Twenty-Sixth Snowfall-A morning of worry, a secret reveled and promises

Allen gasped as he woke up from the nightmare like dream to face Yuki's still sleeping face as the morning sun shone brightly through the bedroom window. Allen slowly sat up in bed without taking his eyes off of Yuki. He wondered if he should wake her up and tell her about his horrifying dream or not. He soon made his decision when Yuki quickly sat up in bed which in turn frightened him more.

"G-good morning, nee-san!" Allen said cheerfully as he tried to act as if nothing was wrong.

Yuki turned her head towards him with an emotionless look on her face as she stared at him for a minute or two before he got part of the message she was trying to send.

"Oh, sorry, I'll get out of your way." Allen said as he climbed out of the bed and started walking towards the door but was stopped in his tracks due to Yuki messing up his hair more as she too climbed out of bed.

"You're not going anywhere, mister." Yuki said sternly as she walked over to one of the posts of the bed that had a yellowish white sweater hanging from it. Yuki grabbed it and put one arm through the sleeve while she let the other half of the sweater rest over her left shoulder. "Let's go get some fresh air, kay?" Yuki said as she smiled sweetly towards Allen before opening the door and walking out with Allen following shortly behind.

"Nee-san, how long are we going to keep walking?" Allen asked as he and Yuki continued to walk within the forested area surrounding the Headquarters tower.

"Just a bit further, Allen-kun." Yuki said as she kept her eyes on the path in front of her.

Allen merely huffed in annoyance as he stepped over a tree root that was sticking out only to bump into the back of his sister.

"Careful," Yuki said as she turned around to make sure that Allen was alright. Allen merely nodded his head before looking straight ahead and seeing a little bush of some sorts sitting in the middle of a small clearing. "It's a white rose bush." Yuki said as walked towards the said bush.

"What's it doing here?" Allen asked as he too walked towards the white rose bush.

"I planted it here, ain't it obvious?" Yuki asked as she carefully sat on the ground in front of the bush along with Allen.

"When?" Allen asked as he looked towards his elder sister curiously.

"Three years in the spring." Yuki said as she looked at the bush with happiness, "I was taking a walk through here after I was done training with my master and stumbled upon this area and decided to at least make a little garden to pass the time. Though, this is as far as I got with that idea."

"Why didn't you continue the idea?" Allen asked.

"The idea was to make the garden grow each year after the plants that I personally planted here bloomed but," Yuki started as she looked sad at the mere memory, "this little guy hasn't even bloomed once these past years."

Allen looked at the bush in shock and sadness as tears started to well up in his eyes. Yuki took note of this and decided to change the subject some.

"What was the dream that you had last night after I sang you the lullaby about?" Yuki asked carefully as she titled her head some as she looked at Allen.

"…You and I were sitting in front of Mana's grave after we turned Mana into an Akuma and you were singing a song that kept going even after you disappeared. I looked around the area some until I saw this dimmed light in the distance. I heard your voice coming from there so I started to run towards it. Eventually I managed to get there and you were standing there smiling while stretching out a hand for me to take. Then everyone from the order started gathering around us and then BaKanda come over and…and…" Allen said as the tears started flowing from his eyes as he remembered every single detail about the dream.

"And? What was he doing?" Yuki asked as she gently tried to coax Allen to continue.

"Promise me you won't leave me alone again, Yuki!" Allen exclaimed as he looked towards Yuki, his little stream of tears turning into bigger streams.

Yuki was taken aback by Allen's sudden promise making but nodded her head anyway.

"I promise." Yuki said as Allen sniffled a little while trying to rub some of the tears away. Yuki scouted closer to Allen while resting on her knees and embraced Allen in a one arm hug as he continued to cry. "I promise I won't leave you alone ever again," Yuki said as Allen tightly hugged her back, "until my time comes."