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Into the Night: Cobra and Kinana
by Down Iris
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I do not have any rights to nor make any money from the characters in this story.
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What might have happened if Cobra hadn't been arrested right when Kinana found him.
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Please read my other Cobra and Kinana story, Unwanted Shadow. I also have three Jellal and Erza stories, Continued Freedom, If Only They Had Kissed, and Still There.
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Cobra lay in the crater that had formed when Titania knocked him off of the Infinity Castle. He felt surprisingly well for having fallen that distance, which he attributed to his hope that Cubelios was somewhere out there waiting for him.
He heard someone coming. He was surprised when a purple-haired woman looked down into the crater. She gasped and rushed to him. He had no interest in another human now. He needed to find Cubelios.
She sat down next to him and cradled his head. "You're badly hurt. If there's anything I can do…"
"Keep your dirty hands off me…" he replied, not in the mood to deal with her.
"Tell me…were you the one calling me?"
Cobra gasped. "I can hear it…You…!" He didn't know how, but this woman was Cubelios! Though she was human, she sounded just like his snake.
Surprised, he pushed her onto her back to get a better look at her in the moonlight. He realized that her hair was the same color as Cubelios's scales had been.
She touched his cheek. "You…Your eye."
He looked away. "I lost it to gain power. Don't worry about it. Hearing is all I need, anyway." He sat back. He could hear her concern, and wasn't sure how to respond. Could this woman really be Cubelios?
"What's your name?"
"Erik," he replied, with no hesitation. He hadn't gone by that name in a long time, but saying his name was Cobra didn't seem right.
"Erik…"
He heard people coming and looked up. There were suddenly two enforcement officers standing on the lip of the crater.
"Cobra of the Neo-Oracion Seis, yes?" one asked.
"Most of the others are in custody. We ask that you come along quietly," the other said.
"The Council, huh…" Cobra winced. He had just found Cubelios, and now he was about to be arrested again. What a terrible coincidence.
He had finally located her, and he wasn't going to lose her again just because some enforcement officers showed up.
His first thought was to kill them, but something stopped him. Cubelios had witnessed him kill countless people, but the woman she had become had a look of innocence about her. He didn't want to ruin that just yet.
He sent out a burst of sound, knocking over the two men. Cubelios gasped. It was enough to knock them out for a few hours. Afraid more might be coming after them, though, he stood up and pulled Cubelios up after him. "Come on." Grabbing her hand, he started to run.
She hesitated only a moment before following after him. She didn't say anything, but he heard her thoughts.
She was concerned about running into the forest with a strange man, especially one who seemed to be a member of the Neo-Oracion Seis, but he felt familiar to her too, and she was driven by a need for answers.
Cobra didn't say anything either, wanting to wait until they were safe. He was heading to the Oracion Seis's hideout, hoping no one else would be coming soon. From what the enforcement officer said, it sounded like the others had been arrested too. At the moment, he didn't care about them. All he cared about was being alone with Cubelios and finding out how she had become a human. He didn't care about the Infinity Clock either. In fact, he now wanted it to fail. His driving motivation was to end the world to end his heartache, but fate had ended his heartache in a much better way.
As they ran, he started hearing her breathing grow heavy. He slowed his pace to give her a break. He kept a tight grip on her hand, afraid to lose her again now that he had finally found her. She didn't seem to mind.
At last they reached the hideout. He ushered her inside and turned on the lights.
Now that he got a good look at her, he realized she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. But he could tell she was nervous being alone in a room with him.
"Cubelios?" he asked, not knowing where to start.
"My name's Kinana," she said, slightly embarrassed. She was doubting why she came. "But you know me?" she asked, burning with curiosity.
"I don't know how to say this, but you were my pet snake."
Her eyebrows raised in surprise, then she lowered her eyes to the ground. "I was a snake, until Master Makarov broke my curse."
Now it was his turn to raise his eyebrows. "So you were really a human all along?" And she had been freed by the Fairy Tail Master?
"I guess. I don't remember anything about when I was a snake, or before."
"Nothing about me?" he asked, disappointed.
She smiled a little. "Nothing concrete, but you do seem familiar. I think I've heard you calling for me."
Cobra was disappointed that Cubelios, no, Kinana, didn't remember him, but he would take what he could get. At least she had still recognized him, if only a little.
