Innocence is Wasted on the Youth

By Clorinda

Rated: PG

Category: General

Summary: And the eagle came swooping into the glade of the rabbit. (SaitoxAyumi) One-shot.

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A passing smile. A flash of her choker of pearls. A lingering gaze.

That was all it took.

His breath felt sharp and hot against her face when he whispered, "What now? What do we do now?"

She smiled sarcastically. "Is that a question? After this situation is entirely your fault?"

That's how they started off, two teenagers accidentally-not-on-purpose locked in a cupboard full of perfumed kimonos.

Inhaling strongly, and coughing lightly against it, he said, "That's quite a powerful fragrance. Very foul too."

"They've been here for decades, Lord knows what died in here," she told him.

He laughed despite the cramped conditions. "My dear, I was referring to you."

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Early years were never accommodating for them, bickering and slighting as the sun set in the horizon.

"That's the lousiest thing I've ever seen," she snorted, staring down at him, poised with his leg bent, arm arched over the blade of his unsheathed sword. Then there was a sharp wind, a moving blur. She stood as if she'd been electrocuted.

He, a few feet behind her, smirked. "Minor after-effect. No style really, no name. Highly original. I just perfected it."

She didn't dare raise a hand to feel the deliberate hairline cut by a sharpened samurai sword.

---

The years that followed were clumsy and awkward, and groping for words they never thought they'd say.

He walked into a weaponry store to purchase a light-bladed sword. Of all things, he hadn't expected to see her standing there in rich violet clothes that fell to the floor, fingering the weapon he needed. He simply stood there in the entrance, his jaw dropped, staring openly.

Strangely, it was excruciatingly hard for her to tell him, "Like what you see?" But she'd been on the verge of a particularly snide comment, when he disarmed her completely.

"I finally see you someplace where you look as if you belong."

If it had been anyone but him, she would have grabbed their collar and demanded their meaning. But no. It was him they were talking about. She always knew what he meant.

And that was the turning point in their lives when they first looked at each other a second time.

---

They never held hands, kissed one another or expressed the faintest affection. Oh no. They were too proud for that.

A passing smile. A flash of her choker of pearls. A lingering gaze.

That was how it started. And that was all that they didn't condemn.

Shishio came, and Shishio went, taking her along with him.

And as she got up and walked out the door, not once did she glance back over shoulder at him— because he was not there to bid her farewell.

— End —

Author's Note: I know this ship is a little unconventional, but review please. About the summary of this fic, the "eagle" refers to Ayumi. If there are any objections to the spelling of her name, it's just that it sounds like Ayumi on the TV, which broadcasts the English version of Animax. Besides, it looks better with the A. (Ehe.)