Musuko (Book Two of the Kakureta Hana series)

VI: Roku

Amaya refuses to see me. Not because we do not want to see each other but because she does not want me to see some of the wedding plans that the women are putting together. I could care less honestly about how the wedding ends up coming together, but I do want to see her. I still find it hard to believe that within the day I will be married to the woman that I had vowed to marry over six years ago.

I have asked Ryuu and Sakura to stand in for my parents during the ceremony. I had joined them for dinner a few nights earlier, and at first, I thought that perhaps they had not heard me because both had continued eating as if I had said nothing. Then Sakura had set down her bowl and started weeping, hands covering her face. Ryuu had pulled her close, running a comforting hand across her back.

It had made me wonder what I had said so wrong that had caused her to start crying and neither of them to answer me. Finally, after I had sat across the table from them for what seemed like an eternity, Ryuu had looked towards me and said, "We would be honored, Kazuhiko."

The strain in his voice told me that he was swallowing his own tears as his wife continued to weep. I suppose that when I had thought to ask them (honestly, there was no other option in my mind), I had not considered how much it would mean to both of them. It was the confirmation of how highly I regarded them both to ask them to do such a thing.

Now, I am sitting in my quarters with Ryuu, who has only come back to the Amachi fortress to train since he lost his position as general. Sakura had fluttered in a while ago to fuss over me, vastly different from the crying mess that I had left her as the last time I had seen her. Ryuu had looked at her with love, and before she had left, they had kissed, my impending marriage seeming to drag up memories of their own.

"Are you ready?" He asks me now, breaking the silence that has been surrounding the two of us since Sakura left. "The moment that you step outside of this room and entwine your life with Motome Amaya, you will not be able to live the way that you have before. Neither of you will. Anything that one of you does from this day forward will affect the other as well. Marriage is not to be taken lightly, Kazuhiko."

I look at him, sitting there with pride shining in his amber eyes. Pride, I realize, for me and for the marriage that is about to happen. "I cannot imagine spending my life with anyone other than Amaya. I do not expect our marriage to always be without struggle and strife, but I would rather have a lifetime with joy and pain than one with only joy especially if I would have to give up her to have the latter."

Ryuu smiles. "Allow yourself to remember that for as long as you both live. Nothing can truly prepare you for marriage as no one even knows exactly what their own marriage will be like, much less someone else's. Take it one day at a time, talk to each other before making decisions, and realize that it is all right to leave issues unresolved as long as they do not begin to consume you. And regardless of what happens in the future, there is always someone who is willing to listen if you need someone else to help come to a compromise. It will not be easy all the time, but it will be worth it."

"We are ready," Sakura says, opening the door to stick her head in. Some sort of purplish flower is weaved through her hair, and the former general's eyes light up at the sight. He pulls her into his arms, pressing his forehead against hers. They stand together for a long moment, the emotions flowing between the two of them almost tangible.

"You remembered," she breathes at last, and he lifts his head to press a light kiss against her hair. Ryuu cradles her face in his hands, the smile that I have learned only appears when he looks at his wife spreading across his lips.

"Of course I remember, Sakura. I remember everything about that day: the way you looked, the way you smelled, how beautiful you were, how blessed I felt to be able to finally call you mine. Even if every other memory in my life was torn away from me, that one would linger with me forever."