The rain came down relentlessly on her fair features, making her blue dress stick uncomfortably close to her soft skin. Few other people were walking on the street, most of them hurrying home for a warming meal, some seeking cover from the rain in the nearby church. Those who passed the young woman gave her curious stares, wondering why she was not doing the same as everyone else. She paid them no heed. She just kept on walking...and remembered. "Two weeks..." she said aloud, "Two long, horrible weeks without you..." She stopped walking for a moment, and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a small wallet, bearing the house name of Bluemer. She had this made for her over a year ago with a picture of her favorite weapon, the axe, on it. However, recently she had added to it twin katanas coming across the axe diagonally from the left and right sides. She opened it, and inside was the picture of a handsome Japanese man, wearing a suit which Glycine knew all too well. He was the former captain of the Pari-Kagekidan. He was also the bridegroom of the house of Bluemer; Glycine’s would be husband. "Ogami..."

As she whispered the name to herself, a single tear ran down her cheek. Before that fateful day about half a year ago, she would have stopped it before it ever moistened her eyes. Back then, she had seen crying as a weakness. However...along with so many others, that way of thinking had been changed dramatically by this single man. "What would you think of me know...lamenting like this over something which I seemingly came to terms with before you even left?" she said aloud to the picture before closing the wallet and putting it back in her pocket. In the letter she had written to Ogami, she had made it seem like as if though she totally and completely accepted his leaving. She had revealed her feelings towards him, seemingly exposing everything she felt. But now...she realized that it had been just a façade. She had wanted Ogami to see her as the strong woman she had always been, had not wanted him so see her crying when he left. What a fool she had been, she realized.

The rain was coming down even harder now than before, and no people asides from her were walking on the street. She started again, the heavy drops not bothering her at the least. The church bell rang in the distance, at the peculiar time of thirteen minutes to the hour. "Erica....". Glycine smiled faintly at the thought of her clumsy friend and teammate, but it could not hold under the pressing memories of the man whom she had grown to love. Some happy, some sad. All heartbreaking.

In her sixteen years of life, no weeks had seemed as long or empty to her as the past two. How ironic it was to her, considering that the last week she had spent with Ogami prior to his departure had gone by as quickly as a day, and been as fulfilling as a lifetime. "And how long will it be before I stop being too depressed to even think straight?" The thought of that made her wince. After all...she now was the captain of the Pari-Kagekidan. She could not be in this state forever, she knew. Her duty was to protect the sanctity of Paris. "Fighting to protect the happiness of all people, to protect peace...my pride, my true nobility. That is what you taught me, after all." But right now, the memories of the person she held so dear mattered more to her than anything else. And that scared her more than a little.

She thought back to the time when Ogami had first come to Paris as she walked near the café of their first encounter. Truly she realized now that she had been intentionally hard on him then, for no better reason than to prove his worth. Though in the end, he had been the one to do just that for Glycine. "What a pitiful, cowardly man..." Glycine had thought. She had seen him as an uncultured Japanese man, who could not appreciate something as beautiful as the flower capital, much less about the nobility which Glycine had treasured back then above almost everything else. He had proved her wrong about her perceptions of him, had taught her there were more important things than petty pride. He had shown her the heart of a true noble.

"But now...you are gone. Back in Tokyo, where your team needs you." She finally stopped to take some shelter from the rain under a tree in the park, though at his point she was so soaked it hardly would have made a difference. "But...I need you too." She hated it. Her selfishness, her wanting Ogami back in Paris with her to live every day as they had those last few which passed by like hours. She was not being rational, she knew. Of course...few things had been rational in her life in the last few weeks. She would spend hours walking just like this (though the rain would not be coming down viciously as it was today), just thinking about the man which she missed so much. "Where are you going Glycine...(sigh)", Hanabi would ask her whenever she left the mansion in the morning (most likely to return late afternoon), her closest friend being more than a little concerned about her, for she’d most certainly realized the difference in Glycine’s demeanor in the two weeks following their captain’s departure. "I don’t really know," was all she could reply. How true that was.

"Back then...I knew where I was going. I always knew...". She walked over to the bench that she realized was the same one Ogami and her had rested together on the night following the invasion of Chattes Noires, the place of so many more memories. "Even then." she finished aloud. She had vowed that she would teach to him what a true woman really was that night, much like he had taught her the worth of true strength. "Of course...you showed me once again that the way I was going was not correct." How she had felt when he called her, when he embraced her with his gentle tough. She had resolved to sacrifice herself, to give up her life in exchange for Paris. There was no other way she had thought. "Glycine...do not give up hope. Believe in me!" he had said to her in that pure, honest way. She always had known the way, and Ogami had been there for her to make up for the flaws on that often-misguided road.

