A sneeze shattered the silence of the garden.

Dressed in very formal looking robes, Shizuka Doumeki straightened and discreetly passed his hand across his nose. The noise seemed to have startled him back to the moment at hand as well as worried the young woman before him off her train of thoughts.

"Doumeki-san?"

A slight hesitation as he lifted his eyes to meet hers and tried to re establish the tranquility that had been present only moments before.

"Are you ill?"

"No"

He had been sitting patiently in the main tea pavilion listening to the soft patter of rain. The cherry blossom season was just ending, and it was a pleasant temperature despite the down pour outside. Comfortable he would have described as a setting mood, but the subject matter of his thoughts was much too congruent for peace.

"Doumeki- san, if this is a bad time, I can come back" the girl shifted as if to move, but Shizuka held out a placating hand. She settled back into her seated position and shifted her ornate kimono, clearly feeling as if she was intruding on Shizuka's time. The priest almost smiled at this. He doubted that it was normally in her nature to feel as if she were inconveniencing anyone with her presence.

"My apologies Kunogi-Hime, please continue"

He would arrive in just under an hour.

The rooms had been set and transportation schedules had been double checked. All preparations had been completed and issues accounted for. Everything was ready and yet Doumeki was finding it increasingly harder to pay attention to his daily duties as the time encroached.

Steeling himself with the discipline that had been impressed upon him from a young age, he once again put the matter out of his thoughts and turned his attention back to the task at hand.

He was with a client.

"You were saying that your father's men found the vase in a dilapidated building?"

With the prompt, the girl before him fell back into her story. She had been recounting a supernatural phenomenon that had been linked to a rather strange daffodil vase that had come into her family's possession when she was a child. Apparently the vase would mysteriously fill with flowers when left in the moonlight. Of course this had been a benign action so the family had not perceived this as a threat. However when one of their guards had mysteriously vanished while he had been peering onto the top of it, they had suddenly felt the need to have the vase looked at by a spiritualist.

"Yes the place where it was found was an old shrine that was scheduled for demolition"

The vase in question sat feet away from them on a green velvet cloth, and it was to the object that he now turned his attention.

It did not look like anything more than an antique vase. White with a beautiful blue motif of daffodils painted onto a mountain scene.

It did have a power though.

Looking deeper past the physical porcelain shell, Doumeki tried to discern the powers origin. He felt no taint or darkness from it, but the power was a conscious one. Carefully, so as not to provoke its powers into doing something dangerous with Kunogi-Hime sitting so close, Doumeki placed a hand on the objects shell and let his own power wash across it. He felt the foreign magic push back at his own, and a child's laugh suddenly rang through the room, crystal and sweet.

The vase vanished and all of a sudden a third person was sitting with them in the pavilion.

She was a young girl dressed in finery that was not of this world. A beautiful pale green dress wrapped her slender frame, decorated with beautiful living daffodil flowers. A soft yellow veil sat across her shoulders and fell to her feet which were set into dainty little shoes embroided with the same floral patterns that covered her dress. Beautiful golden hair was set into two neat little buns that that were held in place by rows of tiny daffodils before cascading the length of her back.

Her clothes looked otherworldly enough to convince anyone who looked at her that she was not a normal child, but it was her features that announced solidly that she was a spirit.

Her skin was a pale no human hue could match; white as the porcelain vase had been and her eyes were completely black with no white or iris.

Shifting his gaze quickly to the Hime sitting in front of him, Doumeki began composing an explanation that would calm her if she panicked but it was quickly apparent that he wouldn't need one. Kunogi-Hime was smiling at the girl who was returning the expression with good will.

"It's very nice to finally meet you Vase-chan"

The name sounded ridiculous, but it didn't seem to upset the spirit girl. She simply smiled all the brighter at her mistresses recognition and held out a daffodil flower as a peace offering. The princess seemed touched at this action and looked as if she wanted to talk further, but Doumeki thought it about time to get to the matter at hand. The Spirit would not stay in this form for long.

"You seemed to have caused some trouble for the princesses' home" he stated quietly, gathering the spirits full attention to him. The child frowned at his accusation and shook her head before causing the tea pot that was set before them to bloom with more conjured Daffodil flowers.

It didn't seem inclined to speak, but its meaning was clear.

"Yes you give her plenty of flowers, but you also took one of the men from her household" he clarified the problem. "He disappeared into your vase"

She tilted her head slightly as if pondering something that was troubling her. The scent of Daffodils hung in the air heavily as a voice suddenly filled their ears.

"Appalling emissary boded ill for Sunflower Hime"

Her lips never moved.

"The man was a danger to the princess?" Doumeki asked, his gaze turning sharply towards Himawari who looked suddenly very taken aback. The Spirit nodded.

"Man's ill brethren have moved into the historical abodes of the flower princesses. One such ill harmer is gone but others remain."

