Title: Soak
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: X (by CLAMP)
Genre: Drama, Dark
Word Count: 515
Notes: This is inspired by a conversation I had with sophiap a while back.
Summary: It's raining outside...

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Soak

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Twirling in the dark – the long flaps of her kimono sleeves followed her like an afternoon shadow. She giggled as she spun underneath long, silhouetted branches. It was going to rain soon, and she would be able to squish pale toes in the bubbling trenches of mud between the tree roots. Today was a rare day – she was allowed outside of her room, outside in the damp wind. Droplets of dewy fog hung suspended in the air, caressing her white skin like elegant fingers. She raised a delicate hand to her lips and timidly sucked on a bleeding hangnail.

The sun had long since faded away – not that she was accustomed to the light in the first place. Her eyes were being trained, he said – trained to see nocturnally. The darkness welcomed her sight just as it welcomed her dancing form, she found. Her room was always dark, and seeing the garden outside was no difficult task to master. There were miniscule stars faintly visible through the shifting clouds, and a hazy sliver of the moon made its presence known. She balanced precariously on a tree root, taking great care to curl her toes around its bumpy ridges.

"You've taken your tabi off again," called a low tenor from the doorway.

"I have," she answered merrily back. "I like feeling the ground against my feet."

Before she could blink, she found herself being pressed against the rough bark of a solid tree. Two fingers rested under her small chin and raised her head upwards. The action was so abrupt and jarring, she could feel the dainty skin of her neck stretching like sparse silk spread over a European bed.

"You like it," he repeated darkly, feeling fresh bruises blossom beneath his fingertips.

She did not answer.

"Do you not love it?" he pressed, smiling as the rain began to drip steadily from the sky.

"No, I do not." The reply was automatic.

He trailed his hands down her bleach-white kimono, leaving smudges of grime on the perfect fabric. His eyes were a deep, unnerving black as he stared at her. For a moment, she wondered if he would slice her skin with his fingernails, but he instead lowered her to the ground.

"Do you love me?" he murmured cryptically.

"No, Papa."

The moon lit a portion of his face, and she could dimly see an extra crease beside his mouth.

"Come," he said after a silence. He observed her critically, watching the rain lap steadily at her girlish body. "We need a bath, Setsuka."

She lingered in the rain as he smeared someone's blood on the handle of the door. Glancing down at her toes, she felt a twinge of uncertainty – as was always the case before cleansing. She leaned over to pluck a red bloom that had caught her eye from the moist earth. Smiling secretively, she placed the camellia in her drenched curtain of ebony hair.

Then, he beckoned her forth. She walked toward him, forsaking the two tabi in the drowning earth. She would not need them for a while.

END.

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