Notes: This will be my first attempt at an Okami fanfiction, but I've been playing the game for a while now and I was inspired.:) Hopefully, some reader or two out there will take a chance and read this, and enjoy it. All comments are appreciated, though I will not tolerate flames.
Warnings: This story will contain slash, as in it will feature a male/male pairing. If that offends you, then by all means feel free to click on that 'Back' button. It will also feature an OC (or 'Original Character')
Pairing: Waka/OC (Riyu)
Rating: As of now, I'm leaning toward a 'T' rating. It may go up later.
Disclaimer: Clover owns Okami. Not me.
Side Note: These chapters are not meant to be long. I will add more to it each day (at least, that is what I hope to do:) and so the length of each installment will differ.
Please, enjoy!
Charcoal Smudges
The spring was cool tonight. With fingers stained a dark, rusty black, Riyu skimmed the very surface of the pool. His reflection stared back at him through a film of shimmering glass, his wide eyes catching the glow from the pregnant moon, full and round behind his back. One of the braziers was lit beside him, past the outcropping of rocks and the now slumbering guard. Its heat warmed his neck and back, the contrast of the cold water against his fingertips sending tingles through his body.
Silently he moved his fingers through the water, erasing any and all traces of black from the callused digits. When they were pale and clean once more he pulled his hand away from the glossy spring, wiping them dry on his clothing. He brushed strands of dark hair away from his face and eyed the stack of parchment he had been working on mere moments before. His eyes gleamed for a brief moment as he thumbed through the sizable collection, flipping past scenes of children playing, cherry blossom trees in full bloom, and other denizens of Sei-an, until they fell on one near the very end. His fingers shook as he slipped the paper free, black eyes scanning the contents with a fleeting scowl and a race of his heart.
A figure silhouetted in moonlight stared back at him, their face hidden in shadow but the rest of their body outlined by the celestial object looming over their shoulders. Golden hair fell in disarray around their head and flowed down their back, pale hands grasping a raised sword high above them.
Without meaning to, Riyu found his eyes glued to the heavens, to the massive floating ship he knew to be there, to the vessel that had been suspended in the same sky, the same location, since his birth. Two hundred years, they said, that ship had been there, watching over all of Sei-an City and protecting its people as surely as any of its previous rulers. Since Queen Himiko's death he had found himself gazing at it even more, his eyes continuously straying to the ship every time he stepped foot outside his door. There was no real purpose to it, only a need to... feel comforted, he supposed, that some things had not changed so drastically, that just because their queen had fallen did not mean the end to them all. There was still someone watching over them.
With a quiet sigh he allowed his eyes to close, gathering the papers to his chest and standing. His knees felt sore and numb after sitting still for so long, and he winced at the grating pull of muscles. Yet, he felt some satisfaction, gazing at the paper in his hands. The others felt ugly, imperfect next to this one. He was getting so close to capturing the real thing, to creating that perfection himself, from his own hands. He smiled softly at that thought.
'capturing the real thing...'
Could he ever hope to accomplish such a task?