A/N: Hi guys here's chapter 25, there's still quite a bit of OC content in this chapter, but there'll be more Canon Characters in the next chapter and towards the end of this one! Also you guys will finally get to meet Alistar's mom aka William's wife 👀. Hehe I hope you all enjoy!
Also since it's been a while: I do not own Hikari, Josslyn, Ace, Solara, Aika, Leon, Cyraleona, Hana, and Einar! They all belong to my mutuals!
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" M-Mom?"
Hikari frowned, mom? She turned to look and saw he was staring at the woman at the flower shop. That...that woman couldn't possibly be his mom right? She was dead. But then again, they were in the past, which meant she was still alive here. She gently shook Alistar's shoulder to try and snap him out of it.
" That's...are you sure that's your mom?" She asked softly, and the white haired man nodded numbly. " But I thought you didn't know what she looked like?"
" I've only seen one picture of her," Alistar admitted softly, his eyes never leaving the ash-blonde haired woman. " My father hid all the pictures of her, and one day when I was little I found a couple of pictures my father had of her so I know what she looks like, and that's her." He explained, Hikari nodded. She remembered her mother telling her about that, that Captain Vangeance had taken down the pictures of his wife, because it hurt him too much to look at them.
Hikari watched Alistar, she couldn't even begin to imagine what he was feeling right now. If it were her, she would probably be in such shock that she would just freeze up or even run away. But it almost seemed like Alistar was glued to the spot.
" Do," Hikari started hesitantly. " Do you want to go talk to her?" She asked, finally Alistar tore his eyes away from his mother and looked at the dark haired girl. His eyes were full of fear and hesitation.
" I don't know, I want to. But I'm scared. I'm scared she won't be like how I imagined, what if she's completely different?" He asked his friend softly, she knew he had this image of his mother in his head and he was terrified of it being shattered.
" There's only one way to find out isn't there?" She told him kindly, she watched him shake his head quickly.
" Or what if she's exactly how I imagined and when I go back home, where she's gone, and it just makes me miss her more and it makes..." he trailed off, the last line hanging in the air, he and Hikari both knew what he was going to say.
What if it made him blame himself more?
" Alistar listen to me," Hikari started as she gently cupped his face, she watched as his pale cheeks suddenly turned a bright shade of red at the action. " this may be your only chance to see and talk to your mom, do you really want to waste it on 'what if's'?" She asked, she watched him blink for a few seconds.
She was right, this was his only chance. Once his mission was complete he would never come back here, and he would never see his mother again. But all those what if's were still swimming around in his head.
" I'll go with you, if you want?" Hikari suggested. She didn't want him to miss his chance and she knew deep down Alistar didn't want to either. She watched him nod slowly, she dropped her hands from his face and turned. His mother was still outside, tending to the plants. She gave the white haired man a gentle nudge before they both slowly made their way to her.
Alistar quickly wiped his hands on his pants, he couldn't remember the last time he was so nervous. Maybe when all the Captain's children fought one another? No, even then he wasn't nervous. He looked up at the sign of the store and tilted his head curiously.
" 'Cinnamon's Flower Shop'?" He muttered to himself.
" That's right!" A voice exclaimed suddenly, Alistar and Hikari both jumped and saw his mother standing next to them with a proud look on her face. Alistar suddenly tried to take a step back but Hikari placed a gentle hand on his back to keep him there.
" Is this your shop?" Hikari asked curiously, gently nudging Alistar in the back to say something as well.
" Yep it is! She's my pride and joy. It took me three years and a lot of Yul but I finally did it!" She continued before turning to look at them with a warm and almost charming smile, Hikari's eyes widened, that was the same smile Alistar had.
" What kind of plants are you looking for?" She asked, Alistar swallowed the lump in his throat as he tried to get his voice to work.
" I-I'm not sure.." He trailed off softly, his mother tilted her head in thought before turning towards her plants.
" Well if you're not sure I can show you some stuff?" She suggested before walking closer to her shop, Alistar turned to look at Hikari, who nudged him again, and he slowly followed.
" These are from the different cities in Clover," She pointed towards one table. " These are from Diamond, Heart, and Spade. Now if you want some really exotic plants and flowers," she turned around towards another table.
" These are all from different countries, these are from Hino, these are from Lumi, and these are from Thea! Now rumor has it that these particular flowers are even favored by the King and Queen of Thea." She explained quietly with a wink, Alistar nodded numbly as he looked at the flowers.
" I almost got caught bringing these in by that damned Golden Dawn Squad." She muttered under her breath which caused Alistar to turn and look.
" What do you mean?"
" Those Golden Dawn have been after me for 'smuggling' for weeks now even though I brought most of these plants here with their respective countries' permission. I swear I think that stupid Captain has it in for me even though we've never met." She muttered, Alistar blinked in surprise, she sounded like she had a real grudge against the Captain and the squad. He began to try and cover his cloak emblem but she giggled before waving it away.
