The night came too quickly for my thoughts to make fair adjustment to, the brusque touch of his fingers against bare skin caused my breath to catch within my throat, the warmth of his own I could feel pressing to my neck and the sensuality of the gentle brush of a knuckle to take the tears away from my scarlet-streaked cheeks was met with a fluttering in my chest I dared not to consider what I would feel. I pulled from him in refusal, the wounds too fresh within my heart, and he grasped upon my wrists with a careful firmness that indicated he had no intention of releasing me to my dark habits.

The intensity of his stare was chastising, my head dipping with shameful remorse at the hushed tone replying, 'Stop running.' In my fear, I had taken to finding some corner, a shadow that I could avoid my own existence, in this aspect I found it safer to be away from the living world than to face it and the reality that my fairy tale was simply that, a dreaming fantasy. I lamented to him, 'What have I done? What is it I suffer from? Why am I to blame? Everything I tried, I gave, and sacrificed, my blood, sweat and tears, and nothing could prevent it from happening again. Did he not love his son enough? Was I not good enough? He always chose another over me, and I forever remained faithful to him... so why? Why am I the one?'

He shook me with an agitated and exasperated sighing, the sharps of his teeth bared in a grimacing growl that cowed me into silence, I shrank from him in fear of his anger, but what he replied shocked my soul.

'You were never to blame for his foolish ignorance. What one man chooses in his own path to Destiny, is his own burden to bear, and the choices he made were ever his own. Where he failed was in never recognizing what he had in front of him, a love devoted, a child born of loyalty, a smile forged in hope and faith, and all he wished for was his own legend. Men do not become renowned for simple things, they become infamous for their crimes, and leave legacies when shown with valor, all he will be remembered for is a dishonest heart, and the near destruction of an already fragile dynasty. You have the choice to crumple under the weight of his infamy, or rise above the ashes and forge your own Fate. Can one man be the end-all of a heart still in its youth? Look around you, where one insignificant slight threatens to break apart what you once held most dear, others stand and surround you with love, light, and promise of another dawn. Can you truly say to us that you are unwilling to continue, if not for those around you, then for the child of whom you gave birth? What destiny will you forge for him, if you surrender to the treachery of a phantom?'

The words stung and in my overbearing certainty that the world had no place for me among its diminutive existence within the expansive whole of the universe, was suddenly made moot. The sting and hurt of my eyes, dry from the exhausting expenditure of the fluid expulsion from my earlier mourning, were blinked to clear the ruddy look of their irritated whites and I collapsed with fatigue. My mind still swimming, my arms barely draped about the curve of his slim torso, and his own keeping me steady and still on my feet, I turned my gaze upon the standing cradle that held the infant on which my hopes, dreams, and wishes had all been blessed upon.

His night unhindered by the wretched cries of my barely audible voice, I haggardly stumbled my way to the child's bedside, and with the careful duty of a mother, curled my trembling fingers beneath head and the small of his tiny frame, and pulled him to myself before burying my face into the soft and gently scented warmth of his form, the sound of a disquieted interruption of his rest, was quickly replaced by the swaddled huff of a sleeper's breath. I remained standing still, moving eventually to dance softly, elegantly, and with gentle abandon, rocking and uttering a hushed lullaby into his attentive ears. That tiny smile I was offered in return, a treasure that forever imprinted upon my psyche.

'Never was there more precious a gift, than this that I hold in my arms... that I find I claimed to live for him, I ultimately must attest to be a liar. My heart torn two-ways, half given to one who tried to claim whole, and now I feel I should be giving my all to this, my only one, and know only half of what I can offer him... what must I do? I love my little one more than my life, but this love I feel is not enough to give... I wish for him to know my heart, and know that if he were to ask it of me, I would gladly take it from my breast and offer it and my life to him... how can I? When part of it was left so mangled, I see only darkness in the skies.'

To this he, my guardian, stepped behind us, those lithe arms that once held me in comfort, now drew I, and the tiny bundle within my grasp, into the warmth of a sheltering embrace, his taller height looming over us like a shield braced against the tide of my own anxieties, he stared upon my face and muttered. 'Darkness is but a blindfold to which you must take off the blind, you will only ever see the black shadows if you consider them all that there is to be. Your heart was never splintered, merely injured by one whom was born of mistrust, it is the truth of another's loyalty you must learn as bearing to chart the temulent sea you've created. There will always be another to find your heart, the lesson paid for this right however, should be in their deeds, their histories. One cannot find trust, where there is no truth, so find someone willing to speak in earnest honesty, and hold conviction for the right to your destiny. A road paved in sorrow, is a road walked by the strong, for it is those who have known and lost love, that see the value in what a grand thing it is. You are not alone in betrayal of the heart, I suffered long before you received that first stabbing, and still stand before you now, unwilling to be broken. If I can continue, where my heart once threatened to take the breath away from me... then so can you.'

- Yuuhi Enma x Touya Hidetaka