Precious
One-shot, pentadrabble, no pairings. I've had this idling on my hard drive for a little over two years, and I figure it's time to post it and be done. I haven't cared for it since I finished it, because the characterization doesn't seem right to me, but it's also resisted repeated attempts at revision, and maybe that means it's not as off as I fear. In any case, feedback is appreciated.
It was easy enough to let Kurama think I didn't understand.
I didn't understand the Sword, for example―that it might rob me of my judgment and will. I didn't understand him either, not until he declared his intent to leave; not until I was too far gone in madness to properly care.
But the Mirror―yes, I understood the Mirror perfectly. So did he.
I'd never thought to need Kurama again after our first meetings, a year before, but the Artifacts were only within my reach through his help; I found him more willing than expected. I did not bother to wonder exactly why, and he hid from me better than anyone had yet been able to do. He was the only person whose motivations I could not readily guess, and even less then, before we were truly partners. Conversations long past, sparring with our words, defining each other through games won and lost―it had been too long, and I no longer knew him.
He, in turn, no longer knew me.
When he left with the Mirror, I began to see even through the Sword's insanity that he and I had grown to be much like one another. He believed my goal was an army of enslaved humans-turned-demon, and I had at first believed his goal was the thrill of doing a thief's work again. I wanted him to think as he did, but it was only in that clearing that I realized our true goals conflicted.
In the end, both of us wanted only the Mirror.
The Artifacts could not be separated for long―we could not steal only one. I also knew that Gouki would never agree to help me if he knew my true plans. So he was given the Jewel, and I claimed the Sword for myself, allowing Kurama the Mirror temporarily as the most beautiful of our prizes―he appreciated beauty, that I recalled well enough. I was to recover it from him in due time, until his desertion threw awry my plans and thrust us both into the life we now lead.
Attempting to kill Yuusuke was unnecessary. I was angry, that he had drawn Kurama away from me―had caused an old friendship to be betrayed, if only by existing as someone else Kurama felt he could trust. I went about it sloppily, unable to think it through. Had I been in control of myself, I would merely have captured him and taken the Mirror, without the need for the theatrics I displayed; I would only have needed it for one night.
Kurama believes I scorn him for his willingness to sacrifice. I am content to let him. He would only be troubled to know how alike we were, despite how little we remembered of each other―how both of us were in the same place for the first and only time.
One night, one wish: my sister, safe and happy and free, forever. Two birds with one stone.