This is a stand-alone section of my larger fic, Freeze My Love that I figured I'd post seperately since it was done.. This is from *much* later in FmL than I've written, which is why it's listed seperately. Don't worry about spoliers for FmL; even though this is way late in the fic technically, all of the annexes are flashbacks, so this happens *before* CCS. :)

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Annex:
Nadeshiko

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One warm, spring day, Amamiya Nadeshiko fell out of a tree.
She had been trying to help a baby bird. She knew she shouldn't have been in the tree, but she could have scarcely *ignored* the poor thing. She knew before she climbed the tree everything would be fine, in the same way as she knew a lot of things, and she smiled happily when baby was back safely in its nest, thinking that her knowing had been right, and she had only now to get down, and surely that was the easy part?
 She started to climb down the tree, when her foot slipped and she found herself descending from the tree far faster and in a far more horizontal direction than she had climbed it, and she had just enough time before she landed to wonder how it was her knowing had been so wrong.
But when she landed, it was not with the bone-shattering crash she had expected, but with a much softer thud, and the ground beneath her was warmer and softer than the ground had ever been. Before she could even begin to gather her thoughts, a soft, low voice asked her if she was all right, and she realized why the ground had been so soft when she landed. Still feeling shaken and hoping she hadn't hurt the poor man, she said she was fine. Then she got a good look at him, and realized why she had known when she climbed the tree everything was going to be better after she climbed it than it had been before she climbed it. Her breath was taken away by his cheerful, sunny smile, and she knew before he spoke his next words--to say he had thought an angel had fallen out of the sky--that this man would change her life forever. She knew he was...special.
His name was Kinomoto Fujitaka, and he was a new teacher at her school. She found herself gravitating towards his room before lunch and when classes were over, and that he would seek her out if he saw her walking the grounds by herself. One day she realized that she loved him, and that he loved her in return.
 Against the wishes of her entire family-- most strongly against the wishes of her cousin Amamiya Sonomi--as soon as she turned sixteen, Amamiya Nadeshiko married Fujitaka and became Kinomoto Nadeshiko. They were very poor, but they were very happy. He insisted she stay in school and graduate; every day they would walk to school together hand-in-hand, holding identical bento boxes that he had made because he was the better cook.
Times were very hard, and Nadeshiko worked part-time as a model to help with the bills. She made enough at it that Fujitaka tentatively began to talk about maybe going back to graduate school. She encouraged him to do, and finally brought him application forms and filled out as much as she could herself when he seemed to be of two minds about it, torn between wanting to provide for her and the family they were planning one day, and wanting very badly to return to school. She told him that she wanted him to be happy, and until he went to school, he wouldn't be. Laughing that she knew him better than he did himself, he finished the forms, took all of the tests, and soon was a student again. Between his part-time teaching and her modeling, they managed to do all right, and began setting money aside for a house.
When Nadeshiko found out she was pregnant, she and Fujitaka splurged and went out for dinner at the most expensive restaurant they could almost afford. They started talking immediately about names, and decided quickly that they wanted to name their children after flowers like they were--she was named after the flower called a "pink"; he was "flourishing wisteria." Nadeshiko said that she loved the name Sakura--"cherry blossom"--so if it was a girl, she wanted to name her that. Fujitaka agreed, since the cherry blossom was one of his favorite flowers. Nadeshiko thought for a moment, then said that her other favorite flower had already been taken, by him. Fujitaka just smiled at that, and said that his three favorite flowers were the pink, the cherry blossom, and the peach blossom. Nadeshiko's face lit up, and she said the peach blossom was one of her favorites, too.
So when their first child was born, they named him "Peach Arrow."
Nadeshiko had a harder time recovering after she had the baby, and they decided to put off having another child for a while. Also, with Fujitaka back in school working on his PhD, it was better if they waited until he was done and could find a better job, because then they would be better able to afford more children. They waited six years, and not long after Touya turned seven and Fujitaka began assistant teaching at the nearby college; after they had bought a house far larger than they had imagined they could have possibly afforded (and Nadeshiko wondered to herself for years if perhaps her father had somehow secretly helped them), Nadeshiko had a little girl, and they named her "Cherry Blossom."
They planned on having more children, but often laughed that they had used up all the flower names they both liked, so what on earth were they going to do for names?
When Sakura was two and a half, Nadeshiko developed a slight cough. Thinking it was just a cold, she ignored it at first. But her cough only grew worse, and soon Fujitaka suggested she see a doctor. She kept saying she would be fine, and put off going, thinking that she would start feeling better any day now.