"So you killed him?"

The girls smile was eerie as she shook her head.

"He is displaced"

So she did not have the capacity to harm others. That at least was reassuring if the princess intended to keep the vase. It seemed her power was in moving people from one place to another. An interesting guise for a portal, but now she had brought another puzzle to his table.

Why had the man been there with the intent to harm the princess in the first place?

When he asked the spirit this question she did not answer him. Instead she took Kunogi's hand in her own. A brilliant light shone from the spirit as she smiled brightly at the Princess.

"The Moon will need you"

A riddle.

For a moment Kunogi-Hime seemed confused, but her smile returned quickly and she bowed her head in acknowledgment. It seemed that she knew she would get no more information on the matter. Doumeki was mildly surprised that she was unusually well acquainted with the ways of spirits, considering her upbringing in this age but he chose not to comment. That she understood these things without explanation would only make his dealings with her easier.

He had expected that this was all that they would receive from this meeting as the Daffodil girl began to fade, so he was much surprised when the misted eyes of the child turned to him in her last moment and a cool hand was placed on his cheek.

"You have the gift to comprehend. If you see in time then there is hope, but you must look only with a closed eye"

The vase sat on the velvet cloth once more.

"The Moon" Kunogi mused, looking intently at the vase as if it would suddenly spring back to life again. "I don't think that she meant the one in the sky"

"No" Doumeki didn't either. Still it was obvious that they were being sent to find this 'Moon'.

"I read a book once that said there were objects and people that contained strong ties to the moon and the sun. Maybe Vase-chan meant one of these things?"

"It makes sense. Still it's not going to be easy to find without more clues"

Nothing was going to be found when the only thing they had to work with was one possessed inanimate object telling them to go find another.

Silence reigned for a time, but quiet contemplation got them nowhere.

Suddenly a bell chimed from somewhere in the temple and Doumeki's stomach churned with lead.

A little under an hour had passed.

The young woman sitting opposite him picked up on the young priest's discomfort.

"I'm sorry, I've stayed too long" her hair ornaments clinked quietly as she rose from her seat. "Thank you very much for your help today Doumeki-san".

Part of him wanted her to stay. To give him a reason to tarry in the pavilion and put off the meeting that was coming. The other part of him was wondering why he was acting like such a moron.

He'd been over this with himself. He would meet Watanuki-san cordially by the gate and allow him access to his home. He would weather the intense look of dislike that he deserved and would receive for failing him. Then he would care for the man in any way that he could for the rest of his life. It was his responsibility if nothing else.

But now that the time had come to pass, Doumeki was not sure he could walk to the gate and stare the man in the eye.

"Doumeki-san… are you sure that you are not ill?"

Shizuka was slightly confused by the intense look of worry on the princess's features as he startled out of his thoughts. When she got no answer from him, Himawari seemed to think that her worry was justified and held her hand out to him in an offer to take it.

He did not.

Himawari Kunogi was enlightened. She had been born with the gift of happiness- for lack of a better word to describe it. She could heal a soul that had been wounded, bring relief to the days of the suffering and shine a light into the dark places of the world. She was a gift that passed with the slightest touch and was a joy for all who perceived her in her true aspect.

Doumeki was not one who deserved her touch.

"Thank you Kunogi-Hime but I'm alright really" He got to his feet. "I was just thinking about something"

Her worry did not seem to disperse, but she did not push the matter. He was grateful.

Collecting the green cloth that the vase had been wrapped in when she had brought it in Shizuka draped it carefully around the vase and took it from her hands. Then he collected an umbrella by the door and slid back the screen to let her out.

"Here I'll walk you back to the front of gate; your men are still waiting for you"

The walk was much like Shizuka would have imagined the Death March felt to walk. He kept pace with the Princesses small steps easily but to his mind they were travelling so fast that it seemed they were in the tea pavilion one moment and at the temple gates the next.

Two cars were parked on the road.

The first was a shiny black Mercedes. It had tinted windows and at their approach two black suited men exited the car with umbrella's, eager to help their princess in any way that they could.

His attention however was on the silver Lexus that was parked behind it. This too had tinted windows, but he didn't need to see into the car to know who it belonged to and who was driving it. This was his own car, the very one that he had leant to one of his priests; Yukito this morning to go and retrieve Watanuki-san from the hospital.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were expecting someone" Himawari's voice once again pulled him back to the moment. She had just taken the vase from his hands and handed it to one of her men. Turning so his back was to the silver car, Doumeki steeled his discipline once more and finished his consultation with Kunogi-Hime as he should have back at the Pavilion.

"It's nothing. Thank you for your patronage Hime, and if you need anything in the future, you need only call"

Himawari smiled as she once again held her hand out to Shizuka.

