A/N: STOP right here if you haven't read "About Crystals and Stars". This one is a accompanying piece. Unlike the One-shots of the Purity universe, these One-shots will give more insight to the setting, other characters, other story lines etc. and are directly connected to the actual plot of "About Crystals and Stars". If you haven't read it, it will be harder to understand, what the characters are talking about. You should at least read the first chapter.

Second point. This is a shimayu One-shot collection but the first One-Shot is about SeiKari... Duh?

Point is even if there are other characters, the prince and princess are the main topic in the world at the moment and the biggest concern for everyone. The main tension of the romance between Shimon and Mayura, the arrangement, is therefore the exposition of the One-shots. So even if they aren't physically there, their romance is practically everywhere. XD

The rating will differ. It might contain M-rated fics in the future. But the ratings will appear in the chapter's titles, so you don't have to worry about that. Except you want me to make an extra book for it. Write me your opinion on this. Thanks!^^

Also the awesome art of the cover was made by clauvixx (instagram). Can't add links in here but it's easier, if you check out her art on instagram right after reading this chapter. ;)

The Space In-between (SeiKari K+)

Nowadays everything looked gray.

The weather looked more gloomy than it usually was. It seemed to rain quite more often. The wind's breath was more icy, biting every part of freed skin and chilling the flesh to the bones.

The weather in Narukami never was something for weak people. Yet, it never had looked this gray to her. It hadn't been like this before. Not even, when Seigen had left her and her daughter for years. Without Mayura life seemed dull.

Yukari stood on the veranda overlooking the estate being swallowed in long shadows while the sun sank to the west, shining for their enemy country now. It had been days, since they've last seen their daugther.

She pulled the cape closer to her body, hugging it tightly. It was the cape she had worn on the day her daughter was born. It was old, time had stolen its color but Yukari had kept it, for it reminded her of the wonder of birth. A wonder she had to her regret only experienced once. A servant had once tried to throw this cape away. Afterwards Yukari had almost felt guilty about her sudden outburst when she noticed the piece was missing.

Behind her she heard the dull fall of footsteps. She didn't turn around though and continued to stare at flowers that she had planted with her daughter once. It hurt. With her daughter missing, it was as if something had been cut out of her body. A permanent pain throbbing in her chest and tightening her lungs. It would be nice to take a breath once in a while.

A shoji was opened and closed next to her.

Her sight wavered as tears formed in her eyes. The picture of the flowers got blurred.

"You make it worse," her husband drawled from behind her.

Sucking in a shaky breath, Yukari tried to calm herself. The last few days with Seigen had been rough. She was glad and happy to welcome her husband back into her life, her lover back into her arms. Yet, the missing of their daughter was like a sword constantly hanging over their heads. "I just can't stop worrying about her. I wish I would have had the chance to talk with her, before she'd left."

"You're giving me the fault, don't you?" Seigen started their argument once again.

Defeated and tired she shook her head. "No, no," She said and turned around to look at him. He looked so sad. He always looked to be brooding, yet she could see in his droopy eyes a cloud of darkness. "I am not. I understand your reasoning."

"But you don't agree?"

She took another deep breath, strengthening herself. With a firmer voice she replied, "I believe, every mother wants their child to be happy."

"Not every," he murmured lowly. And she recalled endless nights of talking, of getting to know each other. Sad nights with a lot of heart-twisting revelations, comfort hugs and butterfly kisses. It had taken them years to get to know each other inside out and she was afraid of the one idea that had crossed her mind and twisted her heart since his return: After all the space and time dividing them, had the separation estranged them? Would they need years again to get to know each other? His following sigh was like a confirmation of her fears, yet he did not reply to her heart but to her words, "As a father I want the same."

She shook her head, laying her fears aside. The matter with Seigen was one thing. The one with her daughter another. And it was definitely more urgent. She didn't blame him for Mayura running away, but she was mad at him for planning their daughter's future. He wanted Mayura to be happy as a father. Yet, he had not acted like it and she questioned her thoughts, "But not as the sovereign of Narukami?"

