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Late January

She stood under the Goshinboku tree, watching the snowflakes catch in the wind, and swirl around the courtyard.  Shivering a little, even though she had a warm jacket on, Kagome was not yet ready to go inside.  Something about the cold matched how she felt inside, a cold emptiness.  The snow flakes reminded her of the tears she hadn’t shed, the wind reminded her of the warm touch she no longer could feel.

School was fast drawing to a close.  In two months, the weather would change to Sakura time, and she would graduate, and finally put her childhood behind her.  She remembered the feel of warm fire-rat wrapped around her, and thought about long years ahead of her empty of is touch, and the silver-haired man that went with it,  and wondered if she would ever truly know flower-time again.

She leaned back against the God tree, turned and rubbed her hand against the spot where he had once been pinned, and from somewhere, a flower petal drifted in the wind and landed at her feet.

Bending over to pick it up, a voice seemed to whisper, “Spring will come.”  Amazed by this magical moment, she touched the soft and pliant petal, then  looked up and saw the sun peaking through the clouds, and didn’t feel so cold after all