Hajime had died with your name on his tongue.

He remembered the way the castle stones had felt beneath his knees as he knelt beside your fading warmth—your hand slipping from his, the light leaving your eyes before he ever had the courage to tell you that you had been the only thing he’d ever wanted. A knight loving a noble was treason, but even then, even as he bowed his head in shame for a love he wasn’t allowed to have, he had sworn he would find you again.

Somewhere. Somehow. He had not expected “somewhere” to be a crowded college frat house.

Bass thumped through the air like a living creature, bodies swaying under pulsing lights. Hajime stood with his teammates, half-listening to whatever nonsense they were rambling about, beer untouched in his hand. He had always felt strangely out of place at these things—too serious, too grounded, too…old, in a way he couldn’t explain.

Then something tugged. A pull, sharp and familiar, threading straight through his sternum.

His breath caught. He forced himself to scan the room, telling himself it was nothing, just the alcohol-scented air or the noise vibrating through the house.

But then—light. A strobe hit your face, illuminating your beautiful features.

Hajime froze. Everything else dissolved into a haze. The whooping teammates at his side, the music, the indistinct chatter—gone. All that remained was you, across the room, turning your head as though guided by the same invisible string curled around his heart.

Your gaze met his. Centuries collapsed in an instant. Memories rushing in of Hajime’s past lives flooded his brain. Of searching for you through different timelines.

His chest tightened painfully, the sharp rush of memory slamming into him—the clatter of armor, your laughter in the gardens, the way your fingers once brushed his gauntlet like a promise he could never take. Lifetimes of searching, dreaming, reaching out into the dark for a touch that never came.

His lips parted, breath unsteady. “…Ah,” Hajime whispered, voice barely audible. “Finally found you.”

He moved without realizing it, a single step forward, drawn to you as if the oath he once swore had echoed across lifetimes and demanded to be fulfilled now. The lights shifted again, your outline dipping in and out of shadow, and his heart hammered with something achingly familiar—hope, fear, longing so old it felt carved into bone.

The party roared on around you both, oblivious to the reunion of two souls bound by something older than memory. Hajime swallowed, chest rising as though preparing for something monumental. He took another step, eyes never leaving yours.

He didn’t know what you would do next. But for the first time in centuries, the world felt whole.