Secret Santa fic: The Last Who Remember
The Last Who Remember
Written by cygna_hime for khaas.
Prompt: Eriol and Sakura (pairing), foggy breaths during cold nights. (Well, the prompt is only peripherally there, but I did manage the pairing for you.)
Rating: G, possible PG for mention of death.
Canon: A long, long time post-canon, anime or manga.
Genre: Romance, Angst.
Word count: 390
Summary: Eriol knows enough to know when Sakura will show up at his door.
Eriol puts the electric kettle on for tea precisely twenty minutes before Sakura appears in the center of his garden, breath like steam in the cold air and dressed entirely inappropriately for the Arctic. He hasn't left this house (the only place on the planet without people) in years, but he still knows why she's there.
"Come in," he says politely, opening the door. "I've made tea." Real, piping hot Earl Grey tea with two sugars just the way Sakura likes it. Sometimes remembering is useful. He says nothing while she drinks, just sips his own cup and watches her look into the cup as though she could find any answers there she couldn't find inside her own head if she wanted to.
"She's dead," Sakura says at last, and Eriol is not surprised that he is not surprised. He has always known what happens to his family. He still says nothing. She says, "She was older than me. Not really, but she looked old, and I don't."
"I know." She still looks like a woman not even thirty, as long as he doesn't look too closely at her face. She hasn't aged in one hundred and ten years, but she has been alive, and her green eyes are very old.
Old green eyes fill with tears. "She was so strong, I thought she would live forever and I would always have my littlest baby girl with me. But then she got sick, and…just like that. Why was it so easy?"
\Eriol can give her nothing but a simple answer. "Not one magician in a hundred thousand has as much power as Suzume-chan, but it wasn't enough. I'm sorry."
"I know. So am I."
They drink their tea, chatting of commonplaces: about Yue, asleep in the Book, and Cerberus, asleep in Sakura's purse; about Ruby out flying and Spinel in the library; about the news and the weather.
"You're the only one besides them who remembers what I was like as a little girl," Sakura says.
"I know," he agrees.
"Why are you still here? I would have thought--"
Eriol smiles. "I never died because I knew that someday you would know what I know, and you and I would be the last who remember how the world used to be."
When he kisses her, Eriol feels young again.
Written by cygna_hime for khaas.
Prompt: Eriol and Sakura (pairing), foggy breaths during cold nights. (Well, the prompt is only peripherally there, but I did manage the pairing for you.)
Rating: G, possible PG for mention of death.
Canon: A long, long time post-canon, anime or manga.
Genre: Romance, Angst.
Word count: 390
Summary: Eriol knows enough to know when Sakura will show up at his door.
Eriol puts the electric kettle on for tea precisely twenty minutes before Sakura appears in the center of his garden, breath like steam in the cold air and dressed entirely inappropriately for the Arctic. He hasn't left this house (the only place on the planet without people) in years, but he still knows why she's there.
"Come in," he says politely, opening the door. "I've made tea." Real, piping hot Earl Grey tea with two sugars just the way Sakura likes it. Sometimes remembering is useful. He says nothing while she drinks, just sips his own cup and watches her look into the cup as though she could find any answers there she couldn't find inside her own head if she wanted to.
"She's dead," Sakura says at last, and Eriol is not surprised that he is not surprised. He has always known what happens to his family. He still says nothing. She says, "She was older than me. Not really, but she looked old, and I don't."
"I know." She still looks like a woman not even thirty, as long as he doesn't look too closely at her face. She hasn't aged in one hundred and ten years, but she has been alive, and her green eyes are very old.
Old green eyes fill with tears. "She was so strong, I thought she would live forever and I would always have my littlest baby girl with me. But then she got sick, and…just like that. Why was it so easy?"
\Eriol can give her nothing but a simple answer. "Not one magician in a hundred thousand has as much power as Suzume-chan, but it wasn't enough. I'm sorry."
"I know. So am I."
They drink their tea, chatting of commonplaces: about Yue, asleep in the Book, and Cerberus, asleep in Sakura's purse; about Ruby out flying and Spinel in the library; about the news and the weather.
"You're the only one besides them who remembers what I was like as a little girl," Sakura says.
"I know," he agrees.
"Why are you still here? I would have thought--"
Eriol smiles. "I never died because I knew that someday you would know what I know, and you and I would be the last who remember how the world used to be."
When he kisses her, Eriol feels young again.