Thanks to Rox for betaing. Related to The more they change, but can be taken separately.
Sorry for the late B'day present Wheezie.
Different worlds Inuyasha has a problem.
/Raven black hair, ever so much darker for the clumps of dried blood. Clay soil forever stained. A ripped uniform. These memories haunt you, offering no chance for escape./
He is forever trapped between worlds. Past and future. Demon and human. Sad eyes and bright smile. He is what comes in between.
/You find it unbelievably ironic that everything you thought being a demon was, turns out to be its opposite. You wanted control over your life, because its clear you'll never have it over your destiny./
He keeps falling in love with the same soul.
/ “Inuyasha!”, “Inuyasha.”, “Inuyasha?”, the name echoes, calling to you, through anger, love, frustration, curiosity, friendship, spiralling round and round, the tones so very different and yet so utterly familiar to yourself. /
Not a unique scenario, but especially problematic in his case, since it's always a different woman, where as he is still himself.
/ You're sure its the same soul. Its the same base scent, same smile, same peace, same power. The same nuances of sensation when your lips press together./
Its like there are pieces of their souls that can't move on until the matter is resolved. Except since because he hasn't died yet, he doesn't have the refuge of a new life to escape the pain of the past. He wonders if he should be envious.
/Pushed out of time, so that you'll never quite fit back in. But then you never belonged to begin with, so you don't notice./
If he blinks he sees the woman of the past, if he squints he sees the girl of the future.
/You move your arms slowly around her waist, pulling her close, breathing her in deep. The sense of belonging, of being accepted, this is something that needs to be protected. You know this with all your heart./
“I love you.” He breathes into her hair.
With an infectious grin she replies, “I know.”
/Sometimes you wonder if you're in love with her for who she is, who she was, who she will be or some combination of the above. Its enough to make you go insane. If you weren't already./
He still doesn't know why she picked him. He never does. He never did. All he knows is that she is a soul that was made to be loved, everywhere she goes, she touches someone's heart. Heals the sick, the emotions. She could so easily do so very much better than himself. They all could.
/ “You are my woman now.”, “If you hurt her, I will kill you.”, “I want to see her bleed.”, “Will you come to the cinema with me?”, “Will you bear my child?”, “Come with me.”, “Such a nice girl”, “Why do you smile?”
Princes, lords, pinnacles of perfection, everywhere, just can't stop falling in love with her.
But in the end she chose you./
Sometimes they go by a village; he lays flowers by a grave, tells her stories of a well.
She smiles and listens, then tugs on his ears and tells him stories of flowers and the things that he could never see, even if he spent a life time looking.
/Only when the past is laid to rest can the future forget./