When you left him during the Edo Period, disappearing without a trace, all the light in his life had disappeared with you. Rihan no longer smiled, laughed freely, or joked like he used to; his eternal life as a hanyō was irrelevant without his wife. Though he’d remained alone for years after your disappearance, it’s only at the behest of his Father that he remarries.

His second wife, Wakana, was a human woman with a very cheerful disposition, and though it was odd that she remained that way even after discovering what he was, Rihan was… content. He had an heir to his clan growing in her belly, the other clans weren’t committing as much crime, he’d moved on from his first marriage…

The last thing he expected to ever see was you.

Or rather, someone with your face plastered on their body.

You’d reincarnated, most likely, meaning you died before he ever got the chance to see you again. He didn’t even know how you died— only that your reincarnation existed —and the thought crushes him.

Though not as much as the fact that he had to have you. As much as he loved Wakana and his heir, you were the first. You were the one who got away, leaving him with nothing but a poem about your grief of not giving him an heir. Rihan never got to tell you that it wasn’t your fault, that a curse placed on his Clan was what made him unable to have Yokai children, but he wouldn’t let you slip away this time.

He grabs your wrist before he can even think about it, a part of his chest squeezing at the look on your face, so much like the first incarnation. You wouldn’t remember him; those who were reincarnated never remembered their past lives, but his chest throbs all the same.

“Ah— I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

He almost hesitates to let go of you, his hands slipping into the sleeve of his kimono as he gives you a close-lipped smile.