MOAG: Carry Along

[edenbound]

Fandom: Memoirs of a Geisha
Pairing: Mameha/Sayuri
Warnings: None
Rating: G
Summary: Seeing Sayuri again makes Mameha long for things past. For 10lilies.


Even Sayuri's face shows the signs of the years, Mameha thinks. To see her again is to long for a whole host of things: the Japan she knew when she was a meiko, the Japan she showed Sayuri to not so long ago, before the war; the Sayuri she knew then, still naive and vulnerable. The Sayuri she sees now holds her head a bit higher, even if her hands are worn and there are tiny, subtle lines there that show the pain of the years of war. Even this, Mameha thinks, is not peace: but it is something akin to it, and she tells herself she should be glad for the breathing space.

Sayuri makes her long for a life she should not wish to return to, she tells herself. And yet there is something in those blue, blue eyes -- something that Mameha has never been able to resist, from the first time she saw her -- whether she simply saw a girl she could make something of, or a younger sister, or a person she could freely give her heart to without fear.

And so she agrees to go back to the role she thought she'd never play again. Sayuri's hand brushes hers, just a little, and she smiles: and that is reward enough.

The war is over. Mameha is not yet at peace -- Sayuri's water comes to carry her along again. And yet, she thinks, smiling; she does not mind.