Now starting the next project in the Beyond Nerima Cycle [or more
popularly known as The Tales of
Shampoo continuity], here comes the sister
series to TOS, with
the action now coming from back in Japan, from the view of those who
still live there.
Not sure when this project will be done, since it really just started,
but it's fair to say I'll have moved to Hawaii by the time it's
completed.
Anyway, here's the teaser, and I hope you'll like what you see.
*********************************************************
Some family secrets should never stay hidden.
T H E B E Y O N D N E R I M A C Y C L E
Ranma: The Later Years
Volume One:
Hanashi no Yurei
[[=:=]]
Prologue: The Hour of the Ox
"The distance that the dead have gone
Does not at first appear
Their coming back seems possible
For many an ardent year."
--Emily Dickenson
Kuonji Ukyo sat on the mountainside, watching, waiting. It was a
snow-swept night, brisk yet not chilly. The moon was out, and there were
few clouds, yet it was not a clear night, as there were no stars to shine
a twinkling, warm, comforting light on the young woman this evening. She
seemed to be in a winter's glade, leafless trees heralding an embankment
that showed a forest in the distance, something dark and massive just at
the edge of beyond.
She really wasn't sure where she was, or why she was there. Was it
training? If so, where was Ran-chan or Akane-chan? Or, more
importantly, her daughter Sakura, her pride and joy. Where was her
family? They were her family, her loved ones, and yet here she was--and
here they were not.
She looked down, and noticed that she was wearing a purple and gray
kimono--the same colors she'd worn the last day she saw Ranma as a child
before his training trip, so long ago; the curves of her breasts
indicated, however, that this was no childhood dream, if indeed it was
one. On her back, she could feel the dual wieghts of her battle spatula
and its new, yet temporary mate: the Kenzan katana, the sword of her dead
lover, Kenzan Konatsu; the sword she would safekeep until their child
Sakura was of age.
I seem to be awake, she noted absently, or
at least dreaming as an adult. But I'm not dreaming of Kamakura, nor
Nerima, nor even of Osaka. Yet, something here seems familiar....
Looking to the left, peering through the barren, naked ,
rime-coated trees, she could see an ancient but well-kept castle, framed
by an impossibly large moon. In the sky, not quite lit by the effects of
moonlight, anorexic clouds floated in the sky, wispy and faint as though
they were spirits. The clouds seemed not be there, but not quite not
there, either.
This all looks very familiar, she pondered.
I'm pretty sure I've been here, even though I don't recognize it. What's the word for that? I think the French call it deja vu or something....
She really didn't get much more time to ponder on this as she heard the voices of two people screaming, and not the screams of horror, but the battlecries of combat. Unsure of what it could portend, she leapt to her feet, reaching for her battle spatula. A split second later, something in her told her to use the katana instead; she stopped reaching for the larger weapon and drew the quicksilver, seemingly starlight-soaked, glistening blade from its rest.
Now, whatever comes my way will have to deal with me, she thought, confident that she'd be ready for everything. But as hubris destroyed Icarus, it proved to be a folly for Ukyo.
Over the rise, a young woman--apparently a teenager--leapt into view. She wore a familiar purple yukata shirt that was oversized, with blue jeans that seemed a little to the left of faded. The girl had hair almost as dark as the night, and her eyes were the color of coal. In contrast to this was her fair skin, and the ivory white of a ribbon in her hair. The metal of the weapon she carried gleamed dully due to some dark substance that coated the weapon's flat surface, something that prevented its normal bright shine. The girl had a murderous look in her eyes that said more than the simple concept of "teaching someone a lesson"; this look had a derivative in a book that Shampoo had once mailed her. That word was simply: REDRUM.
A drop of the substance dived from the blade to impact against the snow below, a splash of crimson against a pallet of white. Ukyo--the adult in the kimono--knew who and what she was seeing, yet her mind was unable to comprehend. No! That's me! her mind seethed, even as she tried to piece together what was going on. That's blood on the battle spatula! And a lot of it, too! But...how? Who?
