It was ironically black - nothing but the flickering glow of the candles in a night where the merest sliver of moon hung in the sky and the stars seemed to have turned their faces from the earth. Jun shivered from something deeper than the nippy evening, even Pailong's arms not quite enough to ease the inner chill that assuaged her.
Ren's eyes met hers, as they stood apart - he by the coffin, she and Pailong in the shadows. The liquid gold of his emotions was gone, and she observed with a pang the amber they had become, so much so that she felt like the meaningless insect, drowning in the inexorable tightening of cooling hardness.
"Otouto?"
You look so alone, this night, when it is most dangerous to be so. Words unspoken and forever dead in the airlessness between them.
She broke away from Pailong to stand with him, and they stared together at the lavish wooden monstrosity that held the remains of what they had once feared most. Stared without really seeing, for it did not seem all that important.
"Jun," his voice cracked momentarily, and she clutched convulsively at his callused hand at this sudden show of what he had hidden beneath a fragile mask, "I'm scared." And he was indeed, she saw, the sisterly urge to embrace him rising up with a fierceness that she reined inward. This time of all times Ren had to be strong...but she almost hated Yoh-tachi, lingering even farther back in the velvet cloak of night over the ceremony. They disguised fear with the pretense of respect.
As fast as it came, the anger was gone. No, she did not blame them. She did not blame anyone, but she loathed what it was that created her little brother's white-knuckled grip on Horaiken's handle, that brought him within so much danger of becoming what he did not want to be on this lightless, breathless night.
Tao Jun saw a stranger replace her brother for a fleeting moment, just enough to make her catch her breath.
And no matter how wrong she knew it to be, she cursed the clan that raised them both, damning all the so-called holy ancestors that had brought forth so much misery.
That night, it was not the empty shell of their father Tao Jun mourned, but the childhoods she found in minute golden shards, scattered and lost within a shroud of darkness.
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A/N: Another five-minuter. I heard a story once, that sometimes if a man or woman died before their time, they could take the bodies of their own children and force out their spirits. Therefore said children were always supposed to have close companions for a certain time after the funeral to prevent such a thing happening. Voila, fic.
On another note, I can't believe I forgot to respond to reviews last chapter! ^^; Silly me.
'Circle' - I dunno why I did a HaoRen, Shanna, I was in da mood! XD Annu-Needs-Sanity…um. Everything that was in his dreams – the wise child, moth, sparks and most definitely the Phoenix (white wings and dark plumes = cloar and hair, got it? ^_~) were aspects of Hao. And the cloth circle came from Hao's cloak! Get it now?
On 'Grip' I'm SO glad people liked it! I could have sworn it was OOC but I guess people thought much better of it than I figured ^_^ Waiii! Thanks all readers and reviewers! See you in the next story!