"I don't want to die down here, Mai," Masako admitted, her small body shivering like a leaf. "Not like this."
Her breaths were quick and panicked. Usually she oozed serenity, but now all she felt was fear.
I cannot lose you. I will fade away without that sparkle in your eyes.
Mai's voice trembled like a baby rattle when she finally managed to speak. "No, we'll be okay! Naru will come and save us, just like he always does."
Blood was pouring from her mouth in tiny rivers. It was dripping off her chin and rolling down her milky neck. Her hand was wrapped around the spike piercing through her stomach, fingers digging into the old, rusty iron.
Masako wiped at her eyes with the heel of her hand and looked up out of the well they had been pulled into. Stars were shining in the night sky and the moon was gazing down at them, glowing like a loving mother.
Mai wondered to herself if she would soon meet the moon-mother. Will I become her child, burning up there with my brothers and sisters?
She was not alone in these thoughts.
Ripping some of the moss from the stones, the medium pinched Mai's nose until the injured girl was forced to open her mouth. The moss was forced down her throat, and Mai gagged only once before swallowing it.
Mai was too weak to ask why Masako did not eat. If I have to eat moss, shouldn't you?
"You are doing so well, Mai," Masako whispered, pressing her hand to the injured girl's clammy forehead. It was hot…too hot. "Please, wait just a little longer."
Mai's eyes were distant as a dream, the sort of dream that made you weep. "Will you kiss me, Masako?" Her eyelids fluttered closed. "I've kind of always wanted you to kiss me. You'd be my first, you know."
Tears crept down Masako's cheeks. "All right, Mai."
She bent down, curling around the spike to press her lips against those soft, bubblegum-pink ones.
Then she leaned over, whispering in Mai's ear, "I never hated you."
Mai's face broke into a smile, a smile like the sunrise that would break in the morning sky. Her blood-stained hand reached up to caress Masako's cheek for the briefest of moments before falling back down limply.
It really did smell awful down here. Like dirt, blood and sweat. But there was a hint of something better, like starlight, love and Mai…Is this what heaven smelled like?
Masako slumped against the wall, the moistness seeping through the layers of her kimono and freezing her back.
But she didn't feel it.
Up above, there were cries, cries of hope that turned to cries of horror when they saw. Masako had never heard such screams before.
"Just a little longer, Mai-chan," Masako promised, reaching over to close the sleeping beauty's eyes.
She never sat back up, happy to become lost in a dream of her own. She had always been so very weak.
Mai woke in the hospital with a mask on her face, bandages covering her torso and the knowledge that Masako had passed on. She just knew, even before Naru told her.
Tears welled up and she pushed him away, hating his handsome face, hating those lovely eyes that did not weep for Masako.
"Why did you bring me back?" Mai sobbed, digging her hands into her messy hair. "She shouldn't have to go alone!"
And she wept, the pain her stomach like a pin-prick, the pain her soul like drowning in flames.
A/N: I kind of really like this pairing? Lin x Mai is my favorite but this one is super Intriguing.