If this is a little hard to follow, I apologize. If you're having too much trouble following it, you can feel free to stop reading. All I can say is that, by the end of the story, everything will make sense, if you can muddle through it long enough to get there. Well, in theory it'll all make sense. It all makes sense to me. But that could just be because it's me.
Kurama lay in his bedroom, listening to Shiori make dinner downstairs and staring up at the ceiling. Absently, he twirled a snow white rose around and around in his fingers.
His mind was drifting back across the years. Past his time working for Koenma. Past Yusuke. Past Hiei. Past Shuichi. Past that accursed bounty hunter who couldn't quite manage to kill him. Past Kuronue. Past Yomi. Even beyond the very first time he had played the part of a thief. Beyond the time he had first killed someone. His mind finally settled on a time some one thousand four hundred and sixty three years previous.
And his mind settled on three names, three very different faces. Kurama, a golden eyed, silver haired fox. Weyden, a fox with black hair and charcoal grey eyes that were almost as dark. And, most importantly, a strawberry blonde cat demon with bright green eyes who went by the name of Risa.
At that point in time, Raizen and Mukuro were already at a standstill, neither willing to make the first move. So they turned instead to the unconquered regions of the demon plane. It was near one of these regions that all three of them had grown up, just within the territory Raizen already possessed.
And he was alone. His mother had left days after he was born, and his father had died a few months before Raizen decided to expand his territory. So when Raizen's officers came through, recruiting soldiers for the newest campaign, the seventeen year old demon was eager to sign up. His skills manipulating plant life easily got him accepted, even earning him a position in a more elite branch of the army.
The new recruits were given a week to say goodbye to their families, which made him acutely aware of just how alone he was. The day before he was supposed to leave to begin his official training, he found himself sitting alone in a small diner near the edge of the town he had grown up in.
And then a thin cat demon with pale red-toned hair came up to him and said, "I'm Risa, I'll be your waitress today. You know what you're gonna want?" He had seen her around town, but he had never talked to her.
He had shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not that hungry. You think you could sit down and talk for a bit? I'm just feeling lonely at the moment."
She smiled at him sadly. "Tell you what. My shift is over soon. When I'm through, we can go down to the lake and talk for a while, sound like a plan?"
He nodded. "In an effort not to get you in trouble, I'll have whatever it is you like best."
She smiled. "One meat pie, coming up."
When she returned with his plate, she looked into the dark grey eyes, and she saw a sadness there she could only attribute to the loneliness he had spoken of. "Care to tell me your name?" she asked.
He nodded. "Weyden. My name is Weyden."
She laughed at the melancholy way in which he murmured his name. "Well, Weyden, it's good to meet you. You go ahead and eat your food while I finish my shift, mkay?"
Weyden had nodded, intrigued by her brilliant green eyes and contagious happiness. He watched her wait on the tables, clearing them off when the customers left.
When he finished eating, she deftly swept his plate away, took it back to the kitchen and then reappeared, having shed the uniform in a few seconds, leaving just a tunic very similar to his own. The only real difference was that hers was a bright blue, where his was a brown so dark it looked black. She pulled him to his feet. "Come on, Weyden. There's this place I know about, down by the lake. I think you'll like it."
He followed her, content for the interaction with another sentient being. What they did or said didn't particularly matter. He probably wouldn't see her again. But, right now, he needed this. As she led him down the well-worn path to the lake, she said, "Where I'm taking you… it's on my family's property. It's secluded, but it's not lonely." Weyden saw her bright smile and her excitement, and he couldn't repress a smile of his own.
Risa looked into his dark eyes, and she felt something stirring in her heart for this fox she had met less than an hour and a half before. They arrived at a small clearing, which opened onto a bridge over the small stream that fed into the lake. There was a single small building in the clearing, clearly abandoned but beautiful in a rustic way Weyden couldn't have explained.
But Risa didn't lead him to the hut. She led him to the bridge, where they sat down and dangled their feet out over the water, tossing small stones in. Neither of them said anything for a long time. Weyden finally broke the silence, "How old are you, Risa?"
"Fifteen," she said before returning the question.
"Seventeen," Weyden sighed. "Seventeen and stupid."
"Stupid?" she asked.
