- Can I love you again? - Sanegiyuu

1 - Echoes

TW: angst, Ooc? (out of character) and hinted spoilers

Sanemi's POV: ...

"I... I love you..."

The words echoed in my mind, a haunting refrain that refused to fade. It had been years, but I could still hear Giyuu's voice as clearly as the day he said it - February 8th, 19XX. That day was seared into my memory, carved deeper than any scar on my body.

He had died in my arms.

His breathing had been shallow, his chest rising and falling in a desperate rhythm as his life slipped away. Blood - his blood - was everywhere, staining my hands, my clothes, the ground beneath us. No matter how tightly I pressed my hands against the wound, it wasn't enough. It was never enough.

"Don't you dare..." I had choked out, my voice trembling with rage and fear. "Don't you dare leave me, Tomioka!"

But his lips had curled into the faintest smile, his eyes - those impossibly calm, ocean eyes -locking onto mine as if to tell me it was okay. It wasn't okay. It would never be okay.

"I... I love you," he whispered, the words barely audible over the sound of the wind howling around us.

And then he was gone.

The world fell silent in that moment, the chaos of the battle fading into an unbearable quiet. I wanted to scream, to shake him, to demand he wake up and take back those words. Words I had never been able to say in return.

Now, years later, those words still echoed, a ghost haunting every corner of my mind. No amount of time, no amount of scars, could erase them.

And no amount of wishing could bring him back.

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A/N: ...
 - I ran out of ideas for my other book.