Fleur
It's been a long time coming, Hao thinks as he stares at the house in front of him. France is cold this time of year, but he chooses to ignore the numbness of his hands and the wind tickling his nose and cheeks. He has something he must do, and what better time than now?
He wonders how she might react to seeing him. It has been a long time – a very long time in fact, since he has last laid eyes on her. He guesses about thirty years, give or take. He hasn't really been counting. He wonders if she will even recognise him, or if she will even look the same. With a mental frown, he hopes that she will have not changed much, because he can still see her green eyes that he often would, to himself, admire affectionately.
With a deep breath he steps towards the door and he rings the door bell; he doesn't feel nervous, just anxious. He holds his breath just as the door opens and he is greeted with a pair of familiar eyes staring at him. Her hair is shorter, but it is her, he knows it. He can just tell. She is older than from when he last met her; now they appear to be the same age. She is somewhat shorter than he is, slim and gracious with her green eyes still staring at him widely, confused.
"Gabriella Fleuris?" he asks, smiling at her brightly.
"O-Oui." She replies weakly, almost as if she cannot believe what she is seeing. It would be strange, Hao muses, that a sixteen year old Japanese boy would appear at her doorstep.
But still, he smiles at her warmly. "I knew you when you were Marion Phauna."
The girls' eyes seem to widen a little more, and still she stares at him for a while longer before her eyes seem to water. "I know." She says. Hao blinks, the smile falling from his lips in a confused way. She smiles a little at him, stepping out from her door towards him. "I knew you, when you were Hao Asakura." She says softly, looking at the ground. "You seem surprised, Hao-sama, that I should remember this."
Hao quickly removes the confused expression from his face. "I am." He admits, " I expected to come here and-" he stops. He doesn't really know what he expected to do when he met her face to face. Tell her stories of her previous life? Tell her things he had wanted to tell her then, but could not?
She looks up from the ground and smiles softly. "You underestimate the loyalty I had for you, Hao." She says quietly. "Even as I died, I only wished that one day I should live again to serve you and allow myself to help your dreams come true," she explains, "but it seems that you have changed, more so than I."
He looks at her, then looks away. "We both have."
"For the better." She says quietly and Hao looks at her. "Won't you come inside?" she says after a moment's silence.
Hao stares at her, silent and nods, following her inside to her home. For the better. The words ring in his head as he watches her in the kitchen preparing tea, and he silently agrees. He has changed; no longer is so full of hatred and vengeance that he would ignore his heart. He thinks that one day he will seek out his brother, and apologise. But for now, he is simply content to stay here with a girl that long ago, he found lonely and wandering the streets of Italy, shunned and tormented by those around her. He had found comfort with that girl, he had protected her and then as they grew, he had pushed her to the back of his heart and focussed on his hate. But this time, in this life, he thought as she sat beside him handing him a cup, he would do things right.