Title: Letting Go
Day/Theme: February 20: the blood that drips from heaven
Series: Rurouni Kenshin
Character/Pairing: Kaoru x Kenshin
Rating: PG
Notes: Standard disclaimers apply. I wish I owned the RK characters but I don't. XD More introspection and flashbacks on our rurouni's part. :)
"You really make it rain..."
His violet eyes widened in horror as he realized the gravity of her cold words.
"You really make it rain with blood..."
The chill of the night crept right to his bones as he stared wordlessly at her pale face, stained with blood of the man he had just slain. Her slate-grey eyes were boring twin holes into him, her mouth frozen in a small smile even as blood trickled from her cheek and to her lips.
His scar opened that night and bled.
Rakuninmura was a place for people who no longer cared about living or dying, that was what she knew of it. She had seen him sometimes struggling on the brink of madness and finding his way to that place. Her eyes glistened with tears as she listened to him slowly reveal his past, her chest aching from the pain she knew he must be feeling.
He had been so young... Too young to be caught up in a war...too young to stain his hands with blood.
"Sessha cannot forget," Kenshin whispered, gathering her in his arms. "Sessha's past is rooted in his soul along with his present and his future."
He had been married once, but the woman had not loved him wholly. But then Kaoru would never know what Tomoe had been thinking of and she refused to judge her memory. What mattered was that Kenshin was slowly letting go of what haunted him.
"Kenshin no baka..." She reached up to trace the cross-shaped scar on his cheek. "No matter what past you had or you sometimes wish you had, you will always be Kenshin."