Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Paint me the horizon ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Paint me the horizon
by sessha himura

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is not mine, but I do hope it was. I'm merely borrowing it to satisfy the needs of my thinking mind and my writing hands.

Notes: I'm not really good at making up titles. Sorry for this one. This is just a product of my daily intimate communiqué with my pillow. It just happened that I started creating this story at night, it was never really my plan to have this posted because I really do not write this kinds of fics, but since my pillow had been a good listener, and to show my gratitude for it, I might as well post it here.

Well, so much for that. This is open for any criticism, good or bad. I will gladly accept all your reviews, your comments and suggestions. But please remember that I have my own storyline. I may add, change a bit, but I will not change anything that will affect the plot entirely.

Thank you! Read and Review please!

Prologue:

There is a sacredness in tears, they are not the mark of weaknesses but of strength…they speak more eloquently than 10,000 tongues.

---Washington Irving

She gathered, after listening to her mother talk with the innkeeper that he would be leaving for the city tomorrow morning.

She quickly raced for the door of her room, twisting every sleeping muscle for she had been comfortably laid on her bed, thinking how her little life changed when he and his mother moved in. She almost jumped out of her bed when she realized what the time is. She rushed through the hallway, not minding the invisibility of things for it was already late, the sun had set deep down the Fuji, and the portion where she was traversing was grieved by having nothing but blinded darkness.

The hallway seemed long enough to tire her seeking eyes; she anticipated every turn she made and every step she took. It was slowly drizzling outside and she shivered at the bare frigidity the rain brings.

She finally found the door she was looking for, it looks like any ordinary door, wooden and heavy, with the slightest tinge of ebony. What makes it different is that it was filled with every lasting memory.

She knocked softly. And she was soon answered.

"Oh, it's you. Hi," it was dark, yet the threatening lightning revealed a pair of warm purple eyes, a stroke of smiling lips and a feature that's definitely a he, though one could mistake him for a she.

"Have I disturbed you?" she asked, meeting his gaze with the same intensity, yet with a slight bashfulness reflected on them.

He shook his head, "Come in." He opened the door widely for her and beckoned with his hand for her to enter the room.

She surveyed her surroundings, it's not that she had been here only now, it's just that tonight, for she knows this is the last night, everything about his room seems different, everything about him seems distant. She smiled at him after noticing the sudden change of his expression.

He sat on the bed, his facial muscles twisting into what may look like a frown.

"Are you leaving tomorrow?" she suddenly asked. She sat on the bed to join him and stood silent for quite a while.

He nodded.

"I see."

He stared at her expectantly, waiting for something to be still said. But nothing came. "Is that all you're going to say to me? Is that how you say goodbye to a dear friend?"

"What do you want me to say?"

He stood still for a moment, trying to digest everything about his soon departure, "I'll be coming back after some time."

"When?" she wants a definite answer. She had been plagued with so many indefinite things about her life before, another unfathomable thing will only worsen her heaving moral.

"I don't know."

"Be definite. How long? One year? Two? Perhaps three?"

"I'm sorry I don't know."

She kept quite. She knew they were still young, and everything about the two of them might still change. She turned to stand and leave for her room.

"Eight years."

She turned around and faced him, her eyes as huge as saucers and brimming with anxiety, anticipation and all sorts of feelings.

"I'll be back after eight years."

She realized what he meant after quite a time and soon found his gloomy face looking in different directions. She smiled, "Why eight years?"

"Why? So that when we meet again, we'll be already in the right age to marry each other," he murmured, his face deeply blushing.

She smiled again. "Okay."

"Is that all?"

She nodded, quite puzzled by whatever it was that he meant.

"What if I will not come back after eight years?"

She stared thoughtfully at him for sometime and then her eyes lit up like little lanterns, "I'll follow you, I'll go to the city to see you."

It was his turn to smile.

"If you're going to be something, what would you be?" she suddenly asked.

He smiled, "what?"

"I'll be the sky."

He quickly gathered what she meant by the question and he just nodded, not really sure about his answer. "Why sky?" he asked.

"So that if you'll go away, I'll always be there to watch over you. The sky never leaves it posts. It's always there, just as I would like to be with you always."

He nodded, squeezing her hand tightly, "Aren't you going to cry?"

"Tomorrow," she quickly pulled her hand and went out of the room immediately. She walked fast, then ran and ran until she reached her room. When she reached her door, he face was already smeared with salty water. Tears. She had been crying, right after she walked away from him.

They were silently traversing the path back to the inn, when suddenly she stopped him and grabbed his hand and led him to a path going toward the sea.

"I just want to tell you something before you leave," she said, breathing heavily.

He kept quiet along the way and just continued running with her until they reached the glistening sea.

It was a fine morning, the rain last night left no prints as to how it came about. Last night the sky already cried for her. The sea was at its bluest, the waves calmly rush back and forth, and the movements of the waves started to evolve into something like that of a chant.

"Here," she murmured, barely a whisper.

"What here?" "I'll be waiting for your return here, okay?"

He nodded.

Her face suddenly contracted and she burst out crying, her sobs reaching to the zeniths of heavens, pleading to give another day to them. She was still so much a child.

He pulled her to him, and let her cry there. "I'll come back."

She pulled back slowly, and tilting her face to look at him murmured, "you have to go, your mother's already waiting for you."

"Take this," he murmured as he took something out of his pocket. It was a small paper, nothing was written on it, only doodles of an immaculate sort. The whole paper was painted blue, with a dab of white every now and then. It was the sky.

"What's this?" she asked, wiping her wet eyes with the hem of her sleeves.

"The sky, for you."

Another burst of tears came in surge and she tried hard to stop them, "Thank you. You should go back now. Your mother's already waiting at the inn." She quickly grabbed the piece of paper and ran, ran, ran still until she was lost in a white oblivion.

Notes: So what do you think about it? It's just the prologue anyway. But please do ask questions if you find some parts confusing. I would reiterate those parts. Thank you. Read and review please.