A walk in the moonlight
: - set 3 weeks after the series finale
: - words in italics are thoughts
Chapter one: incidents involving pink tulips
Hayate sat in amongst the pink tulip flowers he was tending in the Awayuki gardens. Although the face of the long haired man did nothing to betray his hidden feelings it was obvious to all who knew him that he was beating himself up about something. Why don't you just tell her you idiot? Hayate hung his head in shame at his own thought. He was referring to the confession of his love he made 3 weeks ago to the woman he loved when he thought he had lost her to the icy silence of death. He may have kissed her proving his love for her but at the time she was unconscious and had no memory of the incident. Hayate was finding it even more difficult to even look at her without a gentle blush rising in his cheeks. Whenever he tried to say those three little words to her he would start stuttering after just the first word and it would usually end with Hayate saying "don't worry" or "it's not important". He just got so damn nervous that she wouldn't feel the same that he could never finish his sentence around her. He looked out over the field of tulips and felt his anger melt away. Tulips were his favourite flowers though he never said so.
Suddenly everything went dark. Hayate felt a pair of delicate hands covering his eyes. He groaned inwardly it had to be her she was the only one who could sneak up on him.
"Guess who" came the overly bright cheerful voice from behind him.
"Hmmm let's see, who is the only person I know idiotic enough to play this stupid game? O, I know it must be tulip-head" he said sarcastically. The hands dropped from his eyes and the light nearly blinded him. He turned around to just in time to see a young girl no older than 16, with pinkie-orange, short, spiky hair and eyes of a matching colour start to sob, her beautiful eyes welling up with tears.
"I only wanted to talk to you Hayate. Why do you have to be so mean to me?" She turned on her heal and ran crashing through the tulips to the path. She stopped dead realizing too late what she had done to the flowers. "Now look what you've made me do to mum's favourite flowers. I HATE YOU HAYATE!" she yelled at him. Then she ran again tears flowing openly down her face leaving a trail through the air as she ran hand over her eyes back to the mansion and safety, away from Hayate.
I've really done it this time. Why am I mean so to her? I'm sorry I can't answer your question…. Hayate stared after the girl for some time before he set about trying to repair the damage to the tulip flowers. A single whisper escaped from the knight of winds lips onto the evening breeze "…Himeno…".
The pinkie-orange haired girl ran and ran her eyes shut tight against the onslaught of her never-ending tears. It was because of this that she ran head-first into someone on her way and got knocked flying to the ground.
"Himeno are you alright? Why are you crying?" came a very familiar voice.
"Huh?" she looked up at the silver haired young man she just crashed into. "Oh, Sasame! I'm sorry I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm fine. I didn't hurt you did I?"
"No I'm fine but you clearly are not. Had a little run in with Hayate did we?"
"Ummm…yeah." She sighed, still sitting on the ground.
"Come on let's go and sit somewhere quiet where we won't be overheard." He said emphasizing the last word and looking over at one of the nearby trees. There was a loud crack and then a thick branch came crashing down to the ground followed by four people who all looked dazed.
"Goh, Mannen, Hajime and Shin! Why were you listening in on my conversation?" She gave them all a look that could kill.
"Humph, where we can't be overheard eh? That's rich coming from you Sasame. How many times have we caught you listening in on other people's conversations Mr Knight of sound?"
"And how many of those have you and Goh forced me to do it? Hmmm? Answer that tough guy? They got into a fight amongst them selves and soon all five boys were involved in the fight.
"I can't believe I talk to any of you" Himeno shouted over the uproar. They all fell silent and exchanged guilty looks as she stormed off to her room. She slammed the door behind her, fell face first onto her bed and started crying clutching onto her pillow.
Down below Hayate came running up to his fellow knights who were know arguing about who was to blame for upsetting Himeno most. Soon Hayate was involved in the fight with comments like "if you hadn't upset her in the first place none of this would have happened" which earned the speaker, Mannen, a hefty clump round the head.
"SHUT UP!ALL OF YOU!" cried a voice from behind them. It was Mawata, Himeno's younger step-sister. "Himeno is upstairs crying her eyes out while all you can do is stand here and argue amongst yourselves! I suggest you do something very thoughtful for her if you can manage that for once and go apologise right now. Unless you are forgetting the fact that Himeno nearly died to save us 3 weeks ago! I am very disappointed in all of you." The six knights marched away all hanging their heads.
"I'm impressed Mawata I didn't think you had it in you" said Kei the last of the seven knights of leafe. She laughed.
"Thank you Kei." They wondered off together discussing disciplinary tactics for the other six knights.
"What nice thing can we do for Himeno?" asked Goh. Five heads turned around to face Sasame.
"Why are you all looking at me?" he asked looking bewildered.
"Well you're the one with all the best ideas and you well you know Himeno better than the rest of us." Sasame turned and looked at the back of Hayate's head.
"Is that so? Well I had best live up to my reputation then" he said. Sasame paused for a minuet, thinking. "I've got it! Right this is what we are going to do…"