See you again

July 16, 2005,04:07

Yuri forest

It's raining fire and missiles. Mizuki leaves a chaste kiss on Sakura's lips. It's cold and lifeless but its all they got. He takes one last look at Hinata, giggling and squirming in her bed with her stuffed bat, clueless and carefree. He silently prays she stays that way, a free unbreakable spirit.

Sakura hugs him tight, gripping onto the pearl neckless with all she could because she is ready to protect it with her life, has to.

"Please, take it." Sakura pleads and her heart bleeds for a longing she still hasn't felt.

"No. I need you to have faith in me, in us, we're going to make it. Both of us. The three of us." He's sobbing and it's not a good look. He should be the one to keep it together, someone has to.

He kisses her one last time and squeezes her arm. He takes a long last look at the love of his life, shaking and a whole mess but as beautiful as the day he laid his eyes on her that night at the waterfall.

He presses their foreheads together, brushing his nose over hers, "I'll see you soon, my hana."

"Soon." Sakura repeats after him, wanting to believe it.

Mizuki leans over Hinata's crib and leaves a kiss on her forehead. It's painful, leaving them to an unknown future, possibly a very short one, but he has to, for the greater good, for the world he wishes to see his daughter grow up into.

Sakura pulls his arm and hugs him one last time and he leaves as quickly as he can, not looking back behind him, knowing that he can't resist those eyes of hers that will chain him down.

It's increasingly difficult to walk around, given that most of the forest is currently on fire and surrounded by mines.

He shifts to his little white fox shape, and runs as fast as he can, as far as his yellow eyes can see. He hears screams and shouts behind him, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't have second thoughts about turning back, but he doesn't, he keeps on running and striding out of the forest.

He climbs a hill on his way to the forbidden cave, and he lets himself take a break by watching the forest at the edge of the hill.

When he's about to smile at the memory of the days he'd run around outside with Sakura and come to this spot, with their home view, the most beautiful view, he sees a missile being fired from a planetnik plane, right above the forest, aiming at the centre of the green land.

Time seems to stop.

The missile moving in slow motion, the world around Mizuki getting blurry, his body frozen in his place. He realises what is happening, and he's content with it. At least he tried, right? He ran away from his most loved ones in his life for good but now they'll all die together. Tragic, really, but also poetic.

Mizuki closes his eyes as the missile makes contact with the dome around the forest, shattering it to billion pieces and hitting every being under it, killing them instantly.

Mizuki opens his eyes, and he watches as all he knew in his life falls apart and burns down to ashes.

He doesn't get it. Why is he alive? Why is he still alive? He left his hoshi no tama with Sakura, so why is he alive? Why did everyone die but not him?

He touches his neck, and there it is, his star ball, the essence of his life around it. He now sees it, as Sakura pulls him for the last hug and circling his neck with his necklace.

He feels broken and weak in the knees, he falls to the ground and starts screaming at the top of his lungs until he can no longer do.

"Why? Why would you save me?" he whispers to his lover, no longer here to answer every question he has in life like she used to.

*

Valodya finds him at the edge of the river, staring at the stream that has changed colour from blue and green shades to dark bloody red. He doesn't need to know why it's that colour, he can hear it loud and clear in his ears.

Valodya saw the Yuri forest explosion, and he's quite sure of why Mizuki is currently fixated on a stupid thing in the river. He comes closer to him, bit by bit as to not disturb him.

"I know you're going through a lot right now," Valodya starts, "but we need to move, now. It's not safe out hear, and I left the two kids alone in a cave."

"How?" Mizuki whispers, eyes still on the water. Valodya hums in confusion.

"How do you keep moving on when you've lost everything. " Mizuki elaborates, finally detaching his eyes off the little dead fish he was looking at.

Valodya smiles at his question, "You know I don't have an option."

"But you do it because you want to, I can see it." Mizuki insists.

"Well, it took me years of suicide and literally throwing myself into the hot waters for me to realise that this isn't about me. This life, this world, it was never about us."

"Mizuki, we've surpassed the three decades of friendship, and I know we wouldn't be having this conversation if you've never met Sakura in the first place."

Mizuki goes to say something but Valodya doesn't allow him, "it sounds brutal and poisonous, but that's the thing, old friend, you kept going for the last five hundred years of your life because you never had a reason to live, you just did for the sake of it, but now? Now you wanted to live and grow old with Sakura, wanted to see Hinata taking her first steps, casting her first spell, you wished to see her grow between the rest of the kids, along with Evdokia, Jean, Thomas and Ira."

Mizuki couldn't contain himself any longer and he bursts in tears, imagining what his love and their child probably look like by now. He doesn't get to see Sakura's hair changing from pink to grey to white, he doesn't get to hear Hinata calling him father, he was deprived from all of this and for what.

"I get it, probably better than anyone else you might have known all your years."

