Disclaimer: If I owned Weiss Kreuz – you'd know about it –winks-

Note: Thank you karin1004 for your constant support and sorry for the uber long wait! Teachers have just been a bit crazy with the coursework load recently, so I've been a bit bunged down with school TT But! Here's the next chappie! I hope it's up to expectation! Ish! Lol – thanks Joan, you're right, Omi could blow up the shop and get away with it –laughs- Anyway! Here we go!

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The next night, he came back to town, fully disguised in a ragged hood, secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of Ash, a fact that he would not admit to himself and hid behind the excuse that he just wanted to get something from the market and escape from the palace for a little while, but the aura around the town was one of sombreness and sadness, when only last night, it had been filled with cheer and happiness, all because of one young man.

Thinking back to the cliff, Ran positively paled. NO… at once he begun to strain his ears for anything that might lead to a conclusion to what had happened to the young man, only to find that he had left the previous night, with nothing more than a note upon his inn bed, thanking the innkeeper profusely, and promising to come back to pay him back for his hospitality; his little satchel of clothing gone by the first break of dawn. There was no sign of Ash anywhere in Dein – he was simply gone. It was as if he had never been, but the imprint he had left in the Deinians' hearts, would always be with them as an everlasting memory.

Ran now was in total disbelief. Don't tell me he ran away because of me! He knew it sounded absurd, even to himself, but he didn't know why – he just felt like he was the cause of pushing the young man out of the way who had breathed in life into Dein like never before in just three short days; his visit – over too soon. Damn it… he sighed. Maybe, I should have been… nicer but then he stopped his train of thought. Pah! Dein's better off without him! But, the words sounded hollow, even to himself.

Damn it… he couldn't believe how downhearted the Deinians looked, losing their little temporary ray of sunshine. The Prince knew that even if Ash's stay would never have been permanent; it might still have been longer… What drove him away? he didn't know why he cared, but he wanted to know.

Ran wanted to find Ash, but the thing was – he just didn't know where to start.

Returning to the palace, he finally put his princely heritage to good use. He used all of his power to drag out whatever information he could get from the townsfolk on the young man, which was surprisingly little, considering the effect that he'd had on them. His parents were taken aback by Ran's sudden lack of inertia, and wondered what had drove their son into this flurry of action and what were his ties to this young man?

After two days of investigating the entire population of Dein, Ran sat on his windowsill in a position very much like Ash's on the cliff, but adapted for his circumstance, an elbow bent on the knee cocked up as he massaged his brow with his hand, trying hard to soothe away the headache that was welling.

How can anyone not know anything about him! Damn it Ash! Who are you! and the answer to his question, would come sooner then he'd expected; for what Fate had in store for him, would be a cruel, cruel surprise.

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Ooh! I couldn't resist shoving in a twist! XD

Dragonfly

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