The answer came, uncomfortable and chilling to her. Uc-chan--the teen Ukyo--tensed as if awaiting an attack, but did not move into an offensive or defensive stance. With no warning, her opponent came rushing over the rise, a blue of yellow and red--the red clearly the color of blood, while the yellow was a bloodied and nearly shredded karate gi. The blur stopped, and coalesced into another young woman, who immediately dropped into a defensive stance, as a dark blue battle aura barely flickered into existence around her--an indication that her strength was failing. The girl was breathing heavy, and looked as though simply standing was a triumph, yet still she held her ground. Her short hair was a blue-black, similar to the multitude of bruises showing on her skin, which revealed the paleness of someone suffering massive blood loss. Her normally warm brown eyes shown with a weary determination; she wouldn't die easily. Additionally, those eyes revealed something else: the reason why she'd have to die was as much a shock to her as the Ukyo; they also showed a glance of fear mixed in with the pain of betrayal, as though a close friend had turned against her. Which, it seemed was true.
Akane?!?!? The mind of Ukyo registered shock as she watched the two combatants begin to circle again in preparation for attacking. I would never do this to Akane-chan! What the hell's going on?!?!?!?! Ukyo began to move forward to halt the madness, but found she couldn't move--she was held firmly in place, as though she'd been encased in an invisible plaster, a cast she could only see and breathe through.
Meanwhile, the macabre display continued to unfold in front of her, as the pair spoke:
Akane looked at Uc-chan, pleading, "Ukyo! Why are you doing this?!?!?"
Uc-chan's response was to swing the battle spatula forward, which Akane barely dodged in time. "You've hurt Ranma too many times, Akane!" she bellowed, as she swung again, this time finding her mark. "I warned you, but you never listened!"
The shotokan fighter crumpled to the frosty ground, weakened from too much pain and blood, the last vestiges of her ki fading away as her aura vanished. Barely able to look up at her tormentor, Akane rasped, "But I thought we were friends, Ukyo!"
The eyes of the okinomiyaki chef held no friendship as she replied, "We were. We would still be, if you hadn't gotten in the way between me and my Ran-chan. I told you once, anyone who got in my way would pay the price. Shampoo had to learn. Kodachi had to learn. Even your sister Nabiki had to learn. And now, though you were a true friend, HAVE TO LEARN!!!!"
"Bu-bu-but...but Shampoo went back to China! And Kodachi ran away ! And Nabiki's been missing for a year! How would you know about where they are unless...." Akane's eyes widened in shock as she gasped, "Kami-sama, you-you killed them! YOU MURDERED THEM!"
Her answer was a simple nod from the other girl, even as a cruel light flickered in her black eyes. Nothing more to say, Uc-chan brought the blade end of her spatula to bear, driving it through Akane's neck with a wet crunch, as the light died in those warm, friendly eyes.
From where she stood, the adult Ukyo recoiled in horror, watching the teenage version of herself murder another teenage version of one of her best friends. But what she watched wasn't necessarily what she saw: in that span of death, the death of Konatsu played in her mind's eye, just as fresh as it had been those eight bittersweet years ago. The bitter scent of the Akane's blood brought her macabre visions of Konatsu's own as he died in her arms.
Worse, she said I--no, that thing, she reasoned, knowing that she would never kill those very same people who she counted as her family, that thing killed Shampoo, Kodachi and Nabiki. What the hell is that beast making me out to be? Kami, what else has that monster killed? Konatsu? Ryoga? Mousse? The few people that I dare count as my loved ones? What is going on here? Why did I have this dream? What's next?
Ukyo's not-exactly-desired answer came a few moments later. As Uc-chan continued to stare over the body of her latest victim, the moon began to glow with the shade of blood. A noise that she thought sounded like a cross between a mouse's squeak and a rusty hinge, a tone that heralded something out of place, resonated throughout the combat area. As the sound increased, a number of strange drab-gray creatures--caterpillars, maybe?--about the rough dimensions of a soda can began to crawl over the embankment, all emitting the cacophonous sound, as the horde of things grew larger and larger. Oddly enough, though, it seemed as though the creatures weren't o much migrating to the spot, as just mystically appearing there, as though they were ghosts materializing into existence.
Their numbers multiplied almost instantly. Doubled. Tripled. Quadrupled. Squared. Cubed. There were so many in the space of seconds, it was as if Ukyo was staring at a sea of lint, a boiling, living army of monster caterpillars. Some of them congregated around Uc-chan as though they were paying homage to a queen, or perhaps worshipping a goddess. The rest began to roll over the corpse of Akane, burying it in a manner of seconds. The sounds that the creatures made changed slightly, almost the same, but with the addition of a barely audible slurp to it, as if the creatures were masticating.
