Ohayou, minna-san! I've started to write this fic based on a dream I had not so long ago. It's about Aoshi-sama (¡YAY!). Well, go figure.

Disclaimer: I don't own Aoshi-sama or RK; Watsuki-sama does, OK?

1 Demons of the night

By Marineneko

There it was.

The dull pain increasing in his chest.

The soft thuds in the tatami gave her away, insistent, quick, but anyway, he didn't care. He was being claimed by death, never to come back to her.

-Aoshi-sama…- the soft voice muffled by the roar of a thunder.

-…- The answer to her pleading call never arrived at the right time. It was always a wait too long, too painful… and almost unbearable.

If the silence had kept her beloved for longer, she would have thought that he was dead and leave it at that.

Or not.

There it was again.

A thorn into his chest, a nightmare too real to be just a dream.

He had had nightmares before. Dreams of losing, of killing… of letting himself go, guided by the dark lady, to the realms of under. He never wanted to give room for that kind of thoughts to settle in his brain… but it had slipped his control.

-…Misao…- The word a plead, a request for her to stay.

-Aoshi-sama, how do you feel?- The soft voice, a balm for his overburdened soul; reminding him of high-pitched voices and paper cranes, of huge innocent eyes…

-…Misao… daijobu…- His expression was stressed, as if a sword had just been stabbed into his heart.

-Chigau, Aoshi-sama, I-I will bring you more tea- The girl stuttered, her slim form shaking in pent-up fear, she rose from the floor, but was stopped by a firm hand.

*Don't leave… just stay a little longer…* -…Misao…don't …-

-You must rest Aoshi-sama, for your own good- The girl managed to get her determination to control her fear, the hopelessness that losing him was causing.

The pain increased, his beautiful blue eyes fixated on her. The time was getting close.

-Aoshi-sama, I love you, please don't go… Aoshi-sama!-

But he couldn't hear her anymore, feel her anymore. She embraced his form before she finally accepted it: The one she needed to live, her life's love, the one that kept her living was gone.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A/N: Well, this fic is a bit weird, it is supposed to tell about the last five minutes of life that my beloved Aoshi-sama had before he died of an unknown sickness (at least for me, why would he have a heart attack?!!). I think of this fic as a bit angsty, but good in its own weirdness…

-Marineneko wa kowai minna.