ShunUki - Four Seconds
Title: Four Seconds.
Author: Spiky.
Genre: Angstfest.
Rating: PG-13.
Pairing: Shunsui/Juushirou (Shunsui POV).
Warnings: Character death.
Word count: 472 words.
Summary: There were four seconds between Shunsui's deaths.
A/N: Takes place during this page, and the two following it. You guys. I don't even know what possessed me to write this. It was. So hard. Not to cry.
There were four seconds between Shunsui's deaths.
I. It wasn't in slow motion.
It wasn't in slow motion or any of those metaphors he'd learned to trust over the years; the dozens of ethereal shades reflected when a warm sunbeam hits a strand of white hair, or the peaceful koi pond making the most soothing sounds as it brushed past his toes, or the slide of pale hips against his own in late-hour lovemaking, so irresistible he could have burst.
All those didn't matter. They weren't real, nothing was real in moments like this one, stripped bare of pretenses and substance and all the things good in the world and Juushirou - plucked from him. Moments that just were, and he was forced to deal with a composure honed by a thousand years, forced to keep himself from following Juushirou into the black for four seconds.
II. It didn't hurt, either. Not for long anyway. For one moment, it felt like an arrancar had sneaked up behind him as well, had plunged its hand through his heart and spread the pain of a million suns crashing over him. For one moment his life had substance, and the next it was all gone.
He breathed on instinct alone because there was nothing else left anymore. One breath, maybe two. A twinge in his heart.
He felt empty, hollowed out - no rage or terror as he looked back at his worst nightmare, registering Juushirou's vacant expression, the hand protruding from his ribs almost comically. Grotesque. Shunsui didn't feel pain, or rather, he felt too much of it to really feel it, too much for it to clamp around him and in him, to hold him captive as it tore his insides and prevented him from drawing one more breath, maybe two. It only took four second, so he had no chance of stomaching what was really going on anyway. Brilliant thing.
III. He'd spent years taking care of Juushirou and fearing he might have to watch - watch as his lover, best friend, his everything, his life would wither away slowly as the disease took him, and Shunsui had long accepted it. But this? Even those thousand years didn't do much to prepare him for this moment.
Dying like this was never part of anyone's plan, never meant to happen, nor was it dignified or acceptable or appropriate, in Shunsui's mind, for the fall of the most graceful and compassionate Captain that ever served.
IV. It was unbearable to watch, yet he couldn't close his eyes.
He moved.
It wasn't for a noble cause, or a need to protect what was left of his life, or even motivated by rage. It was his feet carrying him to Juushirou, his arm cleaving through an arrancar-shaped barrier on instinct.
Shot from behind. What a relief.
End
ETA: You guys. :D
Author: Spiky.
Genre: Angstfest.
Rating: PG-13.
Pairing: Shunsui/Juushirou (Shunsui POV).
Warnings: Character death.
Word count: 472 words.
Summary: There were four seconds between Shunsui's deaths.
A/N: Takes place during this page, and the two following it. You guys. I don't even know what possessed me to write this. It was. So hard. Not to cry.
There were four seconds between Shunsui's deaths.
I. It wasn't in slow motion.
It wasn't in slow motion or any of those metaphors he'd learned to trust over the years; the dozens of ethereal shades reflected when a warm sunbeam hits a strand of white hair, or the peaceful koi pond making the most soothing sounds as it brushed past his toes, or the slide of pale hips against his own in late-hour lovemaking, so irresistible he could have burst.
All those didn't matter. They weren't real, nothing was real in moments like this one, stripped bare of pretenses and substance and all the things good in the world and Juushirou - plucked from him. Moments that just were, and he was forced to deal with a composure honed by a thousand years, forced to keep himself from following Juushirou into the black for four seconds.
II. It didn't hurt, either. Not for long anyway. For one moment, it felt like an arrancar had sneaked up behind him as well, had plunged its hand through his heart and spread the pain of a million suns crashing over him. For one moment his life had substance, and the next it was all gone.
He breathed on instinct alone because there was nothing else left anymore. One breath, maybe two. A twinge in his heart.
He felt empty, hollowed out - no rage or terror as he looked back at his worst nightmare, registering Juushirou's vacant expression, the hand protruding from his ribs almost comically. Grotesque. Shunsui didn't feel pain, or rather, he felt too much of it to really feel it, too much for it to clamp around him and in him, to hold him captive as it tore his insides and prevented him from drawing one more breath, maybe two. It only took four second, so he had no chance of stomaching what was really going on anyway. Brilliant thing.
III. He'd spent years taking care of Juushirou and fearing he might have to watch - watch as his lover, best friend, his everything, his life would wither away slowly as the disease took him, and Shunsui had long accepted it. But this? Even those thousand years didn't do much to prepare him for this moment.
Dying like this was never part of anyone's plan, never meant to happen, nor was it dignified or acceptable or appropriate, in Shunsui's mind, for the fall of the most graceful and compassionate Captain that ever served.
IV. It was unbearable to watch, yet he couldn't close his eyes.
He moved.
It wasn't for a noble cause, or a need to protect what was left of his life, or even motivated by rage. It was his feet carrying him to Juushirou, his arm cleaving through an arrancar-shaped barrier on instinct.
Shot from behind. What a relief.
End
ETA: You guys. :D