A/N: Sorta a drabble, I guess? Please bear with my lack of consistency.
If there's anything that Okita Sougo does that is not premeditated, this is it. In fact, he is not even sure when or how this started─he just follows whatever his consciousness tells him to do and it leads him here, under the currently withering cherry blossom tree and next to this certain orange-haired China girl.
Every single day.
For almost a year now, they have this unspoken routine of visiting the same park at the same time of the day─sometimes bickering, sometimes rallying to scare away the other kids, sometimes just sitting on the bench eating ice cream. The latter is his favorite, he notes; not because he enjoys treating that damn China girl ice cream, but because she's quiet when she's eating. Okita Sougo enjoys peace and quiet.
And Kagura is anything but that.
Her incessant rambles frustrate Sougo sometimes. He constantly complains about it, but he listens anyway─he regards it as a getaway from his boring day job. (That, and that he likes knowing other people's secrets.)
Thinking retrospectively, it's truly odd how they even have things to converse about when they're on such varying frequencies.
World's apart?─Probably. She didn't come from his world after all. She came from another world, from the world of the fallen, the world of darkness, a place where the sun literally doesn't shine. But she is like the sun itself, full of brightness and gleam and joy; a complete opposite of him.
And she's so open; willingly disclosing things about herself when she hasn't even decided if he is an enemy or a friend.
She would talk about his father sending her things that she doesn't need; she would talk about how her family used to shower in the rain when they were poor; she would talk about her past pets and their quirks; she would talk about how loud Gin-chan snores and how long his toilet breaks are. She talks about everything under the sun, and probably way beyond it.
And he finds it somewhat...relaxing. The way she gives away everything about her, all with a vivid laugh─and sometimes a pout. But even when she pouts, her crystalline eyes never lose their vibrance, like water, so untainted and clear. Ever appeared in his mind the desire to make the ever-vibrant ripples in her eyes twist into poisonous streams of despair, but the mere idea diminished itself whenever he catches her grinning that toothy grin that only she is possible of doing.
He's unsure when did his desires of defeating her turn into protecting her, and the thoughts of her being annoying started to cross his mind less frequently?
There's no telling whether this pleasant feeling in his chest whenever she shows up is something he should agree of, but there was a little part of his subconscious that has nagged him since the very beginning that he would feel this odd sensation if he continues to indulge in her. Now that he has drowned in his addiction to her, he wonders why he did not listen to the defense mechanism within himself.
It tried to stop him with all its might ever since he set his eyes on her. So far he has pushed that little voice into the back of his mind, but now, the little voice is growing louder and louder, until it is the only thing he could hear apart from her voice.
It's becoming a struggle of all or nothing─either give up fighting against his internal disposition, or succumb to her beguiling magnet and her hypnotic charms.
And it hurts.
The echoing voices that try to repel each other─they sting his ears.
"I'm going." her voice disrupts his current self-contemplation. Hearing it takes him by surprise for a moment, for, he assumed it as another one of the echoing voices in his mind. When he realizes it is indeed her talking, he looks at her sitting figure, inevitably noticing a slight demeanor change.
"Begone, brat." He says, ignoring his gut feeling, "Kids shouldn't stay out too late."
Kagura doesn't move an inch, but her gaze shifts to a lower space.
"You don't understand." she says, "I meant I'm going away to other galaxy, I'll join Pappy and take over his job. I can't come to this park everyday to eat ice cream anymore."
Oh. So that's what it was.
And it hurts.
"Good. You're ruining my wallet anyway." he mutters, hands joined at the back of his head.
She looks at him briefly, and then stands up and lets out a smirk at him.
"Tax-eater." She sneers, her shadow falling on his front as she stands.
She turns around and pulls her umbrella on her shoulder, not trying to shield herself from the rays of sunset that descends on her skin. He sits there motionless, watching as her figure furthers away from his view.
He finally runs his fingers through his bangs when her shadow completely disappears from his line of sight. A low sigh escapes his lips as he realizes the crystals are shattering and there's nothing he can do about it.
And it hurts.