Title: Crimson Petals
Author: Nicluv1787
Rating: T
Genre: Romance, Angst
CU/AU: CU
Prompt: Fan
Characters: Sesshomaru and Kagura
Words: 500
Warning: Blood, just a tiny bit.
Summary: She kept returning to him, and he continued to lose her.
A/N: Written for Iy_themes on livejournal, won second place.
The centuries pass, and your face is etched into my memory; the aroma of your blood as it dances on the wind. You were free then, and I knew it.
The youkai had fallen beneath the powerful swell of man; none could have foreseen their untimely downfall. The centuries were unkind, and the survivors were left in shadows.
The world was changing around him, while he stayed the same, un-aging, and unmoving. The pale faced intruders arrived, bringing with them trade, and prosperity, for the humans; for him… something unexpected.
Your image it haunts me. How many times will you return to me? How many times will I pass you by?
He stayed away from the larger settlements, preferring the quiet seclusion of the lands he'd managed to hold onto; though they'd dwindled over time. There was no place for him in this changing age; he was of a dying breed. But every few decades one scent would bring him back, to a time long forgotten, seeking him out like an old friend, and lover.
She would reappear in his life, first as a stubborn village girl on his lands, later a hime to a neighboring land. He knew her the moment he saw her. He didn't need scent, he didn't need his eyes, fate drew them together; his own stubbornness kept them apart.
How many times will I watch you die? How many times will the light slowly dwindle from your eyes? And yet, I'm there in those final moments. As if the will of the kami's has trapped us in this cycle.
He'd found her reincarnation more times than he could count. Each time he kept her at bay; resigned to his own sense of solitude, his own lack of conviction, his own fear. Life was fleeting, for someone who lived centuries, the life of the human -she now was- was insignificant; he could not be troubled with her.
She was back again, the scent carried to him on the wind. It caressed at his senses pulling him to her. And there she was, crimson petals floating on the wind, her hair fanned out behind her like a banner.
So beautiful in her death; yet again he would watch her die, yet again he could not save her.
She looked up at him, with crimson rimmed eyes.
"Who are you?" she gasped, blood sputtering from her mouth.
He watched her life dwindled slowly; like he'd witnessed so many times before. Once her life was spent she collapsed to the ground.
The familiar pulse of Tensaiga reverberated through him. He unsheathed the sword from its holster; the power coursing through his body. He held the glittering blade aloft. 'Do I save her?'
He answered with a slash of his blade; banishing the demons of the underworld. He replaced Tensaiga into its sheath turning to walk away.
At last I could save you. I can only hope the cycle is broken.
He paused.
Perhaps, this time I won't walk away.