Just gonna stand there
and watch me burn
It's all right
Because I love the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
It's all right
Because I love the way you lie…
They all said that they made the sweetest couple. Shinju, the girl wounded by love and her powers, and Inu-Tiffy, wounded by life itself. Shinju thought it was great, beautiful and gentle. Sweet.
Apparently Inu-Tiffy didn't think so. When they lay in bed, she didn't find it sweet or beautiful. She didn't want gentle, as much as she talked about it. She wanted something else. Even Shin couldn't please her anymore. So, she went behind her lover's back, found another man from down in the Kuto countryside, and lay with him.
Shinju didn't know for a good six months, was lied to, told that she was loved and that Tiffy would always take care of her. Shinju knew how fragile she was, how she needed taking care of. She didn't need hands laid on her, she just loved to please her beloved. She loved the way Tiffy moaned, the way she arched her back, the way her lips tasted.
She loved every moment, every coin that was spent on her beloved. Tiffy loved the high-quality clothes, and they didn't come cheap. Shinju didn't care. She spent her money, she spent her time working for it, she kept the house clean. But, it was alright.
It took Shooter to tell her what was going on. A whole group of Kuto boys had confessed to knowing Shinju's lover in a carnal sense. She had been lied to, cheated on, the same way that Tasuki had, but with more avarice and gluttony heaped upon her shoulders. Shinju closed her ears, tried not to hear it.
She did the same thing for months, as the Kuto peasants heard how Shinju treated her beloved; how she left her all alone for months, how she never spent a single present, how she was a horrible lover. Shinju ignored all of the glares she got, all of the hatred. She loved Tiffy, as she had for months.
But, it was when she confronted the girl that the tears started. Months and boys, coins and clothes, had passed between them, and Shinju had never said a word. The redhead was the one who cried, as words were screamed at her. "Stop it! Shut up! I don't feel well!"
Inu-Tiffy stayed in that house, but Shinju wouldn't hold her anymore. Not a single coin went towards the blonde girl, and that was when the golden-haired, blue-eyed creature turned her fangs on the redhead. Shinju didn't care, she took the bites and acidic saliva without a word for herself. Amiboshi and Suboshi pulled the blonde off, sweet Chichiri working on Shinju's arms and warding the rabid dog.
"Get your hands off of me! Don't you know what she does to me?"
Shinju kept her mouth shut, her eyes dulled without spark. She hurt more than she had when she had left Tasuki. Her hurt was more than that infected, burned arm. Her hurt was too much, her heart broke.
When the peasants pulled her from her home, for abusing her lover, she didn't care. They held back those that had helped her, and the girl crafted from fey-fire was tied to a stake in the middle of town. Wood was piled up under her feet. Chichiri and the others struggled, but to no avail.
Ellie couldn't calm the flames, Shooter and Jefe struggling against the mob, as Mars stared into Shinju's cold eyes. Slowly, the flesh burned away, the cold fey fire beneath starting to smolder.
A voice carried on the wind, as the fire formed a young woman. "Just gonna stand there
and watch me burn
It's all right
Because I love the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
It's all right
Because I love the way you lie…"
Inu-Tiffy pulled back as the fire formed Shinju; but, where her cream-colored eyes had once been, the flames of the fire had taken her life burned. Fire flew from her, cutting through earth and earthen homes like a knife.
She stepped forward, a hand wrapping around the blonde's neck. "You haven't BEGUN to feel pain yet." Shinju growled, her fire snaking around the girl. The redhead's body flashed between male and female. She was nothing but anger and fire now, as the blonde screamed and tried to struggle free.
The Kuto boys began forward, but she held up her free hand. More fire spewed from her, consuming everything around her. They went up quickly, but the blonde was to die slowly, painfully.
The village and Inu-Tiffy was reduced to ashes. And then Shinju left. Her friends tried to pull her back, but they were met by fire and pain. They let her go free. She wandered up the mountains, singing to herself. "Just gonna stand there
and watch me burn
It's all right
Because I love the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
It's all right
Because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie…"