Reno crawled to Nero, a paintbrush swathe of blood coloring a trail behind him as he made his way to his lover's side. Metal wings were in tattered pieces all around the man, plucked and ripped from his back like the feathers of a fallen angel. They were scattered in dirt that had been drenched into mud by the blood flowing thick and fast from Nero's broken body. Reno crawled to Nero's side, ignoring the pain pulsing through him with each beat of his fading heart. All that mattered was making his way to Nero. He needed to be with him. Death was inevitable, there was no one to save them and no one who even wanted to.

Their love had driven any savior away long ago.

Pulling himself upright as best as he could, Reno leaned over Nero, shaking fingers searching out a pulse frantically. Finding one, he wept, tears of joy, pain, and pity twining on his cheeks. His hand slid into Nero's hair, stroking those muddied, tangled locks soothingly. He could feel his own pulse beginning to weaken and he was terrified. There was nothing pleasant waiting for him in the lifestream and he knew it well.

But he still had a few precious moments with Nero, and he wasn't about to waste them.

His voice was cracked and rasping, pained breathing making the fragile tune crackle and break as he sang the lullaby Nero had taught him. He was unable to finish the tune, pain taking his voice from him as he fell into the mud beside Nero. Blue eyes blinked away mud and blood, trying to meet those mako tainted red orbs again, but flashes of green were all he could see.

Nero fragmented, falling to pieces before his eyes, and Reno let loose a few tears as his own heartbeat came to a stop, blue eyes open long enough to watch his own body crumble and fade.


Author's Note: The song that inspired this was 'You are the Moon' by The Hush Sound.

Here are the lyrics

"Shadows all around you as you surface from the dark
Emerging from the gentle grip of night's unfolding arms
Darkness, darkness everywhere, do you feel all alone?
The subtle grace of gravity, the heavy weight of stone

You don't see what you possess, a beauty calm and clear
It floods the sky and blurs the darkness like a chandelier
All the light that you possess is skewed by lakes and seas
The shattered surface, so imperfect, is all that you believe

I will bring a mirror, so silver, so exact
So precise and so pristine, a perfect pane of glass
I will set the mirror up to face the blackened sky
You will see your beauty every moment that you rise"

Blame Nerothepitchblack of tumblr for this one, because I wouldn't know about that song had they not shown it to me.

Oh, and Nero/Reno is a wonderful ship.

Get on board.