essence
by: darkestbeforedawn
summary: his scent would always linger near him. kambei x kyuuzo semi-AU different ending
rating: PG-13
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Spring had arrived.
Kambei always found himself faintly smelling like tea and downpouring rain. In his darker moments, he wondered why he didn't smell like blood and carnage instead.
But then he would remember the scar on his neck, their promise, and how he should've forgotten about it all after their match has long been over and done with.
They had battled. The blonde had won. Kambei was once again defeated, but he was not the one that felt purposeless and shamed. When their match was over, Kambei was expecting a quick death at the handsome and strangely kind man he had become comrades with.
When the blade dropped from his neck and back to the blonde's side, Kambei breathed in and watched him leave.
Four years have passed since then.
The rice in the fields were once again golden, and Katsushirou had come back for his yearly visit. Sometimes, Kambei wonders if some higher force is mocking him when his young apprentice shows up wearing a blood red cloak that reminds him of someone he once knew.
He has long since picked up a sword. Now-a-days, he works as a teacher in the village. He teaches all he knows to the younger children, and once in a while, Kikuchiyo would show up to cause a ruckus. He only admits this in his private moments, but he has grown fond of the mechanical samurai.
When it rains, Kambei finds himself standing in the middle of the downpour, and enjoying the feel it has on his scarred body. When he sees a figure in the distance, wearing red and sporting wild blonde hair, he believes himself to be delirious.
Only when the figure charges at him with blinding speed and even more deadly grace, his dual swords pinning him in place and very lightly re-opening the wound on his neck, does Kambei remember the very familiar scent.
Kyuuzo looks at him. "You don't have your sword anymore," he said.
Kambei closed his eyes and offered a smile. "I no longer have a use for them."
Kyuuzo looked disappointed, disheartened and vaguely comforted all at once. He sheathed his swords again, but closed in the distance between the two.
"I've come to claim the prize for my victory."
With that, Kyuuzo leaned in and placed a tea-scented kiss on his rival's lips, innocent and lingering.
Kambei muses, wondering if Kyuuzo has ever noticed he tasted like the rain too.
-owari-
notes: because i was bloody dissatisfied with the ending.