Over Him
by Mirune Keishiko
Chapter One
Tell Me What the Rain Knows
About time, thought Takani Megumi dully, staring out at the sullen afternoon. After having been humid and overcast all morning, it was at last beginning to rain. Buildings, cars, traffic signs, people outside the cafe window blurred into a watery gray.
She sipped at her rapidly cooling coffee and eyed the rumpled bits of straw wrapper on the table with a certain enmity. She hated clutter. Normally, so did her friend Kamiya Kaoru, but then Megumi supposed one could forgive a young woman's heedlessness now and then. Especially when said young woman was still starry-eyed over last night's wedding proposal from a certain gorgeous, good-hearted redhead.
It all felt so oddly, unpleasantly familiar, but there was no denying the freshness of the pain in her heart.
Sighing, Megumi gathered the trash into a neat pile on one side of the table. Tilting her head back, she tipped the last drops of black coffee into her mouth.
She had heard, once, that kitsune were doomed to immortalities of loneliness, never to find another with whom to share the endlessness of their existence. Life after ordinary life of humans would pass, ephemeral, bright, dizzy in their teetering between intimacy and solitude, while the kitsune endured. She smiled without mirth. Or were they really doomed...?
Rising to her feet, she shrugged on her coat and picked up her umbrella.
It was the absolute pits as a habit, she knew, as she fished out the somewhat squashed little stick from inside her purse. It meant she was weak, couldn't handle things by herself but needed some chemical supplement to her character. It meant she thought so little of her life that she was willing to smoke it all away, one deep, deliberate breath at a time.
Yare yare. One could forgive a young woman's willfulness now and then. It wasn't everyday that the man you'd been in love with for the last three years pledged himself in lifelong commitment to your best friend.
Coming to a halt outside the cafe's entrance where the overhanging tarpaulin sheltered her from the rain, Megumi raised the sorry little cigarette to her lips--and then cursed softly as she realized she'd left her lighter at home. She'd been so good at quitting thus far...
With a quick, impatient movement, she snatched the cigarette back from her mouth. Then she became aware of a lighter snapping into flame, near her face.
"That's gonna kill you someday, you know," drawled the tall, wild-haired man who had come up beside her. His white shirt was damp with rain. Wordlessly steadying his lighter with slender fingers covering his, she lit up. His hand beneath hers was strong, large, fine-boned.
"There are worse ways to go." Megumi glanced up at him almost indifferently, slowly inhaling the gritty smoke, then releasing it in a long, thin, measured stream. "Sanosuke Sagara."
owari
Just a hasty scribble I dreamed up while listening to Yoko Kanno/Sakamoto Maaya's "Gravity," the sad, fascinating ending theme to "Wolf's Rain." The title of the piece is from another "Wolf's Rain" song.
I really intend no plot. But hey, if you happen to still see one lurking in here somewhere, let me know.Ü