That thought chilled Ukyo to the bone. They're eating her! What are those things? Ukyo at that point gave up any notion of defending herself, weapons-bearing or no; flight was the only option, and she wanted to get away now. Yet she still couldn't move, couldn't flee, or even fight. Still, all she could do was just breathe in rapid, shallow gasps.
Continuing to enjoy the scene, Ukyo noticed that a blood-red aura began to weave around Uc-chan, like a sanguine cocoon. Her clothes changed as well, transmuting from her well-remembered teenage clothing to that of a black sailor-type school fuku. Noting that the pile that covered the remains of Akane was growing smaller as what was left of the body began to disappear, Uc-chan turned to face her older counterpart. Her eyes were glowing as blood red as her aura, twin lanterns of the dead. In a sing-song voice that eerily reminded Ukyo of Shampoo's own lilting voice, she looked at Ukyo and said, "It is in our blood. They are our familiars. And with their power, nothing can stop us from taking what we want." She then pointed in the direction of the castle, saying, "Observe."
Ukyo's eyes crept in that direction to see another pool of blood, accompanied by the body of another Akane. But it was not another variant of the one that had been devoured earlier, but something far worse. This Akane was older, in her mid-twenties. This Akane wore not the teen's gi, but a peach-colored long sleeve Chinese tang shirt and black baggy pants, the unofficial symbol of a family of martial artists. This Akane wore a gold-and-platinum wedding band on her ring finger. This was not the body of Tendo Akane, but of something much worse--that of Saotome Akane, her housemate and one of her best friends, the wife of her best friend and would-be love interest, Saotome Ranma. A body that the gray creatures were now crawling towards, congregating like buzzards ready for the next feast.
While this happened, Uc-chan, resplendent in her black fuku and bloody aura, began to laugh. Not with the inadvertently bone-chilling banshee howl of Kodachi, but with an innocent girl's sweet, charming laugh. This made Ukyo shiver that much more as she watched the corpse of Akane--her Akane--start to disappear under the mass of creatures, while the younger girl continued to laugh, her eyes and aura growing brighter and stronger all the while. And Ukyo continued to watch, helpless to do a damn thing about it.
It was too much for the kimono-clad woman. She screamed in uncontrollable horror, as the laughter and the creatures' chittering began to grow louder, louder, matching her screams in intensity. She could feel herself moving, shaking, shaking, sha--
[[=:=]]
--ken by Ranma as she shivered, still screaming. "Uc-chan! Uc-chan, snap out of it!"
Ukyo stared and tried to comprehend. She was back in her futon, in her room in the house in Kamakura that she shared with the Saotomes. There, silhouetted by the dim moonlight coming in to her room, was Ranma and Akane, looking at her with sleepy but concerned glances. Realizing who it was, she launched herself at the two, hugging them both fiercely. "Akane-chan! You're alright! Oh Ran-chan, I was so scared!" Ukyo let go of the two and let them sit down, only to latch herself on to Ranma again, unaware that even after all these years, old habits still died hard.
Akane, wondering just what the hell her friend was talking about, whispered, "Uc-chan, what are you talking about?" To her side, Ranma nodded, though he said nothing. Ukyo then took the time to explain her nightmare, from the initial view of the winter clearing, to Ukyo's ghastly deed, to the creatures eating Akane's corpse--both of them. When she was done, Akane looked at Ukyo oddly and snapped, "Uc-chan, I can't remember the last time you and I got into a fight over the baka here," she said, using her term of endearment for her husband, "and I have no plans to die, so could you drop it?" Seeing the pain in Ukyo's face, Akane softened her tone as she added, "I'm sorry, Uc-chan--I guess being woken up at four in the morning isn't very fun, and I didn't mean to snap at you. But as you can see, I'm still alive, and there are no giant gray caterpillars in the house. 'Sides, it's September. They're all butterflies or moths, laying eggs at this time, ne?"
"It was just a dream, Uc-chan," Ranma said as he gave her another hug. "If something was really happening, I woulda taken care of it. You know that." Within her, she as always, restrained the urge to kiss him. Even aftar all these years, her childhood friend was there for her.
