Mercurial > moonlitnights
comparison old/stories/substituteforlove.txt @ 2:fc00894c1d4a moonlitnights
[svn r3] moved all the bad stuff to 'old'
| author | rlm |
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| date | Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:53:12 -0500 |
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| 3 I traveled round the world | |
| 4 Looking for a home | |
| 5 I found myself in crowded rooms | |
| 6 Feeling so alone... | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 A figure caught her eye as she was turning back to the counter. For a second she caught her breath, hope springing up | |
| 11 unbidden, but she was to be disappointed once again when the woman turned. The skin was far too dark...the hair was similar, | |
| 12 but not quite the right shade. She was not the one. | |
| 13 Sakura was about to turn away again when she realized that the woman was also looking at her. Looking at her with raised | |
| 14 eyebrows and a startled expression that quickly transformed to disappointment as she watched. | |
| 15 Then green eyes met green. | |
| 16 Something passed between them. A sense of kinship, a recognition of some kind. She made as if to rise but the other | |
| 17 woman gestured for her to remain seated and approached her instead. | |
| 18 She felt a lump in her throat. The young woman moved with the unconscious grace of a true lady. She might have been a | |
| 19 princess, she moved with such fluidity...it was a joy to watch her. Her hair flowed down her back in soft waves. | |
| 20 For the life of her, Sakura couldn't help but be reminded of someone else. | |
| 21 | |
| 22 | |
| 23 | |
| 24 Substitute for Love | |
| 25 By Janice | |
| 26 sparkle@animefan.org | |
| 27 | |
| 28 | |
| 29 "Are you...waiting for someone?" asked the woman a little hesitantly. | |
| 30 "Well...not exactly," said Sakura. She smiled a little. "Would you care to join me?" | |
| 31 "Thank you." Her voice was low and well-modulated, a lovely voice. She spoke with formal politeness, reinforcing the | |
| 32 image of a princess in Sakura's head. Still, she thought, I prefer higher voices. High, sweet, voices... She cut off the | |
| 33 thought cleanly and sharply, as one who has had much practice might do. | |
| 34 The door opened and Sakura looked up quickly, a reaction that had become almost as instictive as breathing. | |
| 35 And perhaps almost as necessary. | |
| 36 Strangely, the other woman looked up simultaneously, with a movement almost identical to Sakura's. The two of them | |
| 37 squinted at the figure outlined in the doorway, and then each turned away with a sigh. Then their eyes met again and they | |
| 38 smiled ruefully at each other. | |
| 39 "Have you always worn your hair long?" the woman asked. The question was sudden, but somehow neither abrupt nor | |
| 40 jarring. It seemed like the most natural question in the world. | |
| 41 Sakura put her hand self-consciously to the hair that fell down her back in a straight auburn curtain. "No," she said quietly. I | |
| 42 used to wear it in a short, pixie cut all through school. But I haven't cut it in a long time. Someday, I'll cut it short again." | |
| 43 "Someday, when you find...her?" The questioning inflection was slight but unmistakable. | |
| 44 Sakura nodded slowly. "Does...she have long hair?" she asked. | |
| 45 After a pause, the other woman nodded in turn. "She...did...the last time I saw her, anyway. Long and straight, like yours. | |
| 46 But hers was lighter than yours." | |
| 47 "You move with the same unconscious, gentle, grace that she did," said Sakura. "You don't really look like her, though her | |
| 48 hair was long and wavy like yours, but you...you *feel* a little like her, somehow." | |
| 49 The woman nodded again, as slowly as Sakura had. "I'll bet you were athletic in school," she said. | |
| 50 Sakura smiled a little. "Does is show?" | |
| 51 "Oh, in the way you move, in the way you carry yourself...the little things." | |
| 52 "She was always very observant, too. She used to amaze us all. Sometimes it seemed like she knew everything," Sakura | |
| 53 said reminiscently. The door opened again and once again both women looked up in unison. "I guess I've become the | |
| 54 observant one, now." A thread of irony edged her tone. "I certainly wasn't then, and I paid for it." A sigh escaped her lips. | |
| 55 "Why is it that we truly don't appreciate the most wonderful things in our lives until they're gone?" | |
| 56 The woman's hand covered hers comfortingly, her skin dark against Sakura's comparative paleness. "I don't know," she | |
| 57 said sorrowfully. "I don't know." | |
| 58 | |
| 59 * * * | |
| 60 | |
| 61 Sakura pulled closer to her in the darkness, running her fingers through the long, soft hair. "I'm afraid," she whispered. | |
| 62 "Of what?" | |
| 63 "Of finding her. What if..." It was hard to say. "What if she's found happiness with someone else? It was so long ago. I've | |
| 64 changed. I'm not the same person I was then...and she won't be either." A tear escaped from her eye and ran sideways down | |
| 65 her face to hide itself in the pillow. All of her fears were pouring out of her now. "Why have I spent my life chasing a dream? | |
| 66 What if...what if she doesn't love me anymore? What if I only disrupt her life and make her unhappy by finding her?" Her | |
| 67 voice dropped to a whisper. | |
| 68 "What if...what if I never find her at all?" | |
| 69 The arms around her tightened, and she felt as though they were the only things holding her together. Without them, she | |
| 70 thought, she would shatter into a million pieces. | |
| 71 The low voice hovered in the darkness. "I know," it said softly. "I know." | |
| 72 | |
| 73 | |
| 74 | |
| 75 | |
| 76 Lyrics at the beginning are from Madonna's "Substitute For Love", from her CD, "Ray of Light". The characters | |
| 77 belong to the creators of the series "Card Captor Sakura" and "Utena", respectively... and respectfully. | |
| 78 | |
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