My legacy, my redemption.
Disclamation: I do not own any of these characters except for Shiro, that old lady, the doctor and the men at the sake house. Haha. :P
Authors note: Again I fall back to SDK. It seems like I always do. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, and maybe review if you like it a lot and would like some more, with different characters. cheers.
Zachura.
OOOOOoooooOOOOoooooooOOOOO
The bell over the door in the flower shop rang as an old lady slowly stepped inside. It was summer and high season for the flower shop.
I always looked up with hope when that bell rang, it was very foolish of me to hold hope after five years, but I couldn't just… no, I could never make myself stop hoping. It was too painful, and if I stopped hoping, I was afraid I would forget.
I walked over to the old lady, asking her if she wanted help with something, she shook her head and smiled.
"I'm just looking, I'll be back tomorrow." She said with a quirky voice. I nodded, and went back to stand behind the counter. Letting my mind drift off again, back to a time when I had walked alongside the most powerful warriors in all of Japan, and me? I had been one of the famous bounty hunters.
What stood most clear in my mind were his eyes, those burning orbs of crimson red. Those eyes could burn trough your soul, he was beautiful.
His constant serious face, except for the few times he sent me a cocky grin or one of those even rarer smiles that was totally stripped of all mischievousness and slyness. One of those smiles that was purely meant for me to see, one of those moment he only saw me.
I let a low and insignificant sigh slip away from me, and broke out of my day dream again. The sun was starting to sink, so I started to clean up the shop and carry the flowers inside.
As I locked the shop for the day, I saw that the regular customers at the sake house just beside my shop sat at their usual place, staring at me.
I had of course changed a lot in the last five years. My body had grown to be a grown woman's body, with curves in all the right places, and I received a lot of compliments on my looks, even though I still looked like a foreigner.
My long braided hair was still brightly blonde, and my large eyes were still green, and my skin was a light peach colour from working out in the sun.
A pair of beautiful geishas walked past me as I walked home, they had pale faces, bright red lips and black eyes and hair. That was how a traditional Japanese beauty should look like. They reminded me of a certain woman from back in the times. Her name had been Okuni.
Okuni had never paid me much attention as she was madly in love with him, but I'm not sure I ever managed to like her much either, so it's not one of the friends I gained that I miss the most today. I wondered, if she ended up dead, or if she found a husband. Maybe she even married him? It wasn't impossible, both of the men I loved had been fond of large breasts and if there was something Okuni had, it was exactly that. And of course, she had womanly charm.
I walked up the narrow path over the grassy hill and finally saw my house. My brothers house. My father had bought this house for my brother so he could move here when he finally married. He had been brutally murdered before that time though.
Birds flew over me, heading for the open rice fields, and the constant hum of flies and bees among the flowers beside the path lightened my mood somewhat. It was summer, and it was warm, I should be happy…but I wasn't, was I?
Many suitors had come to my doorstep and asked me to marry them, boys, all of them were mere boys compared to him. So I turned them down, one after the other, and soon, they had stopped coming. And now I was getting old, I was 21 years old and didn't have a husband or even a child. Once upon a time I wanted several children, but all I hoped for now was to give birth to at least one child before I got too old.
I came up to the house, a small and cosy little house. With two bedrooms, one kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, a small dojo and a lovely garden. Some may say that it sounded large, but I could afford it. I had been close to rich when I finally gave up bounty hunting two years ago. And I could finally by my brothers house back from the daimyo.
I went inside and boiled up some water to make tea, as I wasn't all that hungry yet.
When the tea was finished I walked outside to sit on the front porch and stare down at the rice fields, and the small town that stretched out by the sea side. Small fishing boats drifted lazily on the horizon and the sun hung low in the sky. Not a cloud in view. It was beautiful.
I sipped the tea slowly, enjoying the bitter taste num my tongue, it smelled like camomile.
For the longest time I sat on the porch, with the evening suns last strays warm my skin, and again I felt a little tinge of hope in the pit of my stomach. One day, maybe now, I would see the man I still loved walk trough the fields of flowers and up to my house. His dark red, almost black hair blowing gently in the light breeze and his demonic beautiful eyes stare at me.
