+Legacy

 

An RK Fanfic: i.e. the author doesn't claim rights to the anime used.

 

Chapter 25- Bring back the Sun ( NC17 not intended for minors )

 

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"We are all innocent."

 

                                                                         - Our Lady Peace

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The soft bristles of the ornate silver brush slipped easily through the sea of midnight silk that was Wang Tian Quai's hair. The shimmering mass had been wrapped around her left shoulder so that it spilled over her nearly-bare breasts to pool in the lap of her scarlet silk gown that seemed to decorate her voluptuous figure more than it protected her modesty…if she had any that is.

 

Sighing, she placed the brush on the polished surface of her dresser with an emphatic click as she glared at her reflection in the mirror. Her otherwise lovely features twisted into a near-demonic mask of pure hatred at the image displayed to her vermilion eyes.

 

No punishment dreamed up by the gods themselves could ever have been worse than the nauseating hell that she lived day after day, knowing that she was now a part of what she hated most. With a wave of her hand her reflection shimmered and dissipated to show a split image of two tear-streaked faces, hardened and drawn with unnamable grief. Grief that she herself had willingly inflicted. The thought caused a shadow of a devil's smile to cross her lips, her hand instinctively reaching up to stroke the side of her face.

 

"I hope it hurts," she snarled vehemently at her darkened reflection, "I hope it hurts like hell."

 

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Shimmering locks of silvery-blue hair fell forward in a tangled mess over a face that after weeks of false smiles and reassuring glances, finally began to show just how young and uncertain it truly was. Hideki's hands treacherously shook like a weak old woman's as it held the cup of tea that Aoshi had given her in a death-grip.

 

Aoshi's hands curled into fists in his lap as he silently cursed his uselessness in the current situation. He was always a man who prided himself in being aware of every single thing going on around him. Swift analysis, speedy solution. If he knew everything worth knowing, he could protect everyone worth protecting.

 

Hideki tried to look up at him for the third time since he'd brought her to his rooms, and for the third time that night, her eyes filled with burning tears that forced her to hide her face again. Aoshi's heart wrenched with the shuddering breath that escaped her lips as she tried to calm herself for his sake. She struggled to comfort him, even when she was the one who so obviously needed comforting. If he couldn't find a way to ease her pain then…he was good for nothing, nothing at all.

 

"Thank you." she whispered suddenly.

 

Slowly, he raised his head to find her looking directly into his eyes, her full lips set into a weak smile under two shimmering cobalt eyes that threatened to spill their salty cargo onto her cheeks at any moment. Yet, behind the tears, there was a warmth that belied the truth of her words. Gratitude. She truly was grateful to him, but for what? All he had done for her so far was to fail her in every way.

 

"Why?" he softly asked, "I've done nothing for you. I can't even find the words to comfort you, so I just sit here an watch while you fight your own pain." His breath grew ragged as his own hands fisted in upon themselves in frustration.

 

Everything that he had seen and heard that day should have frightened him, but instead all he could feel was a sense of loss. Hideki was so much more than what he had ever suspected. She suddenly seemed unreachable to him, deeply involved in something that was obviously bigger than them both. Engaged in a fight that he could do nothing to help her win, but only look on as her heart was slowly crushed under the sheer weight of her burden. He was, for all intents and purposes…utterly useless.

 

The acid burn that had begun in his throat hours ago would no longer stand to be ignored and he swallowed hard against the sensation as his thoughts grew more muddled and uncertain with every passing moment. He was so wrapped up in them that it took him a few moments than was usually necessary to register the fact that Hideki's words of gratefulness had been accompanied by the halting touch of her hand on his own. An action which had inadvertently brought her face just a breath away from his.

