disclaimer ... this piece of fanfiction is in no way authorized by the copyright holder(s) of Gravitation, and this author absolutely does not claim copyright ownership
author's note ... really short little oneshot, Tohma visiting Kitazawa's grave. Also really unpolished, but please be nice.
Wrapped in Green
Today I bring no roses.
Roses hold on to memory and affection, trapping them between layered petals. These I gave you, though uncertainly, for years. It was not always my choice. In early times, I brought another—but of late, I come here alone. One day only; this day always. It is traditional.
On this day, I talk to you. I question you, I rage at you, I forgive you, and I curse you. That is also traditional. Tradition has kept me coming back. Tradition has kept you alive and in my life. My own observance of it has kept you alive in someone else's life.
No more. It is time to banish you—not just to forget you or to let you go, but to erase you completely. I must. I will.
You used to say that when I looked at you, you were wrapped in green. I smiled at it then, for my aim was once to hold you thus forever. When you looked back, you wrapped me in copper: a russet glow, a conductor of electricity. There was a time when I thought I never would be able to live without that electricity. There was a time when it powered my heart, my soul, my mind.
My life.
You always had that power. I was not the only one who felt it. Implacably you used it to draw gold near. You should have known better. Gold must be pure and unadulterated with baser metals; copper destroys its essence. But you, like so many others, allowed greed to drive you to irrationality. You were ignorant or uncaring, and despite all warnings or prompts of conscience, you tried to force an alloy.
I could have forgiven you anything else. It was not wise to make me choose, for all know that gold is far more precious than copper. I had to protect it. I had no other reasonable option.
But I kept you here, with roses as envelopes to hold remembrance. It allowed me to make tentative peace with a partial solution. Only recently did I discover that the solution need be neither uneasy nor incomplete.
Today I bring no roses. This is my last visit here, and I bring you a last gift. It is a better gift by far, at least in the giving.
Today I bring ivy.
A living tangle will, in time, climb and creep over the stone mark of your existence. It will cover it utterly, then break it down to dust with gentle ruthlessness. Someday, there will be no stone. There will only be ivy, living on in unspoken victory.
You will be wrapped in green, and I can think of nothing more fitting. It will draw you near in its embrace...
And then it will destroy you.