She fit snugly in his arms, something he hadn't noticed until now. Now. Of all times, now.
He noticed now.
It was too late now.
Blood trickled through her lips and down her chin to splash onto his cold hand. The wound had caused this. The large gap in her stomach that had torn fabric and flesh alike. More blood reached the ground, pooling around his knees if they didn't soak his pants.
In the hazy light, with a type of serenity and her weak state, he found her fragile. Yet, just minutes ago she had been tearing through their enemies. Taking them down one by one like some type of beast. The beast told about in fairy tales that could never be slaughtered and lived in an endless cycle of fighting those who wanted to kill it.
No, someone with thick skin such as her own could never be described as fragile. Perhaps dainty like in her heiress garb, with hair twisted upon her head, held in place with ornaments meant to declare her status.
Beautiful.
In times like those, she'd be very diplomatic, handling a situation with calm words and a peaceful mind. In times like the ones they faced now, she handled herself with dignity, prepared to negotiate as much as put down those who opposed her.
He touched his forehead to hers. The last intimate touch he could give.
She placed a hand to his cheek, smiling kindly through the pain.
"I was enchanted to meet you." Her whimsical words choked him. She always had a knack for beautiful words. For forming her sentences in such a way it gave a trance to those who listened.
How she had learned such a skill was beyond him. She had stuttered a lot as a child and chose to remain quiet than loud, such as himself. Her pain was kept hidden by a stoic mask that rarely broke in private and almost never in public. Much the opposite of him.
Yet, she had mastered her words like she had mastered the art of combat. She adapted herself to methods which didn't always work for her outright. She made the skills of her people and particularly, that of her father, her own.
No one could deny such growth. Impressive growth. To be taught one way, a strict set of rules, and still find one's self to follow those rules in a unique way.
Her hand fell from his face. The light in her eyes faded. Smile still in place.
A haunting image, really. To see a corpse, no life in its gaze, no rise and fall of breath in its chest, to smile. To continue to smile.
It took a minute for the moment to reach him. For the shock to step aside so his eyes could tell his brain what his heart just couldn't.
She was gone.
He flung his head back in complete anguish. His cry bounced off the trees, carrying it further and further, where every animal, from mammal to insect, and every plant, whether towering in the sky or hidden below the surface, could hear. It carried on, ringing through canyon walls and mountain ranges. Screeching seagulls took it across seas and sandstorms delivered its final echoes across deserts, untouched by man.
The world stopped. Some unaware of the anguish that had been reeked upon the earth while others turned away, fearing the events that would unfold next.
The emotion placed on her face squeezed his heart. He did not realize that she, heir to the Hyuga clan, was proud to have held his hand. To have walked beside him as an equal, as a friend, as so much more than anything else he's ever known.
To be able to take the hit that would surely have killed him. Their blue haired heiress was happy to have lived her life and be able to end it in the noblest way she could think of.
"I was enchanted to meet you, too."