 

From that distance, he could catch the scent of her hair and skin, that mild, sweet fragrance that reminded him of a grove of peach trees in summertime. His eyes traveled over her face, taking in the golden glow of her skin, the oceanic depths of her eyes, the silk of her hair as a little lock of it stuck to her cheek alongside her parted lips…

 

Maybe there was something he could offer her. It was only a small token, but under the circumstances it was all he had to give. Slowly, his hands moved to cover hers and as she looked up in surprise, she found his lips pressed to her own. It was a silent, chaste expression of the feeling that had begun rising in both their hearts from the first moment they had laid eyes on each-other. His kiss took nothing from her, but as he drew away she could feel a new warmth permeating her tired body, giving her a sense of strength that she thought she would never feel again.

 

Life is short and charity rare. Those words never seemed truer to Aoshi at any given moment than the one in which he held his eyes closed, savoring the feel of Hideki's skin on his. Even before he had opened them again to look upon her startled face his heart willed the cords of his throat to work, to put into words what he had felt from the first moment he had seen this angel of light. Unbidden, they fell from his mouth like liquid drops of prayer, Hideki's already startled blue eyes widening with every word.

 

"You're beautiful," he whispered, "You are the single most wonderful thing to ever happen to me Hideki. You're like sunlight, one smile from you and my whole world is clean and bright and innocent all over again."

 

As he spoke, his thumb stroked over her hand soothingly, encouraging her to be brave, to not run away from what he was trying to say. Swallowing forcefully, she averted her eyes as they began to fill with warm liquid emotion once more. Even so, she drew comfort from his touch, closing her ears to any thought of escaping his heartfelt confession.

 

Drawing in a breath that was shakier than he would have liked it to be, Aoshi closed his eyes once more as if drawing strength from within himself. When he opened them again, Hideki had to stifle a gasp of pure awe. For the first time since she had met him, Aoshi's eyes lost the steely cast that had lent them their coldness and she suddenly found herself lost in the warm blue of an endless summer sky.

 

"Aoshi…" she heard herself whisper, "You don't know what you're saying..."

 

A gentle hand cupped her chin as she tried to turn her eyes downward, causing them to look into his gentle blue gaze again.

 

"Don't I?" he said softly, "I'm not a young man anymore Hideki, I'm not so foolish as to not recognize love for what it is."

 

Hideki's eyes grew so wide that her long-preserved tears finally slid through her lashes and down the sides of her reddened cheeks. There was no flower-card to blame this one on, no spell or illusion coloring his words. What Aoshi was saying to her was the truth and nothing but, in the depths of her heart she knew them to be true.

 

"I…I feel the same," she said meekly as the flow of tears became stronger, "But I'm so afraid of what might happen to you if I…if we…"

 

A brush of his thumb across her lips silenced any further protest. "I'd rather be at risk with you by my side than safe without you," he murmured, "There's nothing you can do to push me away."

 

Hideki's eyes drifted half-closed at the sensual brush of his sword-calloused hand over her sensitive skin. Reaching up with one hand, she grasped his at the wrist, gently tugging it away from her face.

 

Her mouth pursed with uncertainty for a moment before she turned her back to him, sitting directly in front of him. Then, to his surprise  and wonder, she shrugged the practice gi that she was wearing off of her smooth shoulders, down her slender arms, all the way down until it fell in a crumpled mass around her bare waist. Her hands then traveled upward to her hair that cascaded freely down the length of her back, hiding it from view. Slowly, she grasped the shimmering mass at her nape, pulling it to the side and over her shoulder.

 

Aoshi couldn't hold back the gasp that escaped his throat at the sight of her skin. His mind had vaguely expected a few bruises from the incident at the river earlier, but even these paled in comparison to the near-perfect lines that crisscrossed the entire length of Hideki's back. They were pale, almost the same color as the rest of her skin, but with the tell-tale sheen that indicates the presence of scar tissue that has long since been formed.

 

Unbidden, images of a cruel leather coil sinking into her soft skin began to invade his mind. Again and again, eating away at her flesh little by little, until its marks could no longer be distinguished in a sea of red.

