"Understood. Please give back Ib's rose in exchange of mine."

"Heehee…..Yay! Pretty, pretty flower!" Garry hand over his own blue rose and I only stand behind him and watch. As soon as Mary got hold of Garry's rose, she ran off.

As soon as she was out of sight, Garry faces me, smiling as he walked near. He kneels as he places on my hand, a single, red rose saying, "Be careful with that." as if what happened was a minor mistake. As if what happened didn't matter, but I know that it did, and I know that he knows it too. There were a lot of things to ask him. 'Why?' was a question that I would have liked to be answered, but somehow, it was all summed up in one word.

"Sorry." He laughs, brushing it away.

"Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything wrong, Ib?" He looks at me, as if to confirm what he had just said. "Right? So don't look so down. And my rose…well, we'll just catch Mary and get it back. We'll just do our best. I know we're almost there." And as we run away, out of the toy box, I just wanted to think.

Now I already know that it is common for a guy to give a girl a rose. One rose, three roses, a dozen, it was nothing new. But Garry gave back to me what belonged to me in the first place. A single rose. A rose would be given on a very high price.

'You and the rose are one.'

He gave me back what represented my life in Guertena's twisted world.

But to return the rose that I had lost, he gave away his own rose.

'Shall it wilt,'

He gave his life to give this back to me. Now I don't even know when I'll lose him from this point, but I know that I will. And I know, and I am sure, that he knows it too.

Because like the warnings had said, 'Shall it wilt, you too shall rot away.'

Well, I'm not sure I got that in correct order, the dialogue, I mean, but oh well. Review if there's time?

Additional: The 'Forgotten Portrait' ending isn't so bad...when you see all the possibilities people are writing. (the fanfics are so awesome, I've began to accept that ending, because here, it really isn't an ending anymore. It's more of transition, really.)