Title: Waxing Rhapsodic
Author: Di
Pairing: Implied InuKai
Rating: G
Warnings: None. Terribly purple prose
Disclaimer: Not mine, borrowing
Notes: Posted some months back to my LJ and to a few communities--just archive/posting here as well.
..........
The staccato slap of sneakers against pavement punctuated the evening's quiet, a bass beat for the soft melody of cicadas and crickets. Hushed puffs of breath whispered along with the song as Kaidoh ran along the deserted park trail. It was late, much later than it usually was when he did his evening jog, thanks to a series of last-minute favors his mother had asked of him. But he didn't mind. It gave him a rare chance to hear the symphony of night instead of the usual cacophony of day. Plus it allowed him a brief moment of being completely, totally, utterly alone, without even the jangle of thoughts in his mind to distract him; thus training became woven in with something akin to meditation. There, alone in the darkness, legs moving inexorably forward along the midnight blue-washed trail, his mind clear and free, Kaidoh allowed himself to smile, content. And something deep inside himself began to hum along with the night's music.
A sprinkling of diamond stars splashed against the ink-black sky eventually caught his attention, and he let his eyes be drawn upwards, continuing to run the familiar path as if set on autopilot. Far above, the constellations were reborn, a gilded white moon glowing serenely from behind a translucent veil of cloud like a proud, protective mother. The wind through the trees was her lullaby, and the family to which she sang vast and endless--and Kaidoh, for a moment, felt the almost-palpable sensation of being very small, very young, and very, very far away.
And then the universe reached down to touch him.
Kaidoh blinked, startling backwards a stuttering step, as a bright twinkle of light brushed against his face, its hum a loud buzz in his ear. It drew away, light fading and then flaring again. Then another sparked to join the first, and another, and another, until the park around him was a galaxy filled with clouds of swooping, flitting stars. Fireflies, he realized, as his steps trailed off--or lightning bugs, and he and his brother used to call them when they were much younger. And now they surrounded him for almost as far as he could see, as if the heavens had settled down upon the earth and made him the sun to revolve around. Shimmering and twinkling a spectrum of phosphorescent yellow, green, and white, they were the mirrored surface of a midnight pond, reflecting the sky above. Or was the sky the reflection, with these living stars down below being the real?
Standing completely still, brought to a halt by the sight, he simply gazed at it all as their wings fluttered against his skin like the the fleeting touch of a passing comet's tail. He was seeing eons condensed into mere moments as the firefly-stars exploded into existence, burned, and faded into the dark cold of astronomic death within the span of a heartbeat. His breathing sounded almost too harsh for something so delicate and unearthly, and even the night noises--the insects, the wind, the murmurs of humanity off in the distance--were loud and grating against what surely should be the absolute empty silence of the vacuum of space.
The longer he stood there, the more Kaidoh became aware of a feeling tingling over him: he had to show this to someone. Needed to show this to someone. A certain...specific someone.
He coughed abruptly, roughly, snapping himself out of his reverie, and he felt a much more familiar sensation creeping over him. The blush heated his skin as his body leapt into embarrassment even before his mind recognized that he should be experiencing such, and he hissed quietly to himself in annoyance. But still, he nodded mentally in resolution...it was only the truth. A moment as unique as this was meant to be shared, and there was only one individual he could think of who would see the fascination of it, the intriguing aspects of it, who could also understand how special and priceless an occurrence it was. He had a fleeting thought then that it would be almost like giving a gift--but that made the blush rage again, so he shook the thought from his mind.
Perhaps tomorrow...it wouldn't hurt him to run late again. He could ask his sempai if he wanted to accompany him, and with luck this would happen again, just like tonight, just like....
Just like a gift...
The song of night seemed to hesitate; breezes tumbled to a halt, and the clamoring cicadas' choruses faded, wailing, into silence. The crickets and the traffic noises and the far-off sounds of people waited, expectantly, for their next cue. All settled into a held-breath pause as time counted off long, measured beats...until finally the sound of solid, running steps once again echoed into the dark, eventually fading off into the distance. Then, with a flourish, the music began again.
And within a small, quiet park, a newborn, living universe thrived.
..........
'My guide and I came on that hidden road to make our way back into the bright world; and with no care for any rest, we climbed -- he first, I following -- until I saw, through a round opening, some of those things of beauty heaven bears. It was from there that we emerged, to see -- once more -- the stars.'" Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno; Canto XXXIV