" It's alright! I've never seen you before so I'm assuming you're new to the squad so I'm not mad at you." She said with a laugh before suddenly turning towards some of her flowers. " Oh right I almost forgot to water you, I'm sorry my babies!" She added as she quickly grabbed her watering can.
Alistar watched her, she was almost exactly how he imagined. She was a bit scatterbrained, loved her plants like children, and could be a bit of a charmer. Although he hadn't really planned on her being a plant smuggler and disliking his father, but for some reason it amused him.
" Hm? What's wrong?" Her question pulled Alistar out of his thoughts and he blushed as he had been caught staring. " I mean, I know I'm beautiful and all but I don't think your girlfriend over there would appreciate you staring at another woman."
" G-Girlfriend?!" Alistar exclaimed in surprise has his blush deepened, his mother nodded before suddenly walking over to him with a flower which she placed in his hand.
" Go give this to her when you leave, don't worry it's on the house!" She told him playfully, Alistar looked down at the flower. It was a red spider lily. He suddenly felt someone fixing his hair and when he looked up he noticed it was his mother. She went from trying to fix his hair to his cloak.
" A handsome man such as yourself should always look his best, especially when he's around a lady he likes." She told him quietly, she dusted off his cloak before she felt something wet hit her hand. " Are you ok?" She asked when she looked up. Alistar was crying.
She quickly reached up and began wiping his tears away.
" Hey why are you crying? You're not supposed to cry." She told him gently. " This is a first, I've never made a man cry just for helping him out, usually it's for other reasons." She joked as Alistar shook his head.
" S-Sorry, I don't know why I'm crying either." He said with a humorless laugh.
" Even the sky cries when things get heavy, or something like that." She said before someone shouted.
" Zera! We need you inside!" The ash blonde haired woman turned towards the shop and nodded.
" Coming!" She turned back towards Alistar. " I gotta run, come by again soon okay! She then went to run towards the shop when Alistar stopped her.
" W-Wait! I had something I wanted to ask you something!" Zera turned and waited expectantly as Alistar tried to think of something. " W-Why did you name it 'Cinnamon's Flower Shop'?"
" Oh that?" She laughed. " Because of my last name silly, Cassia is a form of Cinnamon. So instead of 'Cassia's Flowers' I thought 'Cinnamon's Flowers' sounded cuter." She explained with a simple shrug before walking up to Alistar, spinning him around, and shoving him towards Hikari.
" Go! Your girlfriend's waiting!" She said before running inside her shop, as Alistar turned around she was already gone.
Hikari walked up to him slowly, she had been watching them from a distance and it seemed to go well, or so she hoped anyway.
" Alistar, are you-?"
" I'm fine. Actually, I'm more than fine I think." He said slowly and Hikari was happy to see his true smile on his face, the same one his mother had.
" I'm glad Alistar. But um, I hate to ruin the moment, but our dads are here." Hikari said as she pointed, Alistar turned and saw both his father and Captain Sukehiro walking towards him. He felt a chill go down his spine when he saw the look on Yami's face, this was it, he was officially dead.
" Sorry about this." Alistar frowned when he heard those words before he felt something hit him hard on the side of the neck.
Then everything went dark.
———
Charlotte stood in the common area almost anxiously, she was worried about Alistar, but more so about his safety when Yami and Hikari found him. She could only imagine how angry Yami was at him for losing control, William was probably more disappointed than angry, and Hikari...well she wasn't sure. She knew Hikari seemed to have feelings for Alistar, whether she realized it or not, so this had to have hurt her as well.
She turned slightly and saw a few people still had ice on their bruises, but for the most part everyone was healed thanks to Owen stopping by. Josslyn had been muttering under her breath how she was going to pay 'pretty boy' back for this, but begrudgingly stopped when Zora cut her a look.
" Are they back yet?" Finral asked as he walked over to Charlotte, she shook her head.
" Not yet, but I'm sure they will be soon." Charlotte said with a firm nod, Finral nodded.
" Hopefully Captain Yami goes easy on Alistar, I'm sure the poor guy already feels bad enough." Finral said with a small laugh as he rubbed his neck nervously, Charlotte nodded in agreement.
" The Captain had better not!" Josslyn said irritatedly. " The idiot could have killed us, and this isn't the first time he's done this either! He almost killed the entire Golden Dawn when he was 12!" She added, Charlotte frowned and when she opened her mouth to ask about that, Ace walked over to his sister.
" That's enough Josslyn, Alistar didn't mean it, I'm sure he'll apologize when he gets back." Ace said softly, but Josslyn scoffed.
