Disclaimer: All of the characters that appear in Gravitation are in fact, not mine (duh). They all belong to the wonderful procrastinator Maki Murakami! Therefore, I make no profit off of this.

A.N. This chapter starts in a flashback.

Sara stirred, feeling warm hands around her. Tensing at first at the calloused touch, she relaxed, once the hands made an immediate beeline for her proudly protruding belly.

'Kaname…'

She shifted in the warm grasp, sighing softly. It was these fleeting moments that she lived for. The ones when she awoke from dreams and before her eyes opened. Before she knew the immediate state of the world and all of its suffering.

'He's here… that means he didn't…'

Before the events of the past caught up with her knowledge of the future.

Before she knew what Kaname had done.

She opened her eyes. Blue eyes met golden.

"Sara…" He murmured, pressing his lips to her forehead, only to pull back seconds later, eyes wide in shock as he tried to gasp the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Sara!"

"Kaname…" She spoke through sobs "My… foolish. Idiot Lord Kaname…"

"Sara--."

"Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I've freed us!"

Sara's eyes grew wide. She inhaled, sitting up with some slight difficulty and facing Kaname.

"Freed us?"

"Yes!" Kaname said, grasping her hands, holding them to his chest. "Don't you see? With him gone, there's nothing to stand in our way…"

"No!" She shouted, snatching her hands from him "There's everything in our way. Can't you see that?"
"Sara… I don't… I don't understand." Kaname ran his fingers through his hair. "He's not here anymore. He can't send you away or he can't…"

"But… you can!"

Kaname paused, his head cocked in confusion.

"M-Me… but why would I…?"
"Because it is your duty," Sara said standing, and gracefully bowing "Demon Lord Kaname."

Kaname tensed. His eyes widened and his heart quickened. His mind raced, trying to comprehend Sara's words.

He was the new Demon Lord.

'"I fear… my Lord Kaname… one day soon… you and I shall become enemies as well."'

X

With a sense of urgency that he couldn't explain, Yuki pushed the throne room doors open entering swiftly. Doing a quick scan of the room, he found it empty, free of the usual guards lining the walls.

Mizu, having been left behind by Yuki's in his haste, walked in moments later.

"Lord Kaname." Mizu spoke quickly out of habit.

"Mizu…" Came the distant reply

Yuki's eyes moved up to the throne, which was nearly shrouded in darkness, as the heavy velvet curtains that half of the room blotted out any traces of light from outside. Still, in the dark, he could make out Kaname's form, slumped in his usual way, his leg draped over one arm.

Sighing in relief at the familiarity, Yuki let his annoyance slip through, and crossing his arms, he began to approach the throne.

"What calls for the urgency, Father?" He spoke, his voice dripping with sarcasm "Did you miss me?"

"Close the door, Mizu." Kaname spoke, not answering his son's question.

Obeying, Mizu moved towards the room's entrance.

"And get out."

Nodding, Mizu turned, bowed, and took his leave. Growing suspicious, Yuki halted his advance on the throne.

"What's going on?"

For a moment, there was silence. But, slowly Kaname began to move, reaching his hand out for his child.

"Fa—Kaname?"

Reluctantly placing his hand in Kaname's, Yuki let out a sharp gasp when he felt Kaname's lips press against them.

"Now… you must…" Kaname began, his voice suddenly dropping to a whisper "You must forgive me…"

Eyes wide and tense, Yuki tugged his hand free, stumbling back.

"What…"

"You must…" Kaname sighed, standing, allowing Yuki to see his tearstained face for the first time. "You must… not hate me."

"For what? What are you talking… are you crying?"

Chuckling softly, Kaname sighed.

"Yes."

Relaxing a bit, Yuki took a step closer to his father.

"Just… calm down. Tell me what's going on…"
"I have to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

Kaname sighed sadly.

"How I killed your mother."

----------FLASHBACK-------------

Demon Lord? Demon Lord? How could this have happened? How had he not seen it? Kaname wanted to scream. Wanted to maim, to smash, to… destroy. Curse his impatience, his rashness, his rage. Curse his stupidity, curse his father. Curse this cursed line.

"AH! Damn it all!" He screamed, leaping from the bed and hurling the vase nearby into the wall, watching it shatter into pieces, before the lamp that once rested beside it joined in shards on the floor. "Damn it damn it damn it!"

Sara stood patiently, her hands resting gently on her belly.

"So now what?" she asked, calmly. "Now what, Demon Lord Kaname?"
"Stop saying that!"

"No."

A moment of silence passed.

"You've made this bed. Now lie in it."

Kaname tensed at the unexpected harshness of her voice.

"I won't… I won't do it."

"You won't do what?"

"I won't… I won't become Demon Lord."

At this, Sara laughed.

"Oh, my dear Lord Kaname. You don't have a choice."
"Yes, yes I do. I always have a choice, and I choose to renounce the throne. I don't want it."
"And do what then?"

"And then, I'll take you, and the baby, and we'll go somewhere, far from here. And we'll live in peace. Away from all this madness."

Sara sighed, pacing the room.

"My dear Kaname." She murmured, rubbing the agitated child in her belly in attempts to sooth it. "My lovely, naïve husband."

Kaname's eyes twitched.

"You're such a fool."

"Wha--."
"You can't just shirk your duties, and run away from everything."
"And why not?"
"Because it's not that simple."

"I'm making it that simple--."
"And I'm telling you that you are NOT!" Sara screamed, moving to him, much more swiftly than one would expect a woman with child to do. "You cannot just run away from everything. We cannot just leave and forget about it. Run away from who we are!"

