Ghosts

Ghosts
by Chibimono Akuno

-206 A.C.-

Gentle whispers of a lost voice flowed through the windows with the wind, blowing at the soft fabric of the curtains. A breathless laugh, so familiar, was calling out to anyone who would listen to its presence in the wind. It called out to one person in particular, calling his name with the voice of an invisible angel.

Heero... Heero... Heero...

A lovely blonde woman laid in her large bed, sleeping. She heard nothing speaking in the wind, nor did she realize her beloved had climbed from the bed. He made his way to the open windows, but could not bring himself to shut them. The voice was calling to him again. Telling him to forget his pain that he denied so vehemently to even himself. Telling him to carry on. Telling him how much he was loved.

Tears poured like a waterfall down the dark haired man\'s face. He rubbed his cheek against the silk curtains, wishing that it was the long chestnut strands that once belonged to the nightly whispers. He confided to the bodyless voice that he wanted to be with him. If he could not, why did the voice come to taunt him every night?

But the wind kept laughing and calling to him, trying to draw him away from the window, away from the housway way from the girl in the bed. Oh, every night he had stayed awake and listened to the singing, laughing voice until it left him with the rising dawn.

But not tonight.

In the darkest hours of the night, before the sun arose, he listened to the wind blow the gentle voice away. It would not leave him alone again. He was dressed with in moments and vaulted out the window. He ran, not sure of where to go, but he knew he was going the right way when he heard the laughter in the breeze. Sweet laughtellinlling him, leading him somewhere. That night he ran for miles and miles and kept running after the voice until he realized where the voice had taken him.

The white marble angel stood upon the white marble block of stone. She looked down upon the man that stood before her, smiling gently. She looked down upon him as if she understood why he was there, even though she had not heard the zephyrs calling to the man that night. She held her marble hands over her chest as if she was holding in her heart the secrets of love, and the smile on her face made it seem as if she wanted to share those secrets with the man before her.

Kneeling down in the soft grass in front of the marble stone, the man gently reached out and traced the curves carved into the marble. Tears filled his eyes in the moonlight. He knew the words and numbers well enough that he didn\'t have to read them in the dark. The dark haired man put his arms around the stone, rubbing his cheek against the smooth white marble, remembering how it was so much like the skin of the voice that summoned him here.

Here rests
Duo Maxwell
Birthdate unknown
Died July 24, 198 A.C.
For someone who had so little,
He gave so much.
A love of life like his
Will never be known again.

The voice began to take a form. The wispy wind gathered in a misty whiteness, much like a cottony spider web, making a small figure of a boy. His hair was long and unbound, flowing in the breeze like his voice had once done. His cheeks were childlike and his eyes were large with longlasting innocence, but when he was once living, he was older than what he seemed. He touched at the man\'s shoulder. \"Heero...\" the air whispered.

Heero turned to the voice, surprised by the touch. His eyes widened, his breath caught in his throat, at the sight of the ghost now before him. \"Duo...!\" he gasped out. Very gently, the ethereal boy leaned forward and placed his misty lips against Heero\'s, sending tingling shocks throughout his whole body. The gossamer figure had a touch like tender electric and Heero became so weak.

He wasn\'t sure how, but he had found himself lying on the ground, the airy spirit beside him, next to him, peering down upon his face. The wind spoke the breath of the spider web boy without his lips even moving. \"... Now that you have come to me... Will you go with me...?\"

\"Of course...\" Heero whispered in return, not knowing or caring where it was that they would go, so long that he was no longer kept away from his heart\'s desire of this long since passed soul.

\"... I\'ve waited for you... For so long...\" Fingers of a cool mist touched at Heero\'s eyelids and they drooped, closing slowly. A final kiss of electric heaven found his lips and entered his whole body. All was dark, but warm, when a hand slipped into his own.

Heero, once a grown man, had become a child once more; the child he had been when he once loved. The one who took his hand was still the child he had once loved. And the love they once had became new and lit the darkness with warm light forever after...

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- owari -