If the moonlight would have allowed the Saotomes to see Ukyo blush, it would have revealed massive embarrassment. "Mmm, I guess you're right. Maybe I shouldn't have went to see The Ring with Kurumi last night," she said; Kurumi did joke that the horror film they'd seen the previous night was going to possibly induce nightmares. In Ukyo's case, it was apparently a truism. "I'm sorry that I bothered you both."
"Don't worry about it, Uc-chan," Ranma replied, flashing that easy grin that she loved about him. "As long as you're alright; that's what counts. C'mon, Akane, let's go back to bed." The two got off Ukyo's futon, only to turn and encounter the little one of the house, seven-year-old Sakura.
"Mommy," Sakura said in a drowsy tone as she rubbed her eyes and hefting a stuffed black pig, "What happened? I heard screaming, and suddenly here you are talking to Uncle Ranma and Aunt Akane, and is everything all right?"
"Daijobu, Saku-chan," Ukyo told her daughter. "I just had a nightmare, that's all."
Sakura looked at her mother with surprise. "But you're not supposed to have nightmares, Mommy. You're a grown-up."
Akane reached over and gave her niece a hug, explaining that "everyone has nightmares, Saku-chan. The trick to beating them is not to let them bother you once you've had them, ne, Ranma?"
Ranma nodded, his face the look of a wise man. "Like your grandfather always says, Sakura, 'Martial righteousness' and all that stuff."
Sakura blinked her sleepy eyes once more, then nodded at the universal truths that her aunt and uncle were giving her. Grandmother and Grandfather Saotome were always so smart, and Uncle Ranma and Aunt Akane would never lie to her; thus, it must be true. Moving to her mother's side, she dais, "I'll sleep with you tonight, Mommy, so that you won't have nightmares anymore. P-chibi and I," she said, indicating her stuffed porcine animal, "will protect you like good martial artists."
Ukyo couldn't help but smile at her daughter's statement as she gazed at her child, her link to Konatsu. As Ukyo often thought, Sakura looked like Konatsu would have if he had been truly a girl, and would (in years to come) easily look like her father in his feminine guise. "Okay, sweetheart, thank you." As Sakura crawled into the sheets, Ukyo watched her two closest friends leave the room. As they left, she silently thanked them again, grateful that not only did their living arrangements allow for moments as these, but more importantly, that it allowed her to share the moments of her life with those two wonderful people.
Closing the door to Ukyo's room, Ranma was about to say something to Akane, when his eyes went blank with a slight light-blue flicker. Additionally, a familiar coin-shaped pendant around Akane's neck began to glow with a golden hue. In their minds, two voices could be heard at once, one rusty, and one with faint lilting Chinese tones: <<What the hell happened?>> Ranma took it in stride, but as always, Akane flinched at the psychic link. Since she got the mysterious pendant a little over two months ago during the escapade in San Francisco, Akane had only used the pendant's powers once or twice--it felt too creepy to her.
Ranko, using her natural link to her brother, went first. <<I was parking my car in the driveway, when you suddenly overwhelmed my mind, oniichan-->>
<--and we nearly ran over Libby while she was working on her car. What's going on over there?> Shampoo finished, using her own magical pendant.
<<Relax, you two,>> Ranma commented. <<It's just a false alarm.>> He briefly related Ukyo's tale to the pair, with the occasional additional remark from Akane. Finishing up, he said, <<Girls, don't give her a hard time about this. The incident really spooked her.>>
<Well, if she needs someone to talk to in the morning, have her call me,> Shampoo responded. <I don't care if there's a seventeen hour time difference; I'm always available for family.>
<<Same here,>> Ranko noted.
<She'll be fine, girls. Ranma or I will talk to her in the morning, and even little Sakura's sleeping with right now for comfort,> Akane added, thinking absently that she would probably never get used to this form of communication that was the norm for Ranma and Ranko. <We'll email you on what happens, or you can just call. If worst comes to, you can even "talk" to us, ne? Now, ladies, if you don't mind, we'd like to get some sleep--it is about four in the morning, after all.>
<<Right. Okay, then,>> Ranko said. <<Talk to ya later. Love ya both. See ya.>>
<'Night, airen. 'Night, Akane.> Akane's pendant stopped glowing as its connection Shampoo's Phoenix Eye jewel was completed. She found herself right in front of their bedroom door, with no clear notion of how she got there; another thing that she thought was bad about the pendant was the side effect that prevented her from really noticing any passage of reality. As they stepped into their own room, she noted Ranma's eyes clearing as well.
