.hack//Legend Of Twilight Bracelet Fan Fiction ❯ Harbored Deep Inside ❯ Reunion of Lovers ( Chapter 2 )

Harbored Deep Inside
Part II

Well, second chapter. Hope you liked the first one, because there is no lemony goodness in this one. Just sap. Also, some of you may notice that certain factual information has been changed. This is because I’m putting everything together in order to follow the continuing expansion of the .hack// universe! Go G.U.!

~

1 years after .hack//Dusk (It should be 2015, but people disagree on this sometimes.) The World has been struck by a great calamity: a fire in the main building of CC Corp. resulted in the destruction of much of data constituting The World, and it has since been shut down. In 2016, The World R:2 is released. Hoping to find Aura, and fearing that she may have been destroyed in the fire, Shuugo subscribes briefly. At the end of his subscription, however, having found no evidence of Aura, and having failed to receive any new mail or messages from her, he abandons the game, and his hopes of finding her. Shuugo's emotional stability has been at an all-time low ever since. He hasn't dated another woman.

~

"Shuugo, me and your father are heading out," called his mother. Then, with more venom than such a message would usually be accompanied with, she said, "could you tell Rena when she gets home to take her tests?"

"Okay, mom." Knowing full well that both his sister and his parents were assisting the love hotels in staying operational, Shuugo wasn't in the best of moods. They've both got someone, he thought. Why does it seem that everyone except me has someone to love? I miss her so much.

Logging onto his computer, he brought up two e-mails, both dating back to the year 2014. One was Aura's first invitation to her domain. The other was a picture of Aura dressed in a kimono the same platinum color as her hair. It wasn't that he needed a reminder of what she looked like, but more like he needed a reminder that she hadn't just been a beautiful dream. That at one point and time she had been real, and he could see her, and hear her, and feel her. He heard the apartment door open and some low murmurs, then he heard the door close. Opening the door to their room, Rena walked in and collapsed on her bed, a large smile on her face. Glancing up at her brother, she saw the same sad, disheartened face that she had been seeing for over two years. With fresh memories of her recent session, she started feeling guilty about her interludes. Getting up and walking over to her brother, Rena sat on his lap and hugged him. Staring silently at the image on their computer, she couldn’t understand how he managed to cling to Aura and still live his life.

"You miss her, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"I'm amazed you're not dead yet. In nature, when a lovebird's mate dies, the other partner usually pines away until it dies too. She would be proud of you for making it this far without her." Shuugo remained silent at this comment.

"Mom said she wanted you to take a test when you got home." Realizing he was trying to irritate her, Rena decided not to give him the satisfaction of a rage-filled response.

"I'll take it later. Mom doesn't have confidence in my ability to monitor myself, but I do. Besides, I was thinking of going down to the shopping arcade. You might be able to find an Evangelion DVD at the antique store." Although DVD's weren't so far obsolete as to be considered antiques, she always knew it would pique Shuugo's appreciation for life if she mentioned it. As expected, he rose to Evangelion's defense.

"It's not ancient, you know! It's classic." Refusing to chase the issue, Rena got her brother up and about to head outside.

"You ever remember it raining so hard?" asked Rena as she looked out a window, the rain splattering against it in n ear-solid sheets.

"No. Supposedly, it's the worst rainstorm we've had in ten years. It's not like there's a lot of wind or anything, though. Just rain." Realizing her brother was beginning to reminisce, Rena grabbed him by the wrist and led him out the door.

~

Walking forlornly around the arcade, Shuugo felt the temperature dropping in the air.

"Hope it doesn't turn to freezing rain. That won't be fun to walk home in." Sitting down on a dry bench under an overhang, Shuugo started silently observing the crowd. There were more couples out and about on the streets than one would think during such weather. This is just great, Shuugo thought irritably. No DVD’s in the shop, and the world seems to be mocking my loneliness. What the hell are all these people doing outside anyways? His irritation beginning to grow into anger, Shuugo opened his umbrella and began to pace outside the shop in the rain. It had been over half an hour since she’d left. Where is she? Does it really take this long to find an issue of some magazine? Another dull, damp half-hour passed/ His anger rose and rose, like yeast in an oven, his face slowly beginning to reflect his overall mood. People began to avoid the moody teenager patrolling the entrance of a small eatery, but Shuugo didn’t notice their sideward glances or their quickened pace. He was so involved in his thoughts that he never even heard someone come up behind him until she started talking
.

