The poetry and all "I" references are from Hiei's POV
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Achieving Grace
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With what can I hold your hand
when mine isn't worthy to wash your feet?
---
"Kurama?"
"Yes?"
"Promise me that you will never severe the serpent's head."
"An odd request - why?"
"Because it's tongue is already split."
Kurama smiles his own hidden smile, "Hiei, light is not so evanescent as to be lost along with sanity.
"You haven't promised yet."
"Neither have you." I just stare.
---
To which do I owe my love, my life, my brief taste of happiness?
To fire?
To ice?
To my sun of brilliance
My sun of reds
and greens
and whites?
---
"'Kaasan?"
"Yes?"
"Is it worse to lose one's sanity or one's love, or are they inseparable entities, the rich syrup of bittersweet necessity?"
"Shuuichi?"
"Yes?"
"Comparing the roles of red and blue in violet...may you never have to know of either one."
"But 'Kaasan -,"
"Yes?"
"Which is worse?"
---
A thousand hearts may break
A thousand tears may bleed
A thousand cores may cease
A thousand throats may scream
A thousand suns may die
---
"Hiei?"
"Yes?"
"What is love?"
"Why ask a demon without the capacity to feel?"
"Because ice feels the sun more bitingly than any other thing."
"Yukina?"
"Yes?"
"Now I ask you, what is love?"
---
Why can we always throw a question out farther than we can pull an answer in and yet, still have another question for every one?
---
"Kurama?"
"Yes?"
"Can a demon love?"
"I believe...that demons can learn."
"Learn to love?"
"Hai. But demon love is deadly."
"Because a core cannot be broken, a core can only be stopped?" Silence was answer enough.
Then, "Hiei?"
"Yes?"
"Can a demon exist without a pulsing core?"
"If they have a human heart."
---
the perfect impossibility of a blue rose can shatter
but the pieces all remain
and pieces can be pieced together
(such is their purpose)
they can build.
A human heart is not a thing but a concept. And an earned heart will outlast that which is freely given.
So pure.
So beautiful in clarity.
Is this Grace?
---
"Kurama?"
"Yes?"
"Don't leave me."
"I won't."
"Just love me."
"I will, forever."
"Good, for I could never not love you."
---
I can think of nothing else.
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Story's End
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