Blinding Fate
Arcs of silver blazed through the cool night air as Mugen and his female assailant assaulted one another with stroke after stroke, the vagrant's patience immediately wearing thin once he realized that Sara was far stronger than she let on. "Hold back?" he thought aloud, suddenly beyond miffed. "You gotta be frickin' kiddin' me. Up till now I've crossed swords with a whole lotta people, but you're different from all the rest – a type I've never fought before."
The dark overcast clouds steadily cleared in accordance with Mugen's words, slivers of moonlight now spilling forth and illuminating Sara's peaceful form in a soft bath of glowing iridescence.
A ghost of a smile graced her lips as she seemed to wordlessly beckon the pirate forward, a smile of his own taking shape as he released a triumphant "Fine by me!" and leapt toward her like a crazed spinning top.
Exhaling deeply, Sara easily met with Mugen's frenzied swipes, the Ryukyuan far more careless than usual as he slipped through the mulch and gracelessly stumbled to attack her from behind. Unfortunately for him, Sara was much too fast, her weapon colliding with Mugen's as they fluidly circled one another and fended the other off with smooth parries.
Just when it seemed that Mugen might actually stand a chance, however, he foolishly let his guard down and allowed Sara to strike, a deep eruption of scarlet bursting forth from his stomach the moment her weapon sliced through his gut as effortlessly as if it were rice paper.
"Mugen!"
Disoriented, the pirate felt himself get thrown roughly back into the shallow river, his head lolling languidly to the side once he realized that it was her…that insufferable little-
"What's going on? What are you doing!?" Fuu persisted, her eyes wide and fearful as she clutched at the slippery folds of her kimono in absolute consternation.
Mugen and Sara promptly ignored her cries, the poor girl now crying piteously as she observed the two before her, Sara calm and Mugen completely outraged.
Before Fuu could even attempt yet another reconciliation, the vagrant charged the assassin like a deranged mutt, Fuu screaming for them to stop as he swung his longsword blindly through the air in a desperate attempt at making his mark.
Sara sensed all of this with zero emotion within her vacant eyes, Mugen now falling flat on his back in complete and utter exhaustion as he felt the quite familiar sensation of blood loss wracking his limbs.
"Mugen!"
"Stay back!" the Ryukyuan wheezed, his face contorted with pain, "Stay back!"
Gasping, Fuu felt herself tense up at the sight of the abundant crimson seeping out of his haori and onto the stone of the riverbed, her eyes widening once she realized that Sara was now approaching his broken body with her outstretched weapon.
"No!"
With a blind leap of devotion, Fuu hysterically threw herself over Mugen's exposed midsection, her tear-stained face buried hopelessly against the vagrant's side as she sobbed a muffled, "Don't do it…please don't do it!"
Tensing beneath her quivering body, Mugen felt an odd pang within his chest as the girl desperately clung to his middle, his eyes widening once he realized that he could no longer concentrate on the tremendous pain searing out across his stomach.
Fuu…had she actually just risked getting herself stabbed for him? He didn't like whatever it was that he was suddenly feeling – dammit, it was weird!
Suddenly sensing that Sara was leaving, Mugen gave a hasty "Wait!" before giving Fuu a forceful shove to the side – he was honestly quite glad for the well-needed distraction.
As the Ryukyuan continued to call after Sara's rapidly retreating figure he faltered, now feeling the unnerving sensation of Fuu's soft brown eyes burning into his soul like that of two red-hot pokers.
"Don't fight her again" she pleaded, her hands subconsciously fisting at the folds of her kimono. "I almost lost you once in Ryukyu…please don't put me through all that again."
Mugen regarded her with his stray dog eyes, a low chuckle escaping his blood-encrusted lips as he forced himself to stand up on wobbly legs. "You don't really care about me" he accused, his words surprisingly cutting him far deeper than he'd originally anticipated. "In reality, all you want is for me ta be alive so I can help ya find that fuckin' sunflower samurai-a yours."
"That's not true!" Fuu sobbed, her petite figure appearing to be so pitiful in contrast to his deranged form as she began to cry. He'd never really realized just how small she was before, yet nearly as soon as this thought came to mind he irritably shrugged it off. Who the hell cared about all that, anyway?
When Mugen directed his attention back over toward the broken girl at his feet he stiffened, her tears nearly drowning him amidst their deep sorrow as she pitifully entreated, "Please don't go, Mugen…you're all I have left now."
Grunting, the pirate slowly genuflected down before her upon the riverbank, his calloused hands gruffly taking hers in his own as he grumbled, "Look, kid, I gotta do this, but…" He faltered. "Goddammit, just take this as good luck or somethin'!" Curling Fuu's fingers about one of his jade earrings, Mugen begrudgingly moved to hobble back to the hut, but Fuu had already thwarted his actions by seizing him by the wrist. "Wait" she pleaded, her eyes shining with what strangely appeared to be affection.
Scowling, the vagrant nodded for her to get whatever it was that she wanted over with, his eyes widening in surprise once she removed one of the red balls from her hair pin and tucked it into his haori. "For luck" she explained, a warm smile now slipping across her lips as they locked eyes.
Then, as strange though it was, Mugen couldn't help but smile too, his resentful façade immediately melting away once he allowed Fuu to act as his crutch for the long walk back to the hut. In the morning he'd be sure to be extra nasty to her, but for now……for now he'd just let it go.
A/N: Hey, guys! I originally just intended to leave 'Red' alone, but then I thought it'd be pretty fun to write a bunch of Fuugen drabbles. :-P I just HAD to do this since I realized that I'd never read a one-shot or really ANYthing with the mentioning of this moment. To me, this episode was monumental in Mugen/Fuu's relationship since Fuu CLEARLY had no problem with sacrificing her life for her bodyguard's. I think that Mugen was pretty darn surprised, too, since he was all boggle-eyed and his mouth was agape. From that moment forward, they became closer – if you'll notice during the whole Jin/Fuu river scene, Mugen's eyes actually seem to be pretty sad/bitter/resentful. I think he felt closer to her because of her sacrifice, and that was of course only made clearer in the last episode when he came to return the favor. :) If you have any requests, just tell me! Mwuah! ;0)