Soul Mates, Scene Two: Frozen Beauty
Title: Frozen Beauty
Character: Yumichika
Prompt: Table 2, #10, Writer's Choice - Frozen (50scenes)
Rating: PG
Word count: 484
Warning: Angst
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, or any of its characters.
This is the second 'scene' in my Ikkaku/Yumichika series "Soul Mates"
Scene 1: The Dream
Frozen Beauty
(set in Rukongai before Yumichika meets Ikkaku)
The morning is cold. Icy remnants of the previous night still cling to the trees, frosty and sparkling as they bow before the rising sun. Yumichika sits silently, staring idly into his cup of cooling tea. The murky liquid exhales a slow strand of steam into the chilly air. He sighs, watching as a visible puff of breath escapes his lips. It lasts only for a brief moment before before it quickly fades, blown away by the wind as if it never existed. Droplets of frozen dew hold tightly to dying blades of grass, quivering helplessly as they're melted away in the warming morning light.
He tilts his head back and takes in the wide berth of the frozen sky above him. If he turns just right, he can completely lose himself in that overwhelming expanse of blue. It swallows him whole and takes him far away. The only thing that grounds him is the earth below him. A steady, haunting chill rises from it, robbing the heat away from his body. The ground is hard, frozen, and still. No warmth, no life rises from its core. Everything is cold and dead.
But still... it is beautiful. He lays on his side and presses his cheek to the ground, shattering the blades of frozen grass beneath him. So cold and so lifeless, yet gorgeous in its own, lonely way. It's almost heartbreaking, to see something that was once so green and lush reduced to an icy, barren landscape.
And yet... there's something in knowing that this place was once warm and alive that makes its frigid state even more precious. There is beauty in knowing that life once bloomed here, and that it will eventually bloom again. Life is a cycle. Things die and are born anew.
Yumichika closes his eyes and takes in the scent of nothingness around him. Even the most beautiful things must die - even him. He did die... once. That is why he is here, in this 'life after death'. It is a simple, yet complicated cycle - living and breathing and dieing. But does he truly live?
Sometimes he wonders if a part of him is still dead. He observes the icy land around him and feels as if he is somehow frozen, too. Something inside of him must still be in hibernation. His hand moves to touch his face, lingering on the chilled skin of his cheek. He is cold... so cold... and yet it has nothing to do with the temperature of the world he lives in. Another sigh escapes his lips as he wraps his arms around his shivering frame.
Will there ever be a Spring for him? He has been rooted in this perpetual Winter for as long as he can remember. Just like his surroundings, he is beautiful... yet deadly cold. He turns his face back towards the sky and tries to drown himself in its depths.
If only there were someone to take this chill away...