"yeah, no shit grandpa." Mizuki chuckles through tears, but he does, in fact, believe that no one has gone through what Valodya has, or any other phoenix did. They've seen all their loved ones die either because it was their time or due to wars. They've seen empires rise and fall and so does its people. They've witnessed the worst genocides and cheats of life, but they kept moving on because they don't have a choice to oppose it. So what if he can give himself that choice? Yes, his daughter has died tonight, and he can no longer keep going to make the world a better place for her, however, there are trillions of other kids that need him, need people who keep moving forward no matter what, to give them a better life, a better world all in all. Yes, the love of his life died tonight, but there are millions of love birds who never got to see the seed labour of their love as it blossomed between them, so what if he can make it possible, not for the trillion kids or million lovers, but three or two, maybe even one.

And so he does, and he wipes his tears and gets up on his feet, hands clasped on his pearl necklace. "okay, okay, where to now?"

"We need to find Evdokia, preferably alive." Valodya was already on his feet when he saw the realisation and acceptance paint Mizuki's face.

*

May 8, 2021, 13:59

Beijing, china

Mogra safehouse

"this safehouse isn't so safe anymore. We need to move out." YuNing thinks he can hear his dad shouting at some point when he regains his consciousness. He realises he's in his and ZiYan's assigned room while the noise is coming from downstairs. YuNing peels away the covers and swings his legs off the mattress. The floor is cold under his bare feet but he pushes through it and walks out of the room, the sound getting louder and clearer with anger and frustration in both of Evdokia and dad's voices.

"we are not going anywhere. Believe it or not I'm under restricted orders and plans, I can't just fucking ask for a different location if you don't want to be found out. I'm sorry, I can't risk it." Something about her voice does not sound so sorry to YuNing, and he understands where she's coming from, but his father? That's a different story.

YuNing stands behind the bars of the staircase, his figure melting excellently into the image without anyone realising he's there.

They're all seated in the living room, heads low and going through a thought process while Evdokia and dad are standing in the middle of the room, arms being raised along with voices with threat and fumes.

"I can't stay here." LiQin murmurs almost hysterically.

"what? Can't handle a bunch of folks who want your head? You're the fucking warrior of our world." Evdokia bites out, gritting her teeth.

Our world?

"There is way too much at stake here. So much can go wrong. And fucking YuNing is here, I can't take leaps when it comes to him." LiQin screams out in frustration, almost like a child who thinks if they could say it louder it'd get their point across, Evdokia thinks.

"Oh for fuck's sake, you don't actually care about him, do you? you never thought twice before escaping that fucking prison or what it would unleash upon us but now you draw the line?" Evdokia chuckles darkly.

Prison.

"he's my fucking son." LiQin says under his breath, a tone of threat coming through his breathing.

Evdokia stares at him. She just stares.

"No, you don't care if he's your son or not. You only care if you'd stay alive or not, because that's what you are Wang LiQin. A fucking selfish man." Evdokia spits out with so much venom on her tounge.

LiQin moves to slap Evdokia but there are quick arms that hold back his, and of course its Valodya.

"don't. " Valodya warns.

"Stay out of this-" LiQin says, simply, anger fuming off his head.

"Why are you running away then? Why aren't you giving in to them and protecting YuNing you vacuous being if you care so much about him?" Evdokia carries on and it takes LiQin to the edge.

LiQin jerks his arm out of Valodya's hold and punches her.

Everyone in the room are on their feet and weapons in their hands, ready to attack at any given moment.

"You fucking-" Jean walks up to LiQin but Evdokia's arms pulls him back to her side, her other hand holding her cheek that starts forming a bruise. Her phone rings in her pocket but she ignores it.

"doesn't make a lot of sense now, does it?" Evdokia coos in sarcasm.

"you don't fucking know me Evdokia Artem! You're just a kid who had a few bad days and fucked up and now? Now she's blaming it on other people."

"Don't you fucking dare!" Evdokia raises her index, her other hand on her sword.

"Wang LiQin you've crossed the line." Robin hands are on his gun Reema is there right behind him, eyes as sharp as him.

"STOP!"

YuNing shouts from where he's standing at the last step of the staircase, and everyone turns their heads to look at him, and if YuNing is guessing correctly, they're all probably wondering how much have he heard of their conversation.

"Who are you running from, dad?" YuNing finally speaks after the sound of heavy breathing and the floor squeaking is the only thing that takes over the room.

"Go ahead LiQin, tell him!" Evdokia throws her hands in the air

LiQin stands there is silence, eyes roaming all over YuNing's pale face.

No one answers, instead the room goes awfully silent and YuNing feels like he asked the right question.

"Who are you running from?" YuNing insists, this time is voice high and confident.

"Ningning, there's so much-" LiQin starts but Jean cuts him of.

"Your father is a runaway criminal in another realm."

YuNing is baffled to say the least.

"Yeah right..like there are other realms." YuNing chuckles at that.

"he's no joking." ZiYan decides to join in.

"What?"

"He's not joking, there are other realms." ZiYan says, and YuNing looks at him like he has lost his mind.

"nice one," YuNing brushes off ZiYan and focuses back on dad, "I was being serious with my question." He deadpans.

LiQin can't seem to meet YuNing's eyes, his vision fixated on something not so interesting on the ground.

Ira stands up and walks up to YuNing, and he stands right in front of him, his face for the very first time as serious as it can get.

