Kaelin - Christine

Strong Bond


“Papa?” Christine called quietly. Kaelin directed his attention absently towards her, still chewing unconsciously at the end of his thumbnail. Christine had been watching him fidget for the last few minutes and she could only assume that he had something on his mind. This something probably had to do with something about her. She didn’t need to be able to read minds like her sister to know that. “Papa…” Christine said again, more gently. Her frail little hands reached out to slowly pull the blondes hand away. Kaelin suddenly looked embarrassed as he realized what he had been doing. “What’s wrong, Papa?”

Kaelin smiled slightly, and his lavender eyes still, for some reason, refused to quite meet her very bright golden gaze. He wasn’t usually so evasive; which meant whatever he was thinking, he truly wished he could get out of his mind. This troubled Christine. She hated seeing him like that.

The young woman took her fathers chin and turned his face directly towards hers. His gaze, once again, drifted slightly away, but he did try to smile. She frowned at him. “Papa, look at me.” He refused. Outright. The smile he held turned shamed. Her eyes narrowed. “Papa…”

“I’m sorry… Christine,” Kaelin finally said. He dropped his chin and Christine was forced to let him go. She reached out to brush his blond bangs from his downcast face and tried hard to read him. He looked sad. Miserably so. Her heart suddenly felt painful in her chest.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, feeling tears welling in her eyes. Oh, how it hurt to see him make such a sad face. “Papa, please. What’s troubling you?”

The blond chewed at his lip for a moment, fingers twisting together in a way that looked painful. Christine reached out to place her hands over his. With a resigned sigh he stopped his fidgeting.

“Do you remember what you said to me when we first brought you home?” he asked so quietly, so hesitantly. As if the memory itself was something he had tried for years to suppress. For years, it seemed, it had tortured him. And rightfully so.

Christine slowly sat herself on the arm of the chair her papa sat in.

“That one dies of a broken heart. That is what I said.” She had been speaking of her father, Yami. When she had looked at him, all of those years ago, flashes of images, feelings of unbearable pain, tears and angst like she had never felt before had consumed her. It was then that her nine year old self had so ignorantly given a prophecy of death. She had learned over the years since then to not speak of such things. It caused more pain to know of the inevitable. It was best that death came without warning. “You want to know what I meant by that?”

He looked up at her, startled. His eyes were wide—shimmering with years of confused pain that he had tortured him for all of those years. When he blinked the tears made glistening trails down his cheeks. He reached up quickly to brush them away, but Christine beat him to it. She smiled down at him, slowly and carefully brushing the tears away with her thumbs.

“Papa… as much as it hurts me to see you like this, you know that I cannot… “ She had to fight her own tears now. Her throat was suddenly raw with emotion. Her cheeks began to spread with the rosiness of choking emotions. Goddesses… it hurt her so much.

“…Is he alone? Is there really no one there for him?” He dared to say it. He had to know. It would hurt too much to know that Yami was alone. Alone—consumed with so much pain that it would literally break his heart? It couldn’t be true… Kaelin would never leave him—no one ever would.

Christine was quiet for a long moment and her fingers trailed the elves face gently, trying hard to comfort him. She had made a promise to herself, long ago, that she would no longer divulge her prophecies to any. It caused too much pain… too much suffering… Yet, a part of her felt as though Kaelin deserved an explanation.

Her lips parted, and a shaking intake of breath forced her body to shudder. “He tries so hard, Papa… so hard to hang on.” The images, although hundreds of years old, still stuck vividly in her mind. The emotions she had felt through that vision had been raw—the most surreal she had ever felt. You don’t forget such a haunting vision. Kaelin looked up to her, his face twisting with confusion, with pain.

“Why would he feel like that? What could possibly…?” Kaelin shook his head, his mind raced.

Christine bit her lip, closing her eyes tightly. The image of an urn—a most beautiful lavender one—had not made sense to her at the time. Over the years, however, she had put the pieces together. That urn had meant something to Yami. Something terrible. Something painful. Something beautiful. It had symbolized a love so strong and so flawless that only death could have disrupted the perfection of it.

“You, Papa,” Christine said quietly, wrapping her arms around her father’s neck and pulling herself into his arms. She searched the world wordlessly, feelings tears hot on her face. It destroyed her inside to tell him the truth. “He can’t live without you, Papa.”

The world around them suddenly didn’t seem so warm and cheery—despite the bright sun and the whistles of song-birds. Kaelin finally reached around his daughter and pulled her into a tight embrace. Christine tried hard to not think about the stifle sobs her papa let out.

The world suddenly felt very, very unkind.


[Ramirez]

<sub>A/N:Story bond 34/81 of a project I'm working on.

This took me a fairly long time (20 days) to finally get around to writing, but I'm glad I waited that long. I kind of knew what I wanted to write, and when I just let my fingers type what they wanted it came out pretty nicely, I think.

Christine, obviously, sees the future from time to time. Often she sees prophecies of death, but she does see good things as well. When she was younger she use to outright tell people when and how they were going to die, but quickly learned that wasn't to her benefit. She was still very young when she told Kaelin about Yami's death prophecy (Yami doesn't ever know about it, either, so Kaelin sort of suffers with the knowledge).

Kaelin is a sweet and gentle thing... and I <3 him. v_v</sub>


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