Faithless Memories

Tell Her Something

Chapter 47

It was barely daylight, and Kris had not yet wakened. Genesis knew she would be angry that he had left, but he could not face her for a long conversation. The fact that he needed to be back for early morning meetings was an excuse, and he knew it. If circumstances had been different, he probably would have blown them off and stayed in bed with her all day. That would only torture them both.

He had taken the time to write her a note explaining the meetings, among other things. He had carefully avoided the use of the L-word, but he hoped that she would understand his feelings nonetheless. It would have to be enough.

Despite his anger toward himself, he could not walk away without seeing her one last time. He knelt next to the bed and brushed her hair off her face. The peaceful smile she wore tore a new hole in his heart. He leaned over and lightly kissed her forehead before he whispered. "I love you too."

She moved slightly at his words and mumbled, but didn't wake. Her motion had caused the sheets to slip and exposed the upper part of her body. He froze at the sight of it for several seconds. It took all his willpower to pull it back up around her and turn to leave instead of crawling back into the bed with her.

When he finally made it outside, he laughed bitterly at the rain that was falling. Although Midgar was almost always overcast, it didn't rain often. At least the weather matched his mood. He had barely made it more than twenty feet from the house before he froze at the sound of Kristobel's voice. "Genesis! Genesis, wait!"

He turned to see her wrapped in a blanket and running toward him, oblivious of the rain. He rushed back to meet her with a scolding on his lips. "What are you doing? It's pouring."

She grinned up at him and ignored his question. She wrapped one arm around his neck, as the other was holding up the only thing covering her. "I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye. I know you probably have meetings, but you can't go yet."

Genesis cursed himself as he wrapped his arms around her and found his lips on hers. He managed to make it brief. "I can't stay, and you need to get out of the rain."

She stood up on her tiptoes and managed to brush her lips against his. "I know, I just wanted to say one thing."

He raised a brow at her grin. She took that as permission. "I just wanted to say I love you too."

He nearly crushed her to him and buried his face in her hair. She had heard him. Even if she had not remembered her confession from the night before, she had heard him. He wished to Minerva that he was a normal man and could carry her back into the small house and make love to her for the rest of the day, but he was not normal, and he could not do that to her. What he had already done was bad enough.

He finally pulled back and cupped her cheek. "My love, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the Goddess. Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return."

She closed her eyes and turned to kiss his palm. He had never meant those words more than he did at that moment and hated himself even more because he knew they were hollow. He kept that torment from his face as he let go and stepped away from her. "Go get warm. I will call you later."

She laughed at his admonition but did as she was told. She paused once and looked back to where he was watching her. She kissed her palm before she pursed her lips and blew. It took him a moment to understand that she was sending him a kiss. He smiled at the action and 'caught' it as she turned to walk back in. He stood there for several more moments and wished once again that all it would take was the rain to wash his sins away.