http://clampfix.fanworks.net/others/leaves.txt </head><body><pre>Warning: This vignette contains spoilers through book 3 of CLOVER. You have been warned; proceed at your own peril. How I wish to make you happy, Though I won't be able to see you. Leaves: a Clover fanfic by Kristin Huntsman The white covers rustled sleepily as Kazuhiko turned the slightest bit in his dreaming. Suu lay on her stomach beside him, chin propped on one fist as she watched him. "Did Oruha lay here?" she wondered. "Did she watch you like this?" She watched his chest rise and fall, she watched his lips move in silent dream-talk, she watched his left hand, the one that was real, uncurl. Clutched in it was the green leaf which Kou had given him. "One leaf," Suu murmured. "One leaf for Oruha." There were hundreds of One-Leafs, she knew, but only Oruha had ever mattered to her. Oruha with the voice and the songs and the love for Kazuhiko.... Oruha, her first friend. "Would you blame me for taking your place like this?" she wondered. "I'm still a child. "Or would you smile at me and say it was good for me, good for Kazuhiko?" Suu smiled, faintly. "Maybe you might even join us." She sighed again. "Oruha...." "Oruha..." Kazuhiko echoed, murmuring his dead lover's name in his dreams. Suu reached out a hand to brush the lines from her lover's forehead. "Sleep easily," she advised him in a gentle voice. "Remember only the love, not the pain." The mattress creaked a little as she got up to go look in the mirror. Over her shoulder she could see Kazuhiko's reflection. He snored a bit, mumbled something, and turned over, apparently taking her advice. Suu stared at her face, remembering Oruha's. She raised a hand to trace its lines. Her hair was pale and fine, straight. Oruha's had been lush and black, thick and vibrant with curls. Her lips were pink; Oruha's had been red. Green eyes met her, rather than storm-gray. And her body, though older now, still had the lines of a child's. Oruha had been all woman. "Do I love him because of him, or do I love him because you did, Oruha?" she asked. "Do I kiss his lips because I need them or because they hold the memory of you?" She kissed the mirror, but wasn't able to imagine it was Oruha. Never Oruha. Suu went back to Kazuhiko's bed, where he lay dreaming. I want to be happy. I want to be happy. I want to be happy with you. Author's Note: An alternate universe, where Suu survived the end of book 2. I personally hold to the theory that she may be around (the leaf didn't disappear from Kazuhiko's hand, did it? ;) still. This was written at Rika's request for a 1x0x4 fic... I hope you enjoyed. </pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>