He shrugged and sat back, supporting his weight on his arms, bracing himself with the heels of his hands. He stared out over the water and mused, "My dad died a couple of months ago. So when the troops showed up, recruiting men for the excursion into whatever neighboring area Raizen intends to attack next, I figured I might as well sign up. There's no one here to tie me down. I don't have any skills I can really use for anything other than fighting. The thing is, I don't particularly want to go to war."
"You're leaving?" Risa's voice was inexplicably sad. In only a few short hours, she had grown attached to the dark, brooding fox demon.
Weyden nodded. "Yeah… I don't know where I'm going. I don't know when I'll be back. I don't know if I'll be back."
"Don't say that," Risa pleaded. She couldn't bear the idea of Weyden dying.
Weyden looked at her, his eyes curious. "I don't really have anything to come back for, Risa. I'm alone. There's nothing here. I figure I'll probably roam around till I find a place that does have something for me."
Risa didn't respond to this, realizing that Weyden was already seventeen. Most of the boys in their town left to roam the demon plane and didn't return. The population was kept up by the travelers who stopped there and decided to settle down. Very few of the men were second or third generation inhabitants. For the men to leave was expected. She didn't really have any say in this fox demon's actions. And it really shouldn't have bothered her that he was leaving with no intention of returning.
But then Weyden asked, "Risa, you're pretty enough that I'm not going to deceive myself and pretend you're not already courting someone, maybe even someone who is serious about staying here. If they were staying for you, I wouldn't blame them for staying in this one horse town. At any rate, you've probably got plenty of suitors without throwing a traveling soldier into the mix. All the same, I've got no one to write home to. I'd feel much less lonely… would you mind if I wrote to you?"
Risa's smile was now brighter than it had been before. "Of course, Weyden. And I'll write back."
They sat talking about everything under the heavens as they watched the sun splash into the water on the other side of the lake.
"Can I tell you a secret?" Risa asked as the last of the day's light began to fade from the sky.
Weyden looked at her and nodded. She smiled. "I've had many suitors, some of them boys from town who I knew would leave. Some of them were men coming through who would have settled down if the right girl was here. But none of them caught my eye. I'm not courting anyone."
"Risa," Weyden whispered. "What are you trying to tell me?"
The slit green eyes glowed at him through the dark, catching and reflecting all of the light from the slices of moonlight that were falling through the branches to land on the bridge. "If I met the right guy, I might be willing to wait for him, even if he was a travelling soldier."
Weyden blinked in surprise. There was nothing he possessed that this beautiful, young woman would want. But she was saying she'd wait for him. And he believed her. Even if it turned out to be false, it would keep him from being lonely for the time being. He took her hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. "I'm touched, Risa."
She slid over and leaned up against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I will wait, Weyden. As long as it takes."
Weyden nodded. Eventually Risa sighed. "My father will be wondering where I am. I need to get home."
Weyden stood and helped her to her feet. "I'll walk you back."
They held hands, not saying anything, all the way back to her house. At the door, she stared into his dark eyes and didn't object when he leaned in and kissed her. "I'll be back, Risa," he promised. "I'll come back for you."
He placed a snow white rose in her hand and left. Weyden was determined to come back for the girl he was already falling in love with. Risa stood on her father's front porch and watched Weyden walk into the darkness, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.
Kurama had known that Risa was crying. He had known that his leaving would hurt her. But there was nothing he could do. And now he was sitting in his human bedroom, holding a different white rose in his hand, the last thing he had given Risa before he walked away from her more than a millennium before.
And now all he could think about was how their love had grown over the four years he had spent away from her, first training, then fighting.
Now he stood and went to the desk on the other side of the room, pulling out the box of letters he had retrieved at his first opportunity. He had buried them when he realized he was being followed by a bounty hunter, and it wasn't till ten years later that he had a chance to return. Now, looking at the letters the girl had written so many years before, he could only think of how much he had hurt her by never going back.
Weyden,
I received your letter. I'm glad you're safe. It's hard—harder than I would have thought—not seeing you. I only knew you one day, yet part of me feels empty with you gone.
I don't really know what to tell you. There's not much going on here. The same thing every day as it has been for centuries. I suppose the only difference is that now I'm missing someone I met once. Life is an odd thing.
Stay safe, Weyden. I'll wait for you.
Risa
Kurama sighed, thinking of the letter he had sent her in reply, telling her how terrified he was of some of the things he was expected to do, of some of the people he had to report to. There was one man in particular he remembered describing to her. It was his commanding officer, a cruel fox demon he had to report to daily.
