What is Love?
by Mrscage &
Cahaaz
Chapter
1
(Right after the last page of the manga, when Candy runs to Albert’s
arms… )
“Candy... How beautiful and strong she is… I’m holding her in
my arms.. yet… it feels like she is far away. How many times did I hold her so
tight and how many times the words came to my mind but I couldn’t speak them out
loud. Will she ever realize that I can’t be just her friend, that there are much
more feelings in my heart and my body for her? Why she doesn’t see me as a man?
Sometimes, when she holds me so tight, I want to take her lips and kiss her like
she has never been kissed before… Did Terry kiss her? I wonder how far did
they go… Oh Candy, if you knew what you are doing to me… I can’t keep holding
you in my arms and act like a friend…
I’m a man Candy! I’m a man who is in love
with you, open your eyes and see it... ”
- I think we should go Candy,
everybody is waiting for us, said Albert leaving Candy’s arms, and trying to
sound as calm as he could, it was hard to speak always with that calm and
reassuring voice while fire was burning through his veins.
-I can’t
believe that you are also my Prince, Albert! You were always there for me, first
Albert, then Uncle William and now my prince…
“Stop calling me my
prince Candy… it gives me hope.”
-Stop calling me prince, I was just
a boy who saw a little girl crying, I’m not a prince.
- Yes, you are, you
are my prince… my angel, said Candy and started to cry.
“Please don’t
cry, your tears… they break my heart, I would do anything just to see your eyes
smiling… please don’t cry my love.”
- Hey, don’t cry Candy, you’re much
prettier when you smile.
Candy smiled and said:
- I’m sorry, I was
crying of joy, I never thought that I could be happy again… After our break up
with Terry…
“Terry again… she loves him Albert! Stop raising your
hopes, you’re only a friend for her, nothing more.”
- I know, little
one… I know. You didn’t deserve all the pain and separations you had in your
life, you deserve happiness, you deserve love.
- Love?. I bring only
sadness and pain to the people I love. Anthony… died. Terry… I will never love
again Albert, never!
“Never?!… never?…why don’t you take a knife and
stab it in my heart?”
- Don’t say so Candy, you are young, you have
all your life in front of you, you will love again, you will find happiness,
trust me.
- I trust you Albert… I always trusted you but I don’t want to
love again.
“Stop hurting me Candy…”
- Let’s not talk
about this now, come on we should go, everything must be ready by
now.
They went to Pony Home and talked, laughed, had good time together
with Archie, Annie, Patty, Sister Maria and Miss Pony. Everybody seemed to be
happy, as if Stear never died, as if Candy never was heartbroken, as if Albert
wasn’t feeling such a love that was killing him to keep it in, as if… In fact,
they were all faking happiness.
When the night fell and they were all
getting ready to leave, Albert went to talk to Candy one more time to convince
her to come live with him at the mansion.
- Are you sure you want to stay
here? Why don’t you live with me?
- Pony Home is the only place that I
can call home, Albert, I want to stay here.
- But my home is yours
too.
- I don’t think that I could be happy there… I need to take some
time, away from everything. I’m so tired Albert…
- I understand how you
feel… I wish I could leave everything and travel again.
- But you can’t,
can you? You have responsabilities as Great Uncle William…
- Yes I do…
but I really could use some free time too… it all happened so fast, I wasn’t
planning to appear in public so soon.
- It’s all because of me! You had
to come and annul my engagement with Neal. You had to leave your free life for
me
- Candy… don’t you know that I could do anything for you? Said Albert
looking into her eyes with such a powerful glance that Candy felt her knees
shaking without understanding why.
- Thank you Albert, she managed to
say, for being always here for me.
- Good night Candy he said, kising her
on the cheek.
- Good night, she said, blushing without realizing
it.
Albert left and Candy went to bed but she couldn’t sleep as she used
to do right after putting her head on the pillow. She was so tired, not because
of that day but because all that she had been throught for the last year. She
remembered all those painful memories one by one and finally fell asleep. She
saw Terry in her dream, as she used to do since the first day that she met him.
They were by the side of the lake where Terry kissed her for the first and the
last time. In her dream also, they were dancing and Terry stopped suddenly, then
he took her in his arms and kissed her, gently…on contrary to what happened in
the real life, in her dream Candy let him kiss her. She responded to the kiss,
and
when she opened her eyes, she found Albert in front of her. She was kissing
Albert not Terry! Albert was looking into her eyes with love.He leaned and
kissed her again and he gently took her in his arms, made her lay down without
letting her lips go. Candy realized what was going to happen, she said to
herself that they shouldn’t make love, that it was immoral, that she was in love
with Terry but she couldn’t stop, she didn’t want to… Albert took off her
clothes and kissed every part of her body when she woke up from the
dream.
“What’s happening to me?…this is the first time that I dream
of something like this… and with Albert! Oh my God, how could I dream of
it… with him?” She was mad at herself.
She never dreamed of
making love until then and dreaming of it made her ashamed, dreaming of it with
Albert was even worse. She got up from the bed and looked out of the window, the
sun was already shining, the kids were having breakfast outside. “I was
supposed to prepare the breakfast, what time it is? Ten! Oh my God did I sleep
that much?I have to take a shower and start the day, how will I forget that
dream?! I hope Albert won’t come to see me today, I won’t be able to look at his
face.”
Albert was still sleeping, he couldn’t sleep until 3 of the
morning and finally when he found sleep he was dreaming of Candy. He woke up
from the dream very uncomfortable. “I think about her all the time that I’m
awake and I dream about her whenever I sleep…Will this love go away one day? And
look at what dreaming of her did to you Albert! Now will you satisfy yourself
like a teenager or will you be a man and go to see the girls that you used to
have” Before falling in love with Candy, Albert had a lot of girls, there
wasn’t any girl who could say no to him and he took the advantages of it. But it
was “before” Candy… He fell in love with that little, blond, freckled nurse the
day that she came in his room at the hospital while he was amnesic, then he
started to live with her but he couldn’t confess his love to her, she was so
madly in love with Terry. When his memory came back, he realized that he was in
love with his adoptive daughter and decided to leave. He knew that if he kept
living with her he might do things that he could regret. Then he met Terry drunk
and devastated. He decided to make them meet, he tought that if they see each
other, they would be together again. He wanted to see Candy happy so much that
he was ready to give up on her forever, as long as she was with the man she
loved… Terry. But things didn’t go as he hoped for, Candy left without talking
to Terry and Terry went back to Susanna. Seeing Candy heartbroken was so
difficult for Albert but when she ran to his arms yesterday at Pony Hill, he got
hopes… “Maybe”, he thought, “maybe she could love me one
day.”
He was planning to meet Candy that day too but he said to
himself that they both needed some time alone… He should let her grieve for her
friends, for her love, for her past. and he needed to forget her, to let her out
of his mind or he was going to be crazy. Didn’t she tell him that she was
“never” going to fall in love again. She always saw him as a friend maybe even
as family and Albert decided to stop torturing himself with this impossible
love. He left for the city to have some fun with an old friend that he used to
know. She was glad to see Albert and she gave him what he was looking
for.
Candy waited the whole day for Albert to come but he didn’t show up.
“I thought that he would come… but I guess he had other things to do. And I’m
glad that he didn’t come, I couldn’t face him after that dream that I had!”