Kouya was so relieved that the school day was over. However, that boring routine led to more boring routines as she walked home or sometimes to the mall with her friends. Today, the dark haired girl was flanked by two others, one a stunning redhead and the other a shapely blonde, both with the ears and tails of their youth. All three moved as if they had never seen their own beauty in the mirror, with their shoulders rolled demurely inward, as if to hide away from their teenage years. Telling secrets behind pink manicured hands, they flattened their ears to the sides of their heads, as if to block the gossip they whispered.
"Oh my gosh! Did you see that, Kouya?" Chiyo, the blonde shrieked, pointing to a girl dressed in a green high school uniform.
"What, Chiyo?"Kouya asked. She narrowed her eyes at the person at the distance.
"Look at Kasumi! No wonder she didn't come to school today!" The redhead, called Misaki covered her mouth with her hand when she saw the hapless gossip victim.
Kouya looked at her two friends, first at Misaki and then to Chiyo. "Kasumi? I don't see her." Actually she did, but she felt like playing innocent for a little while longer.
"Look again! She's lost her ears!" both girls chorused, giggling as they clutched at one another's arms.
A young man walked out of the nearby shop with an ice cream cone in each hand. It was Kasumi's boyfriend, Shizuka. He smiled as he gave his lover a cone that dripped with mint chocolate chip. The girl blushed and winked at him, licking the green mess that dribbled down the inside of her wrist with what Kouya recognized as a hint of suggestion.
Ever careful, Kouya touched the tips of her jet black ears, making sure that they were still clipped firmly in place. They had been engineered by a truly paranoid genius, so that they swiveled to the sides when she bowed her head down, and so that one dipped inquisitively when she tilted her chin to one side or the other. The tail that peeked out from under her navy skirt twitched from side to side as she walked and had touch pressure along the length. It curled inward if touched, like the fronds of a newborn fern. Every word that fell from her lips was a lie, but that didn't matter. She looked real.
"Oh really? I wonder what it was like!" Kouya said. "You know, she has been with Shizuka for a long time now."
"Kouya!" Chiyo exclaimed. "I can't believe you said that!"
Misaki stepped in between the two girls. "They did it because they are in love. To love someone that much must be...so..." She sighed, running a hand over her own crimson furred ears.
"Amazing? Breathtaking? Earth-shattering?" Kouya whispered.
"All that and more!" Misaki pined, crossing her hands over her heart.
Chiyo had gone back to looking thoughtfully at the couple. "I can't wait to fall in love," she breathed shyly.
"Me neither." Kouya pushed her glasses further up her nose and smiled at the blonde. "Don't worry. One day you will."
Kouya's thoughts wondered elsewhere, reliving the day that she had experienced it all, the day that she had found her. The dark haired girl jumped as the phone in her pocket vibrated. Every time she received a text or a call, it felt like she could feel the fingers touching her, instead of the hardness of the plastic. Such was the power of a connection. Yamato...
"Are you ok?" Chiyo asked.
"M-me? Oh I'm fine," Kouya stammered. "I just got a phone call. I put it on vibrate. It just surprised me; that's all."
"I'm sorry, girls." Kouya took the phone from her pocket, and flipped open the top. "My mother. I will see you tomorrow."
Both of the other girls waved goodbye. Kouya turned down a street corner and followed the sidewalk to a city park. In the shade of the fronds of a willow, she found the only one who mattered.
"What took you so long," a voice purred in her ear. One hand wrapped around her waist while another swiped through her coal black hair, stripping away her fake ears. "Did you not miss me enough?"
"Yamato," Kouya said, looking at her watch. "We both know this is the quickest I have ever come to you."
"I know." Yamato winked, framing the smaller girl's face in her hands. She pulled Kouya closer, so that their noses brushed, breath mingling in soft pulses together, playing in the minute space between their lips.
Yamato leaned forward, reaching out with her lips, but Kouya pulled back.
"I'm hurt," the fairest of the two teased. She lunged forward fluidly, claiming what was hers and what would always be hers. Kouya wrapped her arms about Yamato's hips and pressed her mouth into that of her sacrifice.
The two black ears that Yamato cupped in her palm fell to the ground forgotten. Every contact was surrounded with spark and fire like the first time. Fingers laced with fingers, thighs leaned against thighs, and breasts pressed rhythmically against breasts as their hearts beat and lungs breathed in the same mellowed tempo.
Yamato traced the mark that lay beneath Kouya's shirt lovingly, remembering the one that used to grace her own skin so deeply.
"I love you." The words rolled off Kouya's tongue and onto Yamato's.
"I will always love you." Yamato demurred.
She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her oxford. The mark that had disappeared with the most recent round of fighting now etched a faint line in the hollow of her breast. They had failed and now Nagisa-sensei wanted to eliminate this unlucky prototype for the Zeros. Especially the prototype that contained this peculiar error. Nagisa-sensei was a sore loser.
"Yamato, don't worry about that." Kouya took Yamato's hand away from the faded name on her chest, placing the fingers upon her own deeply etched scars.
"I live up to our name," Yamato said as she laughed bitterly. "I am the only one of us whose name has gone to zero."
Kouya shook her head and pressed Yamