Realize it
Love
Chapter 1:
Realize it
"Yes mother." I slam the door behind me. 'Fuck you' I think grimly and walk over to my computer to shut it down. Afterwards I turn off the light and flop into my bed, drifting off to sleep immediately...
*
I open my eyes and look at a clear, blue sky. No clouds can be seen and the sun is shining brightly. It's not hot, but pleasantly warm and I can feel a light breeze on my skin.
I get slowly to my feet and observe the surroundings.
I'm standing on a large field of flowers and in the far distance I can see mountains. I turn around to see a little village. Well, more the ruins of a village, though.
There is a big tree, his branches reaching onto the ground.
I spot a boy sitting in the shadow of the huge tree, his red hair flowing in the wind.
His back is turned to me, so I approach him carefully and tap his shoulder hesitantly. He jumps a little at the contact and turns his head to look at me with huge, ruby colored eyes.
"Who... who are you?" the boy stutters. He's holding a sketchbook in his hands and I can see a drawing of the village that lies before us.
"My name's Reena." I smile at him.
Suddenly everything feels so natural. Like I've always been in this world.
"My name's Niwa. Niwa Daisuke." That name sounds familiar to me, but I can't remember.
"How did you come here?" The boy asks curiously.
The words come out of my mouth almost automatically.
"I'm looking for someone." It's like someone else is speaking through my mouth.
"For a special person."
I look up and see a young girl approaching us. Her long blonde hair his flowing in the wind and she's wearing a plain, yet beautiful dress.
She stops immediately and gives me a questioning look. I walk over to her and she takes one step backwards.
"Frieda," I hear myself whisper. The girl's eyes widen and she claps her hand over her mouth.
"Why do you know my name? And who are you? Why are you here?"
"I was looking for you for such a long time... My love." I look at her and I see tears starting to form in the corner of her eyes.
"Elliot?" It's a mere whisper and I could rather see the words her lips are forming, than hear them.
"But, but that's impossible!" she cries out. I take another step towards her, take one of her hands and kiss it.
"Don't look at me. Look inside me. Even though this is a female body, my soul, Elliot's soul, lies deep inside of it." The tears are flowing uncontrollably now.
"We made a promise, the day I left for war. Do you remember?" I ask her.
"Yes," Frieda whimpers.
"You said, when I come back from war, we'd get married."
With that the blonde girl's eyes grow even wider and she lunges forward to hug me closely. I encircle her waist and we stand like this for a while before pulling apart.
Suddenly a strange feeling flashes through my body, like a bolt of lighting rushing through my mind.
"Someone has come," the voice inside of me let's me say. Niwa looks up at me and gets to his feet.
"Who? And where?" I point a finger to the north and Niwa starts sprinting into that direction, Frieda and me following him closely.
In the distance I can make out a figure, lying on the ground. As we approach I recognize a young boy.
Niwa slumps down to his knees and moves the blue haired boys' body until he's lying on his back, his head resting in Niwa's lap.
"Hiwatari-kun. Wake up, please. Hiwatari-kun," the red haired boy calls out frantically. The boy called Hiwatari stirs and opens his eyes slowly.
"Ni...wa," he breathes.
"Thank god. Are you hurt?" The blue haired boy shakes his head.
I look at Niwa's face to see concern and relief at the same time.
But I can see something else...
"Gomen, Niwa." Hiwatari whispers. Niwa looks puzzled for a moment.
"What do you apologize for?"
"For not being able to help you, before you got caught in this world."
Niwa stares down at the boy, still lying in his arms. His grip tightens and he pulls Hiwatari up and hugs him closely.
"It's not your fault. There was nothing you could do." A tear tickles down the red haired boy's cheek. "Thanks for worrying about me," he whispers.
I approach the two of them and lean down to Niwa's ear, to whisper two words to him.
"Realize it."
With that my view gets blurry and it seems like all the colors vanish. It's like I'm running backwards, but my feet aren't moving and I can't hear a single sound, except for Niwa's voice, saying quietly "I love you, Hiwatari-kun."
Then everything gets black and it feels like I'm drifting off to sleep again...
Admit it
Chapter 2:
Admit it
I crack one eye open and realize I'm lying on a cold stone floor. I get up grumpily and find myself standing in the middle of a small stone house.
I look outside the window and have to rub my eyes to make sure I'm not hallucinating.
All I can see is sand, sand and even more sand. I reach up to scratch my head, but feel a soft fabric instead. A strange hood is covering my head and I'm wearing a long cape that reaches down to the ground.
I step out of the house and see a ruined town. The different houses are damaged and palms are lying on the ground, withered and broken.
Suddenly I can hear voices from far away. I walk into the direction the voices come from and soon I can see a group of people, some sitting on stones, some standing.
One of them spots me, a tall guy with tanned skin and I can see green hair sneaking out from under the hood he's wearing.
Again this feeling, I felt in that other world, flashes through my mind and my body doesn't only belong to me anymore.
I reach to my back and pull out two swords from a bag I'm carrying. The man approaching me holds three swords in his hands himself and I get ready to fight him, if necessary.
"Don't come near me!" I scream. "I don't want to fight anymore. I fought so often lately and I'm sick of it."
The green haired man stops immediately and eyes me suspiciously.
He sheathes his swords and I do the same, slowly. The others gather around the two of us and I observe all of them carefully.
Next to the swordsman stands a man with blonde hair, a cigarette in his mouth. Behind him cowers a guy who reminds me of Pinocchio, with his long, weird looking nose.
Then there are two girls, one with blue hair and one with orange hair. To their feet I spot a little creature, wearing a big, red hat. It's an elk, I think.
Next to them stands a boy with black hair and a scar under his left eye, wearing a straw hat.
Another person stands far behind the group. A man, with black hair, wearing an orange hat.
"Who are you?" the orange haired girl asks.
"My name's Reena. I'm wandering around for a long time now. I reached Alabasta about two weeks ago. Then I came here, to Elumalu, to get some food and water, before I go on with my journey. But some guys attacked the town. They killed all the villagers they could lay their hands on and destroyed the houses. I wanted to fight them, but they were too many. I couldn't do anything..." I trail off and clench my fists.
"These bastards," I hear one of the boys speak up.
"How can they do this? The people of Alabasta don't deserve something like this," the blue haired girl says.
"Do you want to come with us? We're on the way to the king, in Alubana." the boy with the straw hat asks me. I look at him and blink a few times.
"Oh man, we didn't even introduce ourselves!" He smacks his head with one hand.
"Well, well, then I'll do it. That guy with the grim face and the three swords is Zoro. The blonde guy with the cigarette is Sanji. He's our cook. The boy with the weird nose is Usopp and that little elk behind him is Chopper, our doctor. The girl with the orange hair is Nami and the other girl is Vivi. That guy there," he points behind himself " is my brother, Ace and I am Luffy."
~
After walking through the desert for about two hours we reach a spot with big rocks. We decide to rest between them for a while and eat something.
Luffy rummages through the bags, searching for some food. Sanji yells at him and the swordsman tries to stop the struggle between the two of them.
"Zoro, I'm starving! I wanna eat something!" The straw hat whines.
I can see a hint of a smile on the green haired man's face, but it's gone as soon as it has appeared.
"Sanji, give that dumbass something to eat or he won't stop nagging for the next few hours."
"Thank you, Zoro!"
With that Luffy jumps at the swordsman and hugs him. Zoro looks shocked for a moment, but he doesn't seem to dislike the hugging thing.
"Get off me, idiot!"
Suddenly the ground starts trembling and the sand is heaving. A big, and I mean big, lizard appears in front of us. The girls and Usopp start screaming and Luffy jumps to his feet.
"I can handle this." He jumps at the lizard screaming "Gomu gomu ba..." but he didn't see the long tail of this thing approach him. The tail hits him and Luffy flies through the air and smacks into the stonewall.
"Luffy!" The others scream and Zoro is the first one to arrive at the injured boy.
He takes Luffy into his arms and carries him out of the lizard's reach, while Ace attacks the big creature. A huge flame appears, hits the monster and the next second it's overpowered and falls to the ground.
We hurry over to Zoro and Luffy, who's lying on the ground, the swordsman talking to the boy in his arms.
"Come on Luffy, you wouldn't want to be killed by such a stupid beast, would you?" Zoro looks anxious. Luffy groans and the next moment he opens his eyes.
"Zoro." The group releases a sigh and Zoro hugs the boy close. As soon as he realizes what he's doing he let go of the boy.
"Idiot, why do you have to scare us like that?!" Zoro grumbles, trying to sound angry with the boy.
"Sorry you all. But I'm all right." Luffy gets up, but slumps down to the ground again, holding his side. "Itte..."
"What is it?" Nami asks.
"My side hurts. But it's not that bad." Luffy has a painful expression on his face and Zoro grabs the boy's shoulders and pushes him down, so he lies on his back.
"What are you doing, Zoro?" Luffy asks puzzled.
"You should rest for a while. We'll stay here for tonight so you can recover."
"That's not necessary. I'm fine..."
"You're not," Zoro cuts the boy off, a bit too forceful.
'hmpf' is Luffy's only response as he crosses his arms in front of his chest and pouts..
~
It's getting dark and most of the crewmembers already settled down to sleep. We made a little fire, since it's damn cold in the desert at night.
Zoro volunteered to watch over Luffy and the others didn't want to argue with the swordsman.
From where I was lying I could see the green haired man, sitting cross-legged in front of the sleeping boy. He watches Luffy for a long time, before he gets up and lies down next to him. He pulls off his own cape and covers the straw hat with it.
I move to lie on my back and look at the sky. I see thousands of stars sparkle above me and have to smile. After lying there for about half an hour I get up and walk over to where Zoro and Luffy are lying on the ground.
I hear them snoring and look down at them, standing at their feet.