He was still processing that the friend he had grown up with was now a human, and an attractive woman at that.
"Can you tell me about myself? And yourself, too?" she asked hesitantly.
Cobra had them sit down and tried to explain how he had befriended her at the Tower of Heaven, and how he had learned to become telepathic in order to hear her voice. She gasped when he said that. "You're telepathic?" He could hear her agitation over him reading her thoughts.
"Yes. I can hear everything you think." He hoped that wouldn't scare her off, but he felt the need to be honest.
He heard her stress about that for a moment, and then decide to try to ignore it. "So what did I sound like as a snake?"
"Nothing like a human. Your thought processes were different, and much less complex. But I could tell you genuinely liked me." He blushed a little at that, something he had not thought he was able to do. "I can still hear that you're the same, though."
"What was our relationship like when I was a snake?" Kinana asked, wanting to know more because she could barely imagine life as a snake.
"We were always together. I flew into battle with you countless times, and you fed me poison to make me stronger."
"I flew?" she asked, incredulous.
He laughed, something he hadn't been able to do since he saw her last. "Yes. You were magnificent."
Kinana seemed embarrassed by that, but then she realized what else he had said. "And fed you poison?"
"I'm a poison dragon slayer." Her eyebrows raised again. He tried to explain what that was. She was familiar with dragon slayers from Fairy Tail. "Eating your poison gave me a power-up after I used a lot of magic in a battle."
"And were we a good team?" she asked, a little excited.
"Undefeated until…well, until Natsu." Kinana felt a little guilt at that, since she knew Natsu as a friend.
Cobra tried to distract her from that by telling her about their adventures together. He tried to sanitize things for her, since he could hear her negative reactions to many of the things they had done.
"I wish I could remember all of that," she said, disappointed.
"We'll make new memories together." He didn't realize until he said that, but he really meant it. He was not going to let her leave his side. From her thoughts, he could tell she didn't want to either.
"How did you end up in that crater?" Kinana asked.
Now he was embarrassed. "I lost a fight with Titania and fell out of the Infinity Castle." He didn't mind losing to Titania at all anymore, since it had led him to Kinana. He even wanted to thank her.
Her eyebrows rose. "So you were with the Neo-Oracion Seis, trying to build the Infinity Clock?" He could hear her disapproval and wished he could change what he'd done, but he realized he needed to own up to it in order for her to trust him.
"Yes," he replied, trying to think of how to make his actions not seem so bad. She had been with Fairy Tail, and he could hear her thinking about all of her friends who had been hurt by his guild.
"I know you don't approve of what I've done," he finally said. "What we've done together. There's no getting around that, and I can't change the past. But I can change the future, if you're with me."
She was a little moved. "What are you going to do now?" she asked.
"I don't know. I was planning to end the world with the Infinity Clock, but that didn't seem to work." He paused. "And now that I found you, I don't want the world to end."
Kinana blushed. "Why did you want the world to end?"
He was embarrassed. "I wanted the word to end in order to end my heartache over losing you."
She was almost awestruck for a second, that he cared that much. But the she gave him a stern look. "But if you had succeeded instead of finding me, I would have died too!"
He was abashed. He had never looked at it that way, and now he felt sorry. "But if I hadn't tried to build the Infinity Clock, I wouldn't have run into you," he replied, stating the obvious.
"That may be true, but that doesn't absolve you of blame for the harm you've caused."
"No," he agreed. He didn't want to argue.
She sighed. She didn't want to argue either. "I can accept that you've done bad things in the past, but only if you agree to not do any more in the future."
He smiled. "I can agree to that." He would have agreed to anything to keep her by his side. It would be strange working within the law, however, especially since he was a wanted criminal.
"We'll have to leave town if we want to stay together," she said, somewhat regretfully. He could hear her think about not wanting to leave her friends at Fairy Tail. But he was very glad that she had brought up the subject first. And that she was obviously willing to come with him.
"Yes. The enforcement officers will be looking for me around town. The sooner we leave, the better."
He was relieved that he could hear her determination to go with him.
"I'd like to stop by Fairy Tail tomorrow to say goodbye, if possible. I'll probably never see anyone there again." He could tell she was on the verge of tears, so he took her hand.
"We can do that." She perked up. "I'll listen from a distance."
