SquidgeWorld Archive

Eternity In A Moment Of Time
by Pirate Turner

        Emerald eyes gazed up at the silver moon. It was odd how people so often imagined Halloween with a full moon and yet there hardly ever was one on the actual night, Rogue thought with a sigh that had nothing to do with the moon escaping her ruby red lips. Music drifted to her from inside the mansion, but she kept her back to the glass doors. She was glad for a moment alone and hoped none of the couples drifted out to the balcony.

        She had once enjoyed the mansion's masquerade parties, always eager to see what costumes her men would surprise her with, but her heart had not been in them since she had lost the one man she would ever love. She had known she'd loved him during the short time they'd had together, but what she had not realized was just how much he completed her. Since Joseph's death, Rogue had felt utterly incomplete, a huge, gaping hole in her heart and soul that none could fill and no one understood. The pain was constant, but she never felt it stronger than during the times that her family pulled around her, content in their own couplings, for the most part, and happily celebrating whatever occasion had brought them all together.

        Rogue gazed up at the moon, remembering how she'd once asked for answers from her and wished upon her stars. There were no more answers that this world could grant her, whether it be upon the earth or beyond, and there was nothing else she would wish for than the one thing she knew she could never have again. She swept a gloved hand over the tears that fell from her eyes.

        An unseen hand hovered just an inch above her slender shoulder. It would be so easy to touch her this one magickal night as the doorways opened, but what then? Would she be even sadder when he had to leave? Would she dare to try to join him? Bringing her more pain was the one thing he could not stand, but as she started to cry, Joseph, who had stayed as near to her as he possibly could even after his death, caved and gently touched her shoulder.

        Rogue froze at the soft touch. As the fingers closed around her shoulder, she recognized the familiar touch and shivered, but at the same time, she knew it was impossible. He had done his best to reach her from beyond the grave but had been unable to touch her but for the scantest of seconds. Now she felt his gentle, loving touch again, and her breath caught in her throat.

        She would have stayed standing, relishing just that one simple touch, if he had not also gently grasped her other shoulder and turned her, ever so gently, to face him. She tried to speak his name, but her words caught. Tears flowed from her green eyes, and he caught them, relishing the ability to touch her satiny skin again just as she treasured his every touch.

        "H-How?" she finally managed to cry.

        "The Witching Hour," he spoke softly, his eyes not straying from hers for even a moment. He ached to remember every sensation she evoked in him, every breath of her sweet fragrance, every touch of her wondrous body, even the way her startled, despairing voice caressed his eager ears. "I was told on this one night, during this one hour, my beloved, I could make myself appear to you. I dared not believe it could happen at first, and then I feared your reaction."

        "Ah would never be afraid of you, Joseph."

        "Not that, my sweet," he said, cupping her face and caressing her tender skin with his fingers. "I would never think that one as lowly as I could evoke fear in one as beautiful and strong as you."

        "Joseph," she started, and he grinned, knowing what would come, "you're not lowly. You're the man Ah love, the only man Ah'll evah love, an' Ah'll take ya howevah Ah can get ya."

        Her emotions thickened her Southern accent, but he understood her without even a fraction of difficulty. "And I am honored by that love, my darling Rogue." He continued to caress her beautiful face with his one hand, his thumb brushing away the few tears that remained dripping from her eyes, as he used his other hand to lift her left hand, the hand upon which the ring he'd once given her as a promise ring with no stronger promise or, as he looked upon it as she would have at the time, requirement that he would be there for her as long as he breathed. He brushed his lips across her knuckles, then kissed the back of her hand, and finally, gently turned her hand over and pressed his lips to her palm.

        His mouth was cold, but heat shot through her at his touch. It was a fire that only he had ever been able to evoke within her, and she trembled though she was not chilled. "Then what?" she asked. "What were you afraid of?"

        "That you would join me."

        Her chin dropped, her eyes falling from his, as guilt struck her. She had thought about leaving this world and searching to be rejoined with him many times, but she had made herself pull back every time except for the split second decisions she'd made in the midst of battle. During those times, her friends and family had rescued her. Had it not been for them, she would have joined her beloved on the other side, but they had rescued her every time, never knowing that, in so doing, they also condemned her.

        His hand moved from her cheek to crook beneath her chin and lift her face to look at him. "Rogue, my love, as much as I ache for us to be together again, you must not give in to it. You must not let him win. Magneto killed me, but as long as you live, he has not won."

        She cocked her head slightly to one side as she studied him. Finally, she asked, "How do ya figure that, Joseph? Without you, honey, there ain't nothin' left here for me."

        "But with you still here, there remains good in this world, my love. With you still fighting, a piece of me still fights. I lived for you. Live for me, please, my darling. Don't let him win. Furthermore . . . " Worry touched his blue eyes as he paused for a moment before continuing, "Many cultures believe that those who take their own lives do not gain anything better in the end from it. I want us to be together," he said firmly, entwining the fingers of his left hand with hers while continuing to keep her head steady with his right, "but when we are together again, I want nothing to ever come between us. I want it to be for all time."

