Butterflies for Breakfast
Author's Notes: OK, so that last chapter wasn't the update from an old friend it was originally going to be, but that is coming soon. People have been unclear about a couple of things. First of all I changed the error where I said Fuu but meant Hikaru in Chapter 14. Also, in chapter 13, the horse that Ascot summons is not supposed to be the one that Lantis rides in the manga, and when Hikaru calls Ascot's bird friend "Hawkeye" she was trying to be cute, I am aware of the fact that that isn't his name. Also I changed up that confusing sentence a little bit in chapter 14.
Hikaru braced her self by digging her heels into the horse's flanks for their descent.
"Wow, the castle looks beautiful from this high up," said Ascot from above her. Hikaru nodded her head in agreement, but her stomach was tied up in a knoot about this whole thing. She wanted to get back together with her friends very much, but that didn't make the prospect of dealing with the cold silence she expected to receive from them during this meeting. She wondered what it was all about and what Fuu had discovered. It must be important for her to have summoned all the important people in the country…
Flying overhead, Ascot was feeling a similar nervousness about seeing his old comrades again. He had not told Hikaru how much he had labored over the decision to leave the manor. He wanted to see Umi very much, even knowing that things were definitely over between them. He saw his attraction to Umi as puppy love, his first romantic experience in life, but when he forced himself to grow up, for her, he also realized that things would never work out between them and someday he would have to let it go. She lived in a different world that was not even attached to his. If long distance relationships couldn't work, then their's was doomed beyond hope. The problem came in when he thought about meeting everyone else again. The other thing he hadn't told Hikaru was about what had happened after they left, about why the group had broken up…Although he knew it was unlikely that she would be in attendance, he looked forward to the possibility of being reunited with Caldina, who had been the only one he had stayed close with. His bird friend must have been able to sense his anxiety because he gave him a reassuring pat on the back before they started to dip down in the air towards the fortress.
"PUU!" came a familiar voice from the courtyard of the castle.
"Mokona," said the two adolescents in unison. It hadn't occurred to Hikaru until now that when the three girls split up that night in the egg shelter, Mokona had disappeared. She brushed off the thought, assuming he had just returned to the castle.
When they landed, Mokona greeted them with two big soft hugs. The bird man and the flaming horse receded into one of Ascot's alternate planes for the time being so they wouldn't get in any one's way. They were both very happy to see Mokona, but he might be the only one…