Immortal Summer

Epilogue

Immortal Love

Six long months had slid by until one cloudy day overlooked the cold Russian land. Three young gentlemen stood in front of an elegant stone memorial. They stood in the middle of a lonely field. There were a few other gravestones surrounding them for the three stood in the middle of a private graveyard. It belonged to the Hiwatari family. One man with flaming red hair held a solemn expression on his face as he bowed his head in reverence to the memorial. Another wore a stoic and emotionless expression as he too bowed his lavender head in respect. From behind that pale hair, gray blue eyes looked up to the third man. With a firm yet gentle hand, he cupped the third figure on the shoulder. Ice blue eyes noticed the figure was not moving, frozen in place. Tala could see that his whole body was trembling. He stepped forward and gingerly took the bouquet of white lilies from the figure's limp grasp. Tala kneeled down. Glancing back at the other two, he turned back and closed his eyes and folded his hands in prayer. "I'm sorry, we couldn't save you. Watch over us all from heaven." He placed the bouquet at the base of the memorial stone. He raised a gentle hand to caress the carved name with the stone.

Natsume Kimura Hiwatari

Beloved Friend, Wife, and Mother

Tala stood again and turned to face the other too only to have two suspicious glares staring at him. The red head gave a sheepish laugh. "What?" "Where did you learn to do that?" Bryan questioned his brother's actions, his strong arms crossed over his chest. "Our family is not religious."

Slightly taken a back being interrogated, Tala rolled his eyes innocently toward the sky, "Yea, that's true, but…" Looking back at his brother, Tala grinned, "But his family is." He outstretched his hand and pointed down the small hill where the three stood. At that moment, red mahogany eyes of the third figure looked up from his bowed blue head and left the side of his two companions making his way down the hill in the direction Tala pointed. Bryan and Tala watched as Kai stepped between the gravestones toward another figure, whom had just stood from a kneeled position. As if sensing Kai's approach, the figure raised its sleek raven head to reveal bright golden eyes. Kai neared Rei and wrapped his best friend in a comfortable embrace.

It had been six months since Rei and his family agreed to let Tala do the operation. Although the operation was successful, Rei's body was greatly weakened, and thus he was put through a routine of physical therapy. Rei was still in such a fragile state. Some times Rei would get so exhausted he would collapse in the middle of his sessions and everyone feared he would slip into another coma. However it was Kai who was Rei's beacon of light remained by Rei's side, holding his hand. Some people say that Kai was giving Rei strength, and in a way they were right, but it was the very least he could do for Rei had been his strength nearly all his life.

The two older males watched from a distance atop the hill down at the young couple's private moment. Kai was overjoyed when he was told Rei had to come to main hospital in Moscow for the operation. The clinic in Hong Kong did not have the necessary equipment that Tala needed to perform such a complex operation. Hay-lin's mind however was put a little more at ease when she and Mariah were invited to spend however long they wished at the Hiwatari Manor.

It took awhile for Hiwatari boys to get used to living with females under the same roof again. Hay-lin would cook a feast for them all every night, insisting that being in the kitchen helped to calm her nerves over worrying about her son in the hospital.

Mariah constantly watched Bryan as he went out for some target practice. Becoming excited, she begged him incessantly to teach her to shoot like him. Every time she would ask the same thing, "Please, will you teach me?" Finally, after becoming too fatigued to resist anymore, Bryan consented and discovered she was actually a natural at the art of firing weapons. From then, the two had grown considerably closer. Witnessing one of day of her private lessons, Tala could swear they were both smitten with each other. The red head grinned. Now he had one more thing to tease his big brother about!

Meanwhile, back with lovely couple whom were enjoying the quietness of the moment. Rei had finally completed his therapy sessions last month. They both knew this, to date even, and it was the diamond ring that was settled on Rei's finger that sparkled under the bright summer sun.

It was just after noon when Kai gingerly knocked upon Rei's hospital room door. He pulled back the curtain that divided Rei's room to reveal the raven haired Chinese male resting upright against his pillow and some extra folded sheets. Across his lap was a long bedside table and atop it was an empty dining tray. Rei's head was bowed like he was in a sound sleep.

Kai let a small smile crack from the corner of his month as he approached the bed quietly so to not to disturb his dear friend. All the while, his hand was fisted tightly and stuffed in his pant's pocket. With his other hand, he brushed away soft raven strands from that beautiful face, lightly kissed by the sun. He wasn't exactly sure when he fell in love with that face. He just knew it was this face, this person's smile, voice, and eyes. All of these had engraved themselves on Kai's heart. He couldn't forget.

