| The Thirtieth Aura • Text | Offline |

[reflectivedawn]

[ - Back Dated To Dawn | Partially Filtered To Sango - ]

[Four o'clock in the morning probably wasn't the best time to be sending a text message, but to one resident of Adstringendum, it really doesn't matter. He had much more important things to worry about.]

I have a surprise for you. Meet me on the roof of the safe house at dawn.

[Dawn. His

Comments

[offline] brb trying to un-melt 1/2

[coraltaijiya]

[To say the least, Sango wasn't expecting that text. While she isn't the biggest reader (being a woman in Feudal Japan tends to do that) the words are thankfully simple enough to understand on her own, without having to consult Kagome like she had to with Jean Louis' proposal a few days ago. That had given her a headache.]

[But 4am? Goodness, he's lucky Kirara nudged her awake at seeing the notification on the PCD. The bleariness and grogginess, however, does not at all dull the shiver that runs down her spine or the quickening pace of her heart. In a moment she's wide awake--]

[And within a few minutes she slips out of the house silently, so it's not long before she's there.]

[At the sight of the lily petals, she freezes. And the only thought that runs through her head is how did he know? She's never told anyone about this--the only other person who knows (or used to know) that these, of all things, are her absolute favorite object in the world, is Kohaku. And even now--Kohaku isn't even supposed to remember.]

[...well... She

[offline-->voice] asdkfhsflasd the tl;dr I can't

[coraltaijiya]

[The answer is on her lips before she even has time to consider what it should be. She doesn't know if what it is and what it should be are different or the same anymore, and the funny thing is that she doesn't... particularly care. She's always been reckless when it comes to the people she cares about--reckless, stupid, ruled by emotion.]

[But she runs over everything in her mind one last time, just to make sure. Just to make sure that he knows everything he needs to know, that she does, that Raven's words of wisdom resound the same way that they did a week ago, two weeks ago.]

[And to her surprise, everything falls into place. Not exactly--there are puzzle pieces that don't match up quite right, problems yet to solve, obstacles to overcome. But she can see the picture. She can see it, like she's never been able to see the constantly-shifting painting of her and the monk.]

[She can see it, and it is beautiful. Like the lilies: not perfect, not pristine. But beautiful, all the same.]

[So about a half an hour after sunrise, Riku

[offline-->voice] asdfghjkl We are the queens of TL;DR

[reflectivedawn]

[He had been waiting. Patiently at first, but before long he was standing, peering out the window of the study, forcing himself to leave his PCD on the small table next to the large, comfortable chair he had been resting it. Bright green eyes watched and waited, although for what he wasn't sure anymore. To watch her leave, to watch her walk away from him and break his heart more painfully than Sora ever did. To have her find him, to have her come and give him her answer in person. Or to have her contact him, to call him over the PCD and tell him her answer there.

But when the call finally came through, he was hardly expecting the demand that came through with it. A smile crossed his lips, one he couldn't help, foot steps light as he moved across the carpet, picking up the PCD to answer her back, voice calm and easy.]

In the study. You really didn't think I'd go through all that work and then just leave, did you?

[Because nothing could have made him leave at that point. He was set to camp out for the week is he had to. However

[offline] Yes. We are. And I love it. B)

[coraltaijiya]

[There is no answer from the PCD.]

[Instead, there is the quiet click of the door a few minutes later as it shuts behind Sango. She's facing it, so the only thing Riku can see is her newly-acquired outfit of patched-up jeans and a T-shirt, plus the long ponytail that swishes to her hips--afforded an extra inch or two of growth from her five months (so long already?) in Adstringendum.]

[When she finally turns, she has the silver pendant looped around one hand and the bouquet tucked under the other arm.]

[And she doesn't--know how to start. So for a moment she just--stands there, staring at him, looking almost like a deer in the headlights. A happy(?) deer in the headlights.]

[offline] I love them. They are just. So freaking adorable.

