Two days ago I was a waiter at the Donkey Shoe in downtown Bellingham. Filling coffees and taking and delivering orders. Now here I was, standing in Tokyo’s Shibuya with a man magical in every sense of the word and my world turned upside down by the things that had transpired since I met Fernando. Fernando, the runaway Prince of a faraway kingdom known simply as the Providence of Rosa. Even as I look at the neon signs all I can think is that this is some dream, just like the moment when I received news that my older brother had died. The jeep he was riding in had hit a landmine, the two military attired men said to my mother and father in our living room.
“We’re so sorry for your loss, Mr. and Mrs. Martinez,” one of the men said.
My mothers cries rang out like screams as she hugged my father who just sat there in silence. My sister and I cried in silence and my mind went back to Jose talking to me after he told me he had enlisted.
“Everything will be fine, homie,” he said. “I’ll be back before you know it. Anyway, it’s good cash. Enough for you and me to get a place even after you graduate.”
“What if something bad happens?” I said, holding back tears but failing in the end.
“Nothing will happen to me,” he said. “You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because, little man,” he said. “God knows I got you to come back to and look after. Who’s going to beat up those dicks that’ll break your heart?”
As I stand in Shibuya, I can’t help but wonder what he would think of Fernando and his drama.
But I push the memories of Jose away, it’s too sad to think of and right now is just too good to become gray at the moment.
“Um,” I muse aloud. “Fernando, I know those signs aren’t in English. How can I read them?”
“Amazing,” he laughs. “All royalty has the ability to read and speak any language they are presented to. Given that you weren’t born into the royal bloodlines of my world, I wasn’t sure if you would be able to do that. Makes me wonder what else the Tither has us sharing. We might possibly share each other’s collective knowledge, then again I still have no clue what you call many things.”
“What other things can you do?” I ask him. He opens his mouth but is interrupted by the loud growling of my stomach.
“We’ll get into that later,” he laughs. “Let’s see if we can find something good to eat.”
Fernando grabs my hand without a care in the world and we weave through the crowd, stop at the curb, and wait for the walk sign. When it does turn, the center of the road fills with the pulsing rhythm of countless bodies walking from all directions into any direction they can possibly go down. My eyes scan the crowd for anyone that might have noticed us appear in the middle of the busy Shibuya night but there aren’t any staring eyes from what I can tell.
“Are we cloaked somehow?” I ask him. “I mean, were we cloaked when we teleported to Shibuya?”
“Yep,” he says. “People typically who lack abilities tend to not take notice of things like teleportation. Though I will say things like shooting flames or lightning is another story, there is only so much that can go unnoticed. Lucky thing teleportation isn’t one of those things that can’t be disguised or else we would have a hell of a time erasing memories.”
Together, Fernando and I turn down a street and under an archway. On either side are store and restaurant shops. One shop sells brightly colored clothes, another has pastries decorated to look like Pokemon, and next door to that there is a small cafe with tables sat outside and workers dressed like maids with large frilly skirts.
“Have you been to Tokyo before?” I ask Fernando.
He shakes his head, taking in as much as his mind will let him.
“No,” he says. “This is as much as a first as I take it is for you?”
“Yep,” I say back to him half paying attention to what I’m saying.
After a couple of minutes of wondering about and taking in the different places to eat, we stop at a place simply called Udon that, as you guess it, only serves varieties of udon.
The restaurant is fairly large and popular. Nearly every booth and table is filled as the hostess shows us to a booth.
“A waitress will be with you shortly,” the hostess says as Fernando and I sit down. She leaves us two menus to look through as we wait.
As I look at the different varieties of udon and the prices, I realize I don’t have my wallet on me and my heart falls like an apple out of a tree.
“Don’t worry about paying,” Fernando says, reaching across the table and gripping my hand in his. Our eyes meet and the tightening strings loosen. “Order whatever you want, my love. Money isn’t a worry.”
“You shouldn’t have to pay,” I tell him.
“Pay next time,” he says. “I know you’re good for it and I’ll make sure you have your wallet.”
My eyes go back to looking at the menu, every now and then flicking up and watching him at ease. In a million years I never thought I would find a man like Fernando. For the longest time I thought that my hurt body and soul would be trapped remembering the monster and belonging to it. The monster I’d met at Gossip, the straightest gay bar in existance. The monster who helped me home while I was drunk and half unconscious. The monster who stripped me of my clothes by force. The monster that rammed into me as I tried to stop him from his violent penetration as his fist slammed into the side of my head turning the world dark in my own studio bed. The monster, who, when I awoke the next morning in blood stained sheets, was gone.
“Are you okay?” Fernando says, pulling me back into the now. “You’re crying.”
With shaking hands I wipe away the tears and take a deep breath. A part of me thinks I might have just made the night turn for the worse.
“Are you mad at me?” I ask in a shaking breath and the next thing I know Fernando is sitting next to me, holding me. My eyes wander to the people around us, but they take no notice.
“Never,” Fernando says. “What makes you so upset?”
“You make me so happy,” I tell him, my head leaning against his chest. “You saved me, Fernando. Someone hurt me once and I thought I would never find a person to look past my broken being, but you have.”