He has silver hair and golden eyes, Kurama remembered writing to Risa. He seems to take pleasure in tormenting the new recruits yet he seems to have taken a liking to me. Perhaps it's because we are both foxes, perhaps there is some other factor I'm not aware of. At any rate, I'm thankful he favors me, yet I am terrified to think of what would happen should I fall out of his favor.
Kurama shook his head, remembering how little he had liked his commanding officer. Perhaps that man was the reason he was cruel and violent now. He had, perhaps, modeled his behavior off of the man he hated. In fact, he knew he had modeled his behavior off of that of his superior. He just wasn't sure when it stopped being an act and turned into a habit. And when it changed from a habit to second nature and his very character.
And yet, he had written, part of me appreciates it all. Part of me is enjoying how different army life is from the way in which I grew up. It is fascinating to see the similarities and differences between our way of life and how these people live out here.
Thinking on that, he read the words Risa had written in response to his letter about the officer.
Weyden,
Just remember that you are strong. You don't need his approval. You may need to listen to his instructions, but it doesn't matter what he thinks of you. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks of you. That's one of the most important things I've learned since you left. Not to care what others say.
They all tell me that you're not going to come back. They keep reminding me that I'm only fifteen that I have plenty of time to find the right person. They think it's ridiculous to save myself for a soldier who is traveling for who knows how many years. They think it's ridiculous to wait for a man who grew up here, since all the men leave and search for something more, even though the women are content with what they have. For the most part. I'm not content with what I have. Which is why they all think I'm a fool.
But I don't care that they think me a fool. I shan't be content with what I have until I have you here in my arms, Weyden.
Even now Kurama could feel the honesty in her pen and how little she had hesitated as she penned out the next words. The words that were still haunting him.
And Weyden, I am finding more and more that I cannot get you off my mind. More than that, I can't get my heart to think of anything but you. I believe I'm in love with you. No, that's not right. I don't believe it. I know it. I'm in love with you, Weyden.
Be safe, Weyden.
Always waiting for her soldier and with all the love in the world,
Risa
Kurama shook his head, thinking of the words he had penned in return. Those words brought joy to my heart, Risa. And you wrote that I am 'your soldier.' You do not know how true those words are. I belong to you entirely, mind and soul. And my body yearns to return to you and hold you close, to kiss you a second time. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I love you as well, and that it makes my heart soar to know that you love me.
Their correspondence had continued, and their love grew. And for four years they wrote to each other. Each time he sent a letter, it was accompanied by a single, snow white rose.
Kurama looked down at the white rose he now held in his hands. Except it was no longer entirely white. At some point, as he pondered the letters, he had pricked himself on one of the thorns, and several spots of bright red had colored the petals. "Fitting," he murmured sadly. "Bloodstained, like all the others."
Weyden did everything his superiors commanded, killing the men in the opposing armies without a second thought, the blood on his rose whip growing in volume with each battle his regiment saw. He rose through the ranks until his was at the head of his unit, second in command to Kurama, the cruel demon he had wrote home about.
And then, one day, they entered a town. It was a town of farmers and herders, very similar to the place Weyden had grown up. It made him sad, to think of Risa. And then Kurama gave the order. "Kill everyone."
"Everyone?" Weyden objected. "They're not even fighting, sir. Why does anyone need to die?"
Kurama turned cold, golden eyes on the younger man. "Do not question my judgment, Weyden. Raizen has sent orders that we need to put our foot down and show them the force we're truly capable of. If the other villages see what we do here, they will not fight. They will know they cannot win. In the long run, killing everyone here will save lives."
Weyden didn't believe Kurama had received orders from Raizen. The man was cruel; he enjoyed other people's pain. All the same, he reluctantly passed on the orders to the men beneath him, and then the entire unit went through the village, throwing open every door and leaving no one alive. Men, women, children. It didn't matter. Kurama called it the spoils of war. Weyden called it murder.
But he did as he was told. And then he saw a redheaded girl. She was maybe seventeen, perhaps a little older. And she was holding a dark haired child. Even as his whip lashed out, stealing their lives, Weyden couldn't help but see Risa standing in the girl's place. He knew Risa was close to nineteen. And in the girl he had just murdered, Weyden saw Risa. And in the little boy whose life he had just snuffed out, Weyden saw the children he might have had with Risa.
