CCS Pride Week Day 1: L Is For Love (incomplete scene)
Tomoyo blinked. Whatever she may have been expecting, this wasn’t it.
At her reaction, Akiho blushed brilliantly. “I mean – i didn’t mean to presume!” she exclaimed. “Or to pry! I simply thought–!”
“It’s all right.” Tomoyo set down her teacup and patted the chaise beside her. Akiho came and sat next to her, still stiff with embarrassment.
“I do know the feeling,” Tomoyo said softly. “There is someone who i love, very much, but who doesn’t feel the same way about me.”
Akiho’s lips parted as she looked at Tomoyo. “How can you bear it? To be near them, and know they don’t love you?”
“She does.” Tomoyo didn’t mind using the pronoun. If it bothered Akiho, then at least she would know. Akiho’s eyes widened at her words, but she didn’t speak. “There are many kinds of love, and she doesn’t love me in the way i want her to, but i’ve never doubted that she cares for me.”
“Even so …” Akiho trailed off. Tomoyo could see her rethinking her relationship with Kaito. “It must be lonely. To see her, and to know that she doesn’t feel the way you do.”
“It is,” Tomoyo acknowledged.
“Did you ever …” Akiho hesitated. “Tell her?”
“Once,” Tomoyo replied softly. “I don’t think she understood what exactly i meant.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. She’s happy, and so everything will be all right. Perhaps i …” She wasn’t quite sure how to finish the sentence, and so she let it go.
Akiho picked up Tomoyo’s empty teacup from the table, and stared into it. “I don’t understand.”
“There’s a kind of happiness that can only come from seeing someone you love happy,” Tomoyo told her. “If it’s not what you want … If it only comes from their happiness, than it’s different from other kinds, but it’s no less for that. Unrequited love brings its own comfort when the other person is happy.”
Akiho gazed towards the kitchen, where they could hear Kaito working. “I suppose you’re right.” She reached out hesitantly and laid her hand on Tomoyo’s. “But i think there’s a lot to be said for love that is returned as well.”
Tomoyo’s fingers curled around Akiho’s. “It would be wonderful to have your feelings returned.”
