The bluish-grey hue covered the skies, and there were the dark clouds slowly gathering like a group of friends on a reunion. A cloud and another, they formed an army of rain seeking opportunity to fall.
Hillaris held Noah's hands. They stood side by side a step away from the cliff. Behind them was a group of armoured soldiers and both of Hillaris' parents.
Hillaris' parents looked dejected, and they glared at Noah's back with overwhelming hatred.
"Hill.. my son, can't you see the person you're willing to risk your life to? He's a man! He's a big man! Can't you see that?!" Hillaris' father began, "Why are you like this?! You used to he such a good son, what have he done to you—"
Hillaris' grip on Noah's hand tightened, and he glanced sideways at his lover, who pursed his lips before he cut his father's words with a sharp: "Shut up!"
"My son... come back to us.. please!" His mother began to feigned sobbing, "Everything you've done will be put in vain if you'll continue like this!"
"So what?" Hillaris leisurely turned around, his gaze landing on his sobbing mother, "Everything was already in vain the moment I was born, wasn't it? If I wasn't born, you wouldn't have to let go of your opportunity to lead the life of a respected princess. It was me who ruined everything, I'm just here to make things right."
"Nonsense! What is right about this affair?! Only if you come back with us and marry the eldest princess could you make things right!"
Hillaris laughed. He laughed so hard his heart began to ache.
Noah looked at Hillaris' face. He remembered the words he whispered to him last night.
At that time, Hillaris held him in his arms as he cried.
"Noah.. let's run away..."
......
Hillaris was a son of Duke and Duchess Owen. Duchess Owen conceived him when she just turned nineteen and was offered the opportunity to stand by the crown prince's side. But she was already messing out with Duke Owen, who was the imperial army's deputy general known as someone sleeping around the brothels. They were forced to get married.
Duchess Owen then birthed Hillaris. She hated this child to the core, but then she began to slowly see an opportunity for him when she met the crown prince's consort who had just conceived a child.
She began to push him, press him, almost strangling him. Duke Owen also began to use him as a stepping stone. Hillaris was tired.
One day, when he was fifteen, he ran away from home after having his first argument with his parents. By the shrubs, he met a beautiful young man with blonde hair, picking trash by the roadside.
That beautiful blonde young man was Noah, who was just kicked out of the foster house.
Hillaris, who used to be someone who disliked socialising with his peers, had the urge to befriend him. He called out to Noah.
Noah was startled. He looked at the black haired young master who just called him.
He was first very wary of Hillaris, but he then began to warm up to him. They slowly became friends. Best friends.
And then lovers.
Noah's parents died of an arson. He became an orphan. Everyone in the foster house envied his beautiful looks, especially his blonde hair, and they began picking on him.
He knew his features were too conspicuous. He began to hate them. He began to cover them. Until the moment he was kicked out of the foster house, and was left without anything to cover them.
Everyone outside who saw immediately began to approach him, but he always ran away.
He himself didn't know why he didn't run when he was called out by a certain young master who just ran away from his home.
He himself didn't know why he spent a large portion of his time accompanying this young master, listening to him talk, listening to him complain about his parents, his life.
He himself didn't know why he chose to stay beside this young master when an opportunity was given to him.
He himself didn't know when he began to fall for this young master.
Young hearts beat fast when stimulated. Even if he himself didn't know how his heart was stimulated. In fact, him just seeing the young master laugh so beautifully beside him was enough to make his heart pound so fast that he feels like he wanna die.
But his heart really did beat so fast he can't speak anything. That was when this certain young master confessed to him.
That time, they sat side by side, like how it has always been. But Noah felt something different at that time, that was until Hillaris spoke that he realized.
"Noah.."
Hillaris called his name like he has always had. But there was something on it that time that made Noah's heart skip a beat.
"...The moon is so beautiful tonight."
No matter how uneducated Noah was, he could understand the meaning behind Hillaris' words. He often heard these words when he worked a job at a brothel as a cleaning boy. He used to be confused to be about why those men would tell something like that to the ladies. Until a sister told him what it meant. Noah was confused again. Those men whispered those words so romantically, but they sounded so baseless, as if a mere talk.