And it broke him. The roses blooming from his whip turned red, stained with the blood of innocents. So Weyden did the only thing that made sense. He turned the whip on his superior, and brought Kurama down before the other fox knew what was happening.
There were two things Weyden could have done at that point. He could have stayed and been executed for the killing of a superior officer. Or he could have run and returned home to Risa. But after those he had killed—the innocents, who were willing to submit if they could just go on with their lives—both of those felt far too lenient. Death would release him from the guilt. And he was no longer worthy of the beautiful girl waiting for him at home.
So Weyden chose the third option. He cast an illusion over the dead body before him, making the dead man appear to be him. And then he shapeshifted, taking the form of the dead man. Now Weyden was dead and Kurama remained alive. Weyden felt he deserved nothing less than the torment he would cause himself by becoming what he hated. He had already gone past that point. What he did now did not matter.
When all the natives were dead, Weyden nudged Kurama's dead body with his foot. "Unfortunate," he said coldly. "He was a good officer." He knew he sounded detached. Which was fine. That's how Kurama had always sounded when he found one of his own had died. "Burn it all. And burn this with it."
Weyden watched as the soldiers burned the village and all the bodies, including Kurama's. And he stood there, disguised as Kurama himself, hating himself for what he had done to the girl and her son.
He wrote one final letter to Risa.
Risa
I love you. Know that. But don't worry when I don't write. I probably won't have any opportunities for quite a long time.
With love,
Weyden
For three more years, Weyden pretended to be Kurama. And then the excursion was over, the region was conquered and Kurama's term of duty was done. Weyden did not reenlist.
Instead, still as the silver haired fox it was now second nature to imitate, he returned to his hometown.
He stayed there for a while, just watching Risa from a distance. It was at some sporting event, something that was a cross between the human games of basketball and soccer, but with four teams instead of two, that he finally approached her. In his hand was a single, white rose.
Risa's green eyes traced his face. Weyden knew she recognized him. "No," she whispered, her green eyes filling with tears. "No."
Weyden nodded, staring back at her through golden eyes that had more or less been stolen. A slight breeze blew through his silver hair. He loved her too much for his own good. It was breaking his heart to do this to her. But she loved him. If she didn't believe Weyden was dead, she would never move on. She would never find someone else. Weyden didn't like the idea of her finding someone else to love; yet even less appealing was the idea of her loving and living with a murderer. So with the pale hand that he had always hated, but that he had begun to recognize as his own, Weyden reached out and placed the rose in her hand. "You were the last thing he thought of," Weyden assured her, his shapeshifting so detailed that even his vocal chords had been altered to imitate Kurama's voice.
And then he turned and walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to him. As he left, he could smell her blood, where a thorn had nicked her finger and she was bleeding onto the rose. But he was even more aware that, once again, she was shedding silent tears as he walked away.
"Damn it," Weyden—Kurama—Shuichi cursed. "Why the hell did I do that to her? I broke her heart. Damn it."
There was a knock on his door, and Shiori let herself in. "Dinner's ready, Shuichi," she said.
"Don't call me that," he snapped at her. "It's not my name. It never has been and it never will be."
Shiori stared at him. "Shuichi, what's wrong?"
The man took a deep breath and shook his head. "Nothing, Mother. I'm just really stressed out at the moment. I'm not hungry. You all can eat without me."
Shiori nodded, slightly frightened by her son's reaction to being called by his name. She retreated from the room and went down to eat dinner with her husband and stepson.
Shuichi—Kurama—Weyden—he wasn't even sure what his name was anymore. He flopped back on his bed and thought back over the years between the time he left Raizen's army and the present.
The first time he stole it was because he had no money. If he hadn't stolen anything he would have starved. But after a few times stealing, he realized he was good at it. He liked the high he got when pulling it off. It was like an addiction. And as he continued feeding the addiction he got more and more famous. But it wasn't his name that was plastered on the trees. It wasn't his face that was drawn hastily across hundreds, thousands, of reward posters. It wasn't his head that would have fetched a good price. It was Kurama's.
Then there was Yomi. Kuronue. A series of partners that fell away after a year or two. But even they didn't know the truth. They worked with Kurama. The name Weyden would have meant nothing to them. The dark haired, dark eyed fox demon would have been unrecognizable.
