2A/N: I've decided to post Piece By Piece, despite me not having finished either Bad Luck Charm or I Just Wanna Be Yours. Though due to bullshit that's been going on, it might be a bit harder for me to post it…ah fuck it. I can't be bothered to bore you to death and back.
Piece By Piece
Summary: Everything I ever fought for was gone once you died. You were the love of my life, and I swore to never fall in love with anyone ever again. But, why does she remind me of you so much? Am I breaking that promise I made to you, so long ago?
*Depart From Me*
I lost everything I ever fought for. The one person in my life who I truly loved was now dead, driven by her own hand. I held her bleeding body in my hands as she departed from me, dying on a hot summer night in England. I found her note, and it said that the burden in her heart was too much for her to bear, and she wanted her true wish to be granted. 'Call yourself a decent husband? The one person who you swore your life to is now gone, and who's to blame? Me.'
I looked at those teary stormy blue eyes, now lifeless, and I ran a hand through her soft hair, my fist tightening. "Yue…fuck!" 'You fucking asshole! Why did you never consider that Yue was closer to her breaking point than you thought!? She broke down once Faye died, and Alex ending up in a coma only made things worse. Why the hell did you not try harder to prevent this!?'
In pure frustration and anger at myself, I slammed a fist down onto the concrete. I felt my hand shatter, but currently, that pain was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. "Yue… I'm so sorry. You deserved better in life than the hand you were dealt." 'First Faye's murdered by your father's business rival, then Alex ends up in a coma protecting you from the same fate, and finally…you take your own life to be with your sister.'
I carried my deceased love away from the site of her final breath, the knife she used falling out of her limp hand. It clattered to the stony ground with a clatter, crimson streaks dripping down its razor sharp edge, and the blade gleamed in the moonlight. The only thing I had ever feared was losing the people I regarded as family, and that worst fear had come true. The love of my life and her twin sister, and my best friend who was basically a brother. All of them were gone.
I found myself staring at the blade for what seemed to be an eternity. I didn't know how much time had passed by the time I tore my amber gaze away from it. It could've been only five minutes, or it could've been an hour. I reached down to pick it up, biting my lip to prevent a wince of pain escape my lips as I realized I was holding it with the hand that had just been broken. As I stared at it, the brief thought about joining my love did cross my distressed mind. My grip on its dark handle tightened, pain shooting through the broken bones, and I lowered my hand. 'No…Yue wouldn't want you to commit suicide with her. She'd want you to keep living, and cherish the memories we shared.'
I looked at the knife one final time before throwing it away. It may have bounced on the ground; it may have landed in the bushes where it wouldn't be found unless someone was going to be looking for it. I didn't care one way or the other about it; all I could think about was the last time we were able to be intimate with each other. It was only last night, but now, it seemed like it was months ago. I would never be able to feel her warm hands on me again, the delicate kisses she would give me. I couldn't run a hand through that silky blonde hair, or cuddle her on a frosty night.
My heart was beyond broken. It had shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, fragmenting away and never to be seen again. Those pieces would never be able to be repaired. There wouldn't be another person like her. 'No one. No one could make me happy like the way you did. I shall never fall in love again.'
I looked at her body, fighting the tears that tried so hard to break through. There was one last thing to do, and that was make a promise to her.
"Yue…I'll live…for the both of us. I promise."
Syaoron blinked his amber gaze open, the sunlight streaming in through his bedroom window, and he let out a yawn before he sat up to stretch. He looked to the empty spot in his bed, and it took a lot of effort to rip his eyes away from it without tearing up. 'Yue…' It had been several months since the love of his life committed suicide, but time did nothing to ease the wounds. It wasn't something he could just recover from, like his broken hand.
The sheets fell from his chest, and he swung his legs out of bed before standing up and heading to the shower for his morning rinse. He had moved as far from the scene of his wife's death as he could, crossing the ocean to try and settle down in South Carolina of the United States and live a normal life, but it wasn't what he could call easy. He still had to attend school, and whenever he wasn't there, he worked at a butcher's and a bar to make sure he wasn't evicted. He was used to living with his wife, where they supported each other, and the brunette hated to admit that it was wearing him out rather quick, especially since he liked the work he was doing. Getting to see how a cow could be made into about fifty different things intrigued him quite a bit.
The school he attended was nowhere near the size of his old one, and he often found himself disagreeing with their methods already. Mainly about the student driving. Having had a license since early high school in Japan, the idea of having to take some stupid class to cement to not drink and drive was ridiculous. He actually had to go through the damn district offices just to park in the parking lot.
