Blue Eyes

Moonlight danced on the gentle waves that rolled along the shore of the secluded beach Yamuraiha so often found herself at. This wasn’t the first time she’d dragged Komui out to it’s private shores at night, enraptured by the way the moonlight lit up the gentle waves, the water still warm from the day’s beaming sun. Unable to resist the ocean’s call, she had made her way into the water, her sundress soaking through with every step she took out into the sea.

Standing up to her waist in the warm water, the biologist simply closed her eyes, letting the gentle crash of the surf and the smell of salt water take her away from where she was, from everything that churned in her mind when she let  her thoughts settle.

The footsteps down the beach behind her hardly went unheard, albeit muffled by the small grains of sand that cushioned the silent foot fall. Komui was often hesitant in getting in, despite that he was always more than eager to join her at the midnight shore, he rarely made it past his ankles. Turning, she saw the Professor making his way down the beach, pant legs rolled up to his knees as though he had no intentions of going further. 

“You know, it’s much more enjoyable from in the water” She called, a chuckle falling from her lips as her smile pulled wider. To her, the ocean was a sanctuary, a hideaway from everything that filled her life otherwise. To see someone standing at its shore, it was impossible for her to understand not being pulled into that beauty, unaware that he might be enraptured by something else entirely.

“It’s warm, I promise” she added, the smile playing into an almost childish grin as she slid her foot along the sand, loving the way the glimmering sand drew up in a small cloud, swirling around her foot like it was enchanted by moonlight before settling back into the ground. Her normal inelegance was at bay only for the relaxing calm of the water she stood in, grateful her element provided her with the ability not to shove her foot entirely into her mouth as was more common that not.

There was a silence, before suddenly he was moving, the man stepping into the ocean despite his clothes, wading through until he was up to his own waist, at her side in the dark sea. She gave a exulting smile when his hand intertwined with her own under the water, a light dust of red moving across her cheeks. His few steps into the water were a victory, but hardly enough. With a playful tug she pulled on the hand she had grasped in her own, pulling him forward until the gentle lift of the waves allowed her to raise higher on her toes, pressing a happy kiss to his lips under the star dusted canopy . 

"See it’s not so bad” She grinned as they parted, making no motion to pull her eyes from his, cerulean hues holding darker ones as she just grinned up at the man that had long since captured her heart as his own. When he stayed silent, she frowned slightly, worried his mind was lost. “Penny for your thoughts?” She said softly, expecting to hear something about work, or his sister. But instead he just chuckled, reaching down with his free hand to brush blue tresses from her face, staring as though he was looking down at something precious he’d barely managed to catch between his fingers.

“.... Marry me?” The words seemed spontaneous, as though the man was merely speaking his thoughts then and there. She had never thought much of what she expected a proposal to be like - she had assumed if it ever did come would be the usual one knee, ring in a box... Not standing waist deep at midnight in the Bellevue sea, but in that moment she realized this was perfect. 

Letting her dress float along the dark water around them, cerulean eyes lifted to his face. She didn’t need time to think. There was nothing to consider. Her face erupted in a grin as she simply jumped to throw her arms around his neck, burring her own face in his shoulder as she just clung to him never wanting to let go.

Optimism. Despite what most thought of when they heard the word, optimism wasn’t always cheerful. The simple belief that things aren’t as bad as they seem often came hand in hand with tragedy. Those who’s lives were steeped in bad memories and unhappy thoughts were often the first to see the good in a situation... For they have usually already seen how much worse things could go.

The raven haired boy at her side had struck her simply as a rude child when she’d first met him, someone who had life viewed behind pessimism tinted lenses and thought nothing of the world around him. But in that moment, it changed. His words seemed... Filled with a knowledge his age defied, his eyes thought hardened had an all too familiar fire in them. She was silent, just contemplating his words. The program they’d both been absently watching in the clinic waiting room had been about betrayal of family members, a topic she was far too intimately familiar with and when he had spoken, it was as though he had stolen the words right from her deepest thoughts.

I have my drill on hand my Lady and I’ll be happy to teach him some manners for you~

Yamuraiha liked to consider herself a patient woman. She was kind, easy natured and open to all types of person. But there was one thing she couldn’t stand, and that was young boys who had delusions of grandeur and didn't’ respect their elders.

