Challenge #5?
Title: Never Hurt, Never Cry
Author: dauthik
Characters: Orihime, Tatsuki, Ichigo, Rukia; Orihime/Tatsuki, Ichigo/Rukia, one-sided Orihime/Ichigo
Line: "We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered."
Notes: I had an idea stewing around in my head, and then when I saw this line I thought of a way to write it, though it's rather mean to the characters. >_>
Didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would. Meh.
"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me," you singsong to the birds chirping in the trees.
"What are you talking about?" Tatsuki's staring at you with a fond indulgent smile, head cocked to the side.
You point to the tiny brown-feathered birds and gesture vaguely.
"See, the birds make nests with sticks and stone, but definitely not words. So they never get hurt," you explain.
Tatsuki shakes her head, a toss of short spiky hair that's almost reddish-orange in the bright rays of sunlight, and you let her lean over and kiss you.
It isn't fair.
Not to you, and especially not to her.
You don't know exactly when you started to allow yourself to exhibit this kind of cruelty.
Sometimes you think it's the violence that you've been through, the mind-numbing feeling of hanging in the precipice between life and death and having to beg gods that don't answer to save you, the sick stench of blood invading and violating your senses, the harsh grating sound of weapons crying out against each other.
The too-painful squeeze on your shoulder by Ichigo as he protects you again, making you start so visibly anyone with sight can see how much he frazzles your nerves. Everyone except him, of course. He only stares at you with a not-quite-comprehending frown, mind only focused on his precious Rukia, and makes you feel weak by saving you from everything.
With Tatsuki you don't feel weak. Even though she's stronger than you and can give Ichigo a run for his money, she clings to you, needs you, more even than air or water you think sometimes, when she traces your jawline with an awed almost-disbelieving reverent stare.
You'll always break those moments with an inane musing, anything to get away from that stifling overflowing emotion, feelings you simply can't reciprocate, and you hate yourself for it, hate yourself for pining after a man you'll never have, hate yourself for the inevitable crash of everyone's lives that will fall someday.
He will never want you, not with his goddess who holds all his desire that you've chased after for forever. And you've finally decided that at least with Tatsuki, you feel wanted, can staunch your emptiness for awhile, forget about thinking and let her make choices for you.
And who knows, you might actually learn to love her.
"Half-truths are worse than lies," you tell Tatsuki often, and when she stares at you, not comprehending, you're reminded firmly of the choice you've made and your frozen heart.
He apologized to you, understood, was offering to be yours for one second, before you told him, softly, that Rukia was waiting for him. And he looked at you with the most grateful gaze you'd ever seen, like a bird being freed from its constraining cage, and at that moment you understood your own pain, and truly grew up.
"We burn our bridges," you murmur into Tatsuki's neck, the completely open warmth so different from your breath, chilly and broken.
"What?" she asks, sensing your sadness and hugging you tighter in the brisk October air.
"My eyes don't water anymore," you say, and let her think it's another one of your nonsensical ruminations.
It is, after all.
The vision of an orange-haired boy embracing a raven-haired girl ghosts across your squeezed-tight eyelids.
x-posted to bleach_liners and princessxdragon
Author: dauthik
Characters: Orihime, Tatsuki, Ichigo, Rukia; Orihime/Tatsuki, Ichigo/Rukia, one-sided Orihime/Ichigo
Line: "We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered."
Notes: I had an idea stewing around in my head, and then when I saw this line I thought of a way to write it, though it's rather mean to the characters. >_>
Didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would. Meh.
"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me," you singsong to the birds chirping in the trees.
"What are you talking about?" Tatsuki's staring at you with a fond indulgent smile, head cocked to the side.
You point to the tiny brown-feathered birds and gesture vaguely.
"See, the birds make nests with sticks and stone, but definitely not words. So they never get hurt," you explain.
Tatsuki shakes her head, a toss of short spiky hair that's almost reddish-orange in the bright rays of sunlight, and you let her lean over and kiss you.
It isn't fair.
Not to you, and especially not to her.
You don't know exactly when you started to allow yourself to exhibit this kind of cruelty.
Sometimes you think it's the violence that you've been through, the mind-numbing feeling of hanging in the precipice between life and death and having to beg gods that don't answer to save you, the sick stench of blood invading and violating your senses, the harsh grating sound of weapons crying out against each other.
The too-painful squeeze on your shoulder by Ichigo as he protects you again, making you start so visibly anyone with sight can see how much he frazzles your nerves. Everyone except him, of course. He only stares at you with a not-quite-comprehending frown, mind only focused on his precious Rukia, and makes you feel weak by saving you from everything.
With Tatsuki you don't feel weak. Even though she's stronger than you and can give Ichigo a run for his money, she clings to you, needs you, more even than air or water you think sometimes, when she traces your jawline with an awed almost-disbelieving reverent stare.
You'll always break those moments with an inane musing, anything to get away from that stifling overflowing emotion, feelings you simply can't reciprocate, and you hate yourself for it, hate yourself for pining after a man you'll never have, hate yourself for the inevitable crash of everyone's lives that will fall someday.
He will never want you, not with his goddess who holds all his desire that you've chased after for forever. And you've finally decided that at least with Tatsuki, you feel wanted, can staunch your emptiness for awhile, forget about thinking and let her make choices for you.
And who knows, you might actually learn to love her.
"Half-truths are worse than lies," you tell Tatsuki often, and when she stares at you, not comprehending, you're reminded firmly of the choice you've made and your frozen heart.
He apologized to you, understood, was offering to be yours for one second, before you told him, softly, that Rukia was waiting for him. And he looked at you with the most grateful gaze you'd ever seen, like a bird being freed from its constraining cage, and at that moment you understood your own pain, and truly grew up.
"We burn our bridges," you murmur into Tatsuki's neck, the completely open warmth so different from your breath, chilly and broken.
"What?" she asks, sensing your sadness and hugging you tighter in the brisk October air.
"My eyes don't water anymore," you say, and let her think it's another one of your nonsensical ruminations.
It is, after all.
The vision of an orange-haired boy embracing a raven-haired girl ghosts across your squeezed-tight eyelids.
x-posted to bleach_liners and princessxdragon