Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Life the Saitoh Fujita Way ❯ Sakura and Cigarettes ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: anreg

A once unpleasant smell may become more fragrant as time passes.

(30R Theme: Perfume-Strange Smell)

Sakura and Cigarettes

Sakura in the spring. I have always loved the sights and smells. The trees are so full of blossoms heavily laden with scent. They are like clouds reflecting the pink of the rising sun. It only takes a slight breeze to initiate a flurry of petals drifting through the air like snowflakes in a winter storm. Instead of icy pieces that sting bare skin, they are cool, but soft as they brush your face with a pleasant caress.

Their fragrance reminds me of a time long ago. Maybe that is why I wear it, to remind myself of that day. It was the day I started on my journey towards my life's final destiny. It was the day I first saw him. It is not that I would ever forget that day, or that time in my life. But to be enveloped in the scent of that day is a comfort to me.

It is said that one never misses what one does not know. That is so true. I was alone then, but I did not feel like I was alone. That is because in those days I did not know what it was like to be so close to someone that you actually feel as if you are a part of them. Now it often feels like there are no longer two of us, but one.

I smile to myself as I think of him, and the scent that permeates his clothing and skin. Oh how I hated it when I first smelled it. It was so strange to me. I wondered how anyone could stand to subject themselves to that habit, and the swirling smoke that saturates everything it touches, leaving such a pungent odor.

They say that opposites attract. He is tall; I am short. He is gruff; I am not. He acts as though he has no heart; I wear my compassion on my sleeve. And I cannot think of two more opposing scents than cigarettes and sakura.

We may seem like opposites on the surface, and we are in ways that are not significant. But our beliefs, loyalties, and what we consider important are the same. It could be no other way. Many people question what I saw in him that I would agree to marry him. It was our similarities, not our differences that made me realize that he was the one.

Staring into my cup of tea, as I sit in our kitchen, I hear the shoji slide open and soon after catch the faint fragrance that tells me he is home. Yes, now it is a fragrance to me, his fragrance. Over the years I have grown used to it, just as the two of us have grown closer together, often seeming that we are one.