Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All rights go to Gora and Gohands and Pablo Neruda.

Forgetting

Blotch of grey clouds scattered in the vast expanse of the sky, tainting it's blue hue as if taking away it's vibrance, sucking away it's colour, its life. Thunder roared from the distance, like an explosion where your heart can't help but skip a bit in alarm. It was starting to drizzle. Plop, plop, plop went the tiny droplets as they become one with rough surface of the pavements.

Any second now.

One, two droplets and then they all came all at once. The sound seemed to be similar to that of the gushing sound at the bottom of the waterfall where the rocks lay in wait to catch the water only for it to slip by their surfaces, right at their fingertips. It was a vehement downpour. The people on instinct ran for shelter, some opened their umbrellas and some rushed to get inside their houses as if afraid that they'll melt any second if they continue to get wet from the rain.

Reishi was standing near the window, reading a book of poems. He lifted his eyelids away from it and looked outside. He could only feel that it was starting to get cold. He slipped his bookmark on the page where he left and closed it. The rain has always fascinated him, enough to make him stop whatever he's doing and just stare. Allow himself to dissolve with the gas molecules that condenses and precipitates into rain.

He closed his eyes and imagined the sound of the pour. In his mind it came in a crescendo, the sound of every droplet colliding with the pavements, the roofs, the lamp posts. When all you every knew was solitude, you begin to appreciate the tiny things, even the dullness of the pouring rain and the crackle of lightning. The whole of nature is an art form, it's the most intricate and the most organised art, and for that reason, Reishi couldn't help but fall a little deeper in love with it.

The raindrops sluiced on the window panes, Reishi leaned in close to see whether fog was beginning to form on the windows. He closed his eyes for awhile and thought about dinner. It was about time for his shift to end and it probably wouldn't hurt if he stop by somewhere. But then, he started reminiscing about what happened last time.

He met someone, someone he's never seen before in his entire life.

"Munakata."

The way that person mouthed those words made him feel shivers down his spine. He couldn't hear anything, but it was as if the very moment those word left his lips there was something that made him turn over his shoulder to see him and actually hear him utter his name.

"Munakata."

Something reverberated inside of him, and he felt a kind of familiar warmth. To the point that tears were about to fall from his eyes, and a deep kind of ache started to well up in his chest. But yet, he was confused of the sensations he was feeling at that moment, he wasn't sure whether it was brought about by the book he was reading or not. He remembered how he put up a guarded demeanour.

"May I help you?"

His speech was perfect but he could no longer imagine the sound and timbre of his voice. Maybe someday, he would forget to speak too, his hearing has affected his speech. Sometimes, it was as if he could no longer summon up the words. At that moment, he had no idea why he tried his hardest to summon up his voice.

Make him forget about me. Leave no traces of my existence behind.

He and the red head looked at each other, somehow he felt kind of suffocated, he felt the need to run away, and far. But the moment when he looked away and tried organising his books, it was as if he could hear the ticking of the clock like a time bomb accompanied by the sound of footsteps. His mind was playing games with him, his heart was beating fast and loudly in his chest and then…. The truth is he could no longer remember it clearly, how he ended up being held by that stranger and how fast he slipped out of his grasp. He couldn't move, it was like he was glued on the spot and just like that, the red head left.

Thud..

Reishi was woken up from his reverie by the sound of his book as it fell on the floor. It fell supine. He grimaced because there was a possibility that his bookmark fell out. When he turned the book to face him. He couldn't help but read a portion of the page where it fell open.

"If You Forget Me

I want you to know

one thing.

You know how this is:

if I look

at the crystal moon, at the red branch

of the slow autumn at my window,

if I touch

near the fire

the impalpable ash

or the wrinkled body of the log,

everything carries me to you,

as if everything that exists,

aromas, light, metals,

were little boats

that sail

toward those isles of yours that wait for me."

The image of the red head's back to him came rushing through his mind. The way the stranger stopped and looked backed at him with a sad expression on his face when he was about to go out the door. It felt like he didn't want to go, it felt like he wanted to rush to him again and take him into his arms and maybe, just maybe they could stay like that for awhile, baskin on the sunbeams that try to penetrate through the windows. Like long lost lovers on a desert waiting to be fed upon my vultures, the red head had the look of farewell. No words were said, just the solemn look of the stranger who made him feel that if life had one purpose, it was for this kind of meetings.

You will forget. Everything.

"You know sometimes I think that there's something missing at the office, it's feels like there's something lacking there."

Mikoto heard Seri talk with Izumo. As expected of the woman, she wouldn't completely forget about her King, Mikoto thought. But then, there was something that's making him uneasy. His memories of Munakata Reishi has become skewed, vague, unclear and he's afraid, that he's becoming like the others too. For the past days since he met him, he's been having nightmares. Their meeting keeps playing in his head, the moment he saw him, he knew that despite what happened he's still the Blue King he once knew.

"May I help you?"

There was something odd to the way he spoke. The blue king seemed off, his voice cracked as if hesitant. Mikoto let his thoughts drift and allowed himself to forget for just a second his desire to see him again. With each passing day, Mikoto struggles to preserve every memory he has of the blue king. It was beginning to be difficult to remember him, sometimes, he even has problems rembering his face. He did not like what was happening to him so he summoned up the courage to see Reishi at the library. It was the only remaining thing that could make him not forget about the blue king. He had so much to tell him, so much that sometimes he simulates actually confessing those things to him. How angry he was for Reishi's selfishness, for bringing him back in exchange for his happiness, if he thought that would make everything better, then he's wrong.

