ficlet - Itachi & Sasuke - Wild West AU - gen

[askerian]

A few centuries ago I was doing a "10 AUs" meme. That's as far as I managed to get on either the Itachi&Sasuke gen or the ItaSasu one. I fail like a faily thing.



Three hundred and sixty-four days a year, Sasuke is the sheriff and Itachi is the gunslinger he is sworn to bring in and set to dance at the end of a rope.

He takes his duty seriously. There is no excuse for what Itachi has done, continues to do.

On Christmastime, Sasuke saddles his horse and rides up in the mountains to the little cabin his father built so long ago.

His brother is already there, stoking the fire. He brought dinner. Sasuke sits beside him, and then they talk about their parents. About the past. They dance around talking about each other, about the two of them, but it's there in every gap.

At the end of the night -- dawn, really -- when Sasuke is drifting toward sleep, Itachi drapes a blanket over him and whispers a number in his ear.

This year I have reached twenty-three kills. Four for self-defense, nineteen for revenge.

Every year, Sasuke knows that the time draws closer when Itachi will tell him, "I have killed them all," and in the morning he will still be there, waiting for Sasuke to bring him in.

Every year the day after Christmas, Sasuke wakes feeling the gun underneath his pillow, and he plans the way he will shoot his brother and bury him here, at their father's cabin. Because as the sheriff he is sworn to execute an assassin.

As Itachi's brother, this is all he can give him, one day a year. A quick death and a deep, undisturbed grave.

Comments

[alien-duck.livejournal.com]

I kind of feel like I want to cry now TT______TT

[askerian]

I'm sorry ? ;__; *petpetpet*

[the-drop-zone.livejournal.com]

This is magic.
Dark, angsty, well-developed magic.

[askerian]

#^___^# Thank you.

[editrixfox.livejournal.com]

D: .... d'aww. You really have a talent for getting a mood across right. This might be short, but it's really well-developed. I wouldn't count this as a failure.

[askerian]

aw, thank you ^^ though when I said fail it was mostly about how I couldn't manage to write the nine left in that set. I didn't mean to be all complainy. XD; I liked this one well enough despite my dislike for the setting (why the hell did i list it then, i have no idea), just didn't like my lack of success with the rest.

[belledragon.livejournal.com]

This is very good - so much conveyed in so few words. I'm left feeling all sorts of light angsty emotions and find myself imaging what that final day would look like between them :/. Always a good thing when a fic creates openings for all sorts of additional musings.

[askerian]

Hee. I'm glad it's giving your imagination something to work with ^^ that's a pretty great compliment. ♥

[water-soter.livejournal.com]

O.o, How do you do that? Just sit down, write a few lines and boom, magic. Gapes!

[askerian]

#^_____^# oh my, thank you.

[kohikari.livejournal.com]

...What about leap years? :D

*bricked*

[askerian]

... XD

EVIL. *shakes fist at*

[sara-the-lazy.livejournal.com]

This is very beautiful in it's simplicity, and so sad. Oh, the brotherly angst... it is simply delicious. I like the idea of Itachi being willing to turn him self in the year he has killed them all. Ohhh you poor boys...