Re: Idyll (Maku)

Tue Sep 24, 2019 6:07 pm

He didn't comfort her, she hand't expected him to. Or at least he didn't in the way Den would have, or in the way Youka would have in the way virtually anyone would have upon seeing a weeping woman mourning her lost child. Later, much later, Akihana would reflect on why her and Maku's paths always crossed when she couldn't even expect simple human comfort from him. She had no expectations of the Makuton user in front of her and yet, when he talked of the world changing, the kunoichi couldn't help thinking he somehow knew. Even before she had a chance to cement his knowledge with actual details, some part of him knew because some part of her knew, as it had always known.

They had never needed to be ninja to read each other, but it worked as a convenient enough excuse.

"But I do know......I’ve waited a long time to do this....”

His fingers on her face were deceptively soft, not meant to brush away her tears or relieve her of any of the agony she suffered. No, they served only one purpose, to draw her closer to him until she felt the slightest touch of his lips to hers. Nothing about the action was meant to leave a mark, meant to be applied with any kind of force. To assert possession of any kind.

Almost as if he didn't want to ever be reminded of the swift, brief contact between the two.

And instead of freezing, instead of responding or objecting, Akihana silently accepted it. Because if more pain and uncertainties were the only things he was capable of giving her, then she would take those too.

Maku's presence - glowing softly or shining brighter than the sun - would always be the force around which Akihana's own world would orbit, and no amount of space and time apart would ever change that.

***

When she woke up, it was with a start. The blonde wasn't used to falling asleep in strange surroundings without her knowledge and the fear of sleep was still embedded deep in her psyche. Golden eyes opened wide as she sat up on the bench, fleeing usually well rested and free of the cricks and aches that accompanied a night of sleeping on a hard bench. The wood beneath her was warm, probably the reason why she didn't feel cold despite the lingering raindrops being chased away by the weak mid morning sun approaching fast.

Her mind didn't have to reach to much to recall last night's outing. Though another look around the still glowing garden showed her companion was no longer present. Almost instantly, a finger rose to her lips, as if trying to sense the remains of what had happened last night. But even as she did so, she knew there would be nothing to find.It had probably been a dream. And if it hand't, Maku was not likely to leave behind any signs of it being real.

Busy chattering from amongs the glades attracted her attention then, drawing into focus the playful squirrel with the pink ribbons upon her head. Instinctively, a warm smile graced the blonde's lips. In her return to the world so far, this was the happiest, rearmost carefree she had ever seen another living thing.

It was the first time since her return that she had truly smiled.

Almost as if the joyful little creature could sense her smile, it ran up to the bench and deposited a note directly into her hands. Of course the critter was related to Maku in some way, he had always had an affinity for woodland creatures. Even the nine tailed demon of legend had been merely a fox to the man.

The note confined what she had suspected, exhaustion had likely taken over after three days, putting her body into forced sleep mode. As a medic, Akihana understood the mechanics of how such a process worked. As a woman terrified to sleep and able to revitalize her stamina passively just to avoid the planes of the unconscious, she also knew it was unlikely.

And even as she gathered up herself, adjusted Den's coat around her still nightshirt clad frame and began the slow walk back to the apartment, she knew she didn't have dreams of the kind her mind was claiming to have indulged in last night.

And the only means of giving away an illusion for what it was, was trying too hard.

(Exit Akihana)

Total words: 6490

Claiming 32 stats (15 to chakra, 15 to speed, 2 to strength)
90 Words to charity

Tue Sep 24, 2019 6:17 pm

Approved