        "Ah want to be with you, Joseph, but . . . Ah don't know if Ah'm strong enough to wait. There are some many times that all Ah want is to die. There's this ache inside you've left. Sometimes it's all Ah can think about, all Ah can feel."

        "Then remember this," he countered, "whenever you feel sad, lonely, afraid, or . . . ready to end it all, sweetheart, remember I am with you. You may not see me. You may not feel me. But I am here nonetheless. I'll not ask you to promise me to live. All I will ask you for, my heart, is that you will do your best to be strong."

        "Ah will," she promised that without hesitation. Her eyes hovered on his lips. What would happen, she wondered, if she dared to kiss him now? He'd manage to kiss her once without being harmed, but she still did not understand how he had done so. He was already dead, though, and he'd been touching her with his hands and mouth. What harm could it do? Yet her fear that she might harm him remained stronger than her ache to feel his skin against hers, his lips beneath hers, and so she refrained until he leaned forward and kissed her forehead, her eyes as they closed, the tip of her nose, and ultimately, her lips.

        Joseph started the kiss gently, but even at his softest touch, such passion, pleasure, and heat surged through Rogue until her every fiber filled with it and it was a wonder her boots managed to stay on physically for they'd certainly been shot off every other way. She threw herself into the kiss, her arms wrapping around him and crushing him to her as her hands eagerly sought every inch of his body they could touch and caressed, squeezed, and stroked every part they could find. Her lips parted underneath his, her tongue thrusting against his mouth until it found entrance and then diving deep. She moaned against him, but her eyes remained open this time. She wanted to remember everything about this embrace: the pleasured joy shining in Joseph's blue eyes; the earthy scent that clung to her beloved, even overpowering his own natural fragrance; and, most of all, every single touch and the tidal waves of feelings they evoked.

        His fingers raked through her silky hair, thrilling at the softest touch he'd ever felt and arching to achieve more of it, before he cupped one hand around the back of her neck, granting support she'd not asked for. His other hand roamed further downward, caressing every inch of her body he came across and relishing every spot. He had wanted so long to be able to touch her like this that it felt like an eternity, but he forced himself to slow. He would never overpower her or push her in any way. She was the grandest lady he had ever had the honor of knowing, and though he had once vowed to love and respect her with his every breath, he would continue to do so for now and throughout all eternity -- if eternity was, indeed, what he had left.

        Their moans and sighs played on each other's ears like the finest harps. Every touch brought the other sailing to new heights of pleasure and happiness. Tears slipped from their eyes, but they were no longer tears of sadness for joy sang in their hearts in these moments that could not last. "I love you," he breathed in the rare times Rogue had to lift her head for breath. "I love you! I love you!" He knew she knew it, but he never tired of saying those three little words or of showing her just how much he did love her.

        She answered him in kind every time, eager for him to know, to understand, that though she had once doubted her feelings for him, that doubt was long gone. She loved him with all her being, more than she'd ever known herself capable of loving, and she ached for him to understand that even more than she ached to feel his kiss, caress, or his very embrace.

        "I know," he said, moving his hand from behind her neck to sweep through her hair once more. "I know, my love, and that is all I could have ever asked for from this world or any other, the greatest honor I've ever known, and the greatest blessing that I could have ever been bestowed."

        Music swelled from inside once more, and this time Joseph swept Rogue in his arms across the balcony. He danced her around, her body sliding against his in a rhythm as old as time, and as they danced, they continued to kiss. Both ached for their time together to last forever, but both knew that that time was not yet theirs. Their hands ran over each other's bodies as they desperately tried to commit every inch to memory.

        When the music stopped, Joseph slowed her to a gentle, barely moving sway. His forehead pressed against hers, his lips lingered upon hers for a moment before he pulled back just enough to say, "Remember, my love, I am always with you, and no power could ever dim my love for you. I love you with all that I am, all that I was, and anything I may yet be able to be forever and beyond." He cupped her face, his hands caressing her hair, and kissed her one more time, long and deep.

        This time, their tears were once more of sorrow. They gazed into each other's eyes until, somewhere within the mansion, a grandfather clock began to strike the time. Tears flooded their eyes, and Rogue silenced the sob that rose within her. She clung to Joseph desperately, knowing all along that she had no way of stopping what was about to come.

        "Ah love you," she whimpered against his mouth. "You know that, right?"

        "I do, my sweet, darling beloved. Never mistake that," he told her firmly, his fingers even then brushing the tears from her beautiful eyes. "Your love shines through clearly, and I am blessed by it while being cursed to remain a ghost for now. I await you, my heart, and remember that I am always near you. You may not see me. You may not hear me. You may not feel me. But I am here nonetheless, loving you, waiting for you, aching for you. Join me when the time is right, my dearest, and eternity together will be ours."

        He kissed her once more, and Rogue let her eyes drift closed this time, unable to bare the sight of him disappearing. She held on to him for as long as she could, but as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone, leaving her holding nothing but air, her lips feeling nothing but the tingle of where he had been, and her heart feeling nothing but love and the ache that came from missing her soul mate. On the empty, night air, she whispered back, "Ah love you, Joseph."

The End