"We can."
"Well, you can, Kaname." She shouted "But I can't! I'm not a coward! I won't run from my destiny."

At this, Kaname fell silent.

"If I take this throne, Sara… Love… we'll never be able to be together."
"And that is our destiny."

"But…"

"Such is fate."

"Fuck fate! Fuck destiny!" He shouted, grabbing her "I don't care about those things! All I care about, is what I see before me! All I know, is that… this is my story. And I decide how it ends!"

A laugh erupted from Sara, before tears began to spill down her cheeks.

"Oh, my dear Kaname… how I wish that were true. Oh how I wish it. How I pray, each and every day for it… but it's not. It's simply not. And I'm living testament to that."

She sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

"We can't… just run away. Kaname. You can't." Reaching out, placing her hands gently on his cheeks, she whispered "You can't."

"But…"
"This is your story…" She smiled sadly "Only, I already know how it ends."

X

"And so, I took the throne, and after things began to get to dangerous, and I couldn't be with her to protect her, she went to Earth, where she met Kina."

"But… why?" Yuki asked

"Why what?" Kaname questioned, jolted out of his storytelling mindset.
"Why… did you become Demon Lord?"
Kaname sighed, chewing his lip before answering.

"Because, my father was right."

Cocking his head, Yuki stared silently at him.

"Because, more than anything, even more than myself. I love this dimension…" Resting his face on his hands and his elbows on his knees, he continued "Because I knew, that if the Yuki line ended with my father, we'd be shamed… and not only that. But if I didn't take the throne… this dimension, this Hell… the beauty that I've always loved… would cease."

"Why?"

"It would be divided into pieces, snatched up by wealthy noblemen and chiefs. Bartered like gold chips between families. All the while, it would suffer. The people, the common people, would cry out and no one would be there to listen to their pain." He inhaled slowly "And I, couldn't let that happen."

A moment of silence fell over the two.

"I get that." Yuki said at last.

Raising an eyebrow, Kaname questioned:
"Do you now?" When Yuki didn't respond, he leaned in closer and continued "Tell me, Eiri. Do you, have something… that you want to protect?"

X

"So, he became Demon Lord?" Shuichi asked

"Yes. He took the throne." Sara spoke softly "Because, Kaname loves Hell more than anything. And despite how much he wanted to run from his responsibilities, he couldn't run from his people."

"And then what happened?"

Sara sighed, drumming her fingers on her knee, trying to form the best way.

"And then… Kaname was busy… very busy," She paused, remembering. "Meetings and appeasements and inaugurations and… God knows what else. And then, I got more and more pregnant. Eiri more and more restless."She chuckled softly, her hand subconsciously moving to her stomach. "And I became more and more of a burden upon Kaname." She sighed "As I became less capable of taking care of myself, I was more and more of a target to those who wanted to hurt Kaname. And with the amount of scrutiny he was under because of our relationship… I decided it would be best to leave."
"And so, you came to Earth? Why?"

"Because of the three worlds, it was the safest at the time. I could not return to Heaven. And despite how much Kaname wanted it, Hell was not an option. So, since I needed a safe place to raise Eiri, I came to Earth, where I met Kina and the elves. And they took such good care of me in those last months."

Shuichi shifted, sitting up and moving closer to her.

"And Kaname?"

"Oh, he came to see me every chance he could. For 20 seconds to pop in and give me a goodnight kiss. For 2 days. Every spare moment he was here with me, holding my hand, asking me questions about the baby. Bringing me every gift and toy a child could ever even hope for."

"Kaname was a doting father?"

"Oh yes!" Sara exclaimed, laughing "Such. To the point of near insanity. Always holding doors and pulling out chairs and helping me to and from bed and even in the bath… not that I minded in the bath…" She paused, reflecting. "And on the day Eiri was born…" She chuckled softly "I remember… he just knew… I didn't even have to send for him. I was in the meadow alone when it started. And before I could fall over, Kaname was there, holding me."

"Wow…" Shuichi replied, wide eyed.

"Yeah…he didn't leave my side the entire time…" She smiled warmly "And then, soon, we had our son. Our beautiful baby boy. Kaname was extremely pleased. Until…"

"Until…?"
"He remembered the 'Curse'. And then he said that maybe it was for the best that he couldn't be around him that often."

Shuichi fell silent, understanding.

"And then?"
"And then, Eiri grew up, a normal, spoiled child." She chuckled "A bit of a 'Mother's boy'." She stood, moving to the window. "Always 'I want this' and 'I want that'. Could never tell the child no. Because even if I did, the gift would just 'mysteriously pop' into Eiri's arms. Needless to say it wasn't complicated to convince him that Santa was real."

Shuichi laughed, trying to imagine a child-like Yuki.

"And then, he grew and grew and… became so powerful…" Her voice trailed off. "And then I did… such a horrible thing…" Tears welled in her eyes.

"Horrible thing?"

Sara nodded.

"Yes…"

"What was it?"

She sighed. Then swiftly moving to the bed, she grabbed Shuichi's hands.

"Before I tell you." She began, squeezing his hands gently "You must promise me, you must promise me you won't hate me." She swallowed, shaking gently "That you'll forgive me."

"I… I promise." Shuichi stammered "Sara… please… what is it?"

Silently, she stood, standing alone in the middle of the room, her back turned to Shuichi.

"Well, it all began when Eiri was about 2 years old…"

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A.N. Yeah, so I left you on a cliffy. Sorry, but I decided last minute to save the explanation for the next chapter. Afterall, this one was getting pretty long. I'm trying to move on through all of the flashbacks and explain everything so that everyone's plans can get in motion. Thanks for reading, and all the wonderful reviews!