NOTE: Potential Sanada x Yanagi.

Blaze

October.

The remnants of the passing summer heat became a flame that set the leaves on trees ablaze. The sight of the burning maple leaves warmed them. And it, along with the thin jackets they began putting on, gave them the feeling that winter was still faraway.

They walked home together, admiring the autumn scenery. Yet, autumn was not the only thing his gaze captured and admired.

Walking beside his companion, Renji's sight caught the other's side portrait as he looked ahead. The angles and lines that produced such a portrait were all sharp and distinct, just like the other's character.

Renji's gaze returned to the view before him. When he saw a particularly outstanding crimson maple leaf in a sea of oranges and yellows, he reached out instinctively and plucked it from a tree branch.

He stopped walking entirely, as if to fully examine the simple object.

"Wait, Genichirou."

The other stopped walking and turned to him.

"What is it?"

Renji did not answer him immediately. He was still concentrating on the leaf his two fingers held at the thin stem. The angles and lines that produced the leaf were sharp and distinct as well. And because its color was so vivid and bright, it drew attention quite easily.

The leaf reminded him much of the other. Perhaps that was what made him pick the leaf off the tree in the first place. He finally looked over to his companion. What he saw was enough to weaken his heart and render him breathless - the sight of Sanada Genichirou against the sea of warm-colored maple leaves and the orange sun setting in the distant horizon.

As beautiful as the autumn scenery was, his eyes easily forsaken and denied all of its glory when the other stood before him.

He thought Sanada Genichirou was too much like the leaf in his hand; both were as bright and eye-catching as fire.

If he reached out to touch the other, would he be burned mercilessly and be reduced to ashes? Perhaps. Yet, he cannot help but become a moth drawing blindly near the flame's captivating glow.

He opened his eyes to that beauty. He revealed to the other the gentle amber depths unseen by many.

And he made his confession.