She had simply asked the boy if he needed help - He had been loitering in the Aquarium’s Amazon exhibit so a simple “Do you have any questions about the animals” had been all she had said -- only to have been met with a rather crass return. She could almost feel the snap, a maternal instinct that was triggered not only by the precious side of children, but by the rude side as well.

To most, dying should have been the most selfish of acts. A time when you need to reflect your life, your choices... To beg for more time, or to go peacefully into acceptance... And yet she felt nothing but guilt.

She should have known better, it wasn’t fair, nor was it right to have allowed another into her life so intimately. She knew, she had always known that her life was short. She had assured that herself in her early years; had all but carved the words into her own grave stone with every day she had worked and yet... She had selfishly allowed Komui close. Her allowed him to fall in love with her as she had with him, had allowed him delusions of growing old together even when she knew that in her early twenties she was already old...

She hadn’t been so cruel not to tell him at all, but she hadn’t told him until it was too late. They had already developed a cursed love and despite the hours he had spent trying desperately to find a cure for her, they had both known this day would come.

“Please don’t leave” His words were like barbs in her heart, she could hear every emotion in his shaking voice. His pain, his desperation, his crippling despair at watching his most precious person deteriorate before his eyes. She didn’t know what to say, there were no words to express how sorry she was, how if she could go back and tell her father no all those years ago she would even if not to just spend one more day at his side.  

With shaking limbs she lifted her hand, letting it rest gently against his cheek, not missing the wet trails that his tears had left behind as she just felt his warm hand under her cold fingers.

“Bullshit you didn’t!” The biologist didn’t mean to curse but from where she was lying, crushed between the older scientist and the couch she wasn’t exactly feeling ‘kind’.

Doing her best to catch her breath where the wind had been knocked out of her, she squirmed under his weight, her small frame all but stuck completely under his. They had been trying to hang a new painting on her wall and somehow the other had managed to ‘accidentally’ tumble off the top of the backrest he’d been standing on, trapping her in his wake.

Squirming under him, she tried to stay firm though a laugh was pulling at her lips as he lay over dramatically across her, making no effort to get up, instead simply whining that it was an accident but he was now so wounded he needed to lay there until he was better.

“Oh my god, Komui get up” She snorted, trying to shove his heavy body off with no success. “You’re crushing me you jerk!!” 

There was a lot of reasons Yamuraiha loved living with Azusa. The other woman was one of her closest friends. She was fun, spirited, liked a good drink... But most of all, the two had met under rather upsetting circumstances... The biologist hated to talk about her health, hated to remind herself let alone others of the state of her body because of her previous work... But Azusa knew. Azusa had been a light in a horrible time, had carried her out of her own head and her own misery when she had been at the bottom of the barrel.

Moving in with Azusa had been a godsend. She didn’t need to explain the medications she took daily, didn’t have to explain when she was too tired or worn out to do anything, to explain why without makeup her face was pale and deep bagged... But at the end of the day, she still didn’t want to worry her. Still tried to avoid showing her limitations, showing reminders that she was in fact facing a very short life....But that day, it seemed that the world didn’t care what she wanted.

Waking up in the hospital wasn’t a new experience. In her life she had had her handful of scares, waking up in an unfamiliar room to be told she collapsed. In the past she had woken to either her father, or to an empty room...But this time, when cerulean eyes slowly opened they were met by a familiar face furrowed in concern.

“Zu...?” Her voice had been weak despite her best efforts, cracking slightly as she struggled to sit up, not missing the eyes of the other widen as the idol rushed to her bedside. 

I almost lost you

She would admit, the words were heavy, sitting on heart like a weighted guilt. She hated how upset the other looked, how worried. Hated that her health had caused her friend to be this distraught and she did her best to let a smile fall on her face, reaching out to gently take the other girls hand with as best a squeeze as she could.

@friendlyneighbourhoodscientist

It wasn’t unheard of for loud booms to echo the labs at the University, however, usually they came from a certain engineering professor's room. That afternoon, the smoke that filled the halls came from another lab, one while not as prone to explosions... Was just as much a hazard. 

[innocently keeps drinking coffee]