Glittershipping (Kisara/Mazaki Anzu)
. . .
"Oh," she whispers. "I know you."
The girl blinks, looking up from the bus schedule she has been studying with a screwed up expression. Her hair shifts over her shoulders, sending a radiance out from the strands as though it's make of liquid metal—and when her eyes meet Anzu's, they are as deep and wide as the ocean, glittering with a light all their own.
"Oh?" she says, blinking. "Have we met before?"
It is raining today—heavy and thick with mist and water. Thunder rumbles lazily overhead. There is nothing urgent about this storm today. It is as though the lightning itself is more interested in sleeping in the clouds with only brief flashes of light than attacking the ground below. But the dim, gray rain seems to do nothing to blot out the bursts of autumn color—it only seems to make them deeper, saturated. Red and orange and yellow leaves drip in rhythm against the bustling black umbrellas attached to businesspeople as they rush up and down the street from taxi to bus to building and back. Even here, under the bus station's roof, there is a bit of wet seeping underneath, and the bench is certainly not habitable.
Anzu pauses, her hands curling around her fold up umbrella, suddenly shocked into silence. The girl stares back at her, curious, her head tilted so that her hair slides again.
"Well, n-no," Anzu says quickly. "I'm sorry, I think you just...look like someone I knew? I'm so sorry, I said something without thinking."
The girl blinks again. Then she smiles.
"Don't apologize," she says. "I've never been mistaken for anyone before. That's actually a little exciting! Who do I remind you of?"
Anzu hesitates for a moment. What does she say? She has never actually met the girl in question. Only heard of her—seen her in the painting that Pegasus presented to Kaiba one year, the painting that she knows still hangs in his office even today. She barely knows Kisara at all.
"She was...she was a stunning person," Anzu says finally, slowly.
The girl's lips part, and something in her eyes soften.
"'Was'?" she repeated softly.
The rain beats a drum over their heads, filling up the dim, gray silence in between them. Anzu thinks about the girl again. Thinks about Kisara. What she knows.
A woman who loved so much, so deeply, that she was willing to run barefoot through the hot desert to see it through. A woman who had loved so powerfully that she had become a shining light in the darkness to everyone even after her death. A woman who had died to protect the man she loved, who had refused to die completely, and become a dragon, a shining, beautiful, powerful thing that would wreak destruction on those that threatened the ones she cared about.
The girl is still looking at her, waiting for an answer.
Anzu finds that there are tears in her eyes.
She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, and flashes the biggest, brightest smile she can muster.
"She was radiant," she says. "She was powerful, and strong, and selfless, and she loved...she loved so much. I...I think I was a little inspired by her."
The girl's lips part at Anzu's words. There is...a glitter of wonder in her eyes as she hears Anzu speak, and she runs a hand through her hair gathering it between her fingers over her shoulders and stroking it in thought.
"She sounds like she was wonderful," the girl says. "I...feel kind of flattered to be mistaken for her."
She strokes her fingers through her hair again, twisting her fingers through the knots, combing it smooth.
The lights of the bus flash over the station, and water swells over the sidewalk as the vehicle groans to a stop at the station. For a moment, Anzu only barely hears the doors opening, barely sees the light spreading onto the sidewalk near her feet.
She snaps back to herself—oh, no, she'll be late for her audition!
"I'm so sorry, I have to go," she says. "I'm sorry to bother you."
She scrambles for her bag, splashes through a puddle as she makes a break for the door before it closes.
"W-what was her name?" the girl calls after her.
Anzu pauses with one foot on the step, looking over her shoulder, gripping the side of the door to steady herself. The girl is staring at her, eyes wide and deep, as deep as the rainy day settled in around them. For a moment, Anzu's words catch in her throat—the girl is...beautiful. She is radiant, even in the rain. Something about her glows, as though there is an aura of white around her, setting her apart from the world.
The door of the bus is trying to close, and she squeaks as she jumps inside.
But before it closes, she manages to call out.
"Kisara," she says. "Her name was Kisara!"
The door snaps shut, and through the glass, Anzu sees the girl's eyes widen, her mouth drop open. She takes a step forward, hand reaching out into the rain.
And then the bus lurches forward, dragging the girl out of sight, leaving her behind in the rainy autumn day.
Leaving Anzu standing at the glass, and wondering...who she just met after all.
. . .
A/N: Next is Glasshipping (Thief King Bakura x Shadi)
