Touch
4th Title: With Eyes That Weep
Word count: 400 + words
Rating: K
Spoilers for Bleach Chapter 199, 213, 214
Long trembling hands, soft comforting touches, whispers of forbidden promises all wrapped in her mind, comforting her sadness, gracing her heart which ached in pain. If this had been a dream, it would have been a dream she would wish to forget. To feel so useless about something, so lost, so unsure of the future where all her fears combined.
Kurosaki-kun...
She had admitted she loved him.
Sora had never truly explained what love was to her, but she figured it out by herself, in a way it was better. This kind of love was different than the other types she was used to. It wasn't like loving bean jelly, or looking at the sunrise with Tatsuki or watching TV with friends.
It was much more.
"That is why it hurts," Matsumoto explains in between mouthfuls of bean paste "Because you love so much, you hate to see the other in pain. You crush yourself when you can't make them happy and you always choke up when someone else can."
The older woman looks up at the ceiling in silent serenity.
"However." she whispers "If you know that person, can read the sadness in their eyes, feel the pain that is in hovers within them and accept all the bad qualities that may make them seem invalid… then you can just let go of all those other negative feelings. They bind you down to false pretences that the emotion you feel means nothing."
Matsumoto's eyes narrowed directly to Orihime.
"And you know perfectly well, what you feel means something, don't you?"
It remained an unanswered question.
A sudden attack in the night interrupted their meditation session.
………..
Healing the injured began. A face masked in sorrow and uselessness stayed in her dreams for the next four hours. His voice echoed in a stilled silence while confused faces played beside him.
But she knew.
She woke that morning early. Always this early. The sun damasked at her window. Forgotten songs of the morning chanting in her presence. Yet it was the same.
It had happened again. His eyes had said it all.
There was no more light sparkling in his eyes. The clouds and pain where back again.
Yet deep within her, she felt some sort of silent relief. It was a rather odd thing to feel in a situation like this, but she remained very glad for this feeling. This feeling that meant something.
She would forever thank Matsumoto.