Whispers in the Sea breeze

In the middle of the night

Galan was breathing heavily as he stared at the Seastone block, cracks coming from the fist indentations. His fists hanging by his sides, blood dripping from them. He raised his fist and roared, punching in the middle of the block, a sharp cracking sound was heard and the entire face filled with cracks!

The Block maintained its structure as a squishing sound rang while Galan pulled his fist back, torn flesh and blood mixed in between the cracks at the impact point.

He raised his fist again when small delicate hands wrapped around his fist. He paused and turned his head to see Olvia looking at him with a gentle smile, her eyes glassy as she said softly "Enough."

Galan swung his arm and backhanded her in the mouth, saying "Get off me!" her head shot to the side, but she held onto his hand, smiling "Does it hurt?" Galan clenched his fists and replied "Why won't you leave me alone…"

Olvia smiled at him and tore her shirt to strips, cleaning the blood from his hands in silence. The right side of her face covered in Galan's blood and a bit of her own dribbling from her lips. She pulled his hand to her and meticulously cleaned it, saying softly "Something happened today didn't it…"

Galan took his hand back and said coldly "None of your business." she snorted gently and grabbed his hand again, continuing "Must've been bad." Galan trembled and hsi hand shot up, grabbing her neck and lifting her up.

She gasped and looked at him as he turned around shouting "Are you fucking deaf?! Get out of my life! Do you understand?! I don't want you here! I don't need your pity!" Olvia coughed, struggling to breathe as she touched his hand gently, still smiling "Do you want to talk about it?"

Galan shivered and glared at her with a savage expression "I will really kill you!" Olvia choked out a 'Haha' before dropping her hands by her side and looking at him gently. Galan stared at her for a few moments before dropping her to the ground.

She fell to her knees and rubbed her neck, coughing and gasping for air as Galan turned back to the block, clenching his fists as he said softly "Just get out of here. I should've never brought you here. You should've stayed with Dragon. You're a burden to my life and my goals. Run away from me, take everyone with you. Go back to your daughter. I don't care, just stay away from me."

Olvia looked up at his lonely figure, new tattoos on his back, seemingly carved into his sculpted muscles. His arms covered in all sorts of tattoos from decades of infiltration and black out operations. The conspicuous Black Skull tattoo at the base of his neck which seemed to be the only one that meant anything…

She smiled warmly, "So you can watch us both from your Buzzards? So you can protect us in the dark without being confronted on your feelings? So you don't have to feel anything? You want me to leave because you're scared of what you're feeling… It was the same 2 years ago. It hasn't changed. No matter how long you don't talk to me. No matter how hard you hit me during training. No matter how harshly you treat me…"

She shook her head and pressed up on the ground, "I know it's all an act. I know you don't mean it. I know everything you've done for Robin without her knowing. I know everything about you. I've been silently watching for 12 years. Observing your every action, all your outbursts, the tears you hide away when you think you're alone…"

Tears dripped from her eyes as she went on, "Drowning yourself in liquor to put yourself to sleep. Letting out your emotions on this block so you don't have to deal with them. Pushing me away by treating me like shit…" she turned to him and smiled beautifully, tears rolling down her cheeks, "I don't need you to love me, just please… Hit me, beat me, kill me… Just don't hurt yourself anymore. It makes me so sad… To see you devolve like this, dehumanize yourself like the people who did this to you. I can't stand it anymore… Please…"

Galan clenched his fists tighter, the cloth strips hanging from his fist like bandaged wraps, blood started dripping again as he looked up at the moon, saying softly "Every day I hope… I hope they find out what I've done. Everything I've done behind the scenes. All the schemes I've made… Sometimes I wish that someone would walk into my office and put a bullet in my head. Every day it never happens."

Olvia covered her mouth and closed her eyes, tears escaping her eyelids as he continued "When I found the man responsible for the nightmare, I killed him. He had a family who didn't know… They still don't. An excuse was made… He died a martyr… killed by the evil Revolutionary Army. They don't even know what he was. How many lives were ruined. After I killed him, I wanted to sink into the ocean and disappear forever, sink to the bottom with the nightmare…"

He closed his eyes and went on, "Dragon gave me a new target… I've died many times in my life, sometimes I think I went to heaven but the Angels refused me, sending me back to this hell as punishment… But nobody knows… Every piece of shit I put down makes me happy. Hell is my paradise. I live to punish evil, I am a walking contradiction. I want to live and destroy evil, but at the same time I want to die and end this nightmare…"

He looked down at his hands, opening his palms as he continued "What am I to do? What's my purpose? Why do I feel like this? Everything I see is ashes and flames, I can't even see people anymore… I look at the ocean and I see my mother, I look in the mirror and I see a dead man, I look at you and…" He stopped and clenched his fists, changing the topic "I shouldn't have put you in a position to fall in love. This was my mistake. I should've left you with Dragon, I should've left you on O'Hara…"

Arms wrapped around his chest and Olvia hugged him from behind, resting her cheek on his back, listening to the powerful pounding in her ear from his heart. The rhythmic pounding of his heart made her feel calmer, settling her restless mood.

She whispered "Then I would've lost you." Galan closed his eyes and replied slowly "You'll never have me. I am incapable of being loved, Olvia. I exist only for war. When my war is over is when I die… Are you capable of losing the person you love again?" Olvia tightened her arms around him and he sighed "Exactly… Just move on. Find someone else. My warpath will lead me to death… Whether it's a firework-like spectacle or the cold snuffing out of a flickering flame."

Olvia listened to his heartbeat and asked in a soft whisper "Is that why you never told your daughter?" Galan paused before looking up and sighing "Yes." Olvia teared up and said "You're a very tough man, Galan. That was my first impression of you. But now I realize it's so much more than that… I can't stop myself from loving you anymore, maybe it was when I stepped on that boat or when you dragged me away from sacrificing myself on O'Hara…"

She gripped his chest with her hands, muttering "It's impossible to stop now. You've suffered so much and endured even more, yet everyone abandons you. I don't want to be one of those people. Pushing people away but wanting them to stay with you so desperately, I know how you feel… The warm and hopeful world in your heart is what captivated me. It doesn't matter how you see me, I don't care. All I need to know is that you see me, that's enough."

He touched her soft and delicate hands, so small compared to his, her long fingers would turn to dust if he held them too tight… What made her so strong to face her emotions like this? He whispered softly, his voice barely louder than the gentle sea breeze, "Why?" but she heard him as she always did, answering with a soothing warmth "Because I love you."

Galan fell silent, as did Olvia.

Only the whistling sea breeze echoing in their ears, but it was enough.