Work Text:
As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting an orange-pink glow across the summer beach, Rui found himself standing alone. His hand gripped two sparklers tightly, their faint glow illuminating his troubled expression. This moment, at dusk with sparklers in hand, always triggered a pang of something he couldn't quite grasp—a memory that slipped through his fingers like sand.
He closed his eyes, trying desperately to recall, but all he saw were fragmented images, flashes of laughter, and a warmth that seemed foreign yet achingly familiar. It was you—someone he couldn't quite place in his current life, yet someone who felt so integral to his being.
In his mind's eye, a vivid flashback surfaced— laughter echoing on the beach, the soft crunch of sand underfoot, and your voice, playful and gentle. "Ta-da! I've got sparklers! Fireworks are fun and all, but there's something special about holding a light that only sparkles for a moment," you had said, your eyes twinkling with joy as you handed him one.
But the memory slipped away again, leaving Rui clutching the sparklers, his heart heavy with a longing he could not explain. The curse that now defined him—a touch that brought death—had erased so much of his past. Yet, fragments of you persisted, haunting him like an elusive dream.
He had been different then, before the accident that changed everything. Before he became the vice-captain of Obscuary, before the curse of the reaper marked him as dangerous. Before he lost you.
Rui opened his eyes to the fading light of the sparklers, their brilliance dwindling as time marched on. Each spark, a fleeting reminder of the nature of happiness and love. He felt a tear slip down his cheek, unnoticed amidst the sea breeze.
"I'm sorry," he whispered into the gathering dusk, his voice carrying regret and sorrow into the fading light. "I wish I could remember you."
But the beach remained silent, save for the distant murmur of waves and the crackle of dying sparklers. Rui stood alone, trapped between a past he couldn't recall and a future shaped by a curse he couldn't escape. And in that moment of solitude, as darkness swallowed the last of the light, he clung to the sparklers—a flickering hope that somewhere in the abyss of forgotten memories, he might find you again.