A/N: I haven't written anything for these two yet, and I need practice. And they need love xD

Disclaimer: Don't own anything

One-Shot: One Dance

A small, red haired boy sat on the wooden floor of a white room, his legs crossed and his hands placed on his knees. To one who had just walked in it would seem he was the perfect picture of serenity; saffron eyes closed lightly and head bowed, but to the white haired man standing against the wall it was obvious the crimson haired child was impatient. For what...? The man wasn't certain, though he knew enough to assume it had been the same as whatever he had been going to do for several days. Every day, in fact, since... When he remembered when the boy's impatience began, he reminded himself once more to have patience, and hope the boy's odd behaviour would go away.

"Jin?" Like a magnet the red haired boy's head snapped up, and flaxen eyes opened eagerly.

"Yes, Master Victor?" The elder man crossed his arms over his chest, nodding in approval when Jin's body didn't leave proper posture. Whatever this is hasn't affected his training, at least... He's only nine, and it's only been a few months... Give him more time.

"You've been meditating for three hours now, and there are a few hours before all of the silver knights are assembled for the evening meal. Until then you are dismissed." Jin nodded, brushing his pants off as he stood up and stretched.

"Thanks, master!" The boy mumbled, bowing deeply before turning to the wooden door and sliding it open. He took one look back at Victor before stepping outside and sliding the door shut behind him, leaving the grey haired man to stare at the closed door with a troubled expression. I don't know...

Jin looked around several times before he felt certain none of the older silver knights were following him before taking a few tentative steps out of the training ground. Getting out was always the worst part; as he was one of the younger silver knights many of the others would check on him from time to time, and they generally didn't approve of him leaving the training area. It hadn't really been a problem until a few months back... But of course, the one time he wanted to leave the grounds would be the time the others began to check on him more often.

Once the heavy wooden latch that held the gate in place had been dropped back down Jin bolted toward the nearby forest, his feet thudding against the well-worn path. We all used to come down this path... Now it's just me. A familiar wave of nostalgia hit him but the red haired boy continued running until he was out of breath, making his way down the winding path. When he finally did slow down Jin turned to look around, almost mechanically searching out the grove of flowers nearby. He had overcome them by a few meters, and he returned to them quietly.

The familiar scent of gillyflowers filled Jin's nose, bringing a gentle smile to his face. There was a small part of the patch of flowers that had become near bare of flowers from being picked, and the red headed boy unearthed several new flowers from the rim of this area. Once he had a bouquet of a dozen gillyflowers he stood for a moment, reminiscing. Then, before he could get caught up in his thoughts, Jin straightened and made his way to the path.

"I hope she's there today..." He mumbled quietly, keeping his eyes the flowers he held. Of course she will be... Where else would she go? Shrugging, Jin continued walking down the shady forest path. Even so, his heart raced as he stepped quietly down the path. The bottom of a large stone staircase greeted his view, and the silver knight began his way up them. Speeding up as he neared the top, Jin was nearly running when he made it to the landing.

The sight waiting for him made him want to cry; it did every time he returned there.

The remains of a mansion stood tall; the stone walls charred black in most places, and walls were crumbled away to reveal a once-grand ball room. Stairs curved around what was left of the walls, left unclimbable due to their broken state. One could nearly make out rooms behind what was left of the back wall; rooms with shattered lights and destroyed furnishings. As a whole the building had been reduced to nothing; a shadow of the place it had once been.

Jin didn't have to search long to find what he had come to see, and he smiled lightly. In the centre of the destroyed ball room was a girl, her long, rose-coloured hair pulled out of her face and into two spiralling pigtails. She seemed lost; staring at the ceiling as though she was waiting for something. The red haired boy simply continued to walk, making his way along the edge of the clearing until he reached a bench and a small stone slab. By this time the girl standing in the ball room had turned around, her dress swaying gently around her figure as she spun. When her eyes landed on him they widened lightly, and a bright smile pulled onto her lips- the lost look had fallen from her face. She waved vigorously, and the red haired child nodded in return. Passing by the bench, he finally stopped at the stone slab, while the pink haired girl watched him patiently.

The gillyflower bouquet was set down, and for a moment it shimmered with a strange light. The leaves in the trees rustled with the force of a passing wind, and it lingered in Jin's ears like the echo of a laugh. He turned around only to see the girl in the ball room holding a duplicate of the bouquet he had just set down, the petals of the flowers brushing against her nose as she lifted them up to smell them. It made sense, he supposed. The bouquet had gone to whom he had meant to give it to.

"They're so pretty, Jin! You'd better bring me some more at the ball tonight!" A young girl exclaimed. She was sitting at the top of a set of stone stairs, looking up at the red haired boy who stood next to her, " ... You are coming, right?" The boy nodded in confirmation.

"Of course, Amy. I already said I would, remember?" The girl giggled, hugging the bouquet closer. He kneeled down for a moment to steal one of the flowers from her bouquet and tucked it behind her ear, watching her smile as he stood up.

