Viewpoint (Final Chapter)

Luckily Michio knew how to get to the viewpoint from his home and so he was running like he never did before. He wasn't the most athletic guy and on top the way was pretty much all uphill, but he knew he couldn't afford to slow down. Although he did take a bit of a break when he reached the stairs that would lead him to the top of the hill where the viewpoint was located. But more so to prepare mentally for what he was potentially about to see. He had seen Aida when she was in a bad state emotionally and she might be feeling even worse than ever before right now. Then he started to climb the stairs. Slowly at first, still somewhat hesitant after he thought about what might be up there, but quickly he was running again until he reached the viewpoint and breathed heavily whilst leaning forward. After a couple of seconds he actually looked around and to his relief he actually saw Aida standing at the banister. She was looking down the hill and now Michio couldn't help but panic a little bit. Was she really about to... He slowly walked towards her. “Aida.” He called out to her. She actually turned around and he could see how much she was crying. He stopped inadvertently.

“Aida.” he said again.

“I'm here Michio. At the place I told you I wanted to see with you.” She sounded very miserable and the smile that ran across her face was bitter. “But not like this.”

“I'm here Aida.” Michi said. He still didn't really know what the situation was so he tried to tread carefully.

“That you are.” she answered. “I didn't think you would come after what happened.”

“It did hurt a lot.” Michio admitted. “But I shouln't have run away.”

“Do you think that I just used you to get back to my family?” she asked him directly. Michio couldn't help but look away after she called him out on it. After seeing his reaction she started crying again and fell down to her knees.

“So I couldn't make you believe how much I love you after all.” she said whilst crying.

“I did believe you Aida.” Michio yelled. “But you lied to me about Taiki. So why should I believe the rest? I just don't know what to think Aida.”

She looked up at him, her eyes still full of tears. Then she suddenly jumped up and faced the banister again. She held onto it with both hands and he could see that she was gripping it so hard her knuckles turned white. “Michio.” she said in a very silent voice. “I know how you felt now.”

A shiver ran down Michios spine. “Aida.” he said in a gentle voice to not upset her further. “Please don't do anything rash.” She smiled bitterly again. “Why do you care Michio? Tell me.” she screamed the last sentence and he could feel her agony. He started walking towards her slowly. “Aida.” he said in the same gentle voice. He kept walking towards her and she didn't move. When he reached her he hesitated for a second but then he embraced her from behind and she let it happen. He held her close like never before and she let go of the banister. “Because I love you Aida. That's why I care. I never want to let you go again.” For a brief moment she didn't react but then he could hear her crying again, but it felt different this time. Was she relieved?

“Michio. I love you so much. Please believe me.” she pleaded.

“It's alright Aida. I won't let you get away whatever you say.” Michio answered with a smile.

“I feel better now Michio.” Aida said and he could hear from her words that she was smiling as well. “I'm glad.” answered Michio. “I thought I had lost you again.” He let go of her and she turned around to him and he could see that she was indeed smiling. “I'm here Michio. For you.”

“I know.”

“You know what Michio?” Aida suddenly said.

“No, what?” Michio was slightly confused.

“I really want to kiss you.” she said and her blushing face was very cute looking to Michio.

“I don't mind.” What else could he say?

When their lips touched for the first time Michio felt a new wave of happiness wash over him and this time he felt no doubt about anything anymore. He was kissing the girl he loved and he was kissed by the girl that loved him.

“That was my first kiss Michio.” Aida said as they walked down the stairs hand in hand a little later.

“Mine as well Aida.” Michio answered.

“Well, of course, you are hopeless Michio.” Aida was laughing as she said that and Michio was taken aback for a moment, but then he was laughing as well. So that's how it was going to be from now on. You just wait Aida he told himself.

“What are we doing now Aida?” Michio asked.

“Do you want to come to my place?” Aida said bashfully. Michio was taken aback again.

“Really, isn't that a bit soon?” he asked.

“I can't wait to introduce my boyfriend though.” she said, this time looking directly into his eyes.

“B-Boyfriend?” was all he could say in response.

“Of course.” Aida said laughing as she started to run off “Come on, Michio, hurry.”

He ran after her, smiling all the way to her house.

Afterword

Thanks for reading my story till the end. I had fun writing it, although admittedly I'm not that happy with the first third or so of it, I think the second half is much stronger, which is probably how it should be, but I still wished I went about it a bit differently. The original idea for the setting was that the clouds represented different levels of society in heaven so to speak and if you come to heaven first you are on cloud one and nine represents the highest rank. That also makes the title make a bit more sense. But I thought it would probably require too much setup and it would be pretty difficult to bring the two together, since Aida of course was meant to live in cloud 9 in that scenario. Then I had the idea of them being forced to live together and I really like that as a trope so I wrote it that way. But that also kinda limited the scope of the story somewhat and I found it difficult to introduce new characters, that's why there's basically only three in the whole story that really do anything. In the original scenario Gabriel was meant to be like a best friend character that teaches Michio the ropes, which would probably have been a good character to have in retrospect. Maybe it should have been a neighbour. But I like the idea of Aida missing her family and that being the motivation for everything. I probably did her a bit dirty by making her lie about Taiki, but that also shows how much she wants to go back I think and it provided a good setup for the ending, especially since that also made me come up with the idea for the scene with Michios father. But I want to write my next story from a female perspective to make up for that. The ending is also a bit similar to my previous story with everything seemingly falling apart before being saved, but I just really like that sort of ending and I liked to role reversal in this one, with Aida being the desperate one at the end.

Well, anyway, I had more to say than I thought, so thanks again, especially if you read all the way through my pretentious afterword. I might continue this story at some point, since the contract is still intact and I the continuation would focus of dealing with that.