Yakusoku.

Chapter 2

Chester stormed outside Totus without catching a single breath. The village lay huddled between snowcapped mountains, opening up to a pass in the south. He traveled there on a road that cut through grassy fields, ignoring the gasps of his air-starved lungs running even harder. Muscles burned, pain wracked every mortal fiber, crying out against imminent collapse.

Pain turned to numbness coursing through his entirety. Joints locked and froze. He fell with a thud still posed as when he ran. Tawny dust flew up carried off by the wind, blowing over the grass on both sides of the road in a sea of undulating green. From a bird’s eye view in the clouds above, this giant sea swallowed Chester’s motionless form.

He heard the grass rustle, its song a gentle rhythm, its aroma fresh and sweet. His senses savored the sound and smell, yet the core of his will resisted, with his mind consumed in thought.

It started this morning about that talk with the bandanas, Chester reflected silently, hearkening back to before. Cless said he looked good in one, got close, and stared at me real weird. He was serious and it scared me. Then I got mad, hurt his feelings then apologized.

At this sudden realization, a frown broke out over Chester’s handsome features, wrinkling the skin between his brows, reminiscing again. But I don’t understand why he acted that way. Did he want to? Or did I encourage him? If I did, I didn’t mean to, because I’m so confused, and…I don’t know…how I feel.

As Chester pondered deeply, the sun beat down hard from its zenith in the sky. Under its heat a sweat bead formed on Chester’s face, trickling down his forehead past a brow into the corner of an eye. He winced from the sting, squeezing his lids shut tight. Behind his closed lids, the suns direct light bore down a bright red in his vision. If only I found shade, he cried in desperate silence.

Chester focused his intent commanding his body move. Nerves sent the signal through synapses to the muscles in his limbs, exhausted beyond movement. With his mind worn, he realized the depth of exertion spent.

“Dammit!” he hissed, his eyes still shut and body inert. “Why the hell did I run like that?”

The answer in the form of an intuitive knowing replied mentally in his head. Because of what Pennington said to Cless on the bridge this morning. Although Pennington whispered you knew it hurt your feelings. Humiliated, you fled out of shame.

“But for what reason?” Chester mused back.

His intuition responded. Pennington accused Cless of not having a girlfriend because he spent all his time with you. This made Cless quite angry.

“But why?” Chester questioned, lost in his mind. “Cless and I are just childhood friends. When my parents died, I was alone, and he came into my life. Amy almost lost it and only Cless kept me together. Its thanks to him I could help Amy go on living. And myself too.”

Or so you think that is all, the inner voice in Chester probed further. His relationship has affected you deeply, more than you realize, in a connection beyond childhood friendship. What Pennington said hurt your bond with him that you hold deep inside your heart. The pain that surfaced from that is why you really fled, reacting the way you did.

“What!?” As Chester reached this epiphany, his focus faded from the heavy shadow of fatigue, clinging to his exquisite countenance.

From a distance down the road towards Totus, someone’s visage fell across his beauty. The gaze grew stronger with each step they neared like a flame licking his very skin. A gaze typified by both anxiety and affection at the same time writhing in its stare. As its presence neared, anxiety settled into relief, knowing Chester was safe. From the aura about the presence, Chester’s mind conjured up a dashing knightly figure, clad in silvery-white armor.

Chester heard the flapping of a long cape in the breeze as its fabric billowed out, providing shade from the sun. At last Chester found refuge, now he could listen to the grass rustle and smell its aroma wafting around.

“Cless…” a whisper escaped Chester’s coral lips, chiseled into his perfectly pale skin. At the sound of Cless’s sweet name, Chester relaxed from head to toe nodding off to sleep, with exhaustion lifted like a world off aching shoulders.

“Chester, you ran this far.” Cless knelt by Chester’s side extending a gloved hand, brushing a few drenched locks from his sweat-stained forehead. Small sweat beads glistened like dewdrops over his smooth pallid face. Or as diamonds with single points of light dancing in their depths.