"Ran-chan," Akane commented as she closed the door to their bedroom, "I'm glad that Ranko and Shampoo are paying attention, but it feels kinda odd, like they're watching over us, or something."
"No more than I do over them," he replied. "Besides, remember that Ranko just told her friends last week about our problem in Vietnam. She's still kinda sensitive about that and the pain that it caused, so naturally she and Shampoo would be aware. Besides, isn't it your father who said that family is more important than anything? That's what we are now--one big happy family."
"I suppose," she said, leaning into his chest. "As for Ukyo, I think you should talk to her in the morning, just to make sure she's okay. I'll take Sakura out to the park or something."
"If you insist," he answered, yawning, gently tossing Akane onto their own futon. "She'll be fine, I'm sure. She's just never been one for horror movies." The pair kissed each other goodnight, then were soon asleep.
[[=:=]]
65 kilometers to the northwest of Kamakura, there was a commotion in a house in Nerima district, Tokyo.
Tsui Mai Ling, the "wife" of Tendo Natsumi, snapped awake with a start. Something seemed to be different this morning, a feeling she'd never had before, as though something was calling to her. She looked over at the clock: 4:12 in the morning. This is very odd. She also noticed that there was also some unusual sound that she could hear, but it was most likely coming from outside. Her normally solid appearance was kind of hazy and glowing; it was an indication that she was reverting to her spirit form. Not voluntarily, either; she usually had complete control of her "body" functions. Something was definitely odd, she realized, very out of place.
Easing out of the covers and not trying to disturb her loved one, she moved off their bed and over to the window, to watch the stars on this crescent-moonlit night. At the moment, she was beginning to glow brighter tan the shaft of light streaming into the window, and she was becoming translucent as well, an indication just before she became her full intangible, ghostly state. Mai thought as she ran her fingers through her loose rose-colored hair of how difficult it would be to go to bed now.
Normally, Mai "lived" in a corporeal state, making her as solid as a normal person; in this form, she was susceptible to most living sensations and limitations. To operate in human form, she would have to sleep and eat like a living human, a condition which she preferred. She would only become intangible--her true ghostly form--when absolutely necessary and when no one would be home for a while; this last part was so she would not inconvenience anyone.
Mai looked back at Natsumi, her wode airen, her "husband", though in truth, Natsumi was as female as Mai. Their relationship had changed much over the eight years they'd been together. In the beginning, it was clear to all but Mai that Natsumi did not want her around; indeed, when they first met, the Ghost Wolf shinobi thought the amorous spirit to be divine punishment for some crime she couldn't imagine. Over time, though, Mai's perseverance and love brought Natsumi around, and they were now as much a couple as the other couple in the dojo, Tendo Soun and Hinako. Mai thought back to their eighth anniversary, and the diamond charm Natsumi had given her--it was by far the most beautiful thing she'd ever had in her 819-year existence. Mai looked at the wooden jewel box that held the treasure, as that box sat on the dresser by the mirror.
She then looked at her own image in the mirror, glad that she was still solid enough that she could be seen. In that massive span of centuries, almost nothing had changed about her physical appearance. She still looked the age at which she died--the tender age of fifteen, though her (admittedly, less than legal) ID said she was 23, born in 1975 and not 1164. Her image was still showing the perpetual frame of someone born an eternity ago; thus her build was not as voluptuous as some of her friends and family; Natsumi, with quite a bustline herself, didn't care. She was also shorter than a modern Chinese woman (she was easily under five feet), both because of her age of death and her appearance. Despite all this, the neighbors (who didn't know Mai's secret) simply thought of her as a late bloomer.
She still felt that unexplained force tugging at her--no, two things. One was that something deep inside, like instinct, that called to her. The other was her nightgown, which slipped off--or rather, through--her as she went completely intangible. She could summon up a ghostly image of her clothing if she so wished (that function being a talent of her intangible nature), but being in the nude in her own bedroom shouldn't be a problem. No, the problem was that she was involuntarily reverting to full ghost form for the first time in her "life", with no idea how to stop it. That was a thought that unnerved her to no end.
