Pairing:
Yaeko/Hiro
Warnings: Cliche use of cherry blossoms, mild
2.07 "Out of Time" spoilers.
AN: Originally
written for http://community.
Last Spring
The next spring, sakura bloomed like every spring. The soft, green grass was springy underfoot, all the sensations familiar. She hadn't planned to come back here-- not now, not ever. Yaeko found she was not as strong as she liked to imagine herself, accepting that under showers of blossoms, stirred by the shivering wind. Everything was exactly the same: the weather, the scent. Maybe she returned to know that, to know that this place had not changed.
But it had. The grove where she and Hiro --Kensei then, but Hiro-- had first exchanged adoring gazes had never been made of trees, wind, sunshine, or the too-sweet smell of blossoms. The place didn't matter.
It could never be the same without him here. Nothing ever would be, she finally understood.
Maybe that was why she had returned: to know the finality of her loss for what it was, and to shoulder that alone. Not weak at all, but strong, very strong, she thought herself, as she turned from the grove for the last time.