06-06-2019, 07:50 PM
Beautiful
----
I felt her thread her fingers through mine as we walked. It was warm, not the unbearable sort of heat that seems malicious in its omnipresence; but a gentle welcoming to the outer world. Zero Two beamed in happiness, chin raised momentarily to the sky and the distant green and white speckled mountains to the north. The grass was freshly cut and tender and out on the lake there were swans. Blissful in their slow journey across the surface in the sun.
"Are you okay, darling?" I loved it when she called me that. It fulfilled something deeper within. A depth I was aware of but, if I were to be humble, could not fully bequeath the face of description.
"Yeah," I glanced at her, my thumb swiped across the back of her pleasantly smooth skin. "Are you?"
"Of course."
The shade of the tree we stopped under whispered to us invisibly that this is where we're meant to stop and rest for the time being. Slowly we eased into the pristine bench, still new and unsullied by the vulgarity of those with no appreciation of the place others had taken time to mold for them to enjoy. Asking nothing in return but for them to be happy and create memories worth recalling someday to come.
She wore a white top with a light pink hoodie halfway zipped, shorts and a casual pair of sneakers. She was still stunning even in such everyday clothes. Around her neck was the winged necklace I'd given her for her birthday. A sunbeam glinted on it. I could make out the detail of every sacred feather.
Her eyes held love and deep, empathic resonance to me. It was true. I was okay. Scarred, but alive. She still scooted herself closer to me, hip touching mine and her head tilted as she bore her gaze upon me. Strands of pink fell to the angle her head moved in, silently falling into new places. I brushed a lock away from her throat.
"This place is beautiful," I said. And it undoubtedly was. The swans on the lake, the brilliance of the green grass and the gentle trees that conveyed a sensation of ancient friendliness connected with the land itself. A fountain stood in the center and from where we sat we could discern the eternal trickle of water. A great stone bird stood elevated, wings spread in a display and regal beak parted in a voiceless but serenely uplifting call.
"Mmhmm," she nodded, pleased with my comment but detecting there were more words. I felt her curiosity as though it were from the source of myself.
"Do you think it'll stay that way?"
"As long as we remember it that way, it'll stay beautiful darling."
Darling. The love intertwined with that precious name shone like a Goddess light on the threat of bleakness in my heart. It retreated. Cowering and slinking as it faded.
"The world...," my voice cut abruptly, like a pinched air tube. My eyes in shame flitted downward, past her legs and to the unmarred concrete.
"Darling."
I looked back to her. There was no scorn, no anger or even sadness. Understanding. Willing me to go on.
"I get tired of the world's ugliness sometimes, Zero Two. I get tired of the vulgarity, the obsession with shallow meaninglessness. The greedy and the exploitative. They have no sense of love or comprehension of the wonders existence has to offer. Not even an inclination that it exists. It's so...,"
"Sad?"
"Yes. Sad."
"Does that sadness come from a place of sympathy?"
"No. So why does it sadden me at times?"
I was not sure if that question was rhetorical or if I genuinely wanted an answer. Zero Two's fingers found my hair, flowing through strands and traversing to my shoulders. I lifted my arms to hold her hands in my own.
"You've talked about how...our love, our bond...our shared existence is more beautiful than anything this world could concoct. That that's what makes living truly extraordinary, right?"
"Yes," my mouth formed a small, but resolute smile. "I know that, and my belief in that will never change," I kissed both her hands and she smiled a honey sweet smile that nourished us both.
"I know, darling. I just thought you needed a bit of pep talk," she laughed lightly. I chuckled with her, my shoulders shaking.
"It's been awhile since you've laughed like that."
"I know."
"Maybe this place won't stay beautiful. Humans have a habit of twisting things ugly...but," she smiled again and looked at the bird fountain and the crystalline water that spouted from its beak, biting her lip for a moment and looking back to me, "people also made this place. Made it for people like us to enjoy. And we'll always have its memory. And...maybe somewhere out there it's waiting for us to find again."
"Like we did?"
"Yeah. Like we did."
Her thumb delicately brushed away a tear on my cheek and she kissed the minuscule wet trail it left. I gently grasped her face, hair like a silken cocoon that concealed us. Teal eyes gleaming with the timeless ethereal love that made this shared existence so wonderfully beautiful.
I kissed her, her sweet taste enveloping me as her serenity melded with the one that blossomed from the center of my heart to fill me and to join hers.
From the lake a pink and a white swan suddenly took to the air. Water dripping from their bodies, pearling in the air as they rejoined their shimmering main body. The swans danced joyously in the sky.
