Power of the Kings: Round Two

Epilogue: Loose Ends

"Thank you," I bow to the nurse as she stops at the door of the first person I have come to visit.

"No problem," the nurse smiles back. "You can go in wherever you feel ready. She's been waiting for this since you called last week."

"So have I," I take a deep breath.

The nurse turns on her heel and heads back to her station.

I stand outside the room for a minute collecting my thoughts as I try to figure out what to say to the girl that waits on the other side of the door I am staring at. If I wait any longer, I'm sure she'll start to wonder if I'm even coming, so I pull myself together and head into the room without another thought.

"Hey, Shirley," I slowly say as she turns from looking out the window.

"Sakura, I was getting worried that you got lost," she chuckles, a wide smile taking over her face.

The last time I saw Shirley, she was surrounded by her own blood and slowly dying. I'm the one that stepped into to save her life, and there isn't a second that goes by that I'm not thankful for stumbling into the room. Even after all she's gone through, she can still genuinely smile.

"Sorry, I was letting my thoughts get out of hand," I softly smile. "I'm so happy to finally be able to see you."

"Me too," she steps closer. "I never got to say thank you for what you did that day. I never thought that you would do something like that for me. The girl that loved your boyfriend and was trying to take him away from you."

I wave the idea off. "Shirley, you were my roommate, and you were truly the closest friend that I had since Kallen had revealed herself as being with the Black Knights. I wasn't going to let you bleed out on the floor of the train station. Not if I could help it, and I could. I'd only used that part of my ability on myself, so I was afraid that I would give it my all and fail. But here you are," I motion to her. "Are you excited to get back to school? We all have the same memories now, in case you were wondering. I had Lord Jeremiah do me a favor before he went out to tend an orange farm," I shake my head.

"I'm happy to finally get out of here," she grabs her suitcase. "I've missed all of you so much. Student council is going to be a little different now, but I can't wait to get back to class and graduate with all of you."

"There's a lot to catch you up on," I hold my hand out for her. "Milly and Rivalz, Kallen and Gino, Anya and smiling."

"What about Sakura? What does she go with?" She softly asks, placing her hand in mine.

"Well, it used to be Sakura and Lelouch, but I haven't figured out what replaces the second half. I have my political work, and I have Nunnally now to help as she comes into her own with Zero behind her. There's my Geass, but it is half of what it used to be. I guess, it must be Sakura and sunflowers. I've been told my mountain home has a lot of wild ones growing."

"I like that. Have you always liked sunflowers?"

"Since I was about ten, yes," I lead us to the door to exit the room and head into the hallway. "That year when Britannia invaded Japan, there was months before than that were some of the best of my life."

"That was when you met Nunnally and him, right?"

"That's right," I nod. "It feels weird that he's just gone."

"I was able to use my recovery time here to move on. You'd think that would be impossible after falling in love with him three different times, but I realized that it was the only way I could be happy. The only way that I could accept living and keep on working towards a better future. You didn't get that. You were with him every single day up until that moment. You'd been in love with him since you were ten. I can't even begin to imagine the pain you went through. Losing your brother, and then a couple months later, the love of your life."