"Excuse me..." the girl started, until Shuugo violently set upon her with a flurry of words.

"Rena, what the hell took..?!" Flipping around, preparing to verbally assault Rena, he started an excellent opening speech... then the words clogged in his throat like too much food. His eyes sprang wide in disbelief as he looked upon his visitor. She wore a white, form-fitting raincoat that went down to her knees, with skin nearly as pale as the raincoat. Her hair was a brilliant shade of silvery blonde, which ran down to the small of her back. What really shocked him, though, were her eyes. They were the same brilliant shade of crystal blue as clear water. The exact same shade of blue that he permanently associated with his one and only lover.

"Au…Aura?" Shuugo's voice began to waver, and his vision clouded with tears he had refused shed for two long, nearly joyless years. Hearing her name, the girl's lips curled into a delicate smile.

"I'm happy that you remember me, despite the change in setting." Although her voice didn't crack as much as Shuugo's, there was more than a definite waver in her speech. Heedlessly dropping his umbrella, Shuugo clasped his arms around her. Carefully making sure not to drop her own, Aura wrapped her own arms around him. Sobbing loudly on her shoulder, Shuugo felt all the emotions he had managed to suppress over the years come spilling out of him, as if her presence had broken a dam in his heart. The anger and anguish, his sorrow and seething, all came spilling out in an uncontrolled flood of tears, indistinguishable from the water just outside the umbrella’s protection. He didn't quite know whether to slap her, or kiss her, shake hands, talk, or yell. At the moment, though, he felt somewhat satisfied to hold her just a little too tightly. After a while, his sobbing began to ebb, and then stop, as the emotions drained themselves through his relentless crying, replaced with a pleasant emptiness in the middle of his chest. Releasing his grip, he pushed himself away so that they were face to face with each other. Looking upon her, he noticed that she also seemed to have cried uncontrollably in the embrace.

"When… how did you get here?" Stifling what was left of his tears, he managed to keep his voice from cracking anymore.

"I… managed to reconstruct myself nine months after the fire had destroyed The World. I had to leave before they could take advantage of the disarray to alter it. Harald Hoerwick was… more prepared for me to emerge than I had ever known. But, I couldn’t leave until everything was locked down." Hugging him close again, she continued. "There wasn't a single week these past three years that I didn't miss you with all my heart."

"Honestly?"

"Honestly." Giving in to the bliss of the moment, Shuugo didn't notice his sister walk out of the haze of rain and stare at him, but Aura did. Nudging him enough to get his attention, Aura tilted her head in Rena's direction, her eyes looking in the same general direction. Looking over in her direction, he signaled for Rena to go away. Irritated at being blown off, she made a great huff, and began the long walk to their apartment. Holding each other silently for a time, ignoring the glaring pedestrians, the pair just stood under the umbrella, holding each other, their separation making the contact euphoric and addictive.

"How are you going to explain this to your parents when they ask you about me?"

"How are they going to know about you to begin with?"

"I have a feeling your sister will be divulging a lot of her thoughts to your parents as facts."

"Then I will worry about that when the situation presents itself. Right now, I just couldn't care." Holding her even tighter, Shuugo knew that eventually he would have to let go. But, as he said, he would deal with that later. He had waited far too long for this, and he wanted it to last a while.

~

Updated for a new Author’s Note. It’s now official. There will be follow-up chapters to this story. However, these chapters will not contain further lemon material (or at least not insofar as I intend. I may decide to toss in a scene before the end rolls around). Anyway, as most fans probably already know, G.U. is on the literal horizon. It’s already out in Japan. The storyline of G.U. will affect the ending of this fiction. You know, for continuity and all that good stuff.