Fleeting Moments
By Dan'yu
Drabble #26: Snow
Their first Christmas together, it snowed.
Christmas was the holiday for sweethearts and lovers alike.
It had been the first snow of the season, and like every other winter they had shared together, he could not forget Rin's childish exuberance for snowfall. As the adults at each of their homes left for the night for parties and other celebrations, they were able to spend Christmas night together, bundled up tightly in the blankets Haru had absconded from his mother's linen closet, side by side in their favorite meeting place, an old bench in a park not far from the Sohma grounds.
Even with coats and blankets, it was their shared heat between them that most defeated the frigid temperature of the winter season. She was curled up against him, a feather-light bundled wrapped up in his arms, exhaled puffs of air clouds of white in the cold before them. Their exchanged gifts already tugged away safely in pockets, he leaned back and stared up at the sky just as the first flakes began to fall.
No two snowflakes were entirely alike, each one separate and individual in their own way. He remembers catching them on his tongue as a boy, and he does the same now. She sends an amused glance in his direction and he gave a soft smile in return, fascinated by the way the snowflakes clung to her dark lashes, and melted among her wild tresses of raven-black hair. He reached his hand toward the skies, the skies full of ungraspable treasures, and as his fingers closed around empty air.
He let his hand fall, his smile wistful. When she asked him what was wrong, he shook his head slightly, seeming pensive. "You know, don't you," he said quietly, "That I would give you anything in my power to give, even the world if I could?"
Puzzled, she grasped his hand, lacing her fingers through his. "I don't want the world, Haru."
"I know. But…" He extended a hand toward the sky once more. "There are so many things I want you to have, so many beautiful things that I want to give to you. Like a snowflake. But no matter how I reach more it, or long for it, it just melts away in my hand…"
He turned to her once more, his eyes unreadable in the darkness. "Like freedom…"
"There are so many things we can never touch, Haru, as humans and as Jyuunishi. But all I've ever really wanted was love and warmth…" She gently kissed his knuckles, holding his hand against her cheek. "However a sap I am for admitting it, but I found that with you. You're here, Haru, and you're real and solid. That's all I need."
"If I could give you more…" he trailed off helplessly, leaning into the caress of her stroking fingers as they lightly traced against his face.
She leaned closer, the white cloud of moisture separating them for just a moment before she kissed him gently. "You've already given me the world. You just don't realize it."