"No, really thank you. After all I would never have met Vase-chan and learnt of Moon-san without your help. I'll endeavor to keep looking-"

Doumeki's breathing stopped as Himawari suddenly stopped talking and stared over his shoulder. Worried about what she had seen that had stilled her so completely he dropped all pretense of a polite conversation and quickly turned back to the silver Lexus.

For a moment, Shizuka dreaded that her reaction had been brought around by the ghastly sight that Watanuki was sure to present. Wrapped in bandages and heavily scarred in weeping wounds, he would not be a pretty sight to behold but Shizuka still felt himself getting angry at her anyway. Watanuki did not deserve the belittling stares he would receive. Those injuries were not his fault they were Doumeki's.

But that moment faded instantly as he realized that that was not the situation at all.

Dressed in a beautiful white Kimono embroided with silver lace in the pattern of rain drops and butterflies was a God. There was no other way to describe such aesthetics. His skin was like ivory against the white of his clothes and his hair was a beautiful contrasting black that hung in a loose braid across one of his shoulders. Sliver ribbons had been woven through it and matched similar ones that were tied at his throat securing a tiny string of precious stone butterflies that hung there. His clothes covered all except the base of his throat and his face, but they still did a wonderful job of accenting his slender figure and highlighting his natural beauty.

Out from under the fluorescent lights of the intensive care ward, he looked nothing like the sallow fragile man that Shizuka had spent weeks staring at in the hospital. This was a powerful man of regal standing, with all the looks of what he had been before the accident.

But the eyes were what stunned him.

He had seen those eyes only once before. In the moment that he had first found the Watanuki man laying in a pool of rain and blood, those sapphire blue eyes had looked at him with a pain that Doumeki did not think was possible.

And now he was looking at them again and there was nothing else in the universe.

"She's Beautiful" Himawari breathed.

Not even aware of her words or his own Shizuka agreed with her, his eyes still locked on Watanuki's.

He was stunning.

The moment passed when Watanuki stumbled and closed his eyes.

Suddenly the rest of the scene came into focus, and the reality of the situation came crashing down with a thunderclap.

Yukito, who had opened the door to help Watanuki out of the car was now carefully supporting the man's dead weight as he struggled to seat the weakened frame into a wheelchair.

"Oh is she alright?" Himawari rushed forward in an instant, but she was steps behind Doumeki. It took him mere moments to reach the crippled man.

"Its okay, Doumeki-sempai" Yukito assured him. "He is just tired is all. Akizuki went all out on him with dress up"

Not seeming to like being talked about as if he was not there, Watanuki cleared his throat and forced his eyes open to manage a reproachful look at Yukito before they fluttered closed once more.

Doumeki didn't like to see Watanuki like this. Hadn't the doctors said that he had been well enough to travel? Deciding that it was best to make sure that the man stayed conscious until he got him safely indoors, Shizuka leant forward to peer into Watanuki's face and called to him.

"Oi".

The look of fury as Watanuki's eyes snapped open took Doumeki by surprise. So much so, he retreated to standing a foot away and carefully arranged his face into a blank stare.

"Never" Watanuki hissed. "Address me so informally"

The rain began to fall heavily as they stood in an awkward silence.

Himawari broke it.

"You'll catch a cold if you stay out here" she chimed helpfully, motioning one of her guards to shield Watanuki with an umbrella. With a smile the man did more than that, taking off his black coat and draping it around Watanuki's shoulders. He then began to wheel him inside. The priest who had driven Watanuki from the hospital followed dutifully, but the second guard that had been present for the princess approached her before she took the initiative to follow.

"Please return to the car Hime, Monou-san will return in a moment"

Obediently, Himawari shot one last worried look in Watanuki's direction before beginning to comply.

"Will he be alright?"

Doumeki's attention was for Watanuki and the guard. He did not trust that man, but dutifully he remained to answer the princesses' question.

"He was attacked by something supernatural a few months ago. He will be living here until he recovers."

"Attacked? Was it serious?"

Watanuki and the guard were almost to the veranda of the tea pavilion at this point and letting them out of his sight was a strain on Doumeki's patience.

"His body was torn open and he lost the use of his hands"

Himawari was appropriately mortified.

"He must be in so much pain! I couldn't imagine having to live through something like that"

But he had lived. Despite Doumeki's failure to reach him in time, he had survived.

Don't you dare die on me.

Promise me that-

A memory surfaced at the half thought. Words that he remembered from a dream long ago.

"Please, don't leave me, I'm so sorry please"

"At least you know how I feel now"

"Please don't leave me! Eternity isn't worth it without you!"

"Then wait for me. I will come back"

"I can't"

"Promise me."

Live.

Had it been a dream? He didn't remember having it.

Pushing it aside he decided to leave dreaming for sleeping hours.

"If you will excuse me Hime"

Traveling as cordially as he could manage without running, Shizuka made his way back to the tea pavilion as Himawari took her leave.

He really did not trust that guard with Watanuki.