And I tell him about the monster and the rape it committed in the tamest of detail. His Adam apple bobs as he listens and he sits in total silence, his eyes distant.
“Have you decided what you would like?” a waitress asks, interrupting and sitting a pitcher of water and two glasses down.
“Can we have one more moment,” Fernando asks and the Waitress shuffles off into the heart of the bustling udon restaurant.
“I would die before I let that happen again,” Fernando says and kisses me deeply. His toxic mixture of roses and pines fills my nose as I take a deep breath, inhaling him in our short embrace that starts one second and ends in another.
“When you found out it was your friend,” I began to ask him, changing the sunject. “How did you feel about it being him to chase you?”
“Poetic,” he says, his arm draped leisurely across my shoulders. “He actually was what you would call my gay awakening I believe. We were raised together in the castle but deep down I always loved him as more than a friend or brother.”
“Does he know you felt that way?” I ask, no doubt my eyebrows are raised.
“No,” he says, and laughs. “I always knew he was straight. So I never asked, and I let the feelings fade and die over time. After all, the man would be a terrible mate. He’s too dominant and controlling, something I think one half of a relationship should never be. He may be my best friend, but even in friendship he can be quite suffocating. I mean, shouldn’t both parties be equal in submission and domination?”
I nod in agreement with his philosophy of relationships.
The Waitress returns and briskly takes our orders. I order a fried beef Udon and Fernando orders a prong based Udon.
“Would you like anything to drink?” The Waitress asks. “Tea? Coffee? Soda?”
“A pot of green tea would be nice,” Fernando says.
The Waitress nods and leaves us.
“How is it that magic exists on the other side of the Veil?” I ask him. “And not on this side. That’s what it’s called, right? The Veil.”
“It does exist,” Fernando says. “The issue is training and the proximity to Krystal.”
“Krystal?” I frown.
“Yes,” he says with a smile. “It’s the essential heart of magic. It feeds into the air, the earth, and the water. Even the human soul they say is born from Krystal by the aid of Goddess, the creator of the circle of life. And those that have a connection to Krystal are gifted with the ability to touch specific aspects of it. Fire and teleportation are my touching points of Krystal. I don’t need hexes to access their abilities and so I have no limits to what I can do with them. But to use water or mist, that’s a different story. Since this world lies fall from Krystal you can’t touch it and marriage to those from Elsewhere is the only way you are able to even come close. But if I were to take you back to Elsewhere, the realm across the Veil, you may just be gifted by Krystal under the Goddess’s eye. But that is a very slim chance.”
“Slim?”
“You see…” he pauses and licks his lips. “Your world is but a mirror of mine, created long ago as an option for those not connected to Krystal.”
“Why?” I ask. “Were they exiled?”
“Not exactly,” he says but stops as our steaming bowls of Udon are placed before us along with the steaming pot of tea and cups to go with it.
“Thank you,” Fernando says.
“Do you need anything else?” The Waitress asks.
“I’m okay,” Fernando asks me. “Is there anything else you need, Alonso.”
“No, I’m fine,” I say, head down.
“That’ll be all then,” Fernando says as he begins to pour the tea.
“Enjoy,” the Waitress says and shuffles off again.
“So why were they sent here?” I ask Fernando.
“Because they were unhappy,” Fernando says. “it led to uprisings in all the Empires, Kingdom’s, and Republics across the land and a mysterious man known simply as Blite led it all.
“A counsel known simply as The Counsel was formed to deal with Blite and his uprising against magic. They orchestrated the idea of this realm where magic just simply didn’t touch the air, water, and earth. A place where Blite and his followers could find solace in what they considered a normal existence without magic.
“It was an idea that brought peace between the people and many left for this world many millennia ago. But you see, people that were born to not touch Krystal can still have children that are able to touch the celestial energy but it is quite rare. There is the chance though that over the millennia there are thousands that were born into the ability to touch Krystal and they may have passed it to their children and their children may have passed it to their children. But because they were born on this side of the Veil, they may never know.”
“That’s sad,” I tell him. “Never knowing that you may have this ability that you are cut off from by a veil.”
“Quite so,” he says. “But it also keeps jealousy at bay for those who may not have it. Of course though there are many who stayed in my world, they were content without Krystal and still found love for Elsewhere. Every once in a while though one of their descendants grows ill in contempt and must be exiled to your world with wiped memories.
“There are also those exiled to here without memory whom’s connection to Krystal had been cut due to the dark deeds they committed or they simply saw life as too complicated with their connection to Krysal. These cases happen rarely and even then the latter two is much rarer than the odd unhappy person born without a connection to Krystal that chooses on their own or by the hand of exile to come here.”
“It’s all so complicated,” I say and blow on a spoonful of my Udon.
“I’m afraid so,” Fernando says, smiling, and takes a sip of his hot tea. “Magic is beautiful and quite complex, especially in the politics surrounding it.”
The rest of the time in the restaurant we ate in silence for the Udon and tea simply was that amazing.
I’ve eaten in silence with men I’ve dated before and it was awkward but there wasn’t that awkwardness in the air between us. Comfort is the only thing that hangs in the air between us as we eat side by side.
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/risne8/forbidden_desires_part_16