" Yeah right, he'll probably make up some idiotic excuse. Usually his daddy or Hikari are the ones apologizing and cleaning up his messes." Josslyn told him with a roll of her eyes.
" That's not true!" Miku interjected suddenly. " Alistar always takes responsibility, even when it's something his squad did, he never makes things other people's problems!" She added before loud arguing started amongst the kids, and their 'parents' tried to stop them.
Charlotte pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, things were going so well before today. The kids, for the most part, had all been getting along with each other. But now they were divided and arguing, some were saying why Alistar was a good person who made a mistake, while others argued that he was a liability.
Charlotte turned as the door opened and in walked Hikari, William, and Yami who had an unconscious Alistar slung over his shoulder. Everyone quieted down when they noticed.
" What happened?" Charlotte asked as she walked over to them, Yami shrugged.
" He fainted I guess, when we found him and Hikari he was already like this." Yami explained, the blonde haired woman cut a look at her 'daughter' who only looked away. She had a feeling Hikari had something to do with his 'fainting'.
" Are you all okay?" She asked, they all nodded.
" We're fine, except for Alistar of course." Hikari said with a one shoulder shrug. " Let's take him to his room." She added as she walked towards Alistar's room, Yami followed behind as did Charlotte and William.
They walked down the hall and she opened the door to his room, Yami walked in and placed Alistar down onto his bed. Hikari sat down on the edge of the bed and gently tucked his blanket around him. William and Charlotte walked out of the room, leaving Hikari and Yami.
The two sat there silently, Yami didn't know where to begin or how to say what he wanted to say. Charlotte would probably be better at this than him.
" Hikari-." He started but she cut him off.
" You're going to tell me to stay away from Alistar right?" She asked, when Yami didn't answer she nodded. " I figured. I know you've been suspicious of him for a while, and that was confirmed this morning when you talked with mom." She added, Yami blinked, he hadn't noticed her there, she must've been hidden down one of the hallways.
" I'm not going to do that." Hikari told him.
" Hikari-." He started but she again cut him off.
" I'm not going to stay away from him. I'm his best friend, his bodyguard, I'm one of the few people he actually relies on. I won't abandon him just because he made a mistake." She told him again, this time a little more determined.
Yami admired his daughter's loyalty, he really did, but this was different than Alistar just making a mistake. He got angry at Josslyn's taunting, began to use his full power, and then lost control when the girl taunted some more. He frowned as he watched his 'daughters' ki and body language, she was standing protectively in front of him, as though she were protecting him from Yami.
" Do you like him?" He suddenly asked, he didn't know where that question came from, but for some reason he felt compelled to ask. He watched her blink a couple of times.
" N-No, not in a romantic way anyway." She muttered, Yami frowned either she was lying or she hadn't realized it yet. But Yami could tell there was something there between them, he knew Alistar had feelings for Hikari just from how he acted around her, but he wasn't sure about her feelings. Her feelings seemed confused. As he opened his mouth she cut him off for the third time.
" Do you like mom?" She asked suddenly, taking Yami back a bit. He nearly smirked, she was trying to change the subject and get his attention off of her and Alistar. But as he thought about it, maybe if he told her how he felt about Charlotte, maybe it would help clear her confusion on her feelings.
" I do, I like her a lot." He admitted softly, this was probably the second time he had admitted it out loud and the first admitting it to someone other than himself.
" Then why aren't you two dating yet? Everyone knows mom likes you, and now I know you like her, so why aren't you two together?"
" Because," Yami paused for a moment. " Because I'm not good enough for her yet." He watched as his 'daughter' frowned in confusion and he sighed before rubbing the back of his head.
" Your mom, I'm not good enough for her yet. She deserves someone like her, a noble from clover, instead of someone like me." Yami explained, Hikari walked over to him.
" But if you two don't get together then me, Hana, and Einar won't exist!" Hikari argued, Yami smiled softly at her and gently placed a hand on top of her head.
" Even someone like me knows that kid, you existing and being here right now gives me hope that one day I will be good enough for the Prickly Princess. But how I am right now, is nowhere near good enough for that amazing woman." Yami told her gently, he ruffled his 'daughters' hair before looking behind her as Alistar made a grunting noise.
" C'mon, let the Golden Boy get some sleep. We'll decide what to do with him tomorrow." He said as he turned Hikari towards the door.
" And, You don't have to stay away from Golden Boy," Yami muttered as he and Hikari walked out of the room. " Just be careful around him alright?"
" I'm always careful around him, and he would never hurt me anyway so you have nothing to worry about dad!" Hikari said happily, Yami shook his head, she had started calling him and Charlotte 'mom and dad' more and more these days. To be honest, it actually warmed his heart a little bit.
As they walked away Charlotte peeked around the corner and watched them with a sad look in her eyes.