The Colors Universe
Return and Remembrance by Meru
Characters: Akai-san, Mikan-tan, Kou-kun
Word Count: 1,106 words
Theme: Kou-kun's return
Author Notes: For the sake of this fic I pictured everyone older and in their twenties for the plot. I do not own these characters ^_^
She stood by the window and reached her hand out slowly only to draw it back again. She was waiting, if she was honest with herself she would admit that she was waiting expectantly like a child who can't wait for Christmas morning. If she was being honest with herself she would admit she was waiting and the moment she saw what she was waiting for she would run down the stairs like that very same child to get to the present that was so desired. She wasn't being honest with herself though and she was trying her utmost to convince her own mind that she wasn't waiting.
It was warm, she was merely standing by the window to enjoy the cool night air and opening the curtain would better allow the air to flow in the room. That's all it was she wasn't waiting to see anything so no harm in opening it. With that she made up her mind clear in her decision of what was going on and opened the curtains and peered out into the dark. The moon was full and the stars were bright just like the night he left, she remembered it well, too well it still hurt.
“I'm asking you not to go.”
“You're being selfish by doing so,” the blonde replied frustrated. “You know it's the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“I thought I was the opportunity of a lifetime,” she huffed turning away.
He couldn't help but smile at that, as vain of a comment as it might seem it was true. She was his once in a lifetime love, he would never love anyone as passionately and deeply as he loved her. She had to understand that this was for both of them though, he could do so much more for her with this opportunity, she just had to see it that way.
“You are a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said wrapping his arms around her. “But you're behaving like a child right now.” She tried to pull away but he wouldn't let her, instead he kissed her cheek, “you know I'm right about this.”
At the soft touch and the warm embrace and the sensible words she conceded, “I don't have to like it.” There was a silence and she knew he was waiting for her to continue and she realized how much he had always waited for her and it made her feel bad about trying to make him feel bad for taking this gift. “You're right though.” It hurt to say those words she felt like her heart was breaking. “You need to go.” He hugged her tight and now she wished he wouldn't that he would just go.
“It won't be forever,” he said trying to reassure her.
The words didn't help though. He would be thousands of miles away from her across an ocean and anything could happen. Forever was a long time it seemed like nothing while he was here but apart, so very far apart, forever seemed a lifetime ago. There was every possibility he would meet someone, someone better suited for him than her, someone older and more mature. Her sensible side told her she shouldn't doubt him but her irrational side couldn't help but fear the worse no matter how unlikely. A sudden fear gripped her hard and she turned and held him close. “Promise you won't forget me. That you'll write all the time and that you'll come back as soon as humanly possible.”
“I promise,” he said stroking and kissing her hair, trying to ease her pain.
She had felt comforted and was able to push her fears away while he was here but the next morning he got up early to catch his flight and she pretended to be ill so she would not have to go to see him off. The last she saw of him before he boarded a plane and crossed an ocean was when he stood by her bed and told her to rest, and get better soon. She had cried until she slept. She hadn't been able to move for three days after he left, all she could manage to do was cry and sleep. She would barely take food and she couldn't motivate herself to do anything. Eventually, she fought through the pain and she made an effort towards normalcy and her distress became evident only on the days she received letters in his handwriting.
Standing here at the window she remembered that pain as though it were yesterday instead of two years ago. If I'm not waiting though and I don't care, why am I thinking about him while watching the street for signs of headlights? She went to close the curtains to re-convince herself she wasn't waiting because she didn't care, but that was when she saw the headlights. As soon as she saw the headlights though everything she was thinking about fled her mind, only to be replaced by her underlying anxiousness. The lights came closer and hope fluttered in her heart like a long-dormant bird seeking to be free. The car stopped at the house and then she saw him. He got out of the car and it was him, his hair was still as bright and his eyes still as purple. It was a combination that left most women who looked at him weak in the knees, but she was secure in knowing he had chosen her, the orange-haired freckled wonder. Not even Akai understood it and he had been the one to introduce them. She ran out of the room and bounded down the stairs. She was waiting yes, God yes, she had been waiting for two years and impatiently at that. She wanted to see him, she wanted him to hold her, and she wanted to know her world was right again.
The door opened and she stopped dead in her tracks. A brief moment of panic took her what if he was different, what if he felt differently, what if they weren't the once in a lifetime they used to be. Kou's return evoked too many emotions and Mikan couldn't sift through them fast enough. Then he saw her, and he smiled and her panic faded away like so much dust in the wind. She started to cry, she couldn't help it, and she threw herself into his arms. He caught her and held her and she knew that it would be okay her world would be right again. Kou and Akai smiled at each other over her head, both certain they would never understand women.
