Wow ! Me again ! I want to thank every reviewer: Iraoftheseven, Wolfy Sound Ninja, Elemental-Keeper, and particularly PearlaH.Sweden because I couldn't reply :). Plus, a special someone : Kamitori, my beta. Thank you so much ! Thanks, thanks. :)

Disclaimer : Don't own Orochimaru nor the song, but I do own Soliacé.

Enjoy and leave me a word !

My last breath

La mort de Soliacé

--

Hold on to me, love

Sorrow, he could handle. He always did. He would just brush it off, just as he did the first time she disappeared from his life.

Anger.

Well, it was another matter. He was quite quick-tempered sometimes, but he would often hide it behind sarcasms.

This time it was different. It was not someone, not something he could influence…

He was one of the best – if not The best – ninja! Damn it!

His face betrayed nothing of his inner turmoil, nor sorrow, neither anger.

He had found her…

You know I can't stay long

He had found her… in this condition: in the middle of the forest, a splendid ghost in a scarlet pool which flowered on her bosom and spread slowly around her, just like a wedding gown's drape.

His maiden was lying on the snowy floor.

He didn't think. He ran to her.

All I wanted to say was I love you and I'm not afraid

Can you hear me?

Can you feel me in your arms?

She coughed petals of blood which fell on her porcelain chin, her dress and his hands.

"Love you…" she whispered.

'Don't speak,' he wanted to tell her, but nothing came out.

His repressed sorrow was overwhelming, an iron grip on his throat; even his breath came painfully out.

Her skin was cold under his fingers. She was dying in his arms and he could do nothing to prevent it. It was her destiny. It was a painful and slow death, but her smile was brighter and warmer than the sun.

He had grown fond of the girl – now a woman - with a sparkle of mischief in her eyes, the girl whose laugh was a rain of crystal.

He was covered in her warm blood but frozen inside.

She was smiling at him and he couldn't even cry for her.

Holding my last breath

She touched his face, left a red mark on his white cheek. He couldn't help closing his eyes. How long had he longed for this touch? It had been so many years since the day she left to never come back, so long…

She whispered his name. He had to bend the head to hear what she wanted to say… she just, kissed the corner of his mouth. There… blood again.

Why were his heartbeats so… painful? He hadn't even known until then that he had a heart.

Safe inside myself

Are all my thoughts of you

Sweet rapture light it ends here tonight

Laughable. He wanted to kiss her. She was dying and he wanted to kiss her!

He had never told anyone. She had been his secret. He hadn't told anyone, not even himself about the thing that stirred inside him whenever he thought of her. The little girl who had cried in his arms.

He cherished every memory, kept them deep inside, locked in a wooden box which smelled like sun and wild flowers.

I'll miss the winter

A world of fragile things

Her eyelashes fluttered. Her breathing slowed down.

He was frozen inside, as if it were his own blood which was flowing out of him. He was struggling with himself to keep his emotions in check. He was not a man of feeling. He should let her die without even bothering to look back. He was dying with her even though he hadn't known that he had been alive.

She started to sob.

"I'm pathetic, am I not?" she breathed.

He didn't respond. He couldn't.

She closed her eyes; tears were streaming down her pale and bloody cheeks.

The sun was disappearing behind the forest and the trees were casting strange shadows over them. The last rays of light bathed her white figure as if she were an angel recalled by God.

He remembered this winter long ago, when she had wanted to make a snowman. She had put her scarf on it. Of course, she had been cold after that. She had laugh, bitten her lower lip and looked up at him. He had sighed and shared his own long and black scarf. She had kissed his cheeks and then, suddenly, he had been warm.

It had been the hardest winter they had known.

Look for me in the white forest

Hiding in a hollow tree (come find me)

She whispered her last prayer. She wanted to see him again.

"Look at the sky, look at the earth, I'll be there. Come find me… when I rebirth. I'll be waiting for you. Just here."

She promised.

Just here, she would be waiting. The thought eased the pain somehow.

Forever if she had to, she would wait and see him again.

She promised.

She would be here.

"Remember the tree…" she breathed.

I know you hear me

I can taste it in your tears

She had closed her eyes.

'Don't dare to die on me silly girl.' He thought.

"I won't bury you." He hissed through clenched teeth.

The ghost of a smile appeared.

"Who did it ?"

He just didn't want to let her go. He wanted her to speak and laugh.

Her lips moved but he had to bend the head to hear what she had to say. They were skin against skin.

Holding my last breath

It was painful to live and keep the death away, but she wanted this moment to last as long as it was possible. She was so glad to be able to hear him, touch him, and smell him… one last time.

"She did it. My nanny was the ninja who had to do it."

So painful to speak…

"I'm glad it was her."

