Part One: Lightless

'You're being an idiot about all of this.'

Kubinashi smiles mirthlessly. "You always say that. Why should this time be any different?"

Kejoro runs gentle hands over his jaw, her thumb coming to rest just on top of his bottom lip. 'Because this is just needless. You always lecture me on practicality.'

"I suppose I do." He trembles, ever so slightly, and her hand is withdrawn. "Just goes to show what a horrible lecturer I am."

'Don't say that.' She wraps her pale arms around him, pulling him into a ghost of an embrace. 'Don't say that.'

There are three different kimonos hanging from the beams. Kubinashi can't bring himself to take them down; their bright, warm colours light up the darkened room in ways that nothing else can anymore. They smell like Kejoro, like the almost-perfumed scent that wafts around her and fills his mind whenever he pulls her close. A hairbrush rests on the small stool in the corner; it is a permanent fixture in the room.

His head bobs down, almost coming into contact with his shoulders, and he pushes his palms into his eyes. They burn, an ache that, like the hairbrush, won't go away.

'Shh…hush, darling heart,' Kejoro whispers, her voice quieter than Kubinashi has ever heard it. 'Shh…'

Gold and mahogany mingle in an intricate dance, with neither a beginning nor an end, but eventually the strands separate. Kubinashi moves back, pushing himself up on unsteady limbs that tremble as he puts his weight on them. Kejoro moves forward, arms reaching out to help, but he brushes her off with a sad smile.

"Where do you think they'll serve the strongest sake?"

'You shouldn't, you really shouldn't.'

He laughs bitterly, eyes glittering with something more than despair, something tangible. "I don't think it really matters anymore. It's not like I have a life I can lose via liver problems, and anyway, you know as well as I that I'll never finish more than a bottle."

Soft hands stroke away the tears, and his eyes close instinctively.

"It's not fair."

Melancholy eyes trace his features. 'I'm sorry, darling heart.'

"You needn't call me that, not…not now, of all times."

His heart aches, breaks, and falls in two at the beautiful woman's feet, and he can't help but despise himself for it. She doesn't deserve this, didn't deserve that. His burdens should be his alone, his to deal with and his to suffer. She had no right to worm her way into his heart, making her presence such an integral part of his world that he would be reduced to such a state; she had no right to steal his heart and pay for it with her own.

"Kino…"

The name falls off his tongue and he bites down, trying to take back the damning word.

'Shh…'

Arms wrap around him once again, and he leans back, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. The air hangs heavy with the sound of silence.

'Smile for me, Kubinashi.'

He shakes his head.

"How can I, when my smile has been stolen from me?"

A/N: …I write these two terribly depressingly. To be elaborated on.

- Bronwyn