Bloody Petals

Chapter 32

The cold breeze of the night felt really soothing to his skin. The moon hung above the dark clouds and shone over the entire forest, giving a mellow glow to everything. And yet, Zero could feel nothing except an intense ache in his chest and a huge lump in his throat. He was facing a huge clearing in the middle of the forest. He knew they were being pursued by many hunters. He could feel their presence approaching swiftly. But he found out he couldn't move even if he wanted to. He was staring right into the dilapidated remains of the Kiryuu household which was located in the middle of the clearing. The house where he used to live in...

He could feel nostalgia in the damp night air... feel the memories of his past buried underneath all the rubbles of his house... feel the parental love that used to make them feel safe even when everyone else looked at them coldly... feel the tightness in his chest as his childhood memories started flooding his mind...

He missed his home... He missed Shiro and Kara whom he loved deeply...

He could remember it now.

He could remember how Shiro would often stand in between them and the other hunter kids, as if protecting his sons from prying eyes and twisted mindset. He could remember Shiro's sharp amethyst eyes turning crimson in anger every time he or Ichiru would be bullied by the other kids. Or how Shiro's expression would soften every time they would kiss him on the cheek... or how he would laugh out loud whenever Zero would say something even remotely funny... or how he would pat them both on the head every time he would come home from a mission... or how he would play with them sometimes when he wasn't busy... or how Shiro would crease his eyebrows whenever they did something bad... or how he would often hug them and apologize for everything...

Zero didn't even have the chance to tell him that it was fine... And that he wasn't blaming the two of them for loving one another and giving their sons the kind of life they had now... And that he had managed to find his own path as both a hunter and a vampire...

And that he was happy...

He could remember Kara's home-cooked meals, her stern but kind voice, and her smiling face every time both parents would go home and find him still awake and waiting. He could remember the resemblance between her and her older brother Kaien. He would often tell her that she looked like a female version of her brother and she would laugh about it. Zero could remember how she would put her hands on her waist whenever she would scold her twins... or how she would look at Shiro lovingly sometimes... or how that same expression would then be transferred to her sons... He could remember her warm hug and her kisses on his cheeks and forehead... He could remember her presence as if she was just there... as if she wasn't dead for almost eleven years now...

Zero wasn't even able to tell her that he was thankful because she gave birth to him... And that he had finally understood why she chose to be with Shiro despite her hunter blood... because he also did the same with Kaname...

He could now remember them well. So well that he could remember their scents, their presences, their faces... He could remember the way they would hug their favorite twins... or the way they would smile or laugh at his and Ichiru's antics...

He used to think that they were almost always in some mission or another because most of the memories he had were of Ichiru's... But now he knew that wasn't the case at all... He knew that they were almost always there... wanting to be with their sons above anything else...

And he was thankful he went here...

Zero gasped and lost his bearing when memories after memories flooded inside his mind, as if wanting to be remembered. He knelt on the soft grassy ground when those sweet and yet painful memories replayed inside his mind over and over again.