[reflectivedawn]

[And all he can do is stare at her, eyes focused on her face for a moment, waiting for movement, for some sign of emotion or life to come into her eyes, for her body language to give away something away. But there's nothing. He can see the glimmer of silver as it shines in the sunlight, and the way the lilies only look more white, more pure and beautiful when placed next to her own pale skin, her own broken perfection, her own beauty that he had found himself falling for more and more and more until all he could do was give into it and hope that he wasn't making the wrong choice. But he had found, much as she had, that he didn't really care if it was the wrong or the right choice. He wanted this. Wanted them

[offline] Yes. Yes they are. <3

[coraltaijiya]

[And suddenly he is close, so close, breathtakingly so. Inches away, she can smell him against the dewy morning air and brightening light and see the way his hair (silver, she knew it from the start) and his eyes (so, so green--different from any she's seen before) play off of each other. The sheen of sunlight against ocean waters she's never seen.]

[And she understands why he said "dawn." There is no other time of day when he is so perfect, wrapped so comfortably in the time of day like a cat in a sunbeam. It is him in every way.]

[Dawn... the time for new beginnings. Their new beginning.]

[She could definitely learn to love the dawn.]

[Sango wants this, yes. But she is unused to indulging her own desires. Before, there's always been an excuse.]

[But now... why not?]

[Foreign words, foreign answers. There is no response to the silent question she poses herself.]

[After an eternity, she remembers to breathe.]

Yes. How did you know...?

[Her eyes fall to the lilies.]

[offline]

[reflectivedawn]

[Dawn. How could he ever have expected her to fully understand just what the dawn meant to him. How at that one moment that felt so long ago down, he had been faced with a cross roads, and instead of choosing one or the other, he had chosen the middle road. DiZ had called it the Twilight Road To Nightfall. And he had corrected him, telling him that no, it wasn't. It was the Road to Dawn.

His keyblade was even named for it, for this time of day that had become his favorite, that seemed to embody everything he stood for. Way to the Dawn. Dawn. The pathway between light and darkness.

And suddenly, words he had once said to Sora popped into his mind unbidden:

"If you're the light, then I'll be the dawn. I'll always make sure you rise."

"You're my light. Don't ever think I'd put anyone above you."His eyes fluttered closed as he tried to force the memories from his mind. He didn't want to think of Sora, not now, not when he was standing in front of her. It was time to move on. To put what had happened between him and Sora into the

[offline] 1/2

[coraltaijiya]

[When her eyes flick from the lilies back to him, brown meeting green, there is a mildly amazed look on her face. She whispers something nearly inaudible--something about mother and Kohaku and lilies--]

[And then she stops, abruptly, and can't help but smile. She will never get used to being read so very easily and accurately.]

I should've known.

[A few days ago, she wouldn't have remembered that she loves, loves lilies, or why. She'd lost it all last week--and though she knew it was missing, she couldn't place it, and she'd felt--admittedly--lost. When that memory, along with all the others, had come rushing back at midnight, it'd been like a punch to the stomach. Everything (re)gained an entirely different meaning and suddenly everything made sense.]

[She had forgotten. She, who never forgets, who has been left to remember.]

[And that bothers her so much more than she'll ever admit. She's not afraid of death--not here, not at home; if anything, what scares her is the thought of failure--and of the loss. It is not losing a limb

[offline]

[coraltaijiya]

[She's looking at him again, suddenly, the card falling to the floor... forgotten.]

But I can be second-best.

[And she can be the best damn second-best he's ever known.]

[offline] 1/3 BECAUSE I CAN.

[reflectivedawn]

[For a moment, the briefest, most breath taking moment, it felt as though the world had stopped. Everything within the room stood still, waiting for her, waiting for her answer. Waiting for heart break or joy, life shattering pain or body shaking happiness. It all rested on that moment

[offline]

[reflectivedawn]

[And then his eyes snapped open, her words flowing into his mind, into his body, into his heart. How weird it was that in that moment he could almost believe that he one again. That he had a soul that could feel and speak and breath and be. How in that moment unspeakable, undescribable joy where before there had been unspeakable, undescribable pain causes something to spark in his brain. He could do this. He could continue on with this loss that he had suffered. He could and he would, because he had to. And because he could be okay. She would make sure of it

[offline]

[reflectivedawn]

[And just like her, he doesn't know how to speak, doesn't know what to say that could ever encompass what he wants to say. He doesn't speak, he does.