That was until he heard his young master say these words with... he couldn't describe it.
Hillaris then turned to face the stunned speechless Noah, and he smiled, his eyes forming two crescent moons.
"I said I love you, Noah."
Noah was happy beyond words. He nodded so eagerly and hugged Hillaris so tight yet so gently.
The moon was indeed so beautiful.
Is the sunset also as beautiful?
Less than a year before they were together, Hillaris' father found out about their relationship.
Leading to the situation right now.
........
"I won't go with you." Hillaris words were light, but there was an unwavering determination within them.
Noah held Hillaris' hands as tightly as ever.
Hillaris turned around and met his lover's gaze. He smiled.
"Noah, I think I understand why those lovers in the books I've read are so set on dying together.."
Rain began to pour like an overwhelming storm.
Noah could see Hillaris' tears dripping amidst the rain. He gripped his hands even tighter, their fingers intertwined.
He once had thought about what if he was born as someone who could be called worthy of Hillaris. Someone who could protect his lover, someone who could gift the world to his lover, someone who could carry his lover's burden so he wouldn't have anything to carry at all.
He once thought what if he was born in a universe where people couldn't care less about someone else's choice.
A world where he could openly love to his lover.
A world where no one would come between their love.
A world where they could have their happiness.
A world they could freely run.
Because they met when they ran away. They found happiness when they ran. They became together after they ran.
He knew what Hillaris meant. But he was unwilling to see him get hurt, especially if they were together.
He had failed to protect him many times, he ended up getting protected by him instead.
"Dying together sounds so romantic right now.."
Hillaris' free hand gently stroked Noah's cheeks, Noah's tears began to fall.
"Noah... we've ran away so many times..
But we still weren't free..
Being born in this world is the shackles of our love.
We can't have our happy ending in this world..."
Hillaris said every word in a gentle tone, but he wasn't just comforting Noah — he was comforting himself too.
Ever since he was born, he was treated with almost everything but love.
He used to think that living this way would allow him to slip through the dark so stealthily. Even if he would occasionally bump and fall, he could still stand up and walk once again.
But that was until he met Noah and fell for him that he realized he couldn't keep living this way.
This life he lived was no more than a mistake that he desperately tried to do right. A life controlled by his parents' endless commands.
He realized one thing, to make a mistake right, you have to erase that mistake.
But could he bear to see Noah die? Absolutely not!
Even if it's just seeing one small wound on Noah's body, he'd worry like hell. He could bear to be hurt, you could beat him, slap him, even push him, but he couldn't bear to see the one who gave this mistake a meaning, to be hurt!
Dying together was a decision that contradicted his desire and his wish.
But then he thought, if they continue with living in this world, his life tainted with mistake would be no more but an utter mistake. And this word printed on his life would taint Noah too.
This world, he hated it the most.
He just had to be born in it.
But if he was glad about one thing, it was because this world allowed him to meet Noah.
Noah was like the words, "I love you," he wrote when he was a child to gift to his parents.
He made a mistake when he wrote the letter 'I'. But that mistake was left unnoticed because when he gave it to his mother, she tore it into pieces without even giving them a look.
But this time, he won't let anyone tear those words again.
"Okay...." Noah nodded slowly. The rain poured even more heavily.
Hillaris smiled through his tears. He jumped onto Noah's arms, and they kissed, so hard, they were out of breath.
Noah stepped back.
Amidst the pouring rain, amidst the howls of Hillaris parents, even when the soldiers ran towards them, they did not care.
They hugged each other, their lips interlocked, and their grip on each other was as tight.
They fell amidst the rain.
........
The rain was puored hard. Until it suddenly stopped.
The once bluish-grey sky and the large gathering of clouds dispersed into a pink and golden horizon.
The sun was on its descent, and the people of this world couldn't help but stop in their tracks as they gazed upon this scene.
The sunset was beautiful.
Truly, too beautiful. It was beyond words.
[A/N: And in another world, it was dawn.]