Kai blinked to focus his thoughts. He had a plan. He kissed Rei's forehead and then his cheek and finally lingered the longest with a slow kiss on the lips.

Feeling the warm breath on his skin, Rei opened his eyes and smiled. He returned the kiss quickly before pulling back again. "That was a nice wake up call, but you could have just called my name or shaken me awake." Rei shrugged his shoulders as he tried to shake off the blush across his cheeks. Kai smiled and sat at the edge of the bed. He gently laid his hand atop of Rei's. He chuckled, "Forgive me Rei, you looked so peaceful I didn't want to disturb you. Also, if I had called your name, you would have never heard me. There was already too much noise in this room."

Rei cocked his head to the side in confusion. The TV on the other side of the room was turned off. "Are you saying I was sleeping that heavily." Then a darker blush, "and I do not snor-!" Rei was stopped in mid-sentence by another kiss on the lips, effectively silencing him. Kai chuckled as he pulled away. "You look cute when you blush. I couldn't resist." Rei pouted and his cheeks burned brighter. Kai's hand cupped Rei's face to draw their faces closer together. "Be careful, I might not be able to hold back next time."

Once again, Kai smiled and pulled back leaving a confused expression on Rei's flushed face and he stood from the bed and went to push away the bedside table. "Come on now, I got permission to start you therapy session today."

"Where is the nurse?"

"She said she had emergency with another patient that she couldn't leave so she asked me to start you off." It wasn't the complete truth. Kai had actually asked the nurse if he could take Rei down for his training. The nurse had seen the reports and knew that Kai had been to nearly every one of Rei's sessions. He knew what to do to help the young man.

Rei nodded though reluctantly and uncovered himself from the sterile and thin bed sheets. Getting Rei settled into the wheelchair, Kai pushed Rei down the maze of hallways and into the therapy gym. Being in the coma for so long had weakened Rei's muscles so he had to work to build them back up and basically relearn to walk. Kai pushed Rei over to the horizontal bars and stopped at one end. He helped Rei out of the chair.

Rei struggled a little as he grasped tightly to the railing to remain on his trembling legs. Thankfully, he had Kai's supportive arms around his waist. As soon as Rei was ready, he nodded to Kai and the young Russian moved to the other side of the bars. Carefully, Rei slowly took one step at time across the railing. Although he had been doing this for almost five months, it still hurt a little like he was walking on stilts. His hands remained firmly on the bar on either side of him as he moved forward. Inside his head, he kept repeating to himself, "Keep going." "You can do it." Rei was almost to the end. His breathing soon became heavy. Still, Rei smiled. This was usually as far as he got on this obstacle. Though he would try, he would always be too tired and have to stop halfway. He was about to fall to the ground to give up when he heard someone call his name.

"Rei, I'm waiting for you."

Rei glanced up and noticed Kai standing at the end of the rail, waiting for him with outstretched arms. Golden eyes brightened as he stared into equally bright mahogany red eyes. Rei could feel the strength he needed filling him up and pulling him back to his feet. As he stared into Kai's eyes he felt he was floating. He didn't remember making those last steps. The next thing he realized he rested his head lay against Kai's shoulder. Their hands clasped. "Congratulations, you made it." Kai whispered.

"Thanks to you." Rei whispered back. Kai smiled, "No, thank you, for being by my side." At that moment Kai raised their clasped hands between them and open them to reveal a sparkling diamond ring in Rei's hand. "I want to be at your side forever."

Rei smiled back, "I will always be at your side. You're in my heart." He took the ring and slipped it on his finger. They kissed once more and in that kiss all of their emotions, their feelings for each other came flowing out. Most importantly, they were the happiest in that single moment. Their pasts may have kept them apart, but their hearts knew their destinies had always been pushing them together, and now they were not going to be separated again, no matter what the future held. It would be faced together.

THE END

Yes I know I said there was going to be tragedy and in a way there was a little…but I caved into myself and gave it a happy ending for Kai and Rei, well happy in the fact they're together.

I couldn't do it…I ended too sweetly that I can't add my OC, Yueshi, to the ending mix…oh well, maybe with my next story I have this idea for adding my three "next generation" OC girls all together, rough summary, it is going to be like the Dark Tournament of Yu yu hakusho where all three girls are kidnapped from their families and thrown together as a team in order to fight, will their parents be able to save them?