He groaned as if in pain. "You two are too much alike."

Yukari rose her head in challenge at his poor attempt of distraction.

He simply looked at her and waited for a reaction but she returned his stare. He scowled in frustration folding his arms within the room of his kimono's sleeves. "I don't know how often we have to have this conversation."

"As often as we need until our daughter returns," she replied resolutely and pointed.

He turned away from her, looking now himself over his family ground. A space he had inherited from his father and had shared it with Yukari and their daughter. His gaze skipped to her once again before he looked away again. In a low voice he drawled, "She might find happiness in this marriage, you know."

"I do trust you to have chosen a nice man for our daughter, but –" Yukari shook her head and took a few steps towards him, "I wish, you had talked to me before announcing this to her. I wish to have stayed by her side."

"She is no child," he blurted out.

"No, she isn't. But she is no woman, yet, either. I always wanted her to have the same experiences I had."

His eyebrows rose in confusion. "Huh?"

She chuckled at his ignorance. It was silly as much as it was adorable. Fondness was lifting her heart and was, for once, making it easier to breathe. Lying a hand onto his shoulder, she softly replied, "The experience I made with you, Seigen."

He sighed beaten. He was probably dealing with the idea that he was loosing this debate.

Yukari smiled at him. He wore the same look, he did back then, when he had first spoken to her. His shoulder felt warm where she touched it. "Do you remember, the first time you confessed to me?"

"Ah, you were bothersome," the corner of his lips lifted all so slightly and he couldn't have looked more handsome to her as he did now, when images of the past overlapped the present.

"You were just this snotty prince to me," she teased him.

"But that changed?"

"It did." Tears flooded her eyes. The bond of their past was still connecting them. Maybe the future would weave more strings around it on its own. She swallowed bitterly. Would her daughter ever have something like she did with Seigen? A bond connecting her to her lover over space and time? "You think, Mayura could have something like this with the prince of Tsuchimikado?"

Seigen's smile dropped again. He stayed quiet – awfully quiet.

Dread filled her and made goosebumps rise on her skin. Her arm dropped from his shoulder as her smile did. "You don't?"

He sighed. Again. The thousands of sighs since his return. "You know, while discussing terms with Hoji-dono, I always wondered, if I was doing the right thing. I do wonder, if I met a man more worthy of our daughter."

She blinked confused about his cryptic reply. "Do you mean somebody in particular? Who did you think of?"

"Doesn't matter," he mumbled.

She rose her eyebrows. He couldn't mean –? "You don't mean Rokuro, do you?"

"Urgh. Of course not!"

She giggled at his exclamation. She knew despite his effort to hide it, that he was actually fond of the boy he had found on a rainy night and had brought into their house. From that day they had taken care of the brown-haired boy like a child of their own.

Yet, she could neither picture Rokuro with Mayura. They were raised like brother and sister. Yukari wished for Mayura to find a man she could love. Yet, one wish covered all her others, the wish for their daughter's return. "Seigen, where is our daughter?"

Her husband frowned deeply, "I don't know," hanging his head down low he continued, "Maybe I should have left with the search parties."

"You just returned, you can't."

"I know," he said and looked off to the space of their grounds.

She did as well. Everything looked so empty. There was too much space in the open. Darkness covered the estate with the sun having left.

Both stayed silent for a while. She wished for a miracle to cover the distance in-between her family.

"You know, I am as desperate as you to have her back. I even send the imp after her," Seigen said slowly after a while, trying to tear down the silence.

She nodded. "The sun had not moved far from the moment you returned to the moment she'd left. Mere moments, that's all we've got. Mere moments we had been a family again."