"Well, now,

if little by little you stop loving me

I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly

you forget me

do not look for me,

for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,

the wind of banners

that passes through my life,

and you decide

to leave me at the shore

of the heart where I have roots,

remember

that on that day,

at that hour,

I shall lift my arms

and my roots will set off

to seek another land."

Reishi could not stop reading that particular poem for days. He liked it and something in him reverberated with those words as if lifting him up and bringing him back to what he once lost.

"But

if each day,

each hour,

you feel that you are destined for me

The library was deserted, this was one of those days when the library is wanting of people. The sound of Mikoto's footsteps reverberated into each and every corner of the library, his heartbeat pounding inside his chest and his mind running with thoughts of the blue king.

I don't want to forget him.

Reishi was as always inside the office organising new acquisitioned books. It was about time for the library to close for the day and he ended up reading the poem again.

with implacable sweetness,

if each day a flower

climbs up to your lips to seek me,

ah my love, ah my own,

in me all that fire is repeated,"

Mikoto rushed to the office and saw him, Reishi. He could no longer keep himself from rushing to him and taking him in his arms, before he forgets everything, before the final rancour of his memories of him. The book that Reishi was holding fell. The blue was stunned, his eyes were wide with shock. In the absence of any sound he couldn't make out anything. He could feel the red head's breath on his skin. He might be saying something.

"in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,

my love feeds on your love, beloved,

and as long as you live it will be in your arms

without leaving mine."

Mikoto told him everything he thought he needed to hear. How much, how much he had longed for him for these past years. And no matter how much he tried ignoring those feelings, he couldn't do anything to stop it. He loved him. And it was the moment when he was about to die at that faithful day when he realised all of his feelings for the blue king.

Reishi was shocked, but somehow, for some reason he understood. He embraced the stranger and cuddled closer to him.

"Suoh…"

Mikoto was surprised.

Your life will never be the same again. In exchange for his life, you will be forever bound to solitude. You will lose your hearing, you will never remember him and the things related to him. But if there's a chance, although impossible still, of your memories coming back to you, you will disappear from this world and compensate for his soul.

Ah, I remember now. Suoh… Reminds me of a poem.

Reishi closed his eyes as he bathe in Mikoto's warmth, the broken memories one by one came back to him trying to fit into one another. Mikoto tightened his embrace as if afraid that any minute now Reishi would disappear. His love for the blue was set ablaze once again, and he'd rather be with him like this than anywhere else in the world. Reishi opened his eyes and looked into the distance and thought to himself, that indeed the meaning of life has always been this kind of meetings.

"I love you Munakata.. I love you."

He said those three words again, his voice cracking, trembling. He had no knowledge that no matter how much he says them, it would never reach Reishi's ears. The price that the blue had to pay for Mikoto's life was his life as the Blue King and his hearing that was currently affecting his speech. And as the memories of the red head are being pieced together inside his head, the more his mental faculties weaken, bit by bit his consciousness of his surroundings escape him. And Mikoto's warmth and the force that he uses upon him is slowly fading.

Suoh…

The only thing that's left was how he was able to feel the synchronization of his and Mikoto's heartbeat. It was as if he was in a dark room, on the look out for the monsters that could creep out under his bed. He snuggled closer to Mikoto and recited in his head the poem that came to mind.

"I do not love you except because I love you;

I go from loving to not loving you,

From waiting to not waiting for you

My heart moves from cold to fire"

Mikoto noticed that Reishi was becoming weaker. His body felt cold and he felt slightly lighter in his arms.

"I love you only because it's you the one I love;

I hate you deeply, and hating you

Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you

Is that I do not see you but love you blindly."

Mikoto sensed that something was wrong. He looked into Reishi's eyes and tried to call for him, but there was nothing there. It was as if the Reishi before him had turned into an empty shell, his eyes were blank. He caressed his cheek and for the very first time called him by his first name.

"Reishi.. Reishi.. Reishi..."

"Maybe January light will consume

My heart with its cruel

Ray, stealing my key to true calm."

"Reishi…"

Mikoto embraced him as he broke down to his knees holding the blue king in his arms. Beads of tears start to form at the corner of the red king's eyes.

"In this part of the story I am the one who

Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,

Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood."

Reishi's body began to disintegrate into tiny particles. Mikoto embraced him for the last time, calling for him all over again, telling him to come back to him. Confessing how much he loved him, but it didn't stop Reishi from disappearing, in the last moments that they were together. Mikoto planted a soft kiss on his lips and then just like that he turned into tiny sparkles of light. The only thing that were left of him were his clothes. The only thing that Mikoto was left embracing were those pieces of cloth that smelt of him. The blue had left him once again. The rain began to pour heavily, it drowned everything. He could hear it profoundly. His heart ached and because of the pain that he felt, he couldn't cry. The pain was too much that he wasn't moving. Thunder roared from the distance, the wind was strong. Some of the staff that were left behind on the library rushed to close the windows. One staff went to the room where Mikoto was, where he cradled Reishi's belongings. The book of poems the blue was reading was on the floor, it's pages flapping against the wind.

I've really lost you this time.

A/N: Hello! I finally finished this. Thanks for the people who followed this and gave me nice comments that encourage me to continue. :D Poems cited are all by Pablo Neruda, credits to his awesomeness. Titles are as follows:

1. If you Forget me

2. Sonet LXVI: I do not love you except that I love you