And as the card with it's carefully crafted letters falls to the ground, her name stares back up at him, but he doesn't even notice. What he does notice is the way her eye shimmer in the light and the way she looks at him like he's the only thing in the world that means anything.

Slender fingers reach out, gently pushing back a stray strand of hair, fallen from the tight pony tail she wears, ghosting over her cheek gently as it travels. They brush against her jaw, before his palm cups it, tilting her head up just slightly. Just ever so slightly. And before even he truly knows what's happening, he's pressing into her, closer than he ever dared to before, his own neck bent as he leans downwards.

His nose nudges against hers ever so gently, those bright green eyes still opened and focused on her own swirling brown.]

I thought you'd say that.

[And then the shimmering green is lost

[offline] 1/3 because I can~

[coraltaijiya]

[He is close again, so so close, touching her, fingers in her hair, on her face--so close and she can't breathe, she can't think, she can't be. For a moment Naraku doesn't exist, her brother doesn't exist, her friends don't exist and nothing exists but this room, this moment, this dawn, this future.]

[This destiny she's still not quite sure if she even believes in.]

[She doesn't know, no; she can't know. Destiny Island. Destiny Is Land.]

[Destiny is Riku. Riku is dawn. The dawn of destiny. She is touching destiny--touching dawn. Touching the intangible, the impossible, and it is solid and here and someday, when she realizes exactly what it all means she will laugh at the irony, the impossibility, the symbolism and the truth, and she will know, consciously, that yes, destiny is real--and it is right here beside her. That dawn is not just the fleeting moment at the beginning of a day, of a lifetime, where things are bright with promise--but a state, where the dimness belies the struggles behind (and in front, and eternal). That dawn

[offline]

[coraltaijiya]

[But for now, she remembers to suck in a shallow breath though he's barely an inch away from her because he's saying something, something important...]

Don't lie to me.

[It is quiet, but firm. Definitely not a request--not even a reprimand--but not a command, either. It's more like a statement. A fact, even. Because no, he didn't think that. She'd seen just a moment ago the look on his face, the uncertainty, the pain, the devastation as he moved away. And then the look of surprise and elation. Reading and being read--it's a two-way street. Somehow, he guessed her favorite thing in the world. Somehow, he knew the perfect path to work his way into her heart. Somehow he knows so much about her when she's told him so, so little. It's only natural that she know he's lying, isn't it?]

[offline]

[coraltaijiya]

[But even if she wanted to scold him there's no time, no pause. Because suddenly there are lips in the equation and breathlessness--and maybe it's not so sudden, maybe somewhere she was expecting it, maybe he gives her plenty of warning but that doesn't mean she isn't surprised. She has this horrible habit of forgetting to breathe, apparently, when he is so, so close. And before she knows it her eyes are shut, too, because it feels like the right thing to do, and she is too dumbstruck to think about anything before she just does it.]

[And for a moment, it is Sango's first kiss.]

[offline]

[reflectivedawn]

[Her words float into his brain slowly, and for a moment they make no sense, swirling around along with the thick fog that had rolled in the moment his lips had touched hers. It was as if the room was spinning, leaving only the two of them behind, in one stationary position, becoming the axis for all that happened around them. And nothing else mattered. The world outside of this room no longer matter, and what could be happening beyond these walls no longer mattered. What could happen if their enemies ever found about the other no longer mattered. Only each other mattered, and knowing that their next breath would come because the other would ensure it.

And destiny didn't matter, as much as he believed in it, as much as he was it, it didn't matter. Only the next moment mattered, the next blink of an eye or the next beat of a heart