A/N: Here is the last installment of my Hana-to-Akuma series. Sequel to "Happy Birthday" and "Mistake". I'd like to thank all of my faithful readers, especially MarianFontz. This last story is dedicated to you, darling. Thank you! I hope you like it, and don't forget to R&R.
Journey
The rain just now has stopped
The smell of asphalt is floating around the city
Hey, over there too, the weather is fine already right?
For the weather has cleared up from the west
Since you're not a morning person
Everyday, will you be able to wake up properly?
I'm still worried about things like that…
Time had been good to her.
When she had first left the village she loved, the mansion she loved, the man she loved, she had no sense of direction, no destination in mind. She just kept walking. She spent nearly a year just traveling every which way, growing up. She certainly looked like a sixteen year-old but never acted like one.
It was with her luck that she was able to meet and make new friends on the way to nowhere and it was these people that gave her a somewhere to go. That was on her seventeenth birthday.
On her eighteenth birthday she had come to a quaint little town far, far away from Vivi, a town where she decided to stay permanently. She worked as a seamstress, which was difficult at first, given her tendency to be a klutz, but within a few months she was over it. Her skills were widely appreciated, and her designs widely coveted.
But it was shortly before her nineteenth birthday that she discovered her true calling. It was the holiday season and she was bustling down the street as elegantly as possible. She was late for work and that was simply unacceptable considering that it was the busiest season at the clothing shop. She was one block away from her destination when she heard it coming from the direction of the alley.
A small, tiny little yelp.
A little girl was huddled behind a pile of trash, her face dirty, and sporting a tattered dress.
"Little one," Hana began cautiously stretching out her hand. The little girl sobbed harder. Hana climbed over the debris that was in her way and kneeled, not caring that her dress was now soiled, so that she was face-to-face with the child so very much alone in the world.
Hana had always had a certain power over people, a power that allowed them to trust and love her without question. No one was immune to that power, not even this ragged little girl. So it was no surprise that when Hana smiled warmly, this little orphan launched herself into the woman's arms.
And Hana adopted this little girl.
And a little boy after.
Then another little boy.
Then another little girl.
And so, on Hana's nineteenth birthday, she opened up an orphanage.
Five years passed.
The children, her children, as she often liked to remind herself were as lively as usual.
A crash resounded in the adjoining room and Hana hastily wiped her hands on a towel and ran.
"Anise! What was that crash I heard?" Hana asked frantically.
Anise, the first of Hana's four officially adopted children and one of the twenty orphans of New Hope Orphanage, stood above a broken vase, holding her little brother Daichi by the collar of his shirt.
"Daichi broke another vase."
"Mom, I swear it wasn't on purpose!" Daichi cried, his green eyes pleading with his adoptive mother. "Reira called me stupid so I was chasing after her."
"Yeah," a wry voice drawled, "and who should we blame for that, huh? You taught her the word." A boy, about thirteen years-old stood next to Anise, messy black hair falling in front of sharp amethyst eyes. Kurama was the oldest of Hana's adopted children.
Hana felt something tug the back of her dress.
"Kurama-niisama is right!" a chipper little voice cried out from behind Hana. "You taught it to me Daichi-nii. Why can't I say it to you?"
"Because it's wrong." Hana intervened before any more senseless fighting took place. "You should never, ever, call anyone a bad name." Hana kneeled beside her youngest daughter and peered into clear blue eyes. "Don't let me hear you ever use that word, Reira."
The little girl nodded. "Yes, mama."
In the time that all of that had taken place Hana found that all the other children had gathered, watching the drama take place.
She couldn't help it. She laughed.
"Alright, alright, enough!" she clapped her hands. "All of you clean-up and head to the frontyard. We'll have lunch outside today, the weather is perfect."
The children began bustling and she smiled.
Kurama, Anise, Daichi, and Reira kissed her on the cheek before rushing to clean-up themselves.
Her room was the only place in the entire orphanage where she could find peace. No one came into her room, not by her rules but by their own. Her children insisted that the north wing of the house be considered her own and impenetrable by them.
She agreed.
And it was times like these that Hana found her mind wandering. Ever since she opened up New Hope, she had bills to pay, twenty mouths to feed, families she needed to consult with…
She was a busy and successful woman with no time for idle thoughts.
Except when she was alone or at night before she succumbed to her fatigue.
She thought a lot about Vivi during her down time, without fail. Always. Non-stop. And sometimes she found herself touching her neck, searching for something… only to remember that she had left it behind, along with other more important things.
"Hana-hime," a small voice muttered shyly. Hana turned to the source of the voice, secretly laughing at the nickname the children had give her, and smiled at Elizabeth, the newest addition to the New Hope family.
"What is it, Lizzy?"
"Could you tell us another story?"
Hana was surprised at the request and was even more surprised when the other children echoed Elizabeth's request.
Hana smiled, laughing gently. Most of her stories consisted of fairy-tale romances laced with adventure, some events based on the time she had spent with Vivi. Of course her endings would be happy, a reflection of what could've been, rather than what was.