As she grew sicker, Touya, as was his way, slowly began to take over many of the household chores and watching Sakura, without saying a word to anyone. Nadeshiko often found herself sitting down on the sofa for a small rest, and then would wake up hours later, laid down and covered with a blanket, Touya standing next to her with a tray that had a cup of tea and soup. She told him he was a good boy, and always thanked him for taking such good care of her and Sakura, saying she would make it up to him when he was feeling better. Touya always nodded seriously, even though Nadeshiko saw how her son's eyes were always guarded when she said that, and she wondered if perhaps he knew something she didn't.
She decided that her knowing wouldn't fail her with something this important, and so she kept brushing off going to a doctor. Finally, seeing Nadeshiko getting weaker and weaker, as well growing paler and thinner, Fujitaka took the day off of work, made a doctor's appointment, and took Nadeshiko to the doctor's without telling her where they were going until they got there.
The news was not good, and less than a month later, Nadeshiko was admitted to the hospital. Fujitaka spent nearly every day there after work until visiting hours were over, sometimes bringing Touya and Sakura; most often leaving Touya in charge of his sister, because he didn't want either of them to see their mother as she was.
When Nadeshiko died, just a few months after Sakura had turned three, her greatest regret was that she would not get to see her children grow up, and that she was leaving Fujitaka alone. She worried most about Sakura and Fujitaka; she knew it would be hard for Touya, but that he was in some ways stronger than either his father or his sister. He was like her. He knew things, only he was far stronger than she ever had been, and she knew that would be guidance enough to make up for losing a mother. But Fujitaka didn't have anyone but her, and Sakura was a still a baby, and so she worried. Before she died, she made Fujitaka promise that he wouldn't cry if she died because she hated seeing him sad, and he promised her, holding her hand in both of his. She knew just looking into his eyes that that wouldn't be enough, because he thought it was an easy promise because she wasn't really going to die.
And so when she died, she did not pass on as she had expected to in some ways, but found herself at her home, waiting for her family. Fujitaka seemed stunned when he arrived, and could only stare blankly out into space, holding Sakura, who rested her head against her father's chest and cried quietly because she knew he was upset.
She knew instantly that Touya could see her. No one else could, but by the way his eyes instantly locked on her, she knew that he knew she was there. She watched him eventually go to his dry-eyed father and take Sakura from him, telling him that it was Sakura's bedtime. Sakura had long since fallen asleep in her father's arms, and Fujitaka let his son carefully wake Sakura up and shepard her to bed. Nadeshiko kneeled by her husband and rested her hand on his knee, but she knew as soon as she did it that he could not feel her, and she knew he would keep his promise and not cry for her.
She wondered if perhaps that promise had been one she should not have made him make.
She stayed with him for a while, watching him simply stare at nothing. Eventually, she heard Touya come down the stairs. He stared at the two of them for a moment, then quietly walked to the kitchen and made dinner for his father and himself. He took a tray out to his father, and stood there until Fujitaka noticed him. Fujitaka thanked him, but Touya refused to move until his father ate. Once Fujitaka had eaten, he took the tray back into the kitchen, ate his own food, which had grown cold, then went to his room.
Even though she did not want to leave Fujitaka alone to his grief, she knew that as far as Fujitaka knew, he was alone, and there was nothing she could do to change that. Her son, however, did know that she was there, and she could at least do something for him, so she followed Touya upstairs.
When she got to his room, Touya sat down on the floor and looked up at her. He didn't say anything, but his eyes spoke instead, accusing, hurt, and confused. She knelt down by him and explained everything to him--that she had died and was a ghost, like the ghosts he had once told her about being able to see. She told him she loved him, and that he would have to be strong for his father and sister. She asked him with a heavy heart to please take care of both his father and his sister, and she would help as much as she could until it was time for her to go. He asked if he was the only one who could see her, and she told him yes. She also asked him not to tell his father that she could see him. Without needing an explanation of why, Touya agreed. When Nadeshiko finished talking to him, Touya waited a long time, then lowered his head and asked her, in a very tiny voice, if it was all right if he cried. He said he had seen his father not crying, and so he hadn't cried. He looked up at her, eyes almost ready to overflow with tears, and said if he could just cry tonight, he'd be all right...but that if he wasn't supposed to cry, he would manage somehow. Nadeshiko nodded and the tears her son had been holding back all day began to slowly overflow and roll down his cheeks.
Touya didn't make a sound, and Nadeshiko stayed with him until he cried himself to sleep, knowing that her son would be all right. She stayed with them for the next three years, helping Touya as much as she could, watching as her husband slowly began putting his life together. One day, she saw that Sakura was old enough to no longer remember her or be sad that she had no mother, and that Fujitaka had pulled himself out of his grief and had organized the children and their lives to function without her, and Touya was no longer carrying the burden of being the strong one all by himself.
And seeing that the ones she had worried so much about would be all right, Nadeshiko Left.