Spring's Flowers

by Adlet Mayer

Her nights will become lonely, and the road ahead of her is a long and strenuous one. But if there is one fact she must remember, is that the flowers will spring from underneath the snow once more when springtime arrives, and that they will give her strength to carry on. [Hijkata x Unknown] [One-shot]

"Your father was a brave man, with fire in his eyes and might in everything he did."

That's what she'll tell her son, or daughter, about their father when they're old enough. Hijikata Toshizo died in battle. And from the moment he stopped breathing, it seemed as though it had been eons since he had left. No one leaves for good. She had the strength to remind herself, among the inevitable tears and flood of sorrow that would come to her later. When the healers had left her to say goodbye, she had not shed a tear. reminded herself. Strength in the face of tragedy.

"He died in honor." One woman reminded her on the way out, touching her shoulder briefly. She knew that about the man she never had a chance to marry, the man whose child she was going to have in perhaps seven months. They will be raised without a father. She would never marry anyone else.

For a moment, it had been tempting to say that she' would vanish into the night after her child was born, for her life had lost its purpose with her love.

A future of loneliness laid ahead of her. She was young. He was young. There had been so much to look forward to. But it seemed that those expectations had been extinguished.

Now winter was at its end, she observed as she looked out and up into the sky, from the garden of an old relative that had taken her in. The winter's chills no longer bothered her. She was strength, who although would never forget, would forgive and never be tied down by the past. Those who she had lost continued to encourage her.

Hijikata Toshizo, the man who she had devoted her life to, was still beside her. In her memories, he would not fade and she would never forget his face, his voice or the way he had loved her. Their time together had been short and sweet, but would last forever in her memory. And she would eternally pledge her love to him, even as she grew old without him.

And from their love, a child would emerge into her life, giving it a new purpose. Their child would be a springtime child. She hoped that their father's resilience would show through. But they would grow up on the tales and stories she had about him, all the while she moved forward.

Out of winter, life would arrive once more, and the cycle of love would continue.