A sweat drop rolled between Chester’s arched brows down to the bridge of his nose, drawing Cless’s attention. He lowered himself on all fours, just above Chester, his mind slipping into a dream. Through half closed eyes, he loomed over, falling further from reality. He plunged far, closing all space, his lips a hair’s breath from Chester’s. They pressed softly, light as a hummingbird’s tongue on nectar, then slowly deeper.

Cless bit lightly, seizing Chester’s lower lip in his teeth. From its feel, a heat spread through Cless’s body down every limb, toe and finger. Warmth experienced in dreams of Chester no one knew.

For many years, Chester invaded his dreams. Cless thought of it as a result from the changes in his body, maturing from boy to man. Nothing more. After all, he heard it was normal to have strange dreams during this period in life. But for Cless, they persisted. With Chester here, Cless felt one of those dreams come alive, kissing him deeply this very moment.

I shouldn’t be doing this, Cless cried inwardly, breaking the kiss a minute later. He lifted Chester in his arms, standing up. “I…I’m sorry, Chester, I’ll take us to the forest where we’ll go hunting when you wake up.”

With Chester carried towards the Mystic Forest in Cless’s embrace, the sun shined ever brightly. Spilling in through the clouds above, golden shafts showering the land below, the brightest of sunbeams washing over Cless and Chester. For the first time since leaving Totus, a smile crossed Cless’s round face.

Further down the road, the narrow pass opened up onto a broad expansive valley, sheltered by steep walls, mountainsides a mile high. Mist clung to mountaintops, where winter snow melted into valley streams below, feeding its crystal clear lake.

At the valley’s entrance, Cless stopped breathing in the damp forest air. He took in all of the smells of nature including the fungi in the shade, moss clinging to rocks and trunks, the full canopy above and the rich soil below. Amidst the rich aromas, the forest brimmed with life. Songbirds serenaded in nearby boughs. Butterflies darted to and fro along the forest edge. Hummingbirds buzzed about from flower to flower in the meadows beyond the shade. Bees hummed a low base tone gathered around the flowers.

Cless found a thick tree trunk, with a gently sloping base by the main path, leading into the valley’s interior. He laid Chester against it, careful not to wake him. The tree’s aura enveloped him, healing his weary body. Its roots gathered what life force remained sending it to Chester.

“Is this okay?” Cless cried, pressing his body to its trunk.

It’s okay… the tree’s spirit replied in Cless’s heart, appearing as a small dryad with bark-like skin and green leafy hair, vanishing as she gave the last of her life to Chester. You need him because… Its energy waned as Chester’s strengthened. You love…him…

The dryad’s last words faded with an echo eluding Cless’s awareness. Soon, Chester’s breathing deepened, he stirred tossing his head to the side. Through partly opened eyes, a deep soul-swallowing shade of blue, Chester gazed out at the warm face greeting him.

A few gold hair strands hid Cless’s blue-gray eyes, radiating a tenderness that glowed in their depths. Softness had spread over his features. His lips curved up in a subtle but faint smile. “Chester, how are you feeling?” Cless inquired, placing a hand on his shoulder.

The blue pendant hanging below Cless’s neck on his armor reflected Chester’s tired expression. “Alright, I guess,” he mumbled. His body curled up, arms wrapped around his knees, head tucked in. “Cless, I’m sorry I…” His voice vanished down his throat

“Don’t worry,” Cless reassured, sitting back on the ground in front of Chester under the cool soothing shade.

“But…” The casual reply stunned Chester. He shook Cless lightly. “I ran off, passed out, you brought me here…”

“So, we’re here, right? Let’s go hunting,” came his simple, direct answer. Cless helped Chester to his feet.

In Cless’s honesty, Chester found solace, nodding in agreement.

They started down the path together into the forested valley. Before leaving, Cless glanced at the tree, which helped Chester. Thank you, Cless thought, with a hand on his heart.

As Cless did that, Chester tasted a sweet after flavor lingering on his lips. Could it be…he…? Chester shook his head. No, it must be my imagination. He ran a finger over lower lip.

Cless smiled to himself, wondering if Chester would ever know he really kissed him.

TBC