I haven't slept well in days. Every time I close my eyes I see her face, her big, brown eyes staring up at me, pleading. She doesn't want me to forget…to move on. I swore the night before she died that one of us would be the best. It was my oath to her, to my rival and friend.
But her face changes, it grows older, softer…wiser. The eyes are supposed to be the windows to the soul, and hers are now framed in red. Her sword clashes, spars, dances with mine in the rain. I'm beating her, and it isn't supposed to be that way. She always beats me. It angers me. She speaks, and I hear her voice, grating with irritation.
She thinks that I'm going soft on her. She demands that I pay her respect, to fight her, and dispose of her, like a true swordsman. The truth is, I just can't. I let her go, I show her mercy, but she isn't going to take it. She runs after me, demanding I fight her with all my might. As I turn to her, I see it, in slow motion in full detail. She trips. She falls, and she will not get up.
I run to her and turn her shivering body into my lap. She fell on her sword; the ugly cut ran deep into her belly. Blood mixed with rainwater, pooling around my body as I held her, letting the tears fall freely down my face. I lost her once, and I was loosing her again. This time, I wasn't going to let her go without telling her. The words leave my lips before my mind can catch up….
"I love you, Tashigi…"
And then I wake. The dream I had darts through my head and I find myself running sweating palms through my hair. That marine had gotten under my skin. She was on my mind always, in sleep and in wake. Her resemblance to Kuina is uncanny, and I find my memories of my childhood friend tainted with this woman's presence.
She is everything I admired about Kuina. She is what Kuina could have been. But she isn't Kuina. I have a hard time dealing with it. She is a woman of her own conviction and spirit. She hunts me with her every breath, never giving up. It's what makes her different from Kuina.
I try to fall asleep again. Tashigi's face now the one that enters my heavy lidded sight. Perhaps, if I'm lucky, there will be a marine base on the next island…
just an angsty little ooc ficlet that popped into my head. hope you like!