Prompt: 5 June 2008; Forever's just a place in someone else's story
Character(s): Shizuru/Sakyo
Summary: It's a strange memento mori, but it's all she has.
Spoilers: Through the Dark Tournament
Notes: I am not a member of the lj community 31 Days
Flick open. Light. Flick closed.
Shizuru's hand tightened on the lighter but she forced herself to put it back in her pocket without a glance. Moving on was hard, but it was impossible when you didn't give yourself a fighting chance. Still, giving up was for wussies who would never understand how much strength it took to keep going.
The lighter weighed heavily in her back pocket, but Shizuru's hand went nowhere near it. She didn't keep brushing her hand against the pocket like so many others would. She didn't lean against the wall just to feel it pressed against her. She just let it hang there, dragging her pants down so slightly with its almost negligible weight.
All that was left of a man who had once had trillions. There was a lesson there, for someone with more greed and ambition than Shizuru, but she had never been interested in parables.
Somehow, she had always known that she wouldn't have her happy ending. Call it a psychic premonition or a gut-deep instinct or even just a deep-seated fear, but she had known. So really, there had been no surprise when she realized who he was. She had tried to enjoy what little time they'd managed to share, but she was only human, so she got greedy and wanted more and more.
She hadn't been surprised when she didn't get any more. He was the kind of single-minded man who wouldn't swerve from a path no matter who asked. At least she had something. A memento mori. That would have to do.
Shizuru put out her cigarette and went back into the saloon. Break was over, and she had customers waiting.
