Devotion

By: Dreiser


	No matter how much you plan, things never go quite 
the way that you expect them to.

	Life is funny that way.

	Take me, for instance. I never expected things to turn 
out the way they have. I always thought that I would be with 
Akari when it came to the long haul.

	But instead, I'm with someone nothing like Akari. 
Someone who loved her just as much as I did.

	As much as I still do.

	Her death was unexpected.

	Just like her mother before her, it came out of nowhere, 
surprising all of us with its suddenness.

	Before I even got the chance to work up the courage to 
tell how much and in what way I really loved her she was gone.

	My wife says that it was the light inside Akari that did 
it. That its power was too much for one person to hold inside of 
them and it ended up burning her.

	Eating her alive from the inside. Like her own 
greatness, her own fire, was too much even for her to contain.

	Sometimes I wish that I could've contained it for her.

	It makes no sense... Akari's death, that is.

	She was so healthy, so alive. And everything was going 
so well. Her mother was back and they were getting along, if 
you didn't count the odd tiffs they often got into due to their 
mutual teenage hormones.

	In fact, the only real problem she had was me and Kris' 
constant fighting over her. But even that didn't seem to bother 
her. She took it in stride, as if she knew that one day we would 
understand why she loved us both so much.

	Why couldn't we have seen it sooner?

	Akari couldn't chose between us because she loved us 
both equally. With as much loyalty and passion as we felt for 
her. All she wanted was for us to understand that and maybe, 
just maybe, return those feelings as well.

	She wanted all three of us to be together.

	But by the time we realized this she was gone and there 
was nothing either of us could do.

	It took a long time to get over her. I retreated into my 
training and ignored the concerns of my family along with most 
of Osaka. Kris in the meantime, went back to the Moon and 
found solace in that kooky religion of hers.

	As the years passed I remained dead inside. I even felt 
dead when I won the title of Cosmos Beauty.

	Then I met my wife and she changed everything.

	I remember it clearly, it was my senior year at the 
Satellite and I had just finished running the four thousand meter 
relay out of some strange sense of nostalgia, when she walked 
onto the track wearing a soft smile on her pretty features.

	There was a kindness in her eyes. One that I had seen 
only once before and it struck me all at once and I felt my heart 
begin to race in a way that it had only done for Akari.

	Then she said my name in that lilting voice of hers and 
asked me if I would do the honor of racing her.

	I agreed, of course, and for the first time in years I lost 
a race. I lost and I didn't care about it.

	It left me with no sense of anger. Just an overwhelming 
joy that a challenge had come before me.

	She told me that she was a sophomore and she'd just 
recently returned to the Satellite for one reason only.

	I asked her what the reason was and she said 
something that I swear I will remember to my dying day.

	"I'm here because of you."

	The shock that I felt on hearing this wasn't beyond my 
normal limits but I found myself unable to speak as she walked 
away. When she reached the edge of the track she paused to 
offer me another soft smile then said.

	"I want to run with you, Ichino. I want us to see the 
light of God together. Then maybe we'll finally be able to 
understand why all of this has happened."

	A year later we got married.

	When we announced it, everyone thought that we were 
insane or just joking around. I mean, who in their right mind 
would've thought that Ichino Yanagida and Kris Christopher 
would end up getting married one day?

	Certainly not us or any of our friends.

	The only one who didn't seem so surprised was Akari's 
father. Our old instructor just smiled and said that this was life 
renewing itself.

	Then he told us that Tomoe was pregnant.

	I really can't explain how I felt when he told us that. I 
was ecstatic, numb, and scared all at the same time.

	And then Kris touched my hand and I remember her 
giving me that soft smile of hers as she said.

	"It won't be Akari. It can't be her, love. There can only 
be one Akari Kanzaki and as much as we might want for her to 
return it can't and shouldn't happen."

	I could only nod at this and our instructor smiled in 
obvious approval then said something about miracles not being 
able to repeat themselves in the same lifetime.

	So they named their baby Nozomi.

	And we named ours Akari.

	Life went on and as the years passed Kris and I lived 
our lives to their fullest. Loving each other and our dear sweet 
Akari for every day of it.

	Watching her step onto the rocket headed for the 
University Satellite was one of the proudest moments of my life 
and I know that I'll never forget it.

	Later that year, when we watched her compete against 
Nozomi for the title of Cosmos Beauty, I looked at Kris and 
couldn't help but smile.

	She returned it, as is her habit, but looked at me in 
puzzlement and asked, "What is it, love?"

	"You, stupid," I said with my usual derogatory affection 
that I've never lost. "Our girl looks just like you when you were 
competing for the first time."

	Kris was quiet as she mulled over this and she slowly 
formed a wide smile then said, "You're right. It's lovely to 
watch, isn't it?"

	I remember teasing her about her choice in words but 
agreeing with her completely.

	When Akari returned home, hanging onto an 
embarrassed Nozomi's arm with all of her strength and wearing 
a huge grin on her features, I saw us in them.

	And it made me happy to see it all somehow repeating 
itself and yet, somehow not.

	I lost everything that I ever wanted only to find it again 
in the most unexpected of places.

	Life is funny that way.

-End-

The character of Ichino Yanagida is from Battle Athletes 
Victory. I just saw the last video of this series and I loved it so 
much but I was struck by how much Ichino and Kris really love 
Akari and really dislike, on a surface level at least, each other 
because of that love. This got me to thinking about what it 
would take to get these two together as a couple. I concluded 
that only the death of Akari could make it happen. That or their 
love for Akari ending up in a threesome between them all. I 
was in the mood to write one of my piddly waffy fics which 
tries to meander through the mind so here we go. But rest 
assured, one day I will write a threesome fic with Akari, Kris, 
and Ichino in it. Yeah, I know that I'm a weirdo.

Send me comments and psychiatry suggestions at:
Dreiser1@ix.netcom.com

Chat with me on ICQ! My ICQ # is: 37674780 

Thanks to Red Death all of my fanfics are archived at:
http://www.lvdi.net/~reddeath/dreiser.htm

"Don't go wasting your emotion, lay all your love on me."
-Abba-