Could Be An Outake From Storms Or Lovesickness Or Some Inbetween - Blog Posts

Sitting at the bar, Kurenai drags her finger down the side of a glass, wet from condensation. Raidou sits beside her, picking at some grilled fish. Sticks some in his mouth, not talking since they’re both ashamed of what they’ve done, how things are, that they let it get to this point. The bar is crowded, full of patrons celebrating the end of another terrible work week with the people they care about. Sick cosmic joke, it all is. 

There’s a woman to Kurenai’s side, leaning across the bar. Hair up in a clip, loudly talking about how her best friend is getting married. Arm around said best friend’s shoulders, as they finish each other’s sentences. It offends Kurenai, because she remembers when she was in her baby twenties and could be that happy girl in a bar. Smile with all her teeth and mean everything she says, drunk babbling and woo-wooing, liquid courage making it easy to believe that everything will be a-okay. 

We should be this happy. It feels like they are never going to get their turn. Kurenai traces a heart on the bar. Elbow on the counter, chin on her fist, head tilted as she starts to make different shapes—circles, stars, diamonds. Crude flowers, simple Xs, different words all to do with love and hope. She wants to be that girl again, the one who believed that her life could turn out happy. 

“Do you think we’re soulmates?” Kurenai asks the question, even though she knows Raidou’s answer. Their struggles are evidence, Kurenai is certain of it. 

Raidou chews for a minute, swallows his food before he answers because he was raised the right way. Turns to look at her too, this flat expression on his face. “Yeah.” He smiles when Kurenai scoffs, putting her hand over her mouth to smile into her palm. “I wasn’t even joking.” 

“Shut up.” Kurenai tries to sound threatening, but she’s still smiling, silly girl because it’s Raidou doing the talking. He sets down the chopsticks he was using to pick at the fish, then turns his body to give her his full attention. 

“Well, what do you think?” Raidou asks, looking right at her. It’s not hostile or confrontation either. His eyes are soft, like he can really see her. 

“I think that I’ve found you in every lifetime before, and will continue to find you in every lifetime after this one.” Kurenai leans over and tilts her chin down, pretending to glare right at him but smiles at the end to show that she doesn’t mean intentional harm. 

Raising an eyebrow, Raidou lets out a wheeze. “That sounds an awful lot like a threat.” 

“It’s a promise!”

“Every threat is a promise.” This is something that Raidou sincerely believes too. Has told her as much when he tells her that her love is always pointed right at his throat as if she is waiting for him to no longer be who he says he is. 

“I promise to keep finding you in every lifetime,” Kurenai sits up straight, smiles at him to seal it, like she did when they were kids and coming up with plans and strategies for their missions. Puts a hand over her heart as if to swear upon it. 

“You promise?” Raidou’s voice changes into something so much softer, more tender. It doesn’t fit this loud, noisy bar where people are talking fast and loud about their shit jobs and terrible love lives. Jokes about blowing up office buildings and raising ancient demons the background noise to a serious conversation about the laws of their universe. 

“I promise.” Kurenai picks up her drink, takes a sip, then another while Raidou appears to think about it for a moment. 

“So, you think we’ve done this before?”

“And we’ll keep doing it in the future.” Kurenai doesn’t know any other way to be. 

A/N

This ship is my original rare pair shame. I wrote about them in Storms and Lovesickness, both NSFW. Please mind the tags.