 

With a sigh Hideki's shoulders slumped forward and the tale of her imprisonment spilled from her lips as if of it's own accord. She left nothing out, spared him no detail. Only droning on in a weary tone what she was, what her cousin was and who wanted them dead and why. Eventually she came to the hardest part of her tale, but her voice only grew more deadpan as her heart sought to unburden itself completely.

 

"Tian led me to believe that everything that her brother and I had shared before was nothing but a lie." she said. "The truth was, she was the puppeteer that had been pulling both of our strings all along. Jierong was in no more control of his actions than I was, unable to show his disgust when his sister chose to play with our bodies and emotions as if we were mere dolls. But in the end he proved he was stronger than I and broke his sister's spell. Once he did, he sought to free me from the enchantment as well…it…it cost him his life."

 

Aoshi listened in awed silence to the tale that his angel wove. As she got to the part where Jierong was killed, something clicked in his brain."

 

"…a departing gift."

 

"Jierong," he realized, "He was the one who gave you the ring."

 

At first it seemed that she did not hear him, but then her head nodded gently. "As he whispered the words to free me of his sister's grasp, he slipped it on my finger." She whispered. "He said that it would protect me."

 

She raised her hand in front of her then, seemingly admiring the lamplight's glint on the ring's sparkling surface. "When I realized that she had killed him and that she was heading for me next, I instinctively raised my hand against her. Somehow this little trinket repelled her long enough for me to run away. After that I took Kero and the cards and boarded the first ship to Japan…and so you see," she said while staring straight ahead, "Here I am."

 

She allowed a moment of silence to pass before her shoulders slumped further, her hair falling forward to shield her expression from view.

 

"I'm unclean," she whispered, "Battered and bruised and far, far away from the girl I used to be. I understand that most men would prefer someone cleaner, someone innocent, someone who has not seen the world the way that I have…Aoshi, if…if you no longer wish t…"

 

Her words were cut off by the sensation of two strong arms wrapping themselves around her shoulders. Half a second later her entire body stiffened in shock as Aoshi brought his lips to the area just below her nape, the spot where the worst of her scars were located. His gentle touch was like a healing balm, its warmth radiating from that spot to touch the other scars and ultimately, her heart.

 

"Don't," he whispered, "Don't ever say that about yourself. Being unaware of the world's cruelty doesn't make anyone "pure", only ignorant. It's coming through what you did without letting it stain your soul that sets the mark for purity. You…you are the most honorable woman  I have ever met."

 

"Aoshi…" the blue-haired woman breathed as she turned her head to face him.

 

Before either of them knew what they were doing, her arms were wrapped around his neck, oblivious to the fact that she was half-naked before his eyes.

 

Aoshi felt the urgency of a fire that he didn't know he had burn within him as his arms closed around the exposed flesh of Hideki's back. The feel of his angel's body against his made him instantly drunk with desire and he found himself caught in the middle of a battle between his heart and mind. His heart needed to be with her more badly than he needed air to breathe, but his mind hesitated, unwilling to cause her any more pain than she'd already experienced.

 

Hideki drew away as Aoshi's kiss lost some of its urgency and her cobalt eyes searched his warm, sky-blue ones for the reason. Her face looked younger than ever as she looked at him questioningly, her full lips already reddened with his kisses.

 

His eyes never leaving hers, he caressed one side of her face with his hand as he played his next words in his mind.

 

"I want to be with you," he said sincerely, "But only if you feel the same way about me."

 

Hideki's eyes widened in mute disbelief for a moment before they became filled with tears again. A smile tugged at the side of her mouth despite the liquid shimmering in her eyes. "Silly old man," she chided, "There's no one else in the world I want more."

 

His face broke out into a smile that matched the new expression in his eyes perfectly. As Hideki was caught in the wonder of it, he kissed her again, this time cradling her in his arms as he lifted her in his arms and carried her over to his waiting futon.

