40. Love is a mirror

"DK!, come out. It's not like you're doing anything inside there." She calls out, "Come out, let's go for a walk." She says again. She'd decided, rather than shying away from him, she would face him. Rather than being sly and seductive, she'd tell him straight to his face how she felt.

"Don't forget, you belong to me today, so you are to do as I say, and I say we go for a walk, so let's go." He didn't have much of an option, so he stepped out of the room.

Slowly, they walked side by side, hands next to each other, but not touching. Just walking inside the woods in complete silence, listening to the birds sing, and some insects crackle, the silence was comfortable, and so was each other's company. It was nice.

She points at a huge log on the ground, indicating that they rested there for some time, and they both sat down there.

"Remember when you first came to our house?"

"I don't think you know the first time I came to your house. You hadn't been born then." He jokes, and she laughs. "But I do remember when you were born. Lords! You were the smallest thing I'd ever seen."

"Was I really that small?"

"Ehn, You were that small. I wanted to pick you up, but then I didn't know where to hold you. You were just so__ so…"

"Piccola?" she asks with a smile, and he laughs and nods.

"yeah, so Piccola"

"Am I still that Piccola?" she suddenly asks. "Don't I look different now? Or do I still look like that baby to you?" she gulped down, biting down on her lower lip, pressing her fingers together, waiting for his response.

"I mean you've grown bigger, but you're still my Piccola, you'll always be that little baby girl to me." He says, it was almost as if he was trying to reassure himself of this fact too. She was just that little girl, that baby.

But she hated his answer. She didn't want that, and she wanted to let him know.

" DK,"

"hmm?"

"What is Love?"

"tsk, all of a sudden?" he scoffs.

"I'm serious, what is love? To you? Not the dictionary meaning, but to you, what is love?" She wasn't joking, he could see it.

"Uh, well___huh, Love__ to me Love is uhh__, Love is a mirror."

"A mirror?"

"uh-hun. A mirror. Love is a mirror that reflects one's soul. A mirror that reflects pain and suffering, but also joy and ecstasy, it's a mirror that reflects the heart just the way it is, naked and helpless. It's a mirror that reflects life, and that mirror is made of frail glass, hold it too tight, and it'll shatter, don't hold it tight enough, and it'll slip right out of your fingers and still shatter, if you try to pick up the broken pieces, you'll hurt yourself, that's why it's never easy to pick up the broken pieces, and neither can you just leave it there and get another mirror. Someone else might get hurt. Either way, love is hurtful."

" I no longer want to be that little baby girl. I don't want to be your Piccola anymore." She suddenly says, causing him to turn to face her, wondering what nonsense she was spitting.

"Zeno, I'm tired of being just your Piccola. I'm not a baby anymore, and I don't want to be one. What I want is… What I want, Zeno, is you." His eyes dilated, his teeth pressed together, his hand clenched tightly, this was wrong.

"Piccola…"

"Zeno, you know it, I've always loved you, I never stopped loving you, and I thought I would after you got married, but I didn't stop. And I'm sorry that you lost Dan-a, but can't you love me like you loved her?" She turned and held his hands in hers, they felt stiff, so stiff that it broke her heart.

"Just give me a chance to love you, let me help you pick up those broken pieces. We can pick them up together, just trust me, we can pick up the pieces of glass carefully and not get hurt. But it's also fine if we both get hurt. Give yourself a chance to love me too. Let's try, give me a chance to love your pain away, give me a chance to be not just your sleeping pill, but also your healing potion, please Zeno, give it a try. Give Us a try." Lord! It broke him to see her cry, but knowing that she really still loved him hurt him even more.

"Luna, you can't." He simply says, taking a hand to her face and wiping the tears away, oh how she loved his touch, she just wanted to be caressed by him for all eternity. "I'm not right for you. I'll only hurt you like I've been doing all this while. You have to stop, Luna, you have to stop."

"But I don't want to," she mutters in a choking whisper. "I can't. I've tried, but I can't. Can't you just love me back?"