"Once upon a time…" but she never got to really start because her eyes caught something in the distance.
Her heart was thumping radically in her chest and her eyes were riveted on the road.
Someone was heading in her direction.
Someone she thought she'd never see again.
"Vivi." She breathed.
The first time I met you was
Around this season right?
The light up street was
Glowing beautifully
The crybaby-you, from that time on, often
Laid your forehead on my shoulder
You were crying right?
That extreme warmth from your touch on my shoulder…
Eight years to Vivi was virtually nothing. Really.
Eight years of travelling however, was another thing completely.
He was currently now at a quaint little town a long, long ways away from home still searching for the ever elusive Hana. Twice he had almost caught her. It was on her seventeenth birthday he had heard news from a local florist that a young woman had made friends with his daughter.
The mysterious young woman's name was Hana.
On Hana's eighteenth birthday he had heard about a seamstress with the name Hana but Vivi ended up at the wrong town. Now here he was, at the right town this time, but the seamstress Hana did not exist.
He sighed, biting into the apple he held in his hand.
Vivi frowned.
"I swear I'm inheriting more and more human characteristics." He grumbled, sinking his teeth into the apple a second time.
He dug into his pocket and fished out Hana's necklace.
"Isn't that a pretty thing," a voice purred in his ear. He cringed, jerking his hand away from the woman who dared touch him. "Shy one, aren't ya?"
She was tall, maybe about his height, with dark curls, soulful brown eyes and full red lips.
She was pretty.
But she wasn't Hana.
"I'm not looking for company." He deadpanned looking at her square in the face. "I'm looking for someone."
"Oh come now," she teased sitting on his lap. "Not even a little bit?" She leaned forward to kiss him but his fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist.
"Don't even think about it." He growled. "My kiss is reserved only for someone special, and you aren't her. Get the hell off my lap."
She did as she was told, fear radiating off of her in waves.
"Now, like I said, I'm looking for someone. Maybe you can help me. Have you seen this girl?" Vivi pushed a picture of Hana forward and the woman's eyes widened.
"That's Hana-hime!"
"That's Hana-hime!"
Vivi raised an eyebrow. "Hime?"
"She's the owner of New Hope Orphanage. The kids there gave her that name. She came here when she was younger and adopted children. Before the orphanage, those kids had nowhere to go."
"Where is it?"
"Up the road on the hill. You can't miss it. It's a white estate."
His heart was buzzing, so loud that the sound echoed in his ears.
He could see it now, the white estate on the hill. The white estate that housed his Hana.
And suddenly, Vivi was gazing at her gazing at him. She was so beautiful, so perfect, so Hana.
And he couldn't stop smiling.
Her mind was so cloudy she didn't remember when she got up and started running, all she knew was that she was running. Towards Vivi.
And when she was in his arms she felt as if the world stopped turning. "It's you," she whispered, her eyes growing damp. "It's really you."
"Why are you crying, idiot?" Vivi asked, laughter in his voice, a light in his eyes. "You're the one who left."
"Because!" Hana cried and suddenly she felt like a child all over again. "Because…because…"
"Because?" Vivi prodded, his voice soft.
Hana opened her mouth to answer and everything she'd ever wanted to suppress, all the feelings, the thoughts came rushing to her. "Because I love you too much."
Vivi smirked, pulling her closer to him. "Well then we're both doomed, aren't we? Because I think I love you more than you love me."
Hana snorted, elation filling her up. "Not possible."
And when Hana and Vivi kissed, the orphans of New Hope cheered, even if they had no idea what the hell was going on.
The only thing they were sure of was that their surrogate mother finally found her prince.
The wedding was everything Rosemary thought it would be.
Vivi's mansion was transformed into a fairytale castle, indeed fit for the marriage between a prince and princess.
She was just a little bit jealous.
"Vivi did NOT go all out for me, despite what he said." She mused, pursing her lips. Lucifer laughed, wrapping his arm around his wife.
"Does that upset you?"
"Not really." She said, the corner of her mouth twisting upwards. "Our wedding made up for it."
Lucifer smirked.
Vivi shuddered. "I'm really never going to get used to that."
Hana turned to see what Vivi was looking at and her eyes met with Lucifer and Rosemary cuddling in a corner. Hana laughed, "Would you rather have Rosemary writhing in jealousy and Lucifer-sama trying to tear us apart?"
"Blegh." Vivi muttered. "He was never gonna die in the first place, the old geezer."
Hana laughed again.
"Our son is glaring at us." Vivi whispered into Hana's ear. Hana smiled in Daichi's direction. "He'll be alright. His siblings accepted it, and so will he. In time."
"I certainly hope so. I've waited eight years for this, you know."
"I know. Do you really think the demon world will be ready for a human queen?"
Vivi smiled, tucking a paper rose behind Hana's ear. "When the time comes, they will be. You won me over, remember?"
She tiptoed, kissing him on the lips. "How can I possibly forget?"
Let me hear your voice
If we become honest, surely
Well be able to understand each other.
Please open your heart
Let me hear your voice
The path we have come is, for us, surely
An important step to that future.