"Two different worlds" Part 8
Genre: angst
Warnings: mentions of death of a spouse
A/N: It's BAAAAAAAACK😉😉😉✨✨✨✨ I hope you guys enjoy it, TDW is reaching the end slowly. Like, we only have a few chapters left. So... LET'S DO IT!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️
The sound of Tauxolouve walking around the room of his art studio accompanied the melodious song of the birds flying past the window you were sitting by, their little brown wings withholding their weight and lifting them high, helping them soar the skies.
You breathed in deeply and then let it out… Slowly.
But the heaviness on your ribcage did not falter. Instead, it remained there and took root, spreading everywhere, like vines clawing their way up the walls of abandoned castles, choking you by squeezing your lungs and heart and crashing them.
Your eyes remained steady upon two birds sitting on a wire across the street. Then, one of them flew away, leaving the other alone… Alone… All alone.
Tears formed in your eyes and you blinked, to stop them from falling, but more and more filled your eyes, blurring your vision and you pursed your lips together, watching the bird sitting there still and alone. Alone alone alone—
“My little lady? Is everything alright?” Tauxolouve had left the paints and the brushes behind, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder and peering down at your face, when you lifted it up, your neck craning to gaze up at him. “Are you—… Why are you crying?”
You shook your head. You couldn’t possible tell him that you were a goddess and your time here was running out by the minute, by each brushstroke Tauxolouve dragged across the canvas. “It’s, uh… It’s not—not anything important.” You simply said, choosing to leave it there. He wouldn’t understand. And maybe it was better that way. Telling him would mean going even more against the law of the Heavens than you already had.
Tauxolouve watched you wordlessly for a few minutes and then sighed, standing up straight again. “Alright.” He nodded. “I won’t push it. But, please, know that I’m here for you when and if you need it.”
You forced a smile on your face and nodded. “Okay… Thank you.”
Tauxolouve smiled back in return, a sweet, kind smile, causing his familiar kind wrinkles to form at the corners of his eyes. “No problem, you know I lo—I love your company. And seeing you happy.” He cleared his throat.
Your heart shook, thrown off its hinges and hanging pathetically from its strings, tugging painfully at it. You wiped the tears away with your forearm and breathed in deeply, sniffling and sighing. “We can start.” You said.
“If you’re not ready—”
“No, really, it’s quite alright.” You said, smiling at him, to reassure him.
After a few moments of hesitation, Tauxolouve seemed to believe you and relaxed himself, walking over to where his canvas was propped up and his stool was sitting, his painting tools scattered across the chipped and paint-splattered table beside him.
The sun followed its daily course across the sky, as Tauxolouve remained focused on his piece, his eyes flickered between that and you, his eyes piercing themselves into your own like the thorns of a rose; at once both painful and beautiful.
“How much time do you think you have left, until you finish?” You finally spoke, your voice a little hoarse from the unuse, your vocal cords rusty and stiff.
Tauxolouve responded to you, without looking up from his painting. “I can't tell specifically, but... Not much.”
Not much... We don't have much time left…
“The man at the grocery store seemed really happy that you were creating something. And he spoke about… About... Getting through something…” You said, hesitating, fearing that this would be too much of a sensitive topic for him, but also, you couldn’t help but crave more. You craved his heart, his mind, a place in his life, even if it was foolish. Even if you fell from grace a little more with each question, with each beat of your heart.
Tauxolouve paused, his paintbrush not touching the colourful canvas. “Before I met you... I was in a rut.” He said, his voice low, sending shivers down your spine.
“A rut?”
He nodded, lowering his paintbrush down into a painted ceramic mug of water, with a broken handle. “Let’s just say that… Mentally, I wasn’t in the correct headspace to sit down and paint.”
You leaned to the side, your head resting against the wall, right beside the open window, feeling the cool breeze on your cheek and how your loose strands of hair swayed and danced gently in its throws.
“My creativity was blocked because of that and nothing would excite me anymore. I couldn’t see the potential in anything to be painted, really.” He said, his confession making you understand just how precious this piece was to him.
Meeting you was a single chance amongst hundreds and your eyes were what had brought his creativity back. What had made him want to pick up a paintbrush again. “How long…?”
“What?”
“How long had you… Been unable to paint anything for?”
Tauxolouve thought silently to himself for a few moments. “Almost a year.” He finally said, his smile sad. “Yes, that must have been it. A year.”
