Hand of Sorrow
by aishuu
Notes: Written for 100fandomhell off a prompt from kuroiitami who offered lyrics and fandom. Hope you enjoy - although it IS very late! Thanks to sophiap for prodding me on this.
Kohaku watches as the young woman strolls down the street quickly, casting uncertain looks heavenwards. The sky is full of haze, and rain is imminent, but she isn't carrying an umbrella. She doesn't know that she doesn't need to worry, not while he's watching. Mentally he forces the downfall to wait until she has found the refuge of her home.
There is so little that he can do for her now, despite his godly powers. She is human, and he is not; showing her too much favor will not help her, because in the modern world – and how he hates that very concept, of "modern" and "new" – it will be doing her no favors. Chihiro must make her own way, and all he can do is grant small boons that she will never be able to understand.
She has forgotten him, but that is the way things must be. Her body still recalls the hard work she performed at the bathhouse, though, and she is one of the most diligent souls in the human world. She had unconscious strength of having achieved her goals, of having fought the gods and won. He knows she will be one of those legendary humans that rises up to lead her people.
But they are apart, and that hurts him. He can walk the streets, but no one sees him, since the gods are invisible to the "real world." It's a peculiar kind of alone, a strange sort of nothingness, and he doesn't want to remain here long. But Chihiro is here, and he knows he will keep coming back to catch glimpses of her life.
He promised they would meet again, but he hadn't told her how. Someday, perhaps, he will find the courage to run into her, to speak so she can hear him. Maybe he'll help her to her feet after she trips, or hand over an extra 100 yen when she is short at a convenience store. It'll have to be a chance encounter, a mere brushing of their lives, because he doesn't believe he can walk away from her again if she learns his name.
The gods and humans are not meant to dwell together. It's why her memory has been set aside. He will have to bear the burden of remembering for the both of them the time when they had been friends. Sometimes he thinks she is the luckier of the two; other times he pities her. At least he understands what has been lost.
Chihiro steps inside her home, over the threshold to safety, and Kohaku lets the skies open. No one will know there are dragon's tears mixed within the rain.