Zoro's body spoons the boy's one, the swordsman's left arm encircling Luffy's waist. The boy's face is buried into Zoro's shoulder and his hand grasps the green haired man's shirt.
I smile and lean down to hear Zoro whisper something.
"to... just to keep him warm... will freeze to death... idiot."
I lean over to whisper into Zoro's ear. "Admit it."
And the world starts fading again until there's only darkness left and my mind gets clouded once again...
*
Say it
Chapter 3:
Say it
I wake up to a shrieking female voice screaming my name over and over again.
"Please, mother, only five more minutes..." I murmur still half asleep.
"REENA-SAN!" I hear laughter from all around me and my head jerks up. I look straight into the face of a woman, standing in front of me. I look around and realize I'm sitting in a classroom.
A classroom?! My eyes grow wide and I open my mouth to say something, but no words come out.
"So, could you now tell me the answer to my question?" I blush and look at the other students for help. I sigh and hang my head.
"No, Ma'am. Sorry," I mumble to the floor.
"Yagami Taichi-kun, could you please give me the answer," the teacher says before turning back to me "And you are gonna come to me after this period."
I groan and make a face, not listening to the answer the brown haired boy gives.
~
After a really annoying talk with our history teacher, Miss Hidaka, I shuffle to the canteen of the Odaiba High. I take an apple and a bottle of water and see Taichi wave at me.
I walk over to the table he's sitting at and sit down on the opposite side of him.
"So? What did she say?" he smirks at me.
"Shut up. That stupid witch..." I swear under my breath before I take a bite of my apple.
"So, what are you planning to do today?" After not getting an answer for a while I look at Taichi and see him staring at something behind me, a smile on his lips.
I turn around and spot Ishida Yamato, standing in front of the coffee machine and winking at the boy with the huge hair. I wave a hand in front of Taichi's face and he shakes his head, before looking at me questioningly.
"What?" he asks puzzled.
"You are really obvious you know."
"Obvious with what?" I roll my eyes and sigh.
"Oh, nothing. You just can't take your eyes off a certain blonde boy as soon as he enters a room." He blushes.
"Reena! He's my best friend. What's so wrong about being happy to see him?"
"Ah, never mind. It's your business, I'm tired of always telling you what to do." I get up and grab my bottle of water, walking over to the exit.
"Where are you going?" Taichi asks.
"I have PE now. Meet you at the entrance afterwards?" I ask him over the crowd of students, flooding out of the canteen.
But an answer never comes, since he's again fixated on the blonde boy sitting now next to him at the table.
I shake my head and smirk.
~
"Woah, that stupid jerk of a teacher! My whole body's aching," I whine on our way home.
"You're just unathletic, that's all," Taichi sneers at me. I punch him into the side and Yamato laughs, walking next to the two of us.
"You wanna come home with me? My parent's are visiting my granny. And they took Hikari with them. Fortunately I could convince them that I had a lot to do for school, so I could stay home" Taichi asks. I smile.
"Sure. We could watch some DVDs. I have some cool movies."
"Yeah, sounds good. I'm in," Yamato adds.
~
The three of us are sitting on the big couch in the living room of the Yagami's. After watching an action movie, I had the right to choose the next movie. A romantic one of course.
"Man, do we really have to watch that crap?" Taichi, sitting in the middle of the couch, complains.
"Yes, because you wanted to watch an action movie and I didn't complain at all," I tell him.
"She's right with that," Yamato, sitting at the right side of Taichi, adds.
"Oh, thanks a lot. You mean, you actually like that sappy movie?" Yamato shrugs.
"Why not. You could really be a bit more romantic." When he realizes what he said Yamato blushes a deep shade of red.
"I can be romantic. If I want to," Taichi protests.
"Could you two please shut up? I want to watch that damn movie," I say annoyed.
"Sorry," the two boys mumble in unison.
~
Two hours later the end credits roll over the TV screen. I stretch and look over to the two boys. I have to smile at the sight.
They are both sleeping, Yamato's head resting on Taichi's shoulder and the brown haired boy's arm lying on the blonde's stomach. Taichi stirs and opens his eyes.
"'S the movie already over?" he asks sleepily.
"Yes. It was so sad." I reply. "Well, seems like Yamato didn't really like the movie," I smirk.
Taichi frowns and only then realizes Yamato's head resting on his shoulder.
"You should tell him, Taichi. Trust me, he won't reject you or anything. You know each other for so long."
He looks at me anxiously and after some minutes he swallows hard and nods.
At that moment Yamato cracks one eye open and I get up to get ready to leave.
"You wanna go already?" Yamato asks, still a bit sleepy.
"Yeah. And you two should go to bed, too." I say, winking at Taichi.
After grabbing my jacket and my bag I walk back to the couch, giving Yamato a kiss on the forehead, then leaning over to Taichi.
"Say it," I whisper, before heading to the door and closing it quietly.
As I pass the window to the Yagami's living room I peak through it just in time to see Yamato smile and lean over to Taichi.
And again blackness fills my mind and I'm asleep again...
