A.N.: I heard about the passing of Yuko Mizutani, who voiced Sora in Adventure and 02, and then this welled up and more or less wrote itself.

Yamato knew something was wrong the moment he walked in the door. Sora was home, when normally she would be at the studio - and not only that, but she was sat on the sofa, hunched forward.

He quickly slipped off his shoes and ran over, shocked to see she was crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked, face contorting with worry. What could have happened?

"I…I don't know," Sora murmured, rubbing tears from her face. "I can't explain it. I just… I was fine, and then out of nowhere I felt this… I just want to cry, and cry, because it feels as though I lost something terribly important. And I don't even know what it is."

Yamato sat beside her, and pulled her into a tight embrace. "It's okay. I'm sure it's nothing Sora. It'll pass."

She shook her head against his chest. "It won't, Yamato. I feel exactly the same as when my grandmother passed away. She's gone, Yamato. And she can't come back."

Somehow, without knowing exactly why, Yamato had the feeling Sora didn't mean her grandmother. He frowned, trying to think what he could say.

"No, she can't come back," he said at last. "And you'll never fill the hole she left behind. But you can remember the things she brought into your life while she was here. You wouldn't be who you are without her."

"I know," Sora replied, her voice little more than a croak. "But it hurts so much."

"Because you loved her."

Slowly, Sora sat up. "No," she said, her voice full of sorrow. "Because I love her. And even though she's gone, that hasn't changed. People might come and go, but love… love endures. It lasts, and outlasts, and when we lose the people we love, we don't lose that love as well. We carry it in our hearts, and it pinches and pulls, reminding us of the people we can't be with any more."

"But they are with us," Yamato said. "She's still there, in your love for her. So part of her will always be in your heart. It's just as you said. It endures. That part of her will carry on, in you."