Summary: "The fact that yours took the shape of a living thing that favours light is just like you, Yuuki..."
Based on Hino Matsuri's recent bonus chapter.
In Spring We Reunite
Tell me more about the past millennium...
As the flower scented wisps of air rippled her streams of auburn in a reassuring caress, Ai finally laid her anxieties to rest.
She had told her father about the years during his long slumber.
Allowing the tension which had clung onto her since the breath of dawn to wither, she inhaled the sweet air in an attempt to calm her racing heart.
Delicate strands of baby breaths which powdered the now forgotten valley gracefully turned and danced against the wind.
The slender man who sat beside her upon the grass had spoke naught as she had revealed the past, merely staring forward.
Focusing upon the altar that was hidden by fallen sandstone arches and pathways.
Where he had awoken as a human being.
Where he both died and begun anew.
Where her mother had stood by his side in her last few breaths.
The young pureblood recalled her mother's soft pants as she held herself above her father's sedated body, using her final strength to complete her life's wish in turning him human. Giving him a world in which he would be free and learn to enjoy the light that she came to adore during the years that she was human.
Cautious almandine eyes focused upon the handsome man's face, which offered no key to the emotions he felt.
Moments had passed and Kaname still remained quiet.
Her slender hands trembled in anticipation.
Had she done the wrong thing?
Should she have allowed him to forget everything?
Unsettled by his silence, Ai opened her mouth to speak but held her tongue as her father gracefully drew himself to his full height, casting a protective shadow over her as she remained sat upon the grass.
Ai was struck by awe at his magnificence.
Even if her father was no longer the powerful pureblood he once was, his grace remained flawless.
The way his long legs carried him from one location to another.
His long, dark lashes lightly touching his skin.
She had been told that her father had suffered from many internal contradictions.
Contradictions which he suffered from until his very last breath within his lover's arms.
Yet, watching him simply stand under golden rays, Ai could not help but see someone who was free of all that.
He had suffered so much throughout his life. But despite this, he had never complained.
He had been chained from the moment he took his first breath of life.
Such a strong, brave man her father was.
It made her beam with pride.
She was the daughter of that knight who laid his life down for both sides.
The Knight which was driven by the desire to create a world where his sweet Yuuki could live in peace.
Just seeing him walking─
Him breathing─
Him being free─
No more would she see her father imprisoned within an ice coffin in solace.
He was now free.
I want to give you, whom I love, the world I saw when I was human...
"Otou sa─"
"Yuuki."
The female started hearing her mother's name tumble from her father's mouth.
The way his mouth shaped to form her name...
The way her mother's name so softly rolled off his tongue just as her mother had told her...
Finally, she had heard it herself.
A tender sensation strummed her chest.
"That woman who revived me. Whose heart I carry. Her name was Yuuki" he asked with his back faced to her, preventing Ai from seeing the expression he wore.
"Yes," Ai softly confirmed, watching his dark, velvet wisps of hair brush his coat's collar as the wind breathed once more.
"Yuuki..." he whispered as if it were a prayer, testing the foreign name on his tongue once more.
Rising herself, Ai moved to stand beside her father to see something she did not expect.
Guilt.
Sorrow.
Confusion.
These swirled within his dark eyes.
Don't.
His hands clutched into a fist.
"Yuuki..." he breathed hoarsely, feeling a tenderness flourish for this woman he did not know like a fresh bud in spring.
This woman who had given him so much.
Kaname...
From the corner of his wounded eyes, a butterfly shyly fluttered past and perched itself upon the amethyst clusters of wisteria, nestling a crumbled pillar of the now fallen Cross Academy.
Mother's embodiment was a butterfly.
Light glimmered and painted the butterfly's intricate wings in a snowdrop white, as it enjoyed the sweet nectar of the fragrant flower.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Kaname found himself taking a step forward.
So, your embodiment is a butterfly huh?
His heart began to palpitate in an unstable manner, throbbing with an intense need to be closer to the butterfly ─ as if the heart had recognised the butterfly itself.
A lump grew in his throat.
He clutched the area of his shirt where his heart burned, unfamiliar to such a strong sensation.
It felt as if he had thrown his heart into a furnace.
The fact that yours took the shape of a living thing that favours light is just like you, Yuuki...
Without a word, Kaname walked towards the butterfly which had caught his attention.
Drawing closer, he could feel the heart inside of him flutter wildly like the wings of a butterfly battering against a net which desired to trap it.
Ah.
Now much closer, the creature appeared far more smaller than he thought it would be.
Far more delicate.
So delicate that it could be crushed by his bare hands.
"There you are," he murmured tenderly, his lips stretching into a bitter sweet smile.
"I have been wondering where I may find you...Yuuki."
The butterfly's wings opened in delight.
Casting a look over his shoulder, Kaname saw his daughter respectively standing a few metres away, holding her umbrella to exclude herself from the all embracing sun.
Nodding to her father with an understanding smile, she re-entered the crumbled academy, leaving him and the winged creature alone.
Turning to face the butterfly, the handsome man slowly knelt so that he was at an eye level to the delicate creature.
Before he knew it, he began to talk to the butterfly in a hushed tone.
"I have learnt many things today. Things which I am still trying to comprehend and did not expect to ever learn."
The soothing melody of chirping birds filled the light enveloped atmosphere, wrapping the two in a blanket of their own world.
"I once had many ambitions. Ambitions which I pursued despite knowing their inevitable consequences. Consequences which I accepted and did not regret. And yet..."
Kaname's face grew darker, his jaw tense.
"Much of what I have learnt ─ the one that was most affected by my pursuit ─ the one I owe my life to ─"
The butterfly's wings shivered causing Kaname's eyes to soften.
"Do not be scared. I wish for you to not be scared of me."
Kaname slowly extended his hand, careful to not startle the butterfly.
"Come," he cooed.
The butterfly abandoned its sweet nectar and perched itself upon Kaname's knuckle.
"From what Ai ─ our daughter has told me of my ─ our previous life..."
Kaname exhaled slowly, closing his eyes for a moment before reopening them.
"If there was a chance to redo what had been done, to change the repercussions of his ─ my actions, my decision to end my life the way it did would not have changed."
Kaname paused in thought.
"He did not wish to leave you the way he did, Yuuki" he affirms with an intense gaze.
The butterfly stilled, listening closely.
Ah, yes. Kaname knew this well.
He could feel it flow within his blood, strange although it may be.
For him, the Kaname still lived but in a dormant state within him.
"Life unfortunately does not always play to our games, as we both found out in the end," Kaname murmured with a poignant expression. "I am sorry for the pain we have caused you. Forgive me."
Sometimes forgetting is a type of happiness.
His heart began to pulse.
"I can feel the pace of my heart rising. I wonder, do I carry your heart's own feelings as well as mine?" he chuckled playfully lightly tracing the butterfly's wings, for some reason, finding it amusing to tease the little butterfly.
Lifting his hand up to the light, he stared in awe as the warm rays of the sun filtered through the butterfly's translucent wings, giving the winged little being a pure glow.
I believe that someday...
It was in that moment, that Kaname understood the effect Yuuki had over him.
We will be able to get out of this dark forest...
Tilting his head back, the awakened knight bathed in a pool of golden light.
And the day where we warm our frozen bodies under the sun...
'What a beautiful light,' he thought.
Will come.
Thank you for reading!