 

He set her down on it's smooth, cool surface as gently as if she were made of crystal. Never once breaking their heated kiss, he pulled her gi out of the place where it was tucked into her hakama and tossed it behind him without another thought. Hideki herself began to grow impatient as she rose on her knees and slid his deep purple gi off of his shoulders, relishing in the feel of his warm skin under her sword-calloused fingers.

 

Reluctantly, he released her long enough for her to slide the gi completely off his arms and toss it aside. As soon as that was done, he dragged her closer to him than before, pressing her bare breasts against his torso as he crushed his lips against her own, delighting in the way her nipples hardened against his skin as his tongue ravished the warm satin of her mouth.

 

Hideki bit back a cry as Aoshi's hand slipped boldly down into the waistband of her hakama to stroke the pulse-point at the apex of her thighs. Her mind went completely blank as she unconsciously began to writhe in time with his touch as he set the rhythm of their lovemaking with just the tip of his finger.

 

Abandoning her lips for a moment,  Aoshi marked a hot, wet trail down her neck to her right nipple with his tongue, caressing it with a swirling motion that made the blue-haired woman throw her head back in ecstasy as a strangled cry escaped her throat.

 

Greedily, Aoshi moved to the other peak, giving it the same careful attention as the first, even as his hand stroked the tiny nub between her legs more firmly, eliciting even sharper gasps and moans from the woman that he loved.

 

Pushing her backward against the mattress, he ground his mouth to hers once more as his hands moved to undo the tie on her hakama. In one, fluid movement, he slipped it off her long, smooth legs and cast it aside with the rest of her clothing. Lifting his head, he looked down upon her body in wonder for a moment before nuzzling his face between her bare breasts.

 

"Beautiful." He murmured.

 

Hideki gazed at him through the dark veil of desire, liking the way his muscles slid under his skin as he moved. The way his hair felt sliding between her fingers, the way it fell into those amazing eyes of his. She liked everything about him, especially the things that he was doing to her body, making her experience more pleasure than she thought was possible. Most of all though, she liked the way he looked at her, no one had ever looked at her that way before. In his eyes she saw herself for more than she previously had, a woman of infinite worth, one who was worthy of being worshipped like a goddess.

 

Temporarily lost in her thoughts, she barely noticed that Aoshi's body had traveled downward along her own and he was now lifting her legs onto his shoulders, causing her to slide down the sheets, her long hair trailing behind like a bright streamer of silvery-blue.

 

Hideki bit her lip and shivered with pleasure as Aoshi blew teasingly over her aroused flesh for a moment before replacing the coolness of the air with the warm, silken wetness of his mouth. Her head was instantly thrown backward in ecstasy at the contact and her entire body arched like a gymnast's as her ankles locked themselves behind his back.

 

His strength was a match for hers as his arms held her firmly in place, all her writhing did nothing to change her position by a single inch as he ravished her fervently, determined that this experience outshine any other one she may have had. She would forget the pain and displeasure of being taken against her will, even if it were only for a moment, it would be enough.

 

The sweat that collected on her skin glowed golden in the lamplight and her words were soon lost among the primal sounds of low moans and fabric-muffled screams as Aoshi continued to pleasure her almost relentlessly. In that one simple action she felt cherished, even worshipped. Pleasure filled every facet of her mind, seeming to fill her very being with a wonderful white light that was all their own until she could hold it in no longer, seemingly flying to pieces under his touch.

 

As she climaxed, Hideki's entire body arched, every muscle within it pulled taut, singing with the pleasure that she was experiencing. Even as he coaxed her through it, his own body reacted to her cry, a hunger worse than any he had ever experienced coming over the whole of him.

 

As Hideki's cries melted into labored breaths, they both collapsed on the futon once more, Aoshi holding his body fully over hers, eyes smoldering like that of a hungry animal as he unconsciously licked the evidence of her arousal from his lips.