Her eyes skipped over to him. He looked downcast. A look that reminded her of her daughter. People always used to say, Mayura was the spiting image of her but Yukari could see more beneath the outer shell. The expressions her daughter made, that were uniquely Seigen and all the refined resemblances in her daughter's personality. No matter if people only saw Yukari in Mayura, she knew better; Mayura was the product of both of them, of herself and Seigen equally.

After everything they were husband and wife. No matter what. No matter how deep the cleft between them. They were bound together above, by their past and by their child. All they could do was fill the gap by getting to know each other once more.

"Seigen, could you come to my chamber tonight?" She knew she asked a lot of him but these past nights had been calming the storm that was threatening to consume her. The touch of a long forgotten lover, memories covering their kisses, emotions so familiar any yet foreign, the rediscovery of the old and the adapting to the new, that was all she had.

He seemed to know it, too. For he looked to be conflicted about visiting her the fourth night in a row but not totally dismissive. He said out lout what they both knew, too. "Again? The servants will start talking. They'll think I want to produce a second child."

Of course Yukari was aware about the possible repercussions. The servants would talk and soon a rumor would spread over Narukami that the lord wanted to produce another heir thanks to the missing of his daughter to secure his family's reign. Right now, however, Yukari couldn't care less about politics. "Let them talk. I need your comfort."

"Ah~," he nodded, looking much more uncomfortable about this.

"Besides, I won't complain about making a child." She knew, she understood, a child would never fill all the spaces in-between. She knew making a child at this particular time was a political mistake. Nevertheless it was another wish on her list of those unfulfilled and she couldn't ignore this fact for the life of her.

Seigen stared at her open-mouthed as if she had said something outrageous. "It's too risky. All our attempts in the past didn't end well, remember?"

Buried memories threatened to be dug up and she had a hard time recovering from the ultimate pain of loosing a child more than once. She clenched her hands into fists and turned towards him to face him fully. Couldn't he see that it was what she needed to feel whole again? Wasn't he feeling the same way?

He still looked at her. But where had been shock carved on his face was now frustration and fear.

In a last attempt to show him, how much it meant to her, she exclaimed, "I don't care. All I care about is us, is our family, our child and our children to come."

The facade of frustration broke apart. With a sad smile he commented, "Maybe you should have went to negotiate with Hoji-dono. You make a hell of a rhetoric."

Yukari smiled, too, at the complement. "I've learned during your absence." Her smile dropped as quickly as it formed, when she recalled the reason, "Had to."

"However, you can't expect me to risk the life of my wife for the possibility of a child," he said as fiercely as she had seen him only on very few occasions.

"Maybe the Crystal will be kind this time." She watched his gaze waver and felt like she needed to assure him. "I can't say why but I have a good feeling about it."

Her husband looked at her in unveiled defeat and sorrow, something she had never seen before. The Seigen she knew, the strong ruler and fearless fighter, would have never shown so much weakness. Not to his enemies and not to his closest friends either. Her heart bled for his, when he admitted, "I don't know what is right anymore."

She took his hand, tightening her fingers around his in a strong grip. She waited until his gaze lifted to meet her eyes, before she said, "Let us pray for the Crystal to bring us our children."

A/N: This came out a lot more angsty then I originally planned. At the beginning I only had the dialogue without all this dark and angsty emotions surrounding it. But I love angsty romance. It's the best to me. (The author admits she is screwed-up.) XD *cough* What are you feeling now? Was it too much angst? Are you more excited about the main story now or was this too much of a bummer?

And some things I'd like to mention: Yukari in this universe is a bit different because of her change of profession. I needed to adjust the character, because here she is no scientist but a ruler. So her knowledge lies in politics and rhetorics. (She still loves plants though.) So to let her show her cleverness she needed to be more witty.
The next point is Seigen's mother that's been implied here. Funny fact: In the SnO universe there are only dead or kind mothers, most of the times they are both. Because the universe of Crystals is more realistic, I wanted to have a not kind mother who is dead - can't screw with the whole system. XD)