Your eyes widened and reality fell upon you, snapping you in half and sinking into your soul through your torn flesh. This piece wasn’t just a passion project. Not something flitting for Tauxolouve to get some practice in… It was his revival. The flood that broke the gates of his mental blocks.
And at that thought, all you could feel was… Protectiveness. The overwhelming urge to protect and ensure that this piece would be completed with your life, if needed. Because you would do anything for Tauxolouve’s happiness, you really would.
【•••】
That night, when the sun released its last breath and the moon took over the sky in return, you were getting ready to fall into bed yourself, a habit which was not needed, since gods never felt sleepy, but one that you liked copying from the humans. It was fun, in a way. Something that, in the Heavens, they’d question you for, while here it was normal. It was weird and it was fun.
But, just as you stepped out of the bathroom of your hotel room…
You gasped, at the sight of Zyglavis standing there, his ponytail fixed into perfection, as usual, his boots polished and his gloves clean and fitting perfectly against his skin, his uniform not carrying a single wrinkle.
“Zyglavis—”
His dark grey eyes watched you sternly. “That’s where you’ve been.”
“Leon has given me time off.”
“I am aware of that.” He said, irritated at the mere sound of Leon’s name on your lips. “You must return.”
You physically recoiled at the sound of that. “I need more time.”
Zyglavis’ eyebrows furrowed, a crease forming between them and a vein showed in his forehead. “If you're trying to stall for time and not get punished—”
“It's not it—!.... It's not it…”
Zyglavis scoffed, readjusting the white gloves around his wrists. “So that human has corrupted you so thoroughly that you're rejecting your kind.”
“Tauxolouve didn't corrupt me! He showed me the light!” You glared at him, your fingers clenching into tight, trembling fists. “He showed me beauty none of us superficial creatures, that we dare to call ourselves superior, can. All I'm asking of now, is for you to give me time until he finishes his piece. This is important for him, he's put his soul and sweat in it.” You paused, swallowing thickly, the tone of your voice falling slightly, wavering at the thought of Tauxolouve and his painting. “I don't want to ruin it for him..."
Zyglavis’ eyes narrowed on you, his expression still stern and seemingly untouched by your display of feelings. He opened his mouth to speak again, but this time, you didn’t let him.
“I'm not expecting you to understand.” You said. “You're a god, just as I am. We don't usually craft anything using our hands. They're simply there for decorative purposes. We can do anything with a snap of our fingers, but humans are not like that..." You recall your times with Tauxolouve; meeting him, letting him paint you, helping you recover, having breakfast at his house, going to the grocery store with him. "Humans can't summon their meals. They need to go out of their way to buy more, they need to carry it home, until their fingers turn red. They need to practice and devote time out of their short lives in their passions. Tauxolouve devoted time in this as well and I refuse to let it go to waste! May the king punish me even more harshly if he so desires, but that's what I've decided to do!”
You were breathing heavily at this point and Zyglavis remained staring at you, stunned, obviously not expecting you to view all this in such a manner.
“I'll stay here for a little longer.” You said. “I'll make sure Tauxolouve finishes the portrait and then... Then I am willingly going to face every consequence I deserve."
【•••】
Two days went by, ever since that conversation with Zyglavis in your hotel room and, today, you were on your way out of Tauxolouve’s house, after having finished yet another session.
Your footsteps were slow and heavy, as if you were hauling all the pain of the world with your ankles and balancing some of it on your heart too. You were walking mindlessly, lost in thought, eyes blank, barely noticing the water that reached your shoes from the elderly lady’s garden nearby.
“Good evening, my dear.” The familiar soft and shaky voice of the elderly lady that you and Tauxolouve visited a week back, to bring her groceries, reached you, making you halt in your steps.
You looked around you, confused and your eyes unfocused.
“Over here, dear.” She called out again.
“Oh,” You finally noticed her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.” You apologized.
The elderly lady smiled a toothless smile at you and twisted the handle of the tap, stopping the incoming water. She approached the white picket fence surrounding the house and separating her garden from Tauxolouve’s. She leaned against it, her knitted blouse getting caught on some untamed edge of the picket fence. “Forgive if I’m meddling where I don’t belong, but… You seem sad.”
“Sad?” Your eyes widened slightly, surprised that she had noticed what many others wouldn’t. A mere mortal human, being more perceptive than many deities up there were. “Why—” You feigned a chuckle. “Why would I be sad?”
