Blue Lovegrave

Prologue

Sanemi walked down the streets on a snowy night, the cold wind flicking its tongues at his scarred skin. He had been given a mission on short notice. Now finished with the job, he felt alive, and not needing to rest as he had done nothing sweat breaking the whole day.

He passed by houses that were just as alive as his soul at the moment, and wondered why anyone would be awake at such a late hour. Turning around the corner, he heard the voices of children and women, singing to a tune played on a phonautograph.

A festival, maybe? He remembered attending festivals late at night with his mother and siblings. Those nights would always bring him joy after a long day of pain and abuse. He decided to stay, as he had no intention of getting any shut-eye for this night.

And that's when he saw him— he saw the silver beads of his earrings clink together, his hair sweeping across his face, the smile resting upon his lips, and the most breathtaking feature; the joy and flame in his eyes. Sanemi was now looking at Tomioka Giyuu as he danced with the village folk with pure grace and elegance.

Giyuu too, sang along with them. It was a song Sanemi had heard before, near a village on the night his family had died. He could not forget the comfort the soft song brought him, how the notes never hit too high or too low, how the singer had an angelic voice he thought he would never hear again.

But here he was, hearing a voice just as angelic as the one he had heard on that fateful night, and it currently belonged to a person who never spoke, much lesser, sung.

"-for my heart is bare, I will let you in, come what may, friend or foe, for I am the water..."

"...and you are the wind."

Love was something deemed impossible for Sanemi, but something told him that his scarred heart was about to heal that very moment.