Prompt: Death
Floating Away
The two little boys looked down at the sleeping man and smiled, their identical faces blended with an odd mixture of affection and sorrow. The moonlight cast his features into sharp relief and simply served to accentuate the excessive paleness of his skin.
Although they stood apart they moved and breathed as one, just an extension of the same spirit in two bodies; they bent down together and brushed a kiss over his forehead, tears stinging their eyes and making their vision blur but not a sound escaped their lips even as they began to sob.
Both knew that what they were about to do violated every law of their very being but that didn't matter any more; they could feel themselves ebbing away with the spirit of the man on the futon, they could feel their sense of self blurring at the edges.
Ignoring the physical wrench of pain that ripped through them they turned as one and walked away from the room, with every step they could feel his heart beating more softly and slowly, like the pounding of an execution drum that marked the length of time they had to complete this last journey.
The night air hung over them like a shroud as they stole silently into the squad headquarters, the empty hallways stretching out like endless pathways of destiny. Flawlessly they took the route they had walked so many times before, each footstep etched forever on their mind like a book of their life spreading out behind them.
The tug on their hearts grew stronger, each breath now coming slowly and with forced effort; but still they made no sound nor hesitated even for a heartbeat.
Two hands came up and caressed the door in front of them, no different from any of the hundreds of other sliding doors throughout Seireitei but yet infinitely separate; they followed the grain of the wood as though stroking the cheek of a lover, each bump revealing another hidden pocket of memories.
Sliding it open they saw their quarry, his sleeping shape a mere silhouette in the dark; even though there was no light to see him by they could trace every contour of his face perfectly, could tell you the spark the lit him from within even when the world around him was darkness.
They had known for what felt like forever that when the time came this is where they wanted to be; they knew that when their master's body became too weak to move that they would move for him.
The time was near, every second slipping through their fingers like sand as they knelt one at each side of him and took his hands hesitantly in their own; here at the very last they felt no sorrow and no pain, just peace that they were here where they belonged.
"Sayonara." They whispered.
Kyoraku Shunsui woke abruptly with the scent of the ocean surrounding him, the salty tang that seemed synonymous with tears, and he knew from the bottom of his soul that Ukitake Jyuushiro was gone.