"So, um…" she started, and he waited for her to finish, though he knew what she was going to say. "What are we going to do about tonight?" she asked, embarrassed.
"I'd rather not stay here much longer. One of the captured Neo-Oracion Seis might give this place away." He had grown worried about that since soon after they got there, not having thought of it before, but he had been listening the whole time and had heard no threats coming.
"Oh. Um, I guess you could stay at my place." She blushed.
He had wanted to kiss her since he first got a good look at her in the light. He could hear that she was starting to think the same way, but he didn't want to pressure her. "I'll sleep on your couch," he offered, and heard that she was relieved but also a little disappointed. He smirked, but she didn't notice. "I'll get my stuff."
He didn't have that much, as he had just been broken out a prison a few months ago, and life in a dark guild didn't give much opportunity to acquire more than the essentials. He packed everything he had into a backpack, as well as anything else useful in the hideout, including some of the other members' possessions. He also emptied their safe.
Wearing a cloak with a deep hood, he followed Kinana to her apartment at a distance, listening for any threats. They made it there with no trouble, and Kinana led him upstairs.
It was already late, and they had both had trying days, so after Kinana showed him around, they both quickly went to bed. As he lay on the couch, Cobra found himself content just to hear his Cubelios breathing as she slept in the next room.
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Cobra woke up when he heard Kinana start to stir in the morning. He stayed lying down with his eye closed, listening to her get ready and start breakfast.
Eventually she came to get him. "Erik, wake up, breakfast's ready."
He smiled as he opened his eye, pleased to hear his name on her lips.
Over breakfast they talked about their plans, and Cobra shared a few more stories.
"If Brain hadn't attacked me, I would have been able to…" Cobra almost said, "Kill Natsu," but she knew Natsu from her time with Fairy Tail. "…Evade arrest," he finished with instead. "That's why we were separated, because I was arrested. We were almost separated again last night, but luckily we were able to escape." He couldn't have stood being separated from her again.
Once they were done with breakfast, they packed their bags but left them in Kinana's apartment while they went out. Cobra could hear that she would miss it.
He followed her at a distance most of the way to Fairy Tail, again hiding in his cloak. He stopped a few blocks away where he could still hear her.
Everyone greeted Kinana as she came in. Listening to Kinana talk to her friends at Fairy Tail, he realized he was jealous that they had gotten to spend the last seven years with her. At least he would get the rest of their lives together, if things went as he hoped.
When she said she was going on vacation, everyone wished her a good time. She said that she wasn't sure how long she'd be gone, as they'd planned, so that her friends wouldn't start looking for her as soon as she didn't come back on a certain date. She also was vague about her destination, also as planned, so they wouldn't have a specific place to look for her when she never came back.
He could hear that she wanted to ask about Cobra's interactions with Fairy Tail, as she hadn't paid particular attention to the stories before, but she didn't want to draw the suspicions of her guildmates.
Cobra chuckled at her thoughts when she got flustered. Kinana was teased about going on vacation because she met some boy, which agitated her as she denied it, which then made some others suspicious. He had expected that might happen, however, and had planned for it.
He was glad he didn't hear Natsu at the guild hall, because he had been afraid that Natsu would smell him on Kinana and come looking for him.
As Kinana left Fairy Tail, Cobra could hear that she had two tails, neither of whom he recognized. He had thought someone might follow her to make sure she was all right. He listened to see what they knew, but they were just concerned that Kinana was acting so out of character, not that they were suspicious of him. They were suspicious that someone was influencing her, but had no specifics. If he could just avoid them until they saw Kinana leave town alone, everything should be fine.
Kinana bought a few things they would need for their journey at the market while Cobra shadowed her from the next block. He could tell where her two tails were and avoided them. He and Kinana had arranged for her to return to her apartment if she didn't see him, precisely because he thought that might happen. He kept his distance, and snuck back into her apartment building before her. They got their packed bags and she left first, drawing her tails away, then he followed her to the train station and boarded a different car on the train so her tails wouldn't realize he was with her. They had planned to get on whatever train was leaving next to get out of town the quickest, and go in whatever direction that took them.
Once he could hear that no one had followed her onto the train, Cobra made his way forward as the train left the station. Kinana smiled as she looked up at him as he sat down next to her. They were about to start their new lives together.
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