'Stupid girl, she just betrayed you.' he thought.

"If you're glad it was her, why are you here ? Why didn't you just die there?" he asked instead.

"I ran away. I wanted to see the heart of the forest one last time. Nanabi's helping me to stay alive."

"There's nothing to see, it's winter."

"So much light, so much white butterflies…"

Safe inside myself

Are all my thoughts of you

Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight

She remembered their plays in the snow. How his hair, a black darker than night itself, than the deepest corridor of hell, contrasted against his skin and hers.

Her life was passing before her eyes.

Such sweet memories: he was there, always. He had become everything she had had.

She would always remember his severe frown when she would throw herself at him, smiling and singing.

She had shared meals with him but she had never set a foot in his village. She wasn't allowed, first by her nanny and second, by him. He had said that only shinobi and people who paid for the services of shinobi could get in.

She had often asked him to show her some techniques and he would just reprimand her, telling her that this was not some kind of game, and then she would apologize for hours. He would tell her she was weak. She would pout and try to hurt him with her tiny fists, telling that one day she would be stronger than him.

She still could hear herself :

"I'll be stronger than you Orochimaru-kun!"

He would just chuckled.

She had been so annoying and yet… He wasn't letting her die alone.

She couldn't help crying.

Closing your eyes to disappear

She, who was as fragile as a snowflake, was proving him that he wasn't as powerful as he had thought to be. She was defying him! She was dying and proving there was something above him. He couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand the thought that one day he would also be surpassed by this stupid thing : Death.

You pray your dreams will leave you here

But still you wake and know the truth

No one's there

He woke up with a start. Everything was black except for a candlelight.

This dream again.

He couldn't help staring at his hands. Her blood wasn't there. Nothing.

He chuckled.

So stupid.

His laugh resounded in the room and in an instant Kabuto's chakra could be sensed outside, just behind the door. The boy was always alarmed by the slightest thing.

Kabuto knocked, a little taken aback by the sound, this laugh in the middle of the night.

Well, it happened sometimes, but mostly when some foolish shinobi had tried to snuck up on Orochimaru-sama and was being killed. Just another body he would have to dispose of.

He entered.

"Orochimaru-sama ? Is everything alright ?"

"What a stupid question Kabuto."

"Sorry sir. Was it another anbu's member ?"

"No. Just a memory. Leave me. I have no need of you."

He watched him leave, waited until his chakra disappeared. She was his secret and he would share it with nobody.

Where was she this little girl with milky white skin, this woman who died smiling ?

It was cold and his room seemed so empty. He could still sensed her touch, her body against his, her blood on him, yet… she wasn't there.

Say goodnight

Don't be afraid

Calling me, calling me as you fade to black

"See you." She smiled and then was no more.

He screamed her name, but she didn't wake up.

As the last rays of the sun faded away, leaving him in the dark, a crystal blue haze rise from her form and slowly disappeared in the air. Her last breath; her soul.

He didn't cried. He wasn't a man of feeling, particularly not a man of sorrow.

He just picked her up, bridal style and walk back to this secret place deep in the dark and white forest.

Pathetic. She had died so easily.

Pathetic; he hadn't even be able to prevent it and yet he had known for so many years.

He put her against a tree. She would have to wait here until he was able to come long enough to bury her… no… to bring her back home… his home.

"I will find you Soliacé. I'll find out where you're hiding now and you will have to keep your promise. "

To die was not something he wanted to experiment. To die was pathetic. To die was not his destiny. He hadn't came upon the white snake and her to die as any shinobi would. He was the best of his generation.

He took her second earring. They were connected she had said.

He couldn't die before giving it back to her now, could he?

Holding my last breath

Safe inside myself

Are all my thoughts of you

Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight

The sky was bright, not a single cloud. The sun was shining above a little shack where a woman was crying.

Her husband was waiting outside, unable to keep still.

When the midwife came to tell him it was over he rushed inside, smiling at his wife.

But seeing the baby, his smile faded away.

"The midwife said it was some illness, something rare but she is going to be a strong little girl, won't she? She's so beautiful, isn't she honey?"

"Yes…"

He tried to smile but he knew. He had been a shinobi and everyone knew. The white hair and the milky white skin, this seal on her neck. He was cursed, so was she… he would just have to love her despite this.

Somewhere far away, a young shinobi was learning his first kinjutsus(1), memories flying through his head. Memories of a little girl with wildflowers in her hair. The little girl who defied him by dying in his arms and letting him know that some day he would die too, that something in the world was able to stand in his way. He would know the last secret of life and master it. And, he would find her.

(1) : forbidden justus

So, what do you think ?

Next time : Taking over me or Snow white queen.