----
I felt her thread her fingers through mine as we walked. It was warm, not the unbearable sort of heat that seems malicious in its omnipresence; but a gentle welcoming to the outer world. Zero Two beamed in happiness, chin raised momentarily to the sky and the distant green and white speckled mountains to the north. The grass was freshly cut and tender and out on the lake there were swans. Blissful in their slow journey across the surface in the sun.
"Are you okay, darling?" I loved it when she called me that. It fulfilled something deeper within. A depth I was aware of but, if I were to be humble, could not fully bequeath the face of description.
"Yeah," I glanced at her, my thumb swiped across the back of her pleasantly smooth skin. "Are you?"
"Of course."
The shade of the tree we stopped under whispered to us invisibly that this is where we're meant to stop and rest for the time being. Slowly we eased into the pristine bench, still new and unsullied by the vulgarity of those with no appreciation of the place others had taken time to mold for them to enjoy. Asking nothing in return but for them to be happy and create memories worth recalling someday to come.
She wore a white top with a light pink hoodie halfway zipped, shorts and a casual pair of sneakers. She was still stunning even in such everyday clothes. Around her neck was the winged necklace I'd given her for her birthday. A sunbeam glinted on it. I could make out the detail of every sacred feather.
Her eyes held love and deep, empathic resonance to me. It was true. I was okay. Scarred, but alive. She still scooted herself closer to me, hip touching mine and her head tilted as she bore her gaze upon me. Strands of pink fell to the angle her head moved in, silently falling into new places. I brushed a lock away from her throat.
"This place is beautiful," I said. And it undoubtedly was. The swans on the lake, the brilliance of the green grass and the gentle trees that conveyed a sensation of ancient friendliness connected with the land itself. A fountain stood in the center and from where we sat we could discern the eternal trickle of water. A great stone bird stood elevated, wings spread in a display and regal beak parted in a voiceless but serenely uplifting call.
"Mmhmm," she nodded, pleased with my comment but detecting there were more words. I felt her curiosity as though it were from the source of myself.
"Do you think it'll stay that way?"
"As long as we remember it that way, it'll stay beautiful darling."
Darling. The love intertwined with that precious name shone like a Goddess light on the threat of bleakness in my heart. It retreated. Cowering and slinking as it faded.
"The world...," my voice cut abruptly, like a pinched air tube. My eyes in shame flitted downward, past her legs and to the unmarred concrete.
"Darling."
I looked back to her. There was no scorn, no anger or even sadness. Understanding. Willing me to go on.
"I get tired of the world's ugliness sometimes, Zero Two. I get tired of the vulgarity, the obsession with shallow meaninglessness. The greedy and the exploitative. They have no sense of love or comprehension of the wonders existence has to offer. Not even an inclination that it exists. It's so...,"
"Sad?"
"Yes. Sad."
"Does that sadness come from a place of sympathy?"
"No. So why does it sadden me at times?"
I was not sure if that question was rhetorical or if I genuinely wanted an answer. Zero Two's fingers found my hair, flowing through strands and traversing to my shoulders. I lifted my arms to hold her hands in my own.
"You've talked about how...our love, our bond...our shared existence is more beautiful than anything this world could concoct. That that's what makes living truly extraordinary, right?"
"Yes," my mouth formed a small, but resolute smile. "I know that, and my belief in that will never change," I kissed both her hands and she smiled a honey sweet smile that nourished us both.
"I know, darling. I just thought you needed a bit of pep talk," she laughed lightly. I chuckled with her, my shoulders shaking.
"It's been awhile since you've laughed like that."
"I know."
"Maybe this place won't stay beautiful. Humans have a habit of twisting things ugly...but," she smiled again and looked at the bird fountain and the crystalline water that spouted from its beak, biting her lip for a moment and looking back to me, "people also made this place. Made it for people like us to enjoy. And we'll always have its memory. And...maybe somewhere out there it's waiting for us to find again."
"Like we did?"
"Yeah. Like we did."
Her thumb delicately brushed away a tear on my cheek and she kissed the minuscule wet trail it left. I gently grasped her face, hair like a silken cocoon that concealed us. Teal eyes gleaming with the timeless ethereal love that made this shared existence so wonderfully beautiful.
I kissed her, her sweet taste enveloping me as her serenity melded with the one that blossomed from the center of my heart to fill me and to join hers.
From the lake a pink and a white swan suddenly took to the air. Water dripping from their bodies, pearling in the air as they rejoined their shimmering main body. The swans danced joyously in the sky.