 

Hideki looked up at him through her lashes, her entire body laid out, unprotected under his heated gaze. However this time she did not feel dirty or abused, instead she found her entire being calling out for him to fill the sudden emptiness that she felt. Slowly, her hands rose to his shoulders, sliding over the scars that crisscrossed his own chest, down to his hips, over the planes of his taut stomach and into the waistband of his pants.

 

A sharp hiss of air escaped Aoshi's lips and his entire body shuddered with want at the contact with Hideki's gentle, clever fingers. Her hand caressed him from base to tip, easily sliding over the silk-sheathed steel of his arousal, her beautiful eyes never leaving his for a single moment. Drawn in by their cerulean gaze, he bent to bring his mouth to hers, almost all of their passion going into the one simple act. As they broke the kiss, she used her tongue to paint a piquant trail to his earlobe.

 

"I want you," she declared in a heated whisper, "Take me and do as you will."

 

"Yes."

 

The animal within his flesh burst forth with a vengeance, the remainder of his control along with his clothes instantly discarded without so much as a single thought. Straddling her hips, he entered her slowly, savoring the way her body sought to accommodate him, clinging to him as if for dear life itself.

 

The sound of her moaning his name was like angels' song to his ears, his entire body responding to the sound. He shut his eyes tightly for a moment, overwhelmed by the perfection of it all, loving the way that her fingernails dug roughly into his shoulder blades as she sought some way of dispersing a little of the tension she felt. Relishing in the heat of her breath on his skin as each syllable slipped from her lips without effort.

 

Hideki was lost in the sensation of his body on her own, nothing else in the world mattered but the undulating rhythm of his hips, filling her in one moment and in the next leaving her empty, her entire body crying out to be filled with him again. Again and again, until the tension that he had built in her before began afresh, each nerve tingling with anticipation of the release that only he could give her.

 

Above her Aoshi watched as her eyes shut tight, her head tossing against the futon as the wonderful sensations they were affording one another coursed through their bodies as the blood rushed by with the force of each and every single heartbeat. Suddenly, he could not have enough of the sight of her, so he rolled them both over so that she now was the one hovering above him, her hair falling over both their faces in a tangled web of silvery-blue.

 

She was a little surprised at first by the abrupt change in their positions, a fact that was evident in the startled look that crossed her face for a brief moment before he pulled her down toward him, hands sliding down to grip her waist as his kiss pillaged the whole of her mouth, he began to move again, guiding her back into the rhythm that they had only briefly lost. Soon, her mouth broke away from his with a strangled cry as her upper body lifted itself up, leaving every inch of dewy skin open to his view.

 

His eyes traveled over her body ravenously as he reached up to cradle the alabaster skin of her ample breasts, smooth, and firm under his ardent touch. Strands of her hair fell forward around her neck, stuck to the moisture that coated her golden body, while the rest cascaded freely around her shoulders, a halo of silver in the moon's light.

 

She had filled every one of his senses to the point of overflowing and every fiber of his body was begging for sweet release. Only one thought kept him from falling over the edge, and that was the desire to have her fall right beside.

 

He did not have to wait long.

 

Hideki's cries suddenly became more intense, shudders beginning to ripple across her body as she leaned her head forward again as the white light returned, rushing into every part of her being. In the next moment the barriers of the world slipped away, the pleasure a hundred times what it  was on her own. Aoshi followed soon after, unable to resist the deliciousness of her body as it clamped down on him, eagerly drinking in his essence as it spilled from his, the only consecration that would meld the two of them into one complete being.

 

Moments later she collapsed onto his chest, too exhausted to do anything but lie there and try to catch her breath. With his last reserves of energy Aoshi brought his arms around her again, nuzzling his face into her shoulder, unwilling to relax his hold despite his fatigue. If all he could do was offer her the comfort of his body, if all the strength he could lend her was that of his own heart, then he would do so willingly, and for the rest of his days.

 

It was enough.

 

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