Syaoron stepped into the shower, and as the warm water sprayed over his messy hair, he let out a sigh of defeat as he rested his head against the wall. 'Seventeen years old, and already a fuckin' widower. Unbelievable.' He could still feel his wife's hands wrapping around his waist from behind, and his heart twisted in his chest. 'Yue…I miss you. More than anything in the world.' Even though his was now a widower, he still wore the silver band on his hand as a symbol of his faithfulness to her, and he had the words, 'Thus kindly, I scatter' tattooed in her native tongue on his lower left arm, along with her name.
Outside in his room, his phone's alarm starting going off, and the brunette grumbled before he hurriedly applied the wash to his hair and body before rinsing it off. 'Crap. I forgot I set the damn thing.' He stepped out, steam having covered part of the bathroom's mirror, and he wiped a spot off to brush his hair. It had grown due to his lack of a haircut, giving him the look of a rock star, and even though he was still considered the new kid at school, it had already made him a topic of conversation amongst the female population.
Syaoron scoffed at the mere thought of the girls at school and their borderline promiscuous attitudes as he shut the alarm on his phone off. 'Ugh…too easy. None of them have any class.' He wasn't by any means a prude, but easy girls who would put out for someone they didn't even know revolted him as if they had the plague. 'Never been interested in that kind of idiotic phase of wanting to sleep with random girls. All I wanted was a serious relationship. I know it's the southern part of the States, but come on.'
He pulled on a pair of dark blue jeans, his wallet chain looped through the belt loops, and fitted a pair of equally dark socks on. He had always preferred dark colored clothing, even in the middle of summer; the heat wasn't something that bothered him. Though he had to admit, it was rather annoying to have the back of his heavy metal T-shirts stick to him from sweat.
He looked through his closet, tying up a pair of blue Adidas Superstars with black stripes, and grumbled in annoyance when he couldn't find his Team Sweden Winter Olympics jersey. 'Dammit. Did I already wear it this week? I can't remember. Maybe I ought to stop drinking so much on school nights. This isn't Japan.' He looked in the laundry basket half-full of dirty clothes, and swore irritably when he found it. "Motherfucker…" 'I did. I have to do laundry today when I get back, I guess.'
Syaoron spotted a new black Metallica shirt he ordered off of the Hot Topic website awhile back hanging up, and he shrugged before pulling it over his head. 'Oh well. It could be worse. At least it's not pink.' He thought about one of the many times his wife had denied that she was wearing pink and called it light-ish red, and though he wanted to smile at the amusing memory, it just wasn't happening. "There's a word for light-ish red, Yue. It's called pink." "It's not pink. It's just slightly less red than the skinny jeans I have on."
The brunette grabbed his binder, laptop, and a few textbooks and placed them into his bag, putting it over his shoulder. 'Time to go to that perfect little niche of hell that's residing about three miles away. Fucking hell…why is everything so spread out here? It takes thirty minutes just to get to the damn mall; I'm still used to the size of Tokyo. Could do that in half the time over there.' He picked up his house and car keys, locked the door on his way out, and was greeted by a thick layer of fog that was rolling around. 'Damn. It's going to take longer than usual. Seriously…people can't drive at all here. And why does every good bit of road have a 10-mph speed limit on it?'
Shaking his head, he opened the door to his car, a blue Nissan Silvia from his time overseas, and started it up before slowly going down the gravel driveway, wincing as he hit a decent crater in the ground. 'Damn driveway's going to give me back issues, I swear.' Once his tires hit tarmac, he opened the throttle up and started to go on his way normally. The fog provided some issues with his line of sight, but he had to deal with legendary traffic jams of Tokyo for quite some time.
Once he arrived, he pulled into the parking lot and found an open space easily; with the heavy blanket of fog, not many students wanted to take the chance of driving. Only a handful of other student drivers had taken the risk. 'I don't get it. They bitch about the fog or rain the first chance they get, but they'll drive drunk in a heartbeat. What are they, braindead?'
He grabbed his bag and pushed past a couple of giggling freshmen girls, trying his best to ignore the looks he was getting, and headed up to the third floor of his new high school where he found his first period class. It was English, and the teacher was a kind-faced middle aged man by the name of Edward Slacks. He looked up as the brunette arrived, and gave him a respectful nod. "Ah, Syaoron. Nice to see you."
"Hey…" Syaoron returned half-heartedly as he took his seat.
Mr. Slacks was one of the few people who knew what he was going through, and he gave him a sympathetic glance. "Same situation?"
"You could say that…"
"Must be tough, living on your own at your age."
"Not really. I'm used to it. My parents were never around much, and when I turned fifteen, they were gone for good. Didn't bother me that much. My wife's death is a different matter entirely."
"You've had it rough. Losing a loved one is never easy. Especially someone who you had a very powerful bond with. How did you two meet?"
