/echoes of love/

Isuzu Sohma was only twenty-two, but she'd already suffered more than her share of heart-ache. When she was only eight she'd been disowned by her parents, the pain of which left her in a tentative mental state. As she got older her health deteriorated and she had often been hospitalised. At the age of 17 she ended up in hospital once again after a serious fall from a second-storey window. She still bore a scar behind her right shoulder – a little thing compared to the inner scars she carried round with her.

But the worst thing happened only a year ago. Her precious Haru… she could remember every contour of his face so vividly, as if he was standing right in front of her. She could see his snow-white hair shine in the sunlight; she could hear his voice whispering her nickname… Rin… Rin... an echo of his love. Sometimes the wind would brush against her arm and she would imagine it was his hand, come to guide her. It was so easy to think he was still there, because then she wouldn't have to remember that he would never come home.

After Haru graduated, she remembered, he moved out of his parents' house and bought a house at the very edge of the Sohma estate. She knew he would have liked to move much further away but that was as far as he dared live from Akito. Of course Rin couldn't move in with Haru, but she made her life there – spending as much time as she could with the man she'd given her heart to.

When the phone call came, a year ago, she couldn't cry for him because it just hurt too damn much. She'd thought that the problems of her life were over, that together they could build a beautiful future – but she had forgotten the most important thing. She was cursed, and nothing would ever change that. What was the point in looking to a better future, if just as you thought things were getting better God made your life worse than it had ever been before?

Of course no one can ever truly believe that the love of their life is gone for ever, and Rin would look out for him every day, waiting for him to come back. She didn't go to the funeral but she doubted Akito would have let her anyway. When the sweetness of spring was lost in the glaring heat of summer her health deteriorated rapidly, and she didn't really care until Hatori, half-grave, half-embarrassed, told her that she was two months pregnant. Haru's baby was born in January, and Rin finally had to conclude her cousin was gone when a hysterical nurse told her she'd given birth to a baby cow.

Now, clutching her three-month-old baby, Rin stared at the granite tombstone. He'd died a year ago but the pain was still heartbreakingly fresh. She wondered dully if it would ever hurt less. Something in her didn't want it to.

There were soft footsteps in the gravel behind her. Rin didn't need to turn round to know who it was – there was only one person she knew who walked so lightly. Her violet-eyed cousin halted next to her. Together they looked at the grave that lay at their feet. Someone had put flowers there already; something gaudy and bright that Rin knew Haru would have hated.

She said into the silence, 'Why, Yuki? Why did he have to leave me?'

Yuki said nothing; he just clasped her free hand in understanding. They both knew there was no answer to that question.

A little while later, Rin exclaimed, 'Oh! I forgot to bring him some flowers!'

Yuki said, 'Will this do?' He bent down and plucked from the ground a tiny flower with delicate blue-purple petals. Rin took it from him carefully, afraid she would break it.

'It's beautiful,' she breathed. 'What is it Yuki?'

'Forget-me-not,' he said.

/end of part 2/

AN: Okay, I know it doesn't have much relevance to part 1, but things will become apparent later (when I decide what's actually going on!) Also I'm ignoring the recent events in the manga that have affected Momiji, Hiro and Kureno. If you're up-to-date on the story you'll know what I mean! I don't want to give anything away. But I'll try to keep everything else canon if I can. Please review, criticism is always good!