"I'm sorry, but there's only one woman for me. Dan-a, and I can never see you in that light. I told you, you'll always be that little baby girl to me."

"Really? Then let me check!" She suddenly pulls him by his collar, and forcefully slams her lips on his.

At first shocked, he was, and then enraged, but then he turned flustered, and then soft her lips felt, he felt her tear trickle onto his lips. And without even knowing, his eyes fell close, and his lips fell open, and she slipped in. Her first kiss, and she kissed, and tasted, and she learned about him, and about the corners of his mouth, and then unexpectedly, he kissed her back, she felt his arms encircle her. "Luna" he muttered into her lips as he kissed her, and she saw hope, he wasn't delusional, he knew it was her, he didn't see her as Dan-a, he knew who he was holding.

And he kissed her, and suckled her lips, and learnt of her taste, and she was sweet, so sweet that he dived in deeper, in search for the source of the honey that exuded from her tongue, curling his tongue around hers, sucking on her lips like his life depended on them, squeezing her tongue with desire and want, nibbling,... "

"NO!" He forcefully tears himself away from her, bolting to his feet. Any further and he would have continued, and even went on to pin her down and take her right there upon the dry leaves.

"This is wrong." He cursed underneath his breath.

"No it is so right, but you keep trying to make it wrong!" She rises to her feet, climbing on top of the log so she could be able to talk to him at his level.

"Luna, you are just a child to me and nothing more. You're like my baby sister, my little sister, so this is preposterous."

"Well I'm not your baby sister, and I know you felt something too. You feel something for me, beyond this useless charade of baby sister shit, you know you feel something for me, and that's why you kissed me back. Because you feel something for me, and you're just too cowardly to admit it."

"Luna, all I feel is a beastly urge, and nothing more. It's nothing but pure lustrous desires. And that's why it is wrong. You're just my little sister, and I shouldn't be feeling this way, so it is wrong. You are my sister, I don't think of you in any other special way. You're just my little sister"

"Stop telling yourself that! Just stop! I am not your sister. I was never your sister, I will never be your sister." She yelled, desperately trying to make him see reason with her.

"We don't even have a drop of blood in common... You are Silvestri, and I am DeFalco , we are not related in any damn form or manner!!! Stop lying to yourself."

"Luna, I know what I'm saying, I feel nothing for you. You're just a little girl, one who is like my blood sister. You're just a baby to me, nothing more." Lords! She hated him. She hated him so much. She hated him with all she had, and yet she loved him so.

" Then I guess that makes you a pedophile!" She suddenly blurts out, and he turns to face her, red with anger now.

" What?!"

"You said I'm a child right? I'm just a baby to you? But you kissed me back. You know you did. Doesn't that make you a pedophile? You molested a baby"

"Watch your mouth Luna, or I'll bridle that tongue of yours for you." He warned, the lines in his head thick with anger, if eyes could shoot lasers, then she would have a hole in her face with the way his eyes burned with anger.

"What? Did I say something wrong? You kissed your baby sister, you kissed a baby, you stuck your tongue in her mouth, isn't that what you call molesting? Doesn't that make you a pe…"

"LUNA!" The birds on the trees instantly scurried at the rage in his voice, there was no form of laughter in his eyes. They'd turned stone-cold, and yet she could swear she saw something beneath that ice, something he was trying so hard to deny. "Mind your words." He warns.

Lords! She had so much to say, but she knew that nothing she said at this point would get into his head. He was not ready to listen, so she just stormed off equally angered, and he just stood there, watching her match off in fury.

Leaving him standing there in frustration... Hands running through his hair... Asking himself one question...

" Why did you do that... Why the hell did you let that happen?" He scolded himself. He should never have allowed her to kiss him, "She just pulled me suddenly, I didn't expect it." He tells himself, trying to justify his actions.

But he knew very well that he could have resisted if he wished to, but he didn't, and it scared him that deep down, he knew he anticipated it, he even kissed her back, he tasted her, and he hated to admit it, but he enjoyed it... Because Oh! she was sweet.