Love Written By Blood // FirstKhao

Realizations

First put the diary down and took a deep breath, not realizing how tense he had been while reading these lines. Tears wet his cheek, but he let them run, feeling as if he were in a trance. August 3, 1865, the last entry in the diary, after which there were only blank pages. An inconceivably uncomfortable feeling of emptiness had spread through First's chest. The thought of calling Khaotung was, of course, one of the first that had formed in his, but he wanted to settle this moment with himself, alone. He wanted to mourn love that had not been his for a while. Or was it his love?
The pages of the diary had felt familiar, as if he had read them before. He reverently stroked the leather cover of the diary, wondering what had happened to this other Kanaphan after the last entry.

After taking a shower and calming himself down a little more, he decided to stop by the old lady's house again. He felt she was the key to everything, his secret weapon, so he headed for the little house on the outskirts of town.

With a pounding heart First arrived in front of the old lady's house, it was late afternoon by now and he hoped that the old lady would receive him anyway. He rang the doorbell and shortly after Min Yin opened the door. "Kanaphan, I knew you would come back. Thanawat is already here as well, why don't you come in?" First followed the old lady into the house. Sitting on the sofa was Khaotung, pale as a sheet, a cup of tea on the table in front of him.

"Khaotung, you're here?" First's voice was thin, brittle, as if he hadn't used it in a long time.

Khaotung nodded. First sat down next to his friend a little hesitantly.

"Since you're both here, I'm going to venture a guess that you found out what you wanted to know?" Inquired the old lady after sitting down across from them.

"I'm not sure," Khaotung stammered.

"What are you not sure about?" The old lady's eyes flashed curiously.

"Whether...whether Thanawat was my ancestor or ...or whether I am the prince," the words came slowly over Khaotung's lips, as if he himself could not believe that he was now saying this aloud.

"Well, what do you think Kanaphan?" Yin turned to her other visitor.

"I don't know...this is completely crazy," First ruffled his hair, "And it's going to get even crazier if I'm to believe my gut."

"Which gut feeling so you have?" The old lady had a sly smile on her lips.

"My feeling is that I definitely wrote those journals myself...well I mean it's my writing, every word that was written there was so familiar to me as if I had read them before ." First took a deep breath. "If I could guess, I would claim that I was the one who wrote those words. And...that would mean that Khao...."

"....that I must be the prince." A tense silence fell over the three of them. First kept shaking his head and running his hand over his face. Khaotung kept muttering some words under his breath.

"You are not the prince, at least not completely," Yin's voice cut through the silence like a sharpened blade. "You, however, First, are right on all counts." Now confusion was again written on the faces of the two young men.

"But I have something to do with the whole story, don't I?" echoed Khaotung.

"Otherwise you wouldn't be here." Yin smiled at the two. "Let me tell the past from my point of view." She took a sip of her tea. "The name Fah should sound familiar, shouldn't it Kanaphan?"

"She was, she was the Puitrakul's housekeeper. The closest confidant of..." He didn't know how to address the person who had written the diaries.

"Right. Fah,Yin, Kuan Yin." It took only a second, a second in which Khaotung and First had blinked, and the old woman in front of them had transformed into a beautiful woman whose long black hair was braided into an elaborate hairstyle. Khaotung jumped up from the couch.

"This is crazy, First," he looked desperately at the other, who was sitting rigidly on the couch in shock. "This is all too crazy for me, I...I just want to get out of here...I..."

"Thanawat Rattanakitpaisan, you sit back down, Now!" The beautiful woman's voice boomed through the room and echoed back from the walls. Trembling, Khaotung resumed his seat.

"Kuan Yin, the goddess of love and compassion," First whispered.

"Alive and in color," the young woman replied in a voice clear as a bell, a voice First knew all too well.

"It was you. You came after me in my dream." First's brain was now slowly but surely piecing together all the information they possessed. "What had happened back then?" Kuan Yin began pacing up and down the room.

"I was a maid in your parents' house Kanaphan. Since the beginning of the dynasty, I served them and I served them well. My heart had told me to take care of your family, that it would bring forth an incredibly strong love. So I stayed and waited for that special person who was destined to feel said love." She smiled lovingly at First. "And that person has been you. The love you felt for Thanawat was perfect, so pure and overwhelming, the most beautiful feeling a person can feel." Kuan Yin tilted her head and looked at her two visitors through her yellow cat-like eyes. "You were perfect together, a true love. And my destiny was to fullfill my vow to save all beings from suffering, especially those bound by love. But I could only save one of you. Something I couldn't forgive myself until now."

"Save? What do you mean?" First's voice trembled, he felt sick and dizzy from the words the goddess addressed to them.

"I could only preserve Thanawat's soul for you, but not his body. I have sent his soul to you over and over again, every 20 years, but until now you have never crossed paths."

"All of this is too complicated for me. My soul? Stop talking in riddles and tell us what's going on already." Khaotung's voice was louder than intended, but he wanted certainty.

"Isn't it obvious? Thanawat, you are my creation, the reincarnation of the prince. And you my dear Kanaphan, how many times I erased your memory and concocted a new life for you. Every 20 years I had to press reset on your life. I gave you the blessing, the ability to live, to be immortal until you are reunited with your True Love. Nine lives you have lived so far, nine times you have not found Thanawat, including your first life. But this time, in your 10th life, 150 years after Thanawat's first death, you are finally reunited. You are soulmates, meant to be," Tears glistened in the goddess' eyes. "Please stand up, will you do this for me?" First and Khaotung rose and stood side by side in front of Kuan Yin. "I will now make you see your present and past, what you do with your lives after that is up to you, my task is hereby accomplished," She placed the flat of her hand on the temples of both Khaotung and First, murmuring a few words while closing her eyes.

A hellish headache spread through the heads of the two young men as countless memories and feelings entered their minds, memories of a time long past, memories of a love so pure and overwhelming, it was worth dying for.

It was as if they were waking up from a trance, as if there had been a thick fog in their heads before, which had now lifted. They couldn't help but stare at each other in bewilderment, scanning each other's appearance as if they hadn't seen the other in a long time.

Tears welled up in their eyes as they finally threw themselves into each other's arms.

"My dear boys, my task is completed. Live your lives to the fullest. Share your love with the world. I will watch over you." The voice of the Goddess sounded to them from far away.

"We'll never be able to thank you enough, Kuan Yin," whispered First as he gently disengaged from Khaotung's embrace. "Prince Thanawat huh?" A wide grin formed on First's lips. "I don't have to call you, majesty anymore do I?" Khaotung shook his head with a laugh.

"If you do that Fir, I'll kill you with my own hands and the promise that you'll stay dead." Together, hand in hand, they left the little house. They had a lot of time to catch up. Since First could remember everything now, and Khaotung as well, they wanted to hear their story from each other's perspective. It should be the start of something completely new and exciting.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───