Prompt: "A kiss to say goodbye forever" (from Sharon) (from Fluffy)
Rating: T
Warnings: Character death, hooray!
This made me very upset for several hours after writing it.
Underneath everything, this is what's left of him.
It's cruel, indeed, how Fate chooses these horrible moments in which to collapse, bringing her here as he's barely conscious, as he has already accepted the encroaching darkness and given himself over to the inevitable—how in this numbness destiny dares bring such regret to him, dares to expose his whole self, his whole weakness to such precious people. It's cruel, it's horrible, and yet it's warm—he's growing colder, breaths shallower by the tick of the clock, the last of his fire threatening to extinguish at any moment—even now, he seems to be sapping her body heat, stealing away some fragment of that fractured youth as the final scar he would leave behind.
For it is scars he has left on this world, countless deep red marks which will never truly heal; he can no longer see the tears, but sure as hell he can feel them, this girl's and this boy's and his own—ahh, how despicable can he be, allowing himself to show such an emotion in his final hour? Really, with all his layers and strength peeled away, he's just as human as anyone else, just as useless and weak—
—there is no light to fade, for his vision has already rotted away completely; no, what's fading is that warmth, growing distant as his desperate grip over those shoulders slackens, the tension he's held for so long finally, finally slipping away—
—ahh, this smile on his lips is disgustingly genuine, as well, isn't it?
And it is only after his body is no longer truly aware, fully limp, that she just barely rights herself, though she has not let go of him—and gently, feather-light despite the night-infinite weight of the gesture, she presses her lips to his closed eye, the eyelashes she had wondered idly about touching, that one window into the world they shared.