I missed him so much it could hurt at times, my heart ached, and some times at night I could cough so hard that I spat blood. Maybe I was being paranoid, but maybe being away from his for so long was making me sick?
At first I only coughed up blood once a month, but lately it had happened more frequently, and it was starting to worry me. Was I seriously sick?
When the cup of tea was empty, I felt that the coughing was starting up again. I braced myself and with every cough I felt my insides burn in pain. It felt like I tried to cough up a cactus all the way from my stomach and out.
Crimson liquid coloured my fingers, I stared at the colour, as dizziness took me over. I crawled on all four inside the house and barely managed to shut the door behind me, I collapsed just inside my bedroom, but did not reach my bed. A trickle of blood dripped from my lip as I fell into a black state of unconsciousness.
The next morning as I woke up, I washed my face and hands clean for blood, dressed in a forest green kimono and headed down to town. I had to see a doctor.
He checked my eyes, my tongue and felt my pulse. He seemed worried.
"I'm afraid you have tuberculosis." He said. I had been afraid that so was the case. A long silence grew between the two of us, and I rose from my seat.
"Is there anything you can do?" I asked, but already knew that he knew little of the illness. He shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but I would take things more easily if I were you. Maybe get yourself an assistant in that flower shop?" He suggested. I smiled.
"Thank you, but I don't think so. I'm going to die pretty soon anyway, might as well die with my dignity intact." I said and left him money before leaving for my flower shop.
I unlocked the door and stepped into the heavily floral smell. I opened the doors wide to give the flowers fresh air, and started carrying large buckets of roses outside.
It was hard work, as the buckets were filled with water as well. And I felt my strength drain out of me, and a cough rested in my throat. I placed the bucket full of red roses down by the yellow roses, and coughed hard. I didn't stop until blood again spluttered over my hand.
Maybe the doctor had been right? I should've gotten myself an assistant…
I fell powerless down on my knees and breathed harshly. Even breathing was painful now.
Suddenly I was frighteningly aware of my surroundings, and several people stood staring at my poor state. Hurriedly I tried to stumble to my feet, but lost my balance.
I didn't hit the ground.
A pair of strong arms had caught me and lifted me up to my feet again. I found grip and managed to stand, still the strong arms didn't let me go. Instead they turned me around, and again dizziness overwhelmed me and my mind was threatening to black out on me.
His eyes, those demonic eyes. Red as the blood that covered my hand, he stared down at me with a strange emotion I was not familiar with. He didn't smile.
"Red doesn't suit you." He murmured lowly and wiped a crimson drop of blood away from the corner of my mouth. The rough surface of his thumb sent shivers down my spine, even in my weakened state he had that effect on me.
"It's you…isn't it?" I asked. Now a sincere smile painted his beautifully carved face.
"It is." He whispered, and in a swift movement brought you into him, the warmth from his body transferred to yours and you knew that a better medicine for your illness did not exist.
Onime no Kyo, he never asked what illness I had, he told me he didn't want to know, but he knew it was serious. I took care of me those days I couldn't move out of bed.
He married me, he did. Nothing fancy, but it was enough, even though we were husband and wife even before that day. He had always been a husband to me, but now it was official.
He gave me a child, a little boy with bright red eyes and blonde hair.
We lived happily, I couldn't say ever after, but at least for five more years.
The doctor said it was a miracle that I managed to stay alive for so long, but my love for the red demon kept me alive.
No one lives forever, and on our fifth anniversary, I passed away. I didn't regret a thing, Kyo had given me a lifetime in those short five years and he had fulfilled my wish. And I knew that my son, Shiro, would be greatly loved.
Was this my happy ever after, after all?
Kyo and Shiro.
OOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOO
Ok, ok, notice the "name" play?
Kyo and Shiro? Kyo – Shiro? Kyoshiro? XD XD
I'm an evil geniouzzzzzz.
Mwaha. Na ja, later peeps.
