Disclaimer: I do not own Ai Yori Aoshi and Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi. This is the property of Kou Fumizuki, Pioneer/Geneon, and JC Staff.

Blue Monarch
Act 2, Scene 4

It took many more visits from Seiji for her to become more candid. He was right; Aoi really did want to confess everything, just to prove that she was with Kaoru-sama, that there was a concrete time that she existed with him. And it took a few more sit downs on the walkway for her to recount all her stories. She showed that she treasured everything - each joy, each tear, each little trifling thing - she had experienced with Kaoru-sama since she had found him (and since she had left him).

Her feelings felt much cooler now that she had confessed. It felt good to tell someone, someone who was close enough that she could trust. It wasn't like she had anybody else. Miyabi had other obligations, and she didn't want to infuriate her guardian any more with the subject.

"Even now, you're always talking about him," Seiji chided her. "Ever since we were children, it was always 'Kaoru-sama! Kaoru-sama!' I don't think I ever got a word in edgewise."

Aoi bowed her head. "Gomen."

"Eh, Aoi-hime, I was just joking around..." He pushed his glasses back up. "Sa... I shouldn't be making jokes at a time like this..."

"Was I really that bad?" She fleetingly looked up, her eyes a flash of blue.

Seiji scratched his chin. "I wouldn't say bad. You had a purpose, and you focused on it intently. You worked hard every day and your motto always was-"

"Ai yori aoshi! That will be my love for Kaoru-sama, bluer than indigo!"

For a moment, childish laughter drifted in her ears, but it was just Seiji's gentle chuckling.

"Mmm..." She nodded.

"I never really understood that phrase."

"Oh?"

"Well, technically, indigo is indistinguishable to the eye. It exists, but no one can really see it, or tell it apart from blue and violet. On the colour spectrum, it's just a point between violet and blue, a shade in-between. How do you get to indigo?"

Her gaze joined his upon the early evening sky. It was fresh from the sunset and still retained a light hue, somewhere wavering from blue to purple.

"What if you already start from indigo?" she asked.

"If you become bluer than indigo... You move away from it until you're still just that, blue, and you certainly can't get to violet by being more blue... Where else can it go?" he asked back.

"Maybe it takes someone very special to know how to see, how to get to that colour."

"Then they would be a very unique, but very lonely person. They would understand when they're surrounded by people that don't, and they'll end up thinking they're all alone and no one else knows what they know... It would be frustrating, depressing." He sighed. "I think it's very sad then that indigo is stuck in the middle. It's defined by two colours, making it so hard to see, I doubt anyone would believe it actually exists on its own."

"I believe it does."

They watched as little pinpoints of light emerged, following after Venus, the evening and morning star.

They watched until the chill in the air seeped into their lungs with each breath.

Aoi didn't even look as she heard the shuffling of Seiji's body as he got up.

"It's getting late, and I should go... but I'll come back. Same time. Oyasumi, Aoi-hime."

"Hai. Oyasumi, Seiji-kun."

Her eyes were affixed on the now navy sky, trying to find if the space between each star was illuminated to its true colour.

Maybe Aoi was the only one to see indigo.

But maybe it didn't take the eye to see it.

Maybe it only existed in her heart.