Now, the only roads before her were the memories. "And no matter how long I travel those, they won't bring me any closer to you. Will they, Ogami?" The rain had settled now, with only light drops falling down from the slowly re-appearing light blue sky. She started to walk out of the park, but stopped as she heard what sounded like weeping a few feet away. Though her lament was still heavily on her, she could not ignore it. She walked over in the direction the sounds were coming from to find a little girl no older than Glycine’s own teammate Coquelicot sitting against a tree, her clothes soaked and stained from the wet grass. She did not notice Glycine as she walked towards her, though the sound of the woman’s steps should have alerted the girl. She had her head in her arms, crying all the while. Her long black hair was flowing loosely over hear shoulders, the purple ties in it having been washed out.

Glycine crouched down in front of the girl, gently putting a hand on her shoulder as to not alarm the child. "Is something wrong?" she asked in the most comforting tone she could manage considering her own worries. The girl’s head came up slowly, still weeping as she tried to wipe the tears away with her small hands. "Mommy...mommy!" Her arms came up suddenly and she hugged Glycine tightly, whimpering against the young woman’s already wet shoulder. Glycine was surprised at the movement, but did not back away. She let the young girl lean against her for a few minutes, then put a hand to the child’s head to calm her.

"I’m.... I’m so sorry! But you look so much like her...", the girl said to Glycine, her tears still flowing. She stood up straight and turned around, and started wiping the tears from her eyes. Glycine, being at a loss, just stood still and waited for the girl to say something. "My name is Elly. I'm sorry about just now, I hope you're not angry...", the child said to Glycine when she turned to look at her again. "What's your name miss?" Elly tried not to look sad, but her green eyes revealed that she was hurting deep inside her small body. "Glycine...my name is Glycine Bluemer. You said that I look like her...what did you mean by that?"

Elly motioned for the bench, and both her and Glycine walked over to it and sat down. "My mother...you look a lot like her. Her hair was a little bit shorter than yours, but was just as pretty." The young girl looked down at the ground as she continued, trying hard to keep the tears back. "I found out today that my mommy died last week...a letter came from my aunt in Germany where my mother was staying." Glycine was listening intently to Elly's now, despite the pain that she still felt deep inside her own heart. "My mother died because she was very sick...she had been away from Paris for half a year now. When she left she told me that she had important work to do in Germany, but I know now that she did not want daddy and me to see her so sick." Elly managed a smile for the first time. "I always called my mommy Luna...you know, like the moon. Because...even though she was so far away from me and I could not hold her, she was always in my heart. Just like the moon...it's always there, even though you cannot hold it. It's there to protect and watch over you no matter what...just like my mother was."

Glycine was overwhelmed by the young girl's innocent analogy of the moon. She thought about Ogami at that moment. "Like the moon...?" As she whispered it to herself, the significance of that seemingly childish comparison struck her profoundly. "Elly...I am very sorry about your mother. She must have loved you very much." Glycine knew she could do little to cheer the girl up, since she had never been very good at comforting those around her. Still, Elly smiled at Glycine and hugged her once again. "Miss Glycine...thank you. You remind me so much of my mommy...it was never what she said to me, but when she tried to comfort me I always knew that she cared. Just like you Glycine."

The two of them sat on the bench for what seemed like an hour, Glycine still deep in thought. Elly was the first to stand up and break the silence. "I should go now...I ran away without telling daddy." She started to walk out of the park, then turned around one last time to look at the young woman who reminded her so very much of her late mother. "Thank you so much Miss Glycine! I hope we meet again." With that, she started running with a renewed sprint in her step. Glycine looked after her until the young girl was out of sight, then turned her gaze that moon which was slowly appearing in the late afternoon sky. "No Elly...thank you."

That night, Glycine did not sleep. However, it was not because of her unending memories of her precious Ogami. She thought about Elly, and what the girl had said about her mother. About the moon. She walked over to her window, holding a picture of Ogami close to her chest. She looked to the night sky, the full moon shining brightly along with the countless stars. "Ogami...it would seem that I learned something new once again." She looked at the picture she was holding and smiled, "But not from you this time..." She walked away from the window and sat down in her favorite chair. She closed her eyes and smiled. She was not sad anymore about not being together now with Ogami, about not being able to be in his arms. She was not sad that she would not see the person whom she loved so very much for a long time. He was deep inside her heart as she was in his, watching over her, protecting her. Like the moon.

The end,