Chapter Text
Sometimes the pain is there even though the curse is lifted. Her curse, of course.
Others had to live and die with it, and Asagiri often feels like it should have been reversed - the prince to live with Sakura, and Asagiri to reunite with Ukyo in the afterlife.
That isn’t her fate. That isn’t fair.
Instead, she’s trying not to groan or whimper late at night from pain that’s mostly faded lest she wake her beloved, her savior, her dearest friend.
Sakura is still often clingy, but Asagiri would never expect otherwise.
Asagiri knows Sakura loved him more than she loves her. But she is still here.
So she stays, and she holds Sakura close.
At least… at least she can do that.
Asagiri wakes up alone, as often happens. She dresses herself and slips down the hall, the the next room. Her arms wrap around Sakura’s thin frame as they watch him.
“He’ll wake up,” Sakura says. “Right?”
A curse was put on the prince. A different kind. He sleeps but he doesn’t waste away.
It might be easier if he did.
“I hope so,” Asagiri says. She’d take her own life if she though it would bring the prince back to Sakura.
But it won’t.
Sakura doesn’t sob, she just stares.
Asagiri lives for Sakura. That is the way of the world. She doesn’t consider it unfair. She loves Sakura.
Sakura thinks she ruined the Prince’s life.
“That’s not true,” Asagiri says.
“You know people talk,” Sakura says. “About me keeping a monster in my bed, while he’s sick. Does this make me a monster?”
“Of course not,” Asagiri says. “You love him more than anything.”
Asagiri wishes she were equal. And she wishes the prince would awaken.
Such confiscating desires.
“I love you too, you know,” Sakura says. She cups Asagiri’s face. “Kohaku is making it work.”
“I know who you love,” Asagiri says. She puts her hand over Sakura’s. Sakura is so very pale and thin, these days. “It’s alright.”
“Are you sure?” Sakura asks.
“Yes,” Asagiri says.
The pain is back again. Echoes. The wounds of her first death and the scars left by the curse. Even if the prince wakes up…
Sakura holds her. Her frail body cradles Asagiri close.
“I’ve got you,” she says. “I can tell you’re hurting.”
Asagiri sobs.
This is not the ending she wanted. Not for either of them.