Disclaimer: Not mine. I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, sadly.
Author's notes: An attempt to write after a long period of inactivity. Rampant metaphors and similes gone haywire. Comments are welcome :) Thank you everyone who has reviewed previously. You have been a wonderful help! glomps
Autumn Fireflies
Autumn was coming.
Saitou could tell; just by the way the winds seemed a little stronger, the nights a little colder, and the presence of someone a little more frequent.
He leaned back against the tree, hearing the rustle of grass beneath his shoes. The bark was rough through the fabric of his uniform. He drew a deep puff, feeling the smoke run through this lungs, finally releasing it in a thin stream from his mouth.
The wind came, and soon the grey wisps vanished, carried away by the passing breeze.
The cigarette was reaching its end and the butt glowed brilliant ember in the darkness. Saitou flung it down, crushing it into the ground with his heel. For a while he watched the last glowing remnants, until they too were extinguished.
From afar came the bustle of the city; a distant remote sound lost to him, a creature of the wild. The Wolf. Living in the heart of the suburbs never changed him, never tamed his nature, and never altered the instincts that served him so well.
It never should have surprised Saitou. A lone wolf seeks another for company, he supposed. The desolate have only the desolate.
It was only then that he understood Himura. It came to him in a flash; what it meant to give up an existence that you only knew till today to exchange it for a life with only solitude for company. Cold and silent company, but company nonetheless.
The pain had lessened by time, but so had his lucidity. Perhaps it had always been this way, him destined for living in a time that only existed in memories long past and praying for a living that had only really been in a chance gamble of the stars.
Fate had been cruel, as had Lady Luck, but Saitou had long learned that neither knew suffering nor understood the meaning of pain, but both knew cruelty in each excruciating detail.
The clink of metal aroused him and he turned sharply. In the distance the lights in the city glimmered, as though they were far away and he was looking at them through a wavering mist.
Himura had taught him that. Taught him to see the world as a child, to remove the veil that shrouded his vision, to see past the weariness and bitterness to the heart of an ethereal beauty far removed from his world.
He always wondered how Himura saw all that. Years of bloodshed had taken their toll and deadened his heart, sealing the indifference and coldness in. There was something about the way Himura could pierce the heart of anything, to hit the vitals with unerring accuracy and strike.
A deadly assassin and formidable opponent.
The footsteps had come closer till they had reached Saitou's side. Saitou merely nodded, giving acknowledgement with a faint smile.
Himura bent down and say at Saitou's feet, removing his katana and placing it horizontally across his lap.
Words were not needed; they knew each other too well for that and what silence remained between them they knew enough not to breech, but to let it be. Sometimes it was better not to ask nor question, because they were afraid of what the answers might hold.
Cowardly, yet Saitou knew that the fragile relationship that bound then would be shattered in the flash of an instant.
The solitary only have the solitary.
The warm duskiness had deepened into a cool blackness, bringing with it the calmness and graveness of night. Himura was silent and motionless, an unmoving statue. The wind was teasing Himura's hair, coiling the long strands around the slender neck. All Saitou could think of was how Himura's hair was a brilliant amber. Just like fire.
It hurt him to think of the day that the fire would too die and wither away, fallen cinders swept away by the winds of time. Saitou wondered when that day would ever be.
One day that day would come, a passing of a second that would end all with crushing finality and bring to an end the fieriest brilliance that ever existed.
Saitou saw from the corner of his eye, lights flickered in brief moments, illuminated jewels that sparkled with gentle light.
The fireflies had began to dance.
Saitou knew Himura was watching as well, from the way the light was reflected in the amethyst depths and multiplied a thousand fold. The hand that was resting on the katana had moved to tug gently on Saitou's coat, signalling for him to join the other man on the ground.
Saitou muttered a soft complaint that both knew he did not mean; a ritual to justify to themselves that a distance still existed somewhere, somehow. When he sat down he was only aware of the heat beside him, and how the presence of the other had drowned out all else.
Fireflies were short-lived, creatures of the moment, living today and dying tomorrow, yet with each union they keep some part of themselves alive such that when they perish it is neither final nor the end. The love that they have today is not the one that they will have tomorrow, for after the night all they have left are memories that will die when they do, and follow their light into darkness.
So when Himura cupped his hands together and caught two fireflies, Saitou merely grasped the slender fingers in his and pried them gently open, releasing the radiance inside and stoking the fire to burn with greater intensity, a union sealed with the promise of bitterness.
And they let the light shine in a final burst before dawn arrived, for they knew that once the sun arose, there would only be the empty shells of a glow once brilliant.
The End