Ashes to Ashes (Book Two of The Kazuya Series) (✔️)

三十四 (Thirty-Four)

(Elle's POV)

Big Bro:
We're all home. Koan disappeared. Perhaps you know where he is.

I read it once and had a feeling I knew where to go. Especially based on the other text I'd received hours prior.

"Want me to wait?" Damien asked.

"No thanks. We'll...be alright."

"Call if you need anything."

"I will and thanks. For everything."

"It was pleasure and a honor working for you again, your highness." He bowed as I got out of the car. I wanted to comment on the nickname and the fact that he said 'again', but I didn't.

My instincts were right as I knew exactly where to find Koan.

"They say he might be able to hear us. That true?" He asked, sending my presence.

"We like to think so."

"You got the same text as me?"

"Yeah." I nodded, wrapping my arms around his waist.

"I'm sorry if this is hard for you. Coming back here after...your mom."

Smiling softly, I placed a kiss on his back. "I'm okay as long as I have you."

We stood in silence for what felt like ages. The only sound we could hear was that of the electrocardiogram keeping track of his heart rhythm.

"What did the doctors say?" I asked.

"Less than a 5% chance he makes it. They...really f*cked him up. The fire didn't help either."

"Think he deserved it?"

"Yes and no." He answered after a minute.

Turning around to face me, Koan cupped my face in his hands and kissed my forehead gently before kissing my nose and then my lips.

"Thank you." He whispered, pressing his forehead to mine.

"For what?"

"For being you. For protecting me."

"Protecting us." I corrected. "How am I to live without you by my side?"

"I'm still mad you didn't tell me. Just got up out of bed and hopped on a plane with a man we hardly know."

"Something about him has always felt familiar to me. Plus he helped us. He did all the hard work."

He gave me a smile and shook his head, kissing the tip of my nose again.

"Can we go home now?"

"We can go home now." He nodded.

"Shall we say goodbye first?"

He looked over his shoulder and sighed. "I'll do it for both of us. Wait for me in the hall?"

"Of course, my love." I smiled, quickly slipping my hand in and out of his pocket.

Giving him the time to say goodbye, I went into the hall and leaned by the door, trying my best not to listen.

~~~~~~~~~
(Koan's POV)

Turning back to Masaki, I stared at him and all the tubes and machines connected to him. The ones keeping him alive.

I tried to find words to say, but came up with nothing. What did I say? What could I say? This...man who caused me nothing but pain, anger, and anxiety since the day we met. The same man who, in the end, sacrificed himself to save me.

Slipping my hands into my pockets and leaning against the wall across from the bed, I tried to think. That's when I felt it. Whatever my sneaky wife slipped in before she walked out.

Pulling it out, I couldn't help but shake my head.

Rolled up was the picture Masaki had given me. The one of the three of us. The us from back then. That's not what got me though. Wrapped around it was a red string.

Taking the red string off the picture, I walked over and tied it to his pinky finger.

"In the next one...try to be and do better in the next one. If you do that then...then I think it could be possible. We could have the best life possible. Like the one before, before everything went bad."

Almost to the door, I stopped in my tracks and turned around to say one last thing. The one thing we both needed.

"I forgive you. For then and now. I forgive you."

Clutching the picture tight in my hand, I then listened as his heart rhythm flatlined.

And before the doctors and nurses could rush in, I left the room to find Elle.

"Ready?" She smiled, holding out her left hand and my eyes catching the red of her wedding band.

"Ready." I smiled.

We returned home. To our own home. Not the one where everyone else was. The one where it was just the two of us.

"Think we can live peacefully now?" Elle asked, collapsing on the couch.

"Do you remember who our family is?"

"We could run away. Run somewhere they won't find us." She teased as I sat beside her and pulled her into my lap.

"We could..."

"Or?"

"Or we could stay here amongst the chaos."

Wrapping her arms around my waist, she dropped her forehead against shoulder.

"I guess we could do that too."

"Aishiteru." I whispered in her ear.

I felt her smile as she reached down and hooked our pinkies together.

"I love you too."

Knocking our foreheads together, I gave her a smile of my own.

"In this one and all the others to follow..." I started.

"I will always love you and only you." She finished.