Light and Dark (Prompt #4: Opposites)
Title: Light and Dark
Author: lady_ganesh
Characters: Koumyou, Kouryuu
Time: Forty minutes or so? I got interrupted and kind of lost track.Took me about forty minutes, start to finish. I could've spent another hour on the stinking title.
Koumyou had often wondered at the universe, which had seen fit to give him such complimentary gifts; the Maten and Seiten Sutras, not quite opposites but hardly a perfect match.
They didn't always get along, and they were...not active today, quite, but a bit uncomfortable, shifting uneasily on his shoulders as he walked.
He wondered if they knew something he didn't.
Kouryuu was watching a fish with his characteristic intensity; something about it had caught the boy's eye, and it was a wonder the poor thing didn't cook under his iron-hot gaze. Koumyou almost wanted to tease him, but it was so rare he caught the boy doing anything childish or frivolous these days; he let the boy continue watching, and then watched the fish itself as it hunted in the stream.
Kouryuu was almost a man, thirteen, straight-backed, gaining inches like a sunflower in the heat. The boy who had crept into his room after a nightmare or begged him to tell stories about dragons was now staring out at the moon late at night or lost deep within a book. He was thoughtful and clever, never kind but not cruel. Koumyou knew he would become a good man...though probably not a conventional one.
That was all right. Conventionality was overrated; Koumyou knew that better than anyone.
He should give Kouryuu his title soon, he realized. The sutras knew something was coming; they were uneasy, and that never bode well. He would give him the Maten first; the boy had darkness enough to need breaking, and Koumyou wanted to hold on to the light a little longer.
Genjo, he thought, watching as Kouryuu shook his attention from the fish and brought his eyes back to the road. That would suit him.
His mortality slid into sharp focus, and he wondered if he would live to see what kind of a man Genjo Sanzo would be. He knew people thought of them as an odd couple, not quite father and son, so different in appearance and temperament. But they complimented one another, like the sutras he carried; yang with its dot of bright yin, yin with its smooth pool of yang.
"Are we almost there, Master?" Kouryuu asked.
"Almost," Koumyou answered. "But I'm in no hurry."
Author: lady_ganesh
Characters: Koumyou, Kouryuu
Time: Forty minutes or so? I got interrupted and kind of lost track.Took me about forty minutes, start to finish. I could've spent another hour on the stinking title.
Koumyou had often wondered at the universe, which had seen fit to give him such complimentary gifts; the Maten and Seiten Sutras, not quite opposites but hardly a perfect match.
They didn't always get along, and they were...not active today, quite, but a bit uncomfortable, shifting uneasily on his shoulders as he walked.
He wondered if they knew something he didn't.
Kouryuu was watching a fish with his characteristic intensity; something about it had caught the boy's eye, and it was a wonder the poor thing didn't cook under his iron-hot gaze. Koumyou almost wanted to tease him, but it was so rare he caught the boy doing anything childish or frivolous these days; he let the boy continue watching, and then watched the fish itself as it hunted in the stream.
Kouryuu was almost a man, thirteen, straight-backed, gaining inches like a sunflower in the heat. The boy who had crept into his room after a nightmare or begged him to tell stories about dragons was now staring out at the moon late at night or lost deep within a book. He was thoughtful and clever, never kind but not cruel. Koumyou knew he would become a good man...though probably not a conventional one.
That was all right. Conventionality was overrated; Koumyou knew that better than anyone.
He should give Kouryuu his title soon, he realized. The sutras knew something was coming; they were uneasy, and that never bode well. He would give him the Maten first; the boy had darkness enough to need breaking, and Koumyou wanted to hold on to the light a little longer.
Genjo, he thought, watching as Kouryuu shook his attention from the fish and brought his eyes back to the road. That would suit him.
His mortality slid into sharp focus, and he wondered if he would live to see what kind of a man Genjo Sanzo would be. He knew people thought of them as an odd couple, not quite father and son, so different in appearance and temperament. But they complimented one another, like the sutras he carried; yang with its dot of bright yin, yin with its smooth pool of yang.
"Are we almost there, Master?" Kouryuu asked.
"Almost," Koumyou answered. "But I'm in no hurry."