Into You I Go
30th Chapter: What is Love?
Fate is an uncompromising, fickle, relentless mistress.
And what else would she rather play with but the lives of man?
And what does Fate often tangle herself more often than love?
Love, that lies in the heart of man?
Man, who can be just as fickled, as relentless and as uncompromising, but has the capablity to love like no other. They love with a recklessness that rises beyond all logic, with a force more vengeful than nature, with bounds and leaps of faith that edge toward the precipice of insanity.
Why is it so?
What makes it so?
What is love?
Love is sacrifice, the act of giving, a cruel thorn that wraps around a heart and draws blood with its every beat.
--
Natsume closed his eyes against the darkness, once again he disappeared into the deepest corners of his mind--albeit unwillingly--where thoughts of her were carved deeply into every crook and cranny. He pondered over the contineous collage of her face, her features, her shilloute that blended with her laugh, her voice and the sweetness of her scent.
His senses filled with her, he sighed in perfect contentment while his mind weaved a dream over yet another, each sweeter than the last.
--
What is love?
Love is the act of ultimate sacrifice; the greatest of all surrenders, the closest state to divinity that man can ever achieve.
--
Ruka's ice blue eyes stared at Hotaru, telling her without words, what he thought of her deal with the devil. With a sharp movement, in a dance of shadows and candlelight, he turned and walked away without even looking back.
Not even once.
Brittled, he felt.
Helpless once again in the face of such unchangeable circumstances, such unbeatable odds, such unjust choices. Questions of his worth--still unanswered from the time that he was younger--came back to haunt him.
He thought he'd exorcised those thoughts long ago when in truth, all he did was hide from them.
--
What is love?
Love is the most unbearable sweetness that cannot be restrain nor can it be explained or quantified by reason and logic.
--
Yuu watched his friend's back as he walked away, a soft sound of cloth alerted him of his other friend who also--without word--turned and walk the opposite way, not as angry but just as empty. He stood in between, torn, all his knowledge and hard earned expertise did not help nor did it comfort him now, in his time of need. Nor did it help him in finding a way to assure his friends, the way he was supposed to, the way he wanted to.
--
What is love?
Love is to understand when in know and believing when there is no understanding or knowing to be had.
--
Koko caught the urgent whispers in his friend's minds, as clear as if they were standing right beside him, he mourned their loss innocence but took heart by the strength they had obtained from each other's presence, of how the mere presence of one eased the other. Their thoughts were in tune but kept back from synchronizing by pride, anger, hurt. He put a hand on Yuu's shoulder and squuezed when his friend shifted his eyes to him. Together, they hurried the darken hall way, to Ruka's side.
--
What is love?
Love is letting go when everything inside you screams for you to hold on.
--
Hotaru's violet eyes focused on the three boy's back and soften even as her mind traveled over her choices and options, restless with speculation and predictions. Her feet paused along with her thoughts when the boys stopped, pivoted, and waited for her. She stared at them but before she did anything else, several hands reached out from behind her.
Soft hands, understanding hands, caring hands.
She turned to see the faces of her friends, her family, in various state of undress, waiting for her, for them and unbidden, her heart swelled and overflowed as she promised herself that all will be well.
--
What is love?
Love is the intricate tangle of fate; unwavering in its conviction, subtle in its machinations, generous in its execution, unequivocal in its strength.
--
Mikan stared into the shivering night that sprinkled with moonlight; guilt ridden.
The seconds ticked by as she agonized over her choices and found that she would do it all again in a heartbeat, without thought, without hesitation. Without changing a single thing.
Her selfishness galled her, it picked restlessly against her troubled mind without any form of rhyme or reason.
She turned away from the window, from the silver tinted night, pulled the covers over her head and suffered over her dark piece of a heart.
She started when something poked her feet.
She ignored it.
She felt it a second time where she finally thrust out her honey blond head from beneath her blanket and snapped. "What?"
Leo was a looming shadow even in the dark although moonlight glinted on each russet strand on his head. "Would you give your life for Natsume?"
Mikan narrowed her amber eyes. "I thought I already proved that."
Leo looked down on her from the foot of the bed. "I know that you would die for him." He paused, calculating. "But would you give your life for him?"
Mikan wondered about the odd way he put the question, sensed the gravity and speculation in his demeanor but didn't quite see what the distinction was between the two.
"Well, would you?" He prodded.
Without taking her eyes off of the older boy, she sat up in her bed.
They stared at each other in the play of shadow and light.
--
What is love?
Love is the simple wish for someone's eternal happiness, above all else.
--
Natsume squinted against the light that crawled slowly on the floor from the crack at the door and watched cautiously as Leo stepped in.
The seriousness of Leo's face changed into an amused smile. "Congratulations, Natsume. You're out."