"I know, I just wanna be sure~!" She replied, "It's always so fun~" Jin nodded again, grinning.

"And we get to watch Master Victor dance!" He snickered. Both of the children laughed, imagining the red haired marital artist's serious mentor on the dance floor. After a moment Amy looked up at the sky, and her petite mouth fell into a frown.

"Mama's going to call me in soon to get ready, and you have to go back to get ready with all of the other silver knights, right?"

"Yeah." Jin sighed, "But it won't take long. Since there are so many of us there will probably be a whole bunch of fuss like there is every year, then we'll end up sorting it out five minutes before we have to go. Just like last year..." Amy giggled again- Jin loved the way it made her voice chime.

"You guys always sound like you have so much fun~ I'm jealous!" She smiled.

"Of a group of guys like them?" Jin asked incredulously, "I'd much rather spend time with you, Amy." The girl's cheeks reddened, and she blinked back at the large mansion behind her as a voice rang from it.

"Amy!" The called child sighed.

"Well, I gotta go now." Jin offered down a hand to help her up, and Amy took it. When she was standing up, however, she didn't let go.

"Jin?" The boy nodded, and Amy's cheeks turned pink.

"Right now! Before you go, let's dance!" Jin's eyes widened, their fiery golden depths covered by his rapidly blinking eyelids.

"You mean ... Right now right now?" he questioned embarrassedly, "Amy, you know I can't dance!" Amy frowned, huffing.

"Actually, I don't! You never let me see you dance!" She complained. Jin scratched the back of his head with his free hand.

"Well... This is no place to dance. How about at the ball tonight?" He amended, making Amy frown.

"And you promise you won't just put it off like you did last year?" The red head nodded, making a cross over his heart.

"I promise."

"I'll see you then!" She laughed, releasing his hand and waving. Jin waved back, and watched her make her way into her large house before he started down the stairs.

"Jin, you can't just run off like that!" Victor snapped as the red haired boy tried to sneak back into the training room. The red headed boy hastily bowed, biting his lip.

"I'm sorry, Master Victor. I went to see Amy." He quickly explained.

"You're going to see her in less than an hour..." His mentor sighed, "Couldn't you have just waited?" He was trying to keep his strict tone, but Jin could already tell he wasn't going to get in trouble. Victor had a soft spot for Amy, as did many of the Silver Knights. She simply had a personality that not many could dislike.

"Well, go get ready. We all have to be ready to leave in an ho... What's going on?" The last part wasn't directed at Jin- it was directed to the sound of a large commotion rising in the outer grounds. These weren't the normal sounds of the fighters playfully squabbling before the ball over who each would dance with, they were actual screams. Both Jin and Victor stood up, and the older of the two pushed open the door that led outside. Once that was open the sound of the yells and screams got louder, though it was difficult for the nine year old to see over the crowd to find out what the fuss was about.

"Silence!" The booming voice of the martial arts teacher was enough to silence the group- everyone knew to listen to him immediately. Within a moment the air should have been silent- It was instead filled with the sound of far-off screams that chilled Jin's blood.

"What-" Before Victor could finish his sentence Jin shot out from the small lip of a porch that extended from the exterior of the building and into the crowd, his eyes wide and his steps as coordinated as a frightened animal.

"Amy!" He shoved people aside roughly, not stopping to apologize. There was no way the voice could be any one else. There was no way... Another scream ripped through the darkening sky, cutting Jin like a knife. Her voice wasn't chiming any more.

When he had finally pushed and shoved his way through the sea of people he was able to get a view of what the Silver Knights had been yelling about- The sky was a dark black. This wasn't because it was nearing night; the origin of the black was the smoke that spewed out of the violent red flames that leaped from the roof of a mansion that just barely peaked out from the forest.

"Amy!" He screamed again, pulling at the latch that held the gate to the forest shut. After a moment of frustrated pulling he paused long enough to unlatch it properly, and he burst out onto the forest path. Footsteps were beginning to follow him- those of the Silver Knights that had realized what was going on and had decided to follow his example. Pained screams got louder the further he got into the forest- the closer he got to the angry fire. His bare feet thundered up the stairs as he got to them, his adrenaline somehow keeping him ahead of the other silver knights. When he reached the top of the stairs the full fury of the flames became apparent to him, as well as the full volumes of the screams coming from inside. They were so nearby... The house looked like it had been consumed by the flames- a wall of them ran up the front of the building and spewed out the destroyed door. Amy... She's right inside. At that moment all that separated them was a curtain of flames, and without thinking Jin threw himself toward the flames that were seeping out of the ball room. A moment before he could reach the fire a strong hand wound itself around his wrist, and Jin was stopped in his tracks.

"Jin, don't be insane! You'll be burned to a crisp!" It was one of the older silver knights- he had blonde hair that Jin recognized but couldn't be bothered to place with a name. Agonized screams were still coming from the inside of the building; those of Amy, her mother and father, and of the others who worked in the building. They only made Jin struggle furiously against the grip of the blonde knight, though he was soon held by others as well.

