Disclaimer: Trinity Blood was created by Sunao Yoshida.
Yuletide
William raised his tired eyes from the weathered book in his lap, looking into the flickering flames without actually seeing anything. He didn't hear the howling winds outside his window that carried stinging snowflakes with them. His eyes, surrounded by crow's feet, watered a bit from the fire's heat and from his memories.
It was Christmas Eve when he had proposed to her…
She, his beautiful girlfriend, had accepted. He had never been happier in his life; he would always remember that day as the best Christmas Eve he'd ever had.
When she had been killed…the once-happy time in his life had been reduced to a painful reminder of what could have been. All his yuletide dreams were shattered...
"Professor?"
He turned his head, seeing the seemingly ghostlike face of Abel in the doorway. The silver-haired man looked concerned. "You seemed distracted in the halls today. Are you okay?"
The Professor turned his head to look out the window, unconsciously reaching for the pipe in his pocket. He debated to himself about telling Abel about what was going on. He felt that it was his own problem…but he felt as if he needed to get this off his chest. He turned to look back into Abel's blue eyes as he indicated for the other priest to sit down.
He felt somehow that Abel perhaps empathized with his situation, despite knowing little about the Crusnik.
"It's a story of love and loss…"
The look in those blue eyes told him that Abel did indeed have the same issue.