So... I sit down, fully intending to write a happy story about Byakuya and Hisana in a candy store and this is what I come up with? The mind works in strange ways...
Feedback? Critiscm? What you had for breakfast? Why essential services should be allowed to strike? The curses you plan to put on your evil math teacher? Please, take the time to review! :) and also read till the end!
Disclaimer: My pen name is not Tite Kubo.
Hisana shivers.
The air was still, and with the silence of a graveyard. The night was pitch black and heavy, and the air was cold and brittle like glass.
Bloody half-moon shaped marks were present on the palms of Hisana's pale hands, almost as if her fingernails had dug in far too deeply.
She had big violet eyes, gentle and alluring. They spoke of innocence, grace, beauty, as if she had nothing to hide, and if you looked into them you could see her soul laid bare in front of you. She was dressed in dirty, worn rags, but her hands too delicate, her eyes too soft, too graceful to be less than a princess. But even in the dark of night you could see scratches on her face, and softly glowing tear tracks sliding down her cheeks. Her face was a wilted flower, still beautiful but fading fast.
It was quiet. On a night like this everything seemed to be peaceful. But it was too quiet, too silent, the tranquility nothing but a fragile bubble about to be popped.
Hisana had always been optimistic. But on a night like this, in a place like this, everything had been crushed. It seemed only yesterday that she and her little sister were gathering wildflowers, the sun shining brightly and cotton candy clouds floating peacefully in the perfect sky. But that was long ago, before the world came crashing down and before everyone was gone.
The tears slid down, like little silver rivers on her skin.
Nothing to do but wait, until dawn.
Hisana doesn't sleep. She never can. She's a light sleeper, and even though everything is dead quiet, it's the fear that keeps her awake. Sometimes she hears faint footsteps, and in the peaceful night Hisana can hear the sickening sweet sound of a knife sliding through a heart.
Dawn comes in, feeble and frail. The pale light is afraid, too, and doesn't shine very brightly. But you can see the girl more clearly now, and she is against the ruined wall of a battered building, lost with nowhere to go. She looks like a long faded photograph tucked in a dusty drawer.
And there he is.
He is walking slowly, dressed in faded dirty clothes like her own.
Hisana watches him, and she's sure he notices her, but he never so much spares her a glance. There is something about him that she longs for, and she can feel it in her dried up heart, even though he doesn't feel the same way.
She watches as he walks past her, then stops, and pulls out a knife. Hisana doesn't run, she isn't afraid, even though it is apparent what his intention is.
Because she loves him.
She always has.
He walks up to her, standing over her sitting form. He kneels down so that they can see each other face to face, in what must be their last moments together. And still, she doesn't run, simply looks back with haunted eyes.
"You're in love with me, aren't you?" he softly asks.
Yes, she thinks. But she remains quiet. She merely looks at him, speaking silently. She is strangely calm, and looking into those clear grey eyes, even turned sharp with hunger, she feels almost at peace.
How can you love a person like him? She asks herself constantly. In the world she has been living in, just… how? But she knows, deep inside of herself, that you can love a beast. You can love someone so much that nothing else matters. Even if he doesn't love you, even if he wants nothing but to kill you, if you truly love someone it doesn't matter. Hisana simply looks back with calm eyes that do not show fear.
Death is coming, but it isn't all that bad, she realizes. Being sent to death by the person you love…. She couldn't have asked for anything better. She doesn't deserve anything better. Her heart is already broken, shattered into a million pieces, and still she feels… happy.
If you truly love someone nothing that person does will ever change that, to the point when you can say goodbye without words, without fear.
And its then she realizes that he's crying, too.
Everything is gone, the world is nothing but a dead corpse, and everyone is starving. There are only a few people left, and driven wild with hunger and loss they roam over the dead earth, killing and eating anything that they find. Anything.
She knows that Byakuya is one of those people. He is crying, begging her to run. And through his tears he whispers,
"Aren't you afraid?"
Hisana looks at him, and smiles.