Thank you so much for reading this far! Thank you for tolerating my mistakes, and thank you so much for reading me.
This is the last chapter. And then, a brief epilogue.
So go ahead.
Enjoy! :D
XIX
After a hearty lunch, Nishinoya Yuu and Azumane Asahi are cooling down their feet in a clear stream when they see the palanquin approaching.
"There's no way it is who I think it is, right?"
Yuu snorts and rolls his eyes.
"Of course it is, Asahi! It's the former emperor! I told you I had seen him in the nearest town! I told you!"
Asahi sighs. Nishinoya must be the only one who is able to run from town to town faster than rumours fly.
Or maybe, spreading himself the rumours…
"But why would he be around here…?"
"You're telling me you really don't know?!"
At any rate, he's sure he's about to find out ―just like the other two hundred inhabitants around them if Yuu doesn't stop yelling.
"What is it, Nishinoya?"
"Everyone knows that after his wife left him, the emperor went a little… funny in the head! I mean, five whole years and he didn't remarry, nor did he concern himself with giving his house a heir?! It was to be expected they would compel him to abdicate so that relative of his would take his place, the actual emperor Wakatoshi Ushijima. Ah, and to think he was supposed to be a promise… It doesn't surprise me he's wandering around town if he's as crazy as they say he is…"
Asahi's hand silences Yuu's mouth.
From the royal litter, the former emperor, amused, smiles to them before they both postrate before him.
While he stands up again, Asahi manages to take a glance at the man's humble gaze.
A gaze he doesn't think could belong to a madman.
The thought occurs to him for a moment, not unlike a spark before a fire.
Maybe there are more important things than the title of emperor.
"Hey, Asahi! Come here and help me to catch tonight's dinner, will you?!"
At the same time he joins Nishinoya, who is back to the stream searching for some fish, Asahi convinces himself he's right.
He smiles at the thought.
Definitely, there are more important things.
When it happens, she's feeding the piggery's animals.
"Hinata Natsu?"
It's been a long time since anyone has addressed her by her whole name.
At least, her maiden name.
She turns around and instantly goes pale.
The emperor. Or rather, who used to be the emperor until a few months ago, wearing the plain clothes that have given people a lot to talk about since years before.
She falls down on her knees not caring about the stones all over the ground, but a hand rapidly circles her wrist, preventing her from hurting her legs against the arid land.
"You are undoubtedly Shouyou's sister."
She raises her head, and comprehends he has read all he needed by looking in her eyes. Yes, he has done so, but he goes along and asks her, once she's on his feet again:
"Where is he, Na-a-chan~?"
He doesn't intend to mock her by calling her that, even if he pauses mischievously while pronouncing her nickname. She understands he wants to lighten the tension, nothing else.
She cannot help but smile at him, even if her shyness doesn't vanish completely.
"On the outskirts. He didn't mean to intrude… between my husband and me…"
"Natsu! Dinner is ready!"
He nods, and watches the most important person in her life over her shoulder. The boy with the white hair everyone made fun of, the boy marked with a permanent dust speck on his face.
The most noble, kind and pure-hearted boy Natsu has ever met in her whole life, and whom she loves with all her heart now that he isn't a boy any longer, but a man.
"That could have been me, you know?"
It's a joke. Natsu instantly understands. Oikawa isn't implying that she could have been the emperor's wife instead of a plain swineherd's woman.
He's only conveying, with such direct and simple words, a feeling alike to an answered prayer when everything seemed already lost, a feeling of gratitude towards a common coincidence.
Natsu, however, doesn't believe in coincidences.
"You have always belonged to my brother, Oikawa-sama."
The man who is no longer emperor smiles.
And retires after a small reverence to Sugawara Natsu.
While he walks all the way up to this Oikawa Shouyou's home (such a fine horse breeder must be related to the royal family, what with his lands and wealth!), Tooru softly hums a song.
He is happy.
He feels whole, he feels satisfied, and the feeling is alike to refreshing his feet in a pond on a hot summer day.
Hey, Iwa-chan…
He finally reaches the peak of the hill, and he is able to discern a silhouette that turns towards him.
… back then…
The hakamas are definitely manly, and the wind shakes them lightly now that he's sitting on a fence. The orange hair gleams under the sunlight that slowly dies out on this common afternoon of a common day, just like everywhere else, even if this is the land of the rising sun.
First, a expression full of surprise.
And then, a smile loaded with tears.
On his face.
And on Shouyou's face.
Far away, in the depths of the sky yet clear over two unnamed figures running towards one another, the first star appears.
… did you mean…
Because if there's something more important than Oikawa Tooru's whims, it must be this little being that gets lost in his arms.
… this?
And Tooru doesn't intend, not even for a split second, to let him go again.
And now...