And then it was Kurama that was attacked by that bounty hunter. The only issue was that the bounty hunter wasn't strong enough. And Weyden still didn't feel as though he was worthy of the relief he would find in death. So he fought back. He was wounded, but he didn't die.
And then he found another body, another identity, to steal. The transition was easier the second time. Now he laughed bitterly to himself, "Practice makes perfect. Perhaps the third time will be the charm. Whose life will I steal next time? I am a one-man invasion of the body snatchers."
Weyden's spirit may still have been in the world of the living, may still have possessed a body, but Weyden the man… Weyden the boy who fell in love with Risa… that person had died long ago, replaced by a cruel fox named Kurama. Who was later replaced by a very complacent human named Shuichi.
He didn't eat breakfast the next morning, or lunch that afternoon. Shiori began to worry. "Shuichi, dear," she said. "Are you sick? Do you not feel well?"
He shook his head. "No, Mother. I'm fine. I'm just not hungry."
But when she left, it was only a few seconds before he had some deadly vetch clutched in his hand. He was tempted to swallow it and make it grow, ripping him apart from the inside out. But he had already broken one woman's heart. He couldn't break Shiori's as well.
So for the next few days, he stayed in his room, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the past, thinking about Risa, thinking about the white roses that had at some point turned to a red, stained by the innocent blood he had spilled. He only ate the bare minimum, just enough to keep Shiori from going mad. But it still made him want to puke.
Weyden—the real Weyden—was surfacing for the first time in more than a thousand years. For the first time in a thousand years, he was actually feeling the pain of his breaking heart. And it was with tears streaming down his cheeks that he held a knife to one wrist. It had been three days since he had absentmindedly grown a white rose and drawn his mind into the dark hole he could no longer escape.
But just as he began pressing the knife into his flesh, Yusuke and Kuwabara barged into the room. Kuwabara froze. Yusuke flashed to Kurama's side and took the knife away, quickly enough that only a trickle of blood was lost, staining the white carpet the same way it had stained the snow white petals three days before.
"What the hell are you thinking?" Yusuke demanded, almost shouting at him. "Have you lost it?" Weyden didn't answer. He just stared back at Yusuke. "Damn it, Kurama, tell me what's going on."
He was on his feet in less than a second, shouting, really shouting, something Yusuke had never heard before. "Don't call me that, damn it. That's not my name. That's never been my name and that will never be my name. I hated that bastard. I hated him so much, damn it."
Kuwabara and Yusuke just stared. "Kurama… what are you talking about?"
Some of the potted plants began swarming over each other. "Don't call me Kurama ever again, Yusuke. I can't take it anymore."
"You want us to call you Shuichi?" Kuwabara asked uncertainly.
"No damn it, that's even worse. Just get out. Leave me alone to drown in my memories."
Kuwabara and Yusuke left, keenly aware that their friend was being tormented by something neither of them had even imagined he might be feeling. "Has he lost it?" Kuwabara asked, as they closed the door. "If we can't call him Kurama and we can't call him Shuichi, what are we supposed to call him?"
Yusuke shrugged. "I don't know. I'm gonna find Hiei, see if he might be willing to talk some sense into the idiot fox."
Kurama just sat back and stared at the ceiling. The memory of Risa's eyes and smile and tears played across his mind's eye. But then he was forced to face Hiei.
The fire demon appeared in the window. "What the hell is going on, Kurama?" Hiei demanded. "The detective and the oaf say you tried to kill yourself."
"And you trust them?"
"I trust them to tell the truth a hell of a lot more than I trust you to be honest," Hiei snapped. "At least I can tell when they're lying. You… I never even have the slightest clue."
Weyden didn't bother to inform the other man that it was because he was always lying. Varying degrees of lying, but very few things that fell from his lips came even close to the truth. Rather than tell Hiei this, he looked at Hiei and said nothing.
It wasn't long before Hiei vanished. And it was even less time before he returned, this time with Yusuke and Kuwabara in tow. And that was what clued Weyden in. If Hiei was resorting to asking Yusuke and Kuwabara for help… he was in trouble.
Yusuke looked at him and said, "That's right. This is an intervention. You don't have a choice. You're telling us the truth, Kurama, even if we have to resort to the truth serum Raizen gave me, on the off chance I needed it in the war that never happened."