"Amy! I'm coming!" He was coughing from the smoke that filled his lungs, though it didn't deter him from struggling in the least.

"What do you think you can do!" The fighter yelled back at him, "I know you want to help, but you can't do anything in there! We're trying our best to put out the fire!" Jin knew what the other knight was saying was right- he also knew that he didn't care. Flickers of fire were beginning to emerge from his hands, and they spread until he was as consumed by fire as the building.

"Damn it, he's activating burning mode ... We need some one else over here!" Heavy footsteps began approaching the group, and within a moment Jin was picked up by the back of his judogi. He was face to face with Victor for only a moment- the next he felt a hand near his neck. A sharp pressure against his jaw had the world turning blurry, and everything faded away.

Jin looked back up at Amy, the girl standing in the middle of the dance floor in the very dress she had worn that evening. She didn't look fake- he couldn't see the wall through her, and she wasn't floating. But... "I'm sorry, Jin. We did everything we could..." She wasn't real.

"Everything we could... If we did everything we could, why aren't you really here?" The girl on the dance floor didn't respond, and stared at him with a confused expression. Her head tilted ever so slightly to the side, and he noticed the gillyflower he had placed there hadn't moved. Looking down at her bouquet, Amy let out another silent laugh before she began spinning in circles. Jin watched in a transfixed manner as she began dancing, her graceful movements capturing his eye as they always had. It wasn't that he couldn't dance- it was that he preferred watching her.

He had used to enjoy it the most when she danced for him- when she had danced for him alone. Now he felt empty, and could only pray someone else could see her. If someone else could see you, would it make you real? Or would it make them just as crazy as me? He didn't have an answer. It felt as though he didn't have the answer to anything anymore. He was just making his way through his days, trying to figure things out, trying to figure out why she, of all people, had to die.

Amy had stopped dancing. She was staring at his face sadly- the same expression she got every time she realized he was sad. It was the face that, had she been alive, he would have recognized as her trying to figure out how to make him smile. Soon a look of revelation crossed her face, and she took as many steps forward as she could without stepping outside the invisible walls of the mansion. This left rather few steps between them; a gap that Jin could have easily closed had he gotten up off the bench and tried. Instead he just stood there, watching as the grinning girl extended a thin hand to him. Dance with me. These words were mouthed happily by her perfect, rosy lips. Jin's gaze fell to the ground, and he shook his head silently.

"I can't." He responded quietly. When he glanced back up, he found himself staring at Amy's miffed expression. You promised, Jin! You said you wouldn't put it off again. Hurt was showing through her eyes, though she tried to hide it, as she always did. Indecision began to fill the fighter, and he tried to look away. Don't take her hand... You know what'll happen. But she was still staring at him angrily when he looked up, her eyes beginning to bubble with tears. She had begun turning around when Jin shot off the bench, quickly closing the distance between them.

"Okay, okay! Just don't leave ... please..." Amy turned around again, her smile returning. She held the bouquet of gillyflowers with her left hand as she reached out with her right, and Jin tried to reach for her as slowly as possible. Maybe today will be different. Maybe today... His hand fell through the air where it should have met hers, and his thoughts dispersed. Amy's eyes had widened, and she looked at him in confusion as a ripple spread through her body, originating at her hand. She appeared almost scared as she began shimmering, her body losing opacity quickly. The gillyflower bouquet had began waving wildly with her pigtails by the force of an imaginary wind, and soon the flowers escaped her fading hand. They flew wildly around, scattering and paling until they too had disappeared.

Jin looked at Amy desperately as the destroyed wall started showing through her, and her hands both reached out to him. Her eyes were filled with fear, and Jin made a frantic attempt to grab her hand again. Yet again he was unable to touch her, and the attempt only provided to make the girl fade faster. Tears were dripping from her eyes, and she mouthed two last words before fading away once again.

You ... promised.

A silent cry fell from Jin's barely parted lips, and the water that his eyes had started building began slipping down onto the ground. Falling to his knees, one of his hands pressed to the stains of tears on the ground. Amy... Are these your tears? He knew fully well that they weren't. Why ... why can't anything prove that you were here? A voice in the back of his head reminded him quietly that it was because she wasn't there- she wasn't there because he hadn't saved her. Then why must you have to mock me? Why do you have to offer me a second chance I can't accept? Her voice began echoing in his head again, a quiet whisper. "Right now! Before you go, let's dance!"

A/N: This turned out differently than I expected it to.. I seem to be getting into the habit of overly long flashbacks o_o Well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway~ I need to start writing more than I have been lately D: Judogi is an outfit used in martial arts, and the place Victor hit Jin was the mental nerve, which can supposedly knock people out (as I don't do martial arts I'm just going off what I read xD;;)

Thanks for reading!

-Utsuro