AN: And here's the sequel to the very much loved (by the hundred or so reviews I got) Love's Embers! I really, really wanted to finish that one so we can now be on this one. This one's rating is for future chapters mainly.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, only own OCs and plot and story, and the prequel to this sequel. Duh.

Song: Let It Roll - Secondhand Serenade

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Prolouge - Test Of Time

Drifts of air displaced the water in front of him as each ripple was forming differently according to the motion of the air. His grey-blue hair wafted in the light breeze, the currents playing with every individual strand. As some got into one great grey eye he lifted a gloved hand to replace it behind his ear and as he did so he sighed heavily. It had been so long since he had come to this place but the memories of that final night were the same as they had been for three whole years.

Much of the memory should have been erased by time, the thoughts and clarity crumbling to mere shadows of their former truth and glory. But still it hung on, in just as much purity as it had been the morning he woke up in the bus shelter. Memories that change your life usually have that effect, sticking out, being the only ones you can truly remember as if it were yesterday. And to him, the night when the woman he loved more than life itself left for someplace different, someplace new, was one of two memories. That one, and the night he had first kissed her. Smiling at the thought, the broody young adult sat on the park bench, thinking about the times they had shared as friends.

They had first met during the tournament. The day he had fought her, he thought it was the day he started living, breathing for life instead of just to get by it. Naturally at first he had rejected her ideas, having for so long been on his own with no-one who he could open up to and share secrets with. He hadn't been like other children. When his mother died, he had been outcasted from the Russian community without any explanation. However, although the adults knew his uncle was a madman, they did not tell their children the reason why they ignored the young boy. And subconciously they had taught their children to hate him.

Jeered at he had come to Japan from Russia a while after the incident, where he had lived on the streets as a young, prodigy blader for three years. A while later, he was accepted into a academy and his life basically flashed by. Classes went on as normal, and eventually he came to the Bladebreakers for the tournament. Years went by in what seemed like a flash, and finally he was at the small tourny where he had first met the woman of his dreams. The redhead they called Ember.

Her name suited her perfectly. Her hair was red as flames and would drift in the air when she let in down. Sometimes, if the sun was at just the right angle, he could almost make out a little halo around her head. Silly and lovestruck, he knew, but it seemed perfectly real to him at the moment. What he would give to see her again...

Ember had told him that she would come back some day to see him. Some day...every day after she had left he wished for 'some day' to be the very next day so he could see those beautiful eyes the colour of sapphire. His heart pummeled against his ribcage as he thought of her, closing his eyes and relishing the image of her beauty in his mind. There was no doubt about it - after all these years he was still in love with the same girl. No-one else came into his life because he knew she was the one for him, the only one who he could truly love now and forevermore. He hadn't pursued any relationships, which was saddening for all of those girls out there who would like to date him, but he put them down for the reason that one day she would be back.

One day. As for every day, he prayed it was today. But every time he looked out of his window, expecting to see a girl standing outside with long red hair that trailed to her waist, there was no sign of that comely soul that had turned his life around for the very better. Longing filled his veins every second of every day just to have her somewhere near him. They were two halves of a whole, part of something perfect. If only she could see that, and if only she were there!

When she came back he would tell her the secret he had kept hidden from her. He would tell her he loved her more than anything else in the world, wanted to have her by his side then and for all eternity. It would take a while to get his courage up, but he had been doing nothing else for the past three years apart from waiting for her to return to him after so long. Kai had spent three long years waiting.

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Barely thirty minutes away, a girl with long hair the colour of fire came out of the airport terminal, blinking rapidly against the heavy light shining on her pale face. A short, denim layer skirt swayed gently in the breeze as she walked towards the taxi rank. She had come here for a number of reasons; and one of them was her promise. She had told Kai all those years ago that one day she would be back to see him again, and she had kept her word. She only hoped that he still remembered her...

Ember didn't know it, but every day of those three years away, Kai had longed for her return.

He'd got what he wanted.

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AN: Short, I know, but it's the best I can do. Can't really think of anything to put here, my creativeness has dried up FAR too much lately with the festive season...argghh.

SNEAK PEEK

The blonde stayed on the sofa, looking across the orphanage lounge with disdain in her eyes. She couldn't see why after three years, Ember would pick now to come back...Rally was worried. Her thoughts jumbled about, thinking of the redhead, when all of a sudden an arm wrapped around her. She looked up into two, bright sapphire eyes, and realised who they belonged to. And when she did, it was all she could do not to scream.

AN: AH...tired. My whole mind is screaming that the festive season is too much on a writer...guess it's true. Lord oh lord I want to go to sleep. And it's only half past seven. In the evening. With that, I hope you enjoyed reading, please R&R all, and enjoy the start to a sequel!

Tyrila Anios xxx