Ira lifts his hands before YuNing's chest in a prayer like gesture and murmurs something under his breathe. YuNing watches in horror as a ball of water forms in the air between them, water streaks swirling around the little luminous ball of water.

YuNing stumbles backward and falls back onto his butt, his eyes unable to believe that a guy just manifested water and it showed up before him.

Ira lets the ball flow around himself and then around YuNing, sounds of echo and sea waves heard form it. Ira snaps his fingers once the ball is right between him and YuNing, backing the ball fall to the ground and causing a splash that soaks through YuNing's pants, making him believe that this is in fact real as it can get.

"It might seem like the coolest trick to you, but it's one if the first magic spells they teach kids at the age od four." Ira smiles fondly at YuNing, like he's happy he got to share this little thing with him.

YuNing's breathe is uneven and his heart is racing. He looks over at ZiYan, and he doesn't find him in the same state as himself.

"You know about this?" He asks ZiYan through heavy breathes.

ZiYan smiles at YuNing, and he raises his palms just to replicate the same spell Ira just did, only that this time he swiftly eliminated the existence of the water ball into thin air.

YuNing is fucking bewildered to say the least. And then it all plays in his mind all over again.

His skin is pale and dark at the same time, eyes are a deep orange colour and they look way too real to be artificial lenses and it unsettles YuNing in the worst ways.

"how much do you know about the war your father started?"

"One half fairy," Markian points at YuNing with a pen that was inside of the binder, "full merman, "pointing at ZiYan, "and the rest are pure humans."

"I see," he examines YuNing's jaw, "you were never told were you?"

YuNing flinches as his memory serves him well with that devious day that his friends-

His friends

His friends where referred to as humans while he and ZiYan-

"What the fuck?!" YuNing screams, his hands planted in his hair and it slightly pulling at it.

"YuNing?" LiQin asks, his voice heavy with concern.

"He said half fairy, merman and humans." YuNing mutters under his breath.

"Yes. He wasn't tripping. " ZiYan says, folding his sleeves, and there it is, the same scale like skin he saw on the woman who got chopped in half later this afternoon.

YuNing doesn't say anything, he just walks past Ira and goes to ZiYan and touches the scales on his arm, and they're as real as a fish he once scaled down while his mother was teaching him how to cook from a to z, and the memory is fucking endearing it brings tears to his eyes.

"Am I a fairy like he said?" YuNing turns around and looks at his father in the eyes, and LiQin smiles at him, finally looking back at YuNing. He nods, and YuNing's mouth is agape in a cute way, his eyes as wide as it can ever get, his eyes shining like a child star struck by the christmas gift he asked his parents to buy for him and they fulfilled his wish.

"I have so much to ask." YuNing says breathlessly.

Evdokia smiles at him as LiQin answers his firing questions and she's about to cut them off, but her phone rings again, and she decides to leave the moment stretch a little longer, answering the phone from her FBI team might be important.

She takes the call out in the front deck of the house, it's KeLei.

"You're been quite for a while." Is the first things she hears on the other end of the line.

"Haven't heard much from you either. " she chuckles.

"Eh, I think you know why, this case is unsolvable."

"Is it?" Evdokia asks herself more than KeLei. She trusts him, she trusts him with all he is to the point of assigning him to be Jean's body guard when a case blew in his face and he had a whole gang aiming for a target on his back. She trusts the love of her life's life with him, and she reckons she can trust him with this as well.

Evdokia has always found it hard to open her arms to humans. The line between their realities so thin it could all go shambles with one wrong word, and so, she has always thought there should be boundaries between them, that they can't date, can't trust them too much, or you'll find yourself in deep trouble.

Now that she thinks about it, she has always felt bad about it, she has always wanted to trust them, wanted to give them her all just how they give her their all. They trust her wholly, and she thinks its unfair of her to not feel the same.

"You're there boss?" KeLei's voice pulls her out of her thoughts, and she frowns to herself.

"It's solvable, its definitely solvable." Evdokia admits, shooting the ground under her feet, the sand floating along with the cold wind.

"hmm, did you figure something out?" KeLei asks cautiously.

"I was given an information, but I'm not sure if its safe enough to share it." She says, referring to LiQin's flash drive.

"I see, then don't." She can hear the smile in his voice, "We trust you enough, captain. Do what you must, just be careful, yeah?"

"Yeah. Thanks for understanding KeLei." She smiles to herself, thankful for her team and their trust in her.

Evdokia hangs up and stands there, looking across the field and water running across the land. She thinks this is a very calm day, apart from the fact that she butchered a bunch of folks.

Evdokia senses someone leaving the house and closing the door behind them softly.

She could tell who it is from the smell of apples and cinnamon spice before he wraps his arm around her middle and nuzzle his nose into the back of her neck.

"who was it?" he asks.

"KeLei." She answers as she leans her head backwards and rests her head on Jean's shoulder.

"This is going to be a mess, isn't it?" Jean murmurs in her ears.

Evdokia hums and allows the last few minutes of silence and calmness take over them, because it's a luxury that she thinks they won't be able feel for the next few months.

*