Title: not stop. just pause.
Series: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki
Theme no.: have set me among those who are defeated.
I know it is not for me to win, nor to leave the game
Character(s)/Pairing: Ginka(Ginichi)/Chika(Senko)
Rating: K

Himemiya Senko cries hot tears when he tells her that he will be leaving. With a single hand, he wipes away her tears, and kneels down beside her behind a thriving rose bush. She isn't pushed away or hit or yelled at when she wraps thin, bruised, velvet-encased arms around his waist, clinging desperately. Salty drips of emotion fell onto perfectly green grass. Spring was such a sadistic time of year.

"Senko-chan." His voice swept over her and she shut her eyes. She would capture every tone in that voice. It would be all she would have for the seemingly long, empty road ahead of her. "I promise you that I'll return. I'll save you." He planted a chaste kiss on the top of her head. "You have my word."

She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and nods. "Yes."

- -

He walks without a backward glance through the front gate with his father. She watches through the thick glass window on the third floor. Lessons are commencing, even in his absence. Sensei snapped at her, slapping his ruler on her desk as though her sanctuary (stepping into the black car, rolling away, further, further, until completely out of sight) would never come back to shelter her; fold her under his protective wings; tell her tales of fairy-tail places, just blocks away, and so out of reach. But that was silly. Because he promised her. Ginichi-san never lied.

Himemiya Senko doesn't cry at all when he walks out the gate with his father. He had rid her of her tears with a hand and whispered promises. All of her tears were gone. Her solitude was not. But this was unimportant. She knew he would come for her again, and with the thought, turned her eyes back to Sensei.

She could save her love until Ginichi-san was back. The feeling inside of her was like a rose; beautiful, comforting, and well-protected by thorns. She could hide it. Preserve it. And when he was back, she could pursue its depth. Its potential. I can wait.

Himemiya Senko would win the battle of time.