Title: Fire
Challenge:
Theme #1, "Memories"
Notes: Done for the Just100
LJ community. This is the elongated version. I DO have a 100-word
version, but I dislike it, so here's the full thing.
He remembers the fire, his Mother, the smooth fabric of her clothes beneath his tiny hands as they gripped frantically, tears stinging his eyes just as the heat of the flames burning around him stung his skin. All around them parts of their home – parts of their lives – crumbled down to the ground, and by morning it would be as though they never existed.
Mother's voice told him to get away and go to Mugenjou. She never told him why. Before he could ask, there was a pair of arms sliding around his middle, pulling him from Mother, dragging him outside as he still reached and cried out for her long after she faded from view.
Then they ran, the night air a drastic change from the heat he'd been pulled from and chilling him at first. He heard the other boy's voice calling back to him, but he doesn't remember what exactly was said as his mind swam, vision blurred from tears and his lungs aching from smoke inhalation.
Kazuki remembers reaching Mugenjou. Remembers curling in a dusty corner of a wilted building on the top floor, in those familiar arms that held his trembling body tightly and stroked his hair. Remembers listening to the soothing voice that wouldn't stop apologizing for things that couldn't be changed, for being too weak to protect him… And he eventually fell asleep to Juubei's vows of growing stronger so that Kazuki would never have reason to cry again.