So, she went back to searching the moonlight, as though it had some key to why this was all happening. She was sure that whatever was occurring, it was temporary...or so she hoped. Because the alternative--that she'd finally meant the criteria to join the ancestors in the heavens--was something that she did not want to consider. She was loved now, appreciated by her family. She was alive, in the euphemistic sense if not in the technical. She would not, could not, leave her family behind. She loved them too much, and though she had been the wife of Temujin, the so-called "Ghengis Khan", in her short life, she had something more important to her now. She was a Tendo.
"Mai?" Natsumi's sleepy voice echoed in the room, startling the ghost. "Come back to bed, willya?" Mai turned and found her airen looking at her, blinking rapidly to keep her eyes awake.
The look Mai gave Natsumi was melancholy. She's worried about me, even after she's still recovering from her injuries. Oh, how I love her. "I'm sorry, wode airen, but I can't," she whispered. "Something's...wrong."
Natsumi sat up, wincing from the movement. "What's wrong, love?" With a grunt that was half pain, half yawned, she got out of bed and went over to her wife, noting that, "Mai, you're glowing. Is everything alright?"
"I don't know. At least, I hope there's nothing wrong. I just...can't come back to bed right now."
Natsumi idly eyed her lover's form, appreciating that body she knew as well as her own. However this was not the time nor situation for romance; Mai clearly needed her as a friend and not a lover. She went to put her arms around the smaller woman, soothingly saying, "It's okay, Mai. I've had many sleepless ni--" then stopped as she realized her arms had gone through her wife. As her arms remained poking through what would normally be Mai's ribcage, she commented, "Mai, you've gone hazy.
"I know, airen," Mai commented, the look on her face as though her heart of hearts would snap in two. "I...can't control it. This has never happened before. I wish I could explain, but I have no way of doing so. Please forgive your wife's stupidity." Mai reverted to the formal, traditional, submissive phrase, even though she'd become a more worldly and cosmopolital spirit since her departure from the Xanadu valley eight years ago. However, old habits die hard, especially when the person in question is a ghost nearly 1000 years old.
Mai, don't worry about it," Natsumi answered, clasping her arms behind her. Mai smiled slightly; she knew that Natsumi never held anything against her. "It might just be something that happens to ghosts every so often. Tomorrow morning, we'll get on the internet and see if we can find something in regards to it. It may just be something that happens to normal ghosts, while you may have been shielded by it during your time in the Crystal Temple."
Mai nodded, then said, "I'm so lucky to have such a smart airen like you, Natsu-chan."
"Flattery will get you nowhere," Natsumi said, smiling. She then yawned, then added, "I'm going back to bed. If you solidify later on, you should get some sleep. We'll get to the problem when we get a chance." She leaned over to give Mai a kiss, then pulled back when she realized that it would do no good. "Good night, sweetheart."
Mai floated up to Natsumi's height and laid a ghostly kiss on Natsumi's lips. "Sleep well, wode airen." Natsumi felt the merest tinge of cold in Mai's kiss. In some cultures, such a kiss from a ghost would be considered a harbinger of death; Natsumi, however, considered that kiss a symbol of life that she shared with someone. She crawled back into the sheets of their bed, and was soon asleep.
As for Mai, she remained intangible for another couple of hours, just in time for her morning workout with Kurumi. The workouts were for Mai to learn the Tendo AGMA, though in truth it Mai was only learning it for Natsumi's sake. IN truth, Mai was proving to be a fast learner, and was easily on the way to being at Soun or Nabiki's level, though she might not ever reach the talents of Kurumi or Akane. She was admittedly a bit tired, as the lack of sleep caught upon her near-living form, but she reasoned that she could take a nap sometime later in the day.
Hopefully, though, by the time she took that nap, the wierd sound would be gone. It certainly was annoying, as it sounded somewhere between the squeak of the bats that lived in the lower caves under the Crystal Temple, and a door hinge that hadn't been oiled in a while.
[[=:=]]
From somewhere beyond, something dark and sinister awoke.
It is time, it decided, and I will soon have everything I want. And more.
*********************************************************
An evil of the highest order is about to be unleashed upon the world, and not even Ranma and company may be able to stop it!
Ranma: The Later Years
Volume One:
Hanashi no Yurei
The family ties that bind can also be the binds that
kill.
ja,
--Rob
"The greatest
thing you'll ever learn,
Is just to love, and be loved
In return."
--Nat King Cole