“I don’t know, my dear, and I don’t want to assume, or try to pry.” She said, fidgeting with the noose of dark green thread that had gotten tangled in some broken edge of the fence. “Oh, would you look at that? This is my fifth blouse this week that this is happening to.”
You chuckled and reached out, carefully handling the piece of the blouse that was stuck. Once you managed to release it without tearing it, you let go of it and the elderly lady smoothed it out with her hands. And, while she wasn’t looking, you snapped your fingers, fixing this little rusted imperfection on the fence without her noticing or ever knowing.
“Thank you.” She said and you simply smiled. “Now,” She took off her glasses and used the hem of her blouse to wipe them clean, as she spoke, her voice kind and so motherly, part of you forgot you were supposed to be a goddess and you just wanted to fall to your knees right there, lay your head on her lap and ask for her advice. “would you like to listen to the rambling of a woman who’s losing her mind?” She chuckled.
You couldn’t help, but smile and nodded.
She put her glasses back on and looked up at you, her wrinkly smile sweet and so incredibly kind, she carried the true beauty of humanity in it. “Sometimes, life sends our way difficulties.” She said. “And in the process, we might think we lost what is most precious to us. Like, someone we love, for instance.” She paused, watching her golden wedding band around her short, wrinkly finger. “But I don’t think life is genuinely that cruel. It could just be me… But I think life takes stuff from you, just to test your resolve.”
You nodded. “That may be true.” You said, voice solemn, stealing a brief glance at Tauxolouve's house.
“But it’s not forever.” She said. “Something that surrounds all terms in this life is that nothing lasts forever. While that makes us think of how happiness doesn’t last forever, I like to think that sadness doesn’t last forever either.”
You smiled softly down at your feet. “That’s a beautiful way to see it.”
“I speak from experience.”
You looked at her and she continued.
“When I was, what… twenty something? Maybe.” She said, smiling wistfully, as if the image was right in front of her right now. And perhaps it was. Because even if the mind withers with time, the heart is not something anyone can take away from you. Ever. “Well, I was twenty something, when I met my husband for the first time. We were so in love, he and I. But his family was a more wealthy than mine was and when they found out that we were seeing each other, they scheduled for him to move away from France to study in America, hoping that this would tear us apart.”
“His family didn’t want you?” You asked, surprised and erupted by her story.
“No.” She shook her head, chuckling, as if all the hardships were just bad dreams now. Because they were. They had won and defeated them all. “They wanted him to marry someone from his own societal class—old times! Old minds!” She waved a hand dismissively. “Stupid people! Anyway,” She shook her. “my husband came to see me the night before leaving for America. And he promised me that, once he returned… He’d marry me.”
“And…” Your voice was quiet. “He did, I presume?”
The elderly lady smiled sweetly at you. “He remained in America for four entire years. I had started to fret that he had forgotten me. It seemed surreal to me how he could ever remember me, after four years. Me. The poor girl from the little French village.” She paused and then continued again, gazing at the clouds as she did so. “One day… I was at the marketplace—Monday! I remember correctly! I know I do!” She chuckled at herself. “He suddenly appeared, right there, yes… Yes, I can remember it still, like it was yesterday.”
“And then?”
“And then, he followed through with his promise and married me.” She chuckled softly and shook her head. “You’re probably wondering now, why this old crazy woman is telling you all that… Well, perhaps I felt like you should know of the miracles that this life offers us all. You’re a wonderful girl, with a beautiful heart, I could sense it when I noticed how Louie was gazing at you the other day.
Your face warmed and she smiled, continuing.
“I thought I’d never see the man I love again and yet I did. I married him, we had children together, then we saw children…” Her smile turned sad. “And then he passed away.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s just life.” She said, one simple phrase from her harbouring so much wisdom in it. “And like I told you earlier, I don’t believe anything lasts forever… So I’m certain that one day, when my own clock takes it's natural course and fades in time naturally… I’m gonna meet him again.” She said, appearing to be completely at peace with herself as she pointed at the sky. Her heart stored so much peace, than a god’s who had everything ever would. “So don’t worry. If you love him… You will see him again.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple…” You swallowed thickly.
She smiled. Just smiled. “It never is. But life has something for all of us. Especially someone who is as kind as you are. So hold on. Life gets prettier if you hope.”
My favorite Louie series is back!!!! 😭😭😭🙏💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️