"Chemistry class in Tokyo. We were lab partners on her first day after she moved to Japan," Syaoron answered quietly, remembering the first time he had actually laid eyes on his wife Yue. 'Yuki-sensei taught it, if I remember correctly.' "I think we ended up setting the sprinklers off by mistake. Great way for her to experience the shenanigans." 'Those days were quite fun. I'd love to be able to go back and relive some of those moments. The amount of hours Alex, Yue, Faye and I spent just hanging around without a care in the world…'
"Sounds like love at first sight. That just makes it harder," Mr. Slack sighed. "I remember when I first met my wife, and I thought she was the most magnificent woman I had ever had the good fortune to bump into. We met from her car breaking down in a KFC parking lot. Talk about romantic, huh?" He let out a snort of laughter, and his laugh was contagious; someone could be having a terrible day, and he would manage to make them smile even just a little bit.
And Syaoron was no exception. He gave a small smile, laughing quietly. "Yeah. I imagine a lot of people would tell that story a bit different. And…thanks."
He opened his bag to start taking out his binder when he caught eye of a new desk sitting near his in the back. "Sir, why is there another desk? Is someone getting transferred in?" 'That wasn't there yesterday. Either a new student is coming in, or we're being visited by someone important.'
"New student," Mr. Slack replied, sticking his nose into his folder and looking through the papers within. "Let's see…ah ha. Girl by the name of Alana Ehlers. Says she's a new transfer student from overseas. Hopefully things will run smoothly for her sake; I don't want someone to feel as though they're being singled out just for being new." He closed the folder as the bell for first period rang throughout the school and the rest of Syaoron's classmates took their seats. "Hello class. Nice to see everyone is present today; I have news for you."
Syaoron flicked through his binder until he found the section where he kept most of his artwork for future tattoo designs, and he clicked his mechanical pencil a few times before starting to draw, keeping an eye on the business of the class. Mr. Slack looked out the door briefly, waving for someone unseen to enter. "I'd like to introduce a new student: Miss Alana Ehlers."
Syaoron looked up, and he nearly gasped in surprise when he saw her. 'Huh?' The girl was short, with relatively pale skin and golden blonde hair. But that wasn't what made him shocked. It was her eyes. He had seen that kind of beautiful Nordic blue on only two people, his wife Yue and her twin sister Faye. 'Those eyes. They're…like Yue's. She's from some part of Scandinavia, most likely.'
Alana bowed her head nervously, and when she spoke, it was clear to the brunette she didn't speak a word of English. "H-hello…I'm Alana Ehlers. It's nice to meet you." The rest of the class looked at each other in confusion, for they clearly didn't understand a word of what she just said. 'Looks like I'm the only one who understands her.'
Syaoron knew the language of Swedish fairly well, due to his marrying a Swede himself. Yue had made sure to teach him quite a bit of her native tongue, and he was thankful he learned the language. "Sorry that they don't understand you. They don't even recognize it." Alana blinked in surprise; she wasn't expecting someone of Japanese descent to be fluent in Swedish. "Y-you speak it?"
"Yes. Rather fluently, too," Syaoron replied, well aware that his fellow classmates were shocked by the fact that he was able to communicate with the short blonde. "I can help translate for you."
"O-oh, thank you. I'd appreciate a lot," Alana blushed, embarrassed by the way he so readily volunteered for the service. Her gaze flickered briefly towards the tattoo on the brunette's arm, and her face clouded over with sorrow; being Swedish, she could obviously read it, and was probably the only person in the room who knew what it meant.
Mr. Slack had watched the interaction with great interest, and he looked over at Syaoron. "I never knew you spoke Swedish so well. Did someone teach it to you?"
Syaoron nodded, looking down at his tattoo, and he sighed before placing a hand on it to prevent prying eyes from getting a look. "You could say that…" 'Still painful. They say time is the only thing that can cure a broken heart, but I don't see it happening. Especially since Alex is comatose. If he was around, this would be easier.'
"I see. Well, if it's not an issue for you, I'd like for you to act as translator. Do you mind?" the older man asked.
Syaoron shook his head, a hand still covering the words inked in his skin. "No..." 'It's not her fault. She didn't ask for this. No reason to be an asshole about it. Besides, I really doubt there's another person at this hellhole who understands Swedish like I do.'
He gestured to the empty seat next to him. "You can take that one if you want. No one sits there."
"T-thank you…" She gave him a nod of gratitude and took her seat. Her brilliant gaze never left his forearm, and she swallowed. "How much did she mean to you?"
Syaoron closed his eyes, fighting hard to prevent the memories of the worst night of his life from rearing their ugly scaly heads. "More than anything."
He dropped his voice to a murmur, his gaze sullen. "I said I'd live out both our lives. Easy to make that promise, Yue…"
He really wished the clock would speed up a bit; he could feel the familiar itch of a needed nicotine dose start to irritate him.
A/N: That's the end of chapter one. All comments are welcome. Tell me what you think. Could something have been done better? Like it?
Discord: DPL #5371