Weyden stared back at the three men who didn't really know him at all. "An intervention," he asked. "By whom, dare I ask?"
"People who care about you," Yusuke answered.
Weyden laughed bitterly. "You care about me, do you? None of you even know who I am."
"Kurama—" Yusuke began.
Weyden seized a snow globe off his desk and threw it as hard as he could at Yusuke's head. The teen barely managed to catch it. "What the hell?" he nearly shouted. "Kurama, you need to snap out of it or someone's going to get hurt."
"Don't call me Kurama, damn it." The plants in the corners were growing at an explosive rate, reaching toward the ceiling and crawling up the walls. No one noticed the lone white rose on the desk, the only plant life that wasn't expanding its dominion.
"Then what would you have us call you?" Hiei asked coldly. "I will not pretend you're human and call you Shuichi. If I can't call you by your name, how am I supposed to get your attention?"
"Kurama is not my name."
The other three men stared. "What?" Kuwabara asked.
Weyden sighed and sat down, his anger spent. "Kurama—the real Kurama—is dead."
More stares. Then all three of them were on the defensive, Yusuke's finger glowing, Kuwabara's spirit sword out, Hiei's hand on the hilt of his katana. "Get to the point," Yusuke growled.
"I killed the real Kurama nearly fifteen hundred years ago."
"You're pulling our leg," Kuwabara accused.
"No." Weyden's answer was sharp. "Kurama—silver hair, golden eyes, fox demon—was my commanding officer in a unit of Raizen's army. He had us slaughter an entire village, including women and children. So I killed him. But I couldn't go back to Risa. And execution for the killing of a superior was too lenient a sentence for the lives I had stolen in that village."
"So you made it appear as though you had died and Kurama remained alive," Hiei stated, releasing his grip on his sword.
Weyden nodded.
"So if you're not Shuichi, and you're not even Kurama," Kuwabara asked slowly, "Who are you?"
Weyden shook his head, and let the image of Shuichi fall away, leaving the practiced image of Kurama in its place. "I was the one who gained Kurama the majority of his notoriety." The pale visage fell away as well, leaving a tanned, dark haired, dark eyed fox in its place. "My name is Weyden."
Kuwabara and Yusuke stared. Hiei asked, "Is Weyden your real name or is it just another identity you've stolen?"
"My real name. Not that you have any real reason to believe me."
"Why tell us now?" Yusuke asked.
"Shuichi is exactly as old as I was when I met Risa."
"Go back to her." Weyden stared at Hiei. Hiei repeated, "Go back to her. I don't care what you did, fifteen hundred years is enough torment for anything."
"Perhaps," Weyden sighed. He still hadn't forgiven himself, but if he didn't see Risa, he was going to go mad.
Twelve days later…
Once again Weyden stood in the town he had grown up in. Yusuke, Hiei and Kuwabara had insisted on accompanying him. They didn't trust him not to try and kill himself. He refused to show up as himself. He needed to see Risa. He didn't need to talk to her, she didn't need to recognize him, he just had to see her.
He entered the diner he had met her in, thinking it was a good place to start his search. And she was still there, still waitressing the tables. There were lines on her face, but Weyden still saw the girl he had met a millennium and a half ago. When they sat down, she came up and said, "I'm Risa and I'll be your server today. What can I get you to drink?"
They all ordered, Kuwabara slightly thrown off by the odd flavors of soda that were offered, something Yusuke had become accustomed to during his training with Raizen. When she left, Yusuke hissed, "Was that her?"
Weyden didn't hear him. He couldn't get over the fact that she lacked the happiness he remembered and that the luster had disappeared from her eyes. "Kura—Weyden!" Yusuke hissed. "Snap out of it. Talk to her."
Weyden shook his head. "I can't. I love her too much. She deserves so much more than me."
Hiei rolled his eyes. "Then why does she look so sad? She obviously hasn't found it."
Weyden frowned. Then he walked up to the manager and asked, "Your waitress, Risa—"
The manager sighed. "Is she slacking off again? I swear, she's lucky she's been here so long. If not for that, I'd—"
"No," Weyden interrupted. "She's doing fine. I just… I've been here before, and she was much… happier then. What happened?"
The manager's eyes widened. "You must have been here a long time ago. She hasn't been quite right ever since she was around twenty. She's almost fourteen eighty now, so it's been a while."
"What happened?" Weyden asked, thinking on the timeline. "What changed?"
The manager shrugged. "The little idiot fell in love with a traveling soldier at the age of fifteen. He died, and she has refused to move on. Plenty of men traveling through seek her hand, or at least a date, but she refuses them all. Quite sad, really."
Weyden slowly returned to his table. "Still think she's better off without you?" Yusuke asked, having listened in on the conversation.
Weyden didn't reply. He was thinking about the ramshackle hut in the clearing near the bridge. "How do you guys feel about a little construction project?"
The four of them spent the next few weeks repairing the old building, remodeling it into a space that could actually be inhabited. They worked through the day, while Risa was at the restaurant serving food.
At night, Weyden cast an illusion over the building so she wouldn't recognize the difference as she passed to sit for hours on the rickety old bridge.
When the house was almost finished, Weyden gave Yusuke a piece of paper. "Memorize this," he instructed.
"Why?"
"I want to bring her here. But I don't want it to be Kurama bringing her. That… that's part of a conversation we had long ago. She'll remember. I'll be waiting here in the house when you get back. After that, I'd appreciate it if you'd all stay scarce."
Yusuke shrugged and set to work memorizing the words.
Two days later, Yusuke entered the diner once again and sat down alone. "I'm Risa, I'll be your waitress today. What can I get you today?"
"Honestly, I'm not that hungry. You think you could sit down and talk for a bit? I'm just feeling lonely at the moment."
Risa didn't seem to recognize the words. She glanced around and shrugged, sliding into the booth across from Yusuke. Then Yusuke said, "Actually… I don't want to talk here. When your shift's over… There's this place I know about, down by the lake. I think you'll like it. It's secluded, but it's not lonely."
Risa's eyes flashed suddenly in recognition. "Take me there," she commanded.
Yusuke nodded. He led her down the road toward the lake. When she saw where he was taking her, she froze and whispered, "Weyden? Is it really you? Are you a ghost?"
Yusuke shrugged. "Those questions all have really complicated answers, Risa. Just follow me."
She said nothing as he led her down the mountain path. Then he led her off the path toward the house. It looked like a wreck. Risa said, "What are you doing? That thing could cave in at any second."
From inside, Weyden heard her voice and let the illusion collapse, leaving a beautiful building behind. Risa gasped. Yusuke took her by the hand. He led her to the door. Once there he whispered, "I suggest you go inside. I've been instructed to make myself scarce, but someone inside desperately wants to see you."
Risa's eyebrows furrowed and her tail flicked back and forth nervously. She opened the door and was hit by the overpowering scent of roses. White roses. Everywhere, across every surface, piled in every corner.
And in one corner stood a man with dark hair and fox ears. He didn't turn around when she entered. She froze. White roses. She had never told anyone about the roses. "Weyden?" she whispered.
He turned around. "Risa."
In a flash she was across the room and in his arms. "It's been so long," she whispered into his shirt. "I tried to make life worth it, but it was hard. I just knew you wouldn't want me to give up. How did I die?"
Weyden pushed her away from him and wiped the tears from her eyes. "You didn't, Risa. You're still alive."
"No," Risa said. "You're dead, Weyden. Which means I'm dead. Or… or you're not really Weyden."
She stepped back in horror. Weyden let her step back, then said, "Or I killed my superior officer Kurama, hated myself enough that I couldn't come back to you, impersonated him and told you that I had died, giving you one last white rose, and left for far too long."
Risa stared. Weyden sighed and whispered, "Those words brought joy to my heart, Risa. And you wrote that I am 'your soldier.' You do not know how true those words are. I belong to you entirely, mind and soul. And my body yearns to return to you and hold you close, to kiss you a second time. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I love you as well, and that it makes my heart soar to know that you love me."
Risa's eyes widened. Then she threw her arms around him, pressing her lips to his. He pulled her close and savored what he had never thought he would have again. That second kiss he had written about… it was a millennium and a half late, but that mattered little. It was far sweeter than he imagined.
"Weyden," she whispered. "I love you."
"I am yours, mind, body and soul," Weyden answered. "And I will never leave you again."
He leaned in and kissed her again, the scent of white roses encircling them and Weyden temporarily forgot of the blood staining them as he allowed Risa's love to heal his broken heart.