Oh noes! :( That's really sad.

"and wish she would stop talking, because I think I might be able to kill her right now, without a second thought."
-All the seriousness comes to a head. And it's chilling... because Shigure would.

"the faint stain of blood on the floor, that I know won’t ever come out."
-Literally, and metaphorically, and brilliant.

"the very faintest glimmer of triumph behind her worried eyes. She’s forced the rebel to bow before her; it pleases her."
"even though one of her juunishi is broken and bleeding somewhere, she has only eyes to see the cracks she’s made in me, and she’s proud.
-Because it's all a game. Even when lives are at stake, it's all a game, and they are her chess pawns and Shigure's pawns--but this time her sacrifice doesn't advance anything, even if she gets momentary satisfaction.

"I’m not Akito."
-Another word play, almost. He's not physically Akito, but he also understands people and boundaries better than she does. Shigure's just as ruthless, but he calculates his moves better. He wouldn't mess things up this way.

"I half expect Hatori to look at us, wave us away, tell us not to worry, but he sits silently, aged decades, caved in on himself."
-The worst part, the full confirmation that Something Is Very Wrong.

And serious!helpless!nursemaid Ayame. Things are grave. Even he can't pretend it's nothing, that all will be alright, and things can go back to the way they were before.

"I’d almost forgotten about her, to be honest. She’s already gone. I saw it in her face as soon as she saw all the blood."
-Just... yes.

And the gut-wrenching of Shigure... it's beautiful. He's still human. Just because he goes ahead with his plans anyway doesn't mean that being ruthless doesn't hurt him. He just tries his best to ignore it and pretend it doesn't bother him.

"This is hers alone to carry. I refuse to share it with her."
-Not, "I'm not in any way responsible," but instead, "I refuse."

Your ending lines, they are fatally perfect.

It all reminds me of the stuff we're doing in class... post-apocalyptic. You don't portray the event, but instead you write about it in the way that everything is a symptom that points back to the trauma. It's all about the perfect showing, which gives a better picture of events than just telling "and here's right where the world ended."

-Windswift

“How did I let this happen?”
- This… isn’t going to be happy, is it? I didn’t read the summary, because I was too exited, and now I have a very lost feeling, and am also fingernail-chewing thanks to you, and…

“It was her fault…her fault…”
- Nn. Well. I can at least guess who we’re with. I want to hug her and cry already. Damnit, how do you do this to me within sentences? Not. Right.

“I can’t really tell which, and don’t particularly care.”
- He’s so - again. Like with - oh. A bunch of stuff in “Boundaries.” You have them so down - the place you make for them - I don’t know how to say what I mean here and buggrit onwards.

“I hardly recognize my own voice as it falls out of my mouth, flat, empty.”
- …Shite. And that with the bit about floating earlier. Not. Boding. Well. I don’t know. Shigure should be… something. This is making me nervous. More nervous. …You’re going for heart-attack vengeance now, aren’t you? I can tell because it’s working. With Akito’s reaction…

“I close her out. She sees nothing.”
- No, no, not fair, why…

“…because I think I might be able to kill her right now, without a second thought.”
- And I… don’t know what to do any more. He’s… I mean, she’s his… yeah. I had to stop and read ahead here, because I have no ground any more. I got to “blood” - it’s Hatori, then? I should have read the summary but now I can’t stop.

“You’re upset.”
- Just so… not him. Clinical, as you say. But the repetition, such a stock phrase - it’s so plainly a buffer, to give him something to say to shut her up and keep both of them safe, when usually Shigure plus words is more a work of evil art, and here’s it’s so purely functional… It scares me. Is the thing.

“She’s gone too far this time, and I…don’t know what to do about it.”
- God. And her, then, the flicker of triumph - she did. She went too far, and it’s too messed up, and she feels badly, but - it proved her point. Not just to Hatori or Kana, but Shigure. She’s in charge. Too far doesn’t happen. And being him, it’ll be more like a dare…

“Of course she’s worried for him, but she knows she’s done some damage I can’t instantly spit back at her, and so, even though one of her juunishi is broken and bleeding somewhere, she has only eyes to see the cracks she’s made in me, and she’s proud.”
- So beautifully written and expressive. Yes. She wins this round so utterly. And, hate aside, some part of him has got to be… well. He’s the star. It all came back to him. And Akito - oh. Just. Hatori, and she’s… doing what she would be.

“I don’t start to falter until I nearly reach Hatori’s rooms, and then I feel like I might fall at any second, though my feet continue to move, always steady, always forward.”
- Perfect. My stomach dropped with the faltering, and the falling, but he keeps going - momentum…

“ ‘Shigure,’ he murmurs, half a sigh, half a plea.”
- Crap. No. I’m downstairs. I cannot cry right now. But - plea. Hatori. God, everything is so screwed up and it all goes downhill from here, I mean…

“It scares me.”
- Nonono. How are you making me feel about three feet tall and needing to grab them both and plead for them to be okay, and then Ayame “miserable” - I just - damnit. Helpless and train-crashy. You’re making me a child in need of reassurance, is what I’m trying to say.

The aging. Saying how Hatori looks older, and then “withered” - perfect. Oh I hate you. So much in so short a time. Too far and not a thing to be done. Doing things might make it worse.

“She’s already gone. I saw it in her face as soon as she saw all the blood. It will be easier to just not think about her now. She isn’t any of my concern.”
- The coldness - it still bites my fingers when you sneak up on me like that. And something about the way you phrased it, gone since the blood - it just makes the whole thing hit all at once. She’s trying to protect him, but she isn’t doing the right thing, because there is no right thing. This whole thing is so far beyond recall…

“I don’t know how this happened…he should have known…”
- Oh exactly. I mean, no, it’s not fair, but damnit he should have. Practical.

“ ‘Was it you?’ ”
- Oh god. No. God. But he would - even Ayame - have to ask and no please.

“…staring at him and praying he believes me, because otherwise I don’t know what I’ll do.”
- Exactly. Both of them. Not that - Hatori - but everything he’s done, all this time, Ayame has to take it on pure faith or Shigure loses half of everything he has, and there’s… not much reason to take anything on faith from him. Except that it is Ayame, and he HAS to, please.

Ayame’s hand closes on mine in the dimness, his fingers clutching at mine, like hers do…but so much different, asking so much less, and yet needing so much more.”
- With Shigure shaking - there. I don’t have anything… crap. Crying. Yes.

“He hesitates for less than half a second, and I know it’s because he’s still not entirely sure that I didn’t play some part in this. But I’m composed now, and his suspicion doesn’t bother me.”
- Oh I hatelove you for leaving that in. The suspicion. Break something and the pieces are always hiding somewhere. And that last sentence - speaking of being slapped.

“This is hers alone to carry. I refuse to share it with her.”
- Just so perfect. He’s so awful to her, it doesn’t… I just never thought of this. Everyone is suspicious of him, and everything - well. They can always blame him, too. He’s actually taking flak for HER, not just at random.

“I just have to find it, which I will.”
- On a Whedon scale of giving me what I just asked for - Shigure being the jellyfish sort of dependable I depend on - and making sure it will cut my fingers up when I take it, this… makes you sadistic. It’s so exactly right, and I want to just make. it. stop. Because it’s going even further downwards…

“I hate her too, passionately, and more violently in my regained calm.”
- More violently in calm. Icon-worthy. Damnit.

“But I know that I’ll show it, and that I’ll use it, and that I’ll make her pay dearly for this.
She can’t expect any less from me.”
- Dare. And again - trainwreck.

Consider yourself avenged.

Oh bad word, “avenged”. Everything’s so messed UP…

This is a beautiful oneshot that really captures the relationship between Shigure and Akito. I love how well you lace this scene into the general story and I actually really like the fact that Aaya shows a sense of mistrust toward Shigure because not a lot of writers give Ayame the credit for his intelligence and tend to focus on his flambuoyancy instead.

Good job! :)

Again I am rather chilled.

But you show his confusion and anger in this sudden and unexpected move and yet he regains his calm despite his fury and worry that they would pin the blame on him. When she was the one who took the uneccesary steps.. this makes me look at the scene with Mayuko where he tells her not to visit Kana with calm and almost amusement when she comes out all sad... he is in many ways closed of and always looking at people as if they are peices even if they are people that he cares about it's all about the 'game' the end result and him coming out on top and getting what he wants. I can tell he *is* upset at what happened to Kana but he pushes it back into cool anger and knows that somewhere along the line he will do a strike that will make up for it.

You do them very well... and Aya to him being so unsure when Hatori who is usally the one who dictates what is what even in a nice way and he has to lean on Shigure despite not being sure whether or not his friend deserves blame. I feel rather sad...

They all have used so many over the years haven't they? Yuki has been Akito's main pawn though as well as Kureno.. though none of them get any peice from God do they? Oh the relief when he could see that Shigure wasn't Akito *nods* that was done well to.

I won't complain that this isn't in your plans :P haha even with plans writing or muses do indeed like throwing them out of the window.