The Boy who loved the Sun ✓

| Sunflower, not a rose|

I am a sunflower , not a rose . 

Daedalus was standing outside Icarus's darkened room , behind the door that was shut for the past entire hour . Icarus had furiously walked inside the house,  thrown his school bag on the couch in an outrageous manner , and he sat on it himself soon after , sinking into the fabric of the furniture , embracing it like a void . He stared at the wall across him aimlessly , before burying his face in his hands , feeling his tears like the summer tempest on his sinful fingers . His bluish bruised knuckles had speechlessly endured his purgatory torment , with out protest of any kind , when he had tried to thrash the rigid brick wall .

No sound escaped his clenched jaw as he intuited the hot tears on his blushing cheeks , a gesture of his innumerable emotions that he had failed to express . Some million thousand emotions buried deep under the course rough sand . Everytime he let them out , it was like a grave he had not visited in ages .

He would bring a bouquet of painful tears of regret and remorse , as a sign of traditional formal courtesy . Helpless , on his scraped feeble knees , he would look up at the sky who was bestowing upon everyone a shaft of propitious sunlight , promising buoyancy . The same light would touch his tender damages , and reflect into the oblivion just like the feiry rays that bounce off the broken glass remnants . A simple disaster arousing several emotions , unspoken prior , resembling a hoary beam of light passing through a brittle prism , diverging into a million fragments scattered into directions beyond the mortal compass . 

" Apollo " he somhow managed to mouth . 

He could not breathe . His heart was racing , faster than ever . It seemed like he was plummeting down the highest cliff , a metal cold dagger , which people preferred to call heartbreak , plunged into his bare body and he was falling into an endless loophole of an aubade . 

He remembers falling several times while he was with Apollo and his serene tranquility , which was quite different from this . With Apollo , he would fall on a bed of roses , petals of pinkish hue adorning his unclad white pallid torso .

Their slender fingers of one hand intertwined . Apollo used the otherwise not engaged hand to draw delicate circles on Icarus's palm or delineate the " blemish " on his fair wrist . He would then devotedly kiss Icarus's clavicle gently , like a pilgrim kisses the foot of a deity in a shrine , and the blue eyed boy would clutch the lush viridescent grass in this vulnerable yet pleasurable intruding contact . The revolving world would pause for a moment or two for the young boys in love . The sparkling, effortlessly flowing stream on the brow of a woodland , leaving behind the whisper of the ripples created by the playful river for herself . And the little chirping birds around would play their flute , all care free , nuzzled in their snuggery nest with their beloved . Apollo's bright optimistic hazel eyes locked with Icarus's gorgeous blue ones , opia at its finest . 

Perfect ephemeral bliss . 

Icarus tried hard to restore his calm , wiping his own tears , hiccuping , desperately trying to not think about the boy who usually occupied majority of his thoughts . It crossed his mind that his father might be watching him right now from afar , and he knew exactly how anxious the man got when he saw his son's trembling fretful whimper . Therefore , Icarus made up his mind to shift his immature mess to his own bedroom . 

The light coloured drapes flew , permitting the wind inside the enclosed room , like an unexpected euphonious prelude , ruffling the curls that fell on his forehead . Icarus was not crying anymore . He was barely present in that mundane room . His mind unapologetically stravaged somewhere far from here , dearly wishing he could really escape the tremendous earthquake . The eerie silence in the attic above scared him , and as his hushed sobs echoed through the corridors , he would feel a shiver down his spine . 

" Apollo " he whispered loudly . 

Icarus's shirt buttons were undone , owing to his sudden uneven breathing pattern . There was an inevitable pounding of his broken heart in his bony rib cage . There was immense throbbing in his head and unable to tolerate that any longer , he let out a heartwrenching scream , getting rid of forsaken dire sentiments in the process . 

Daedalus winced at the clamorous shriek . The wooden door failed to avert Icarus's cry for help . Seldom did Daedalus intervene Icarus's privacy and this was one such situation . He continually knocked on the door , however , received no response whatsoever . The man panicked considering the consequences of his son locking himself in his room at odd hours with a tear stained countenance had never been particularly positive . 

" father ... I-i am fine " his father miraculously heard him . 

His voice was cracking , and he struggled to get those words out of his mouth . Lies , more precisely . What is even more ironic is that his delusional father believed him . He wanted to trust his son and just let him be . Perhaps the only way to vamoose from the labyrinth was to let Icarus cope up on his own . Daedalus walked downstairs , his head hung in despair . He recalled how fondly Icarus would mention Apollo , during supper on sunday evenings and tell him about the book he heard , or the very expensive wine Apollo let him taste . He savoured the drop of red wine on his tongue and cherished every bit of the fancy drink , he had never seen or heard of , let alone taste such aristocrat sip previously . But what he spoke most about was the piano . There might have been a shimmering night of caliginosity , both the boys moon struck and awed . Apollo sitting on the piano stool , like the statue of a Greek God on a pedestal and Icarus sitting on Apollo's knees , the latter's arm wrapped around his waist . Icarus's fingers on the piano chords , marvellously supported by those of Apollo playing a harmonious crescendo . 

But Daedalus was a realist . He sensed it was leading no where and he wanted to warn his son about the dreadful future but Icarus looked so happy with that boy , his eyes twinkled and glistened when he would talk about him . He did not have the heart to part the two . 

Apollo was in his house , in his balcony . The same burnt cigarette in his hand , which had once made Icarus wonder how did something so despicable found its way into Zeus's residence . He smoked as he looked up at the clear spotless ether , not a star in sight . 

" I know why there are no stars in the sky tonight " he breathed in another smoke , " because they are all in your pretty eyes and I miss them so much " . 

Meanwhile , back in Icarus's humble apartment , a screeching sound rang through the corridors of the first floor when the wooden door of his bedroom opened gradually . 

Maybe if I was a rose , you would want me .

Word count : 1165 words