. And before I could ask him what's wrong, he broke our shared gaze and mumbled, 

"Yeah." He adjusted his hat.

Even in the darkening surroundings I could see the growing pink overcoming his cheeks.

For days his chest had hurt. 

How could it be? He was not human.

When she had said those exact words, 

Something in him believed it was because of her.

And when he looked closer into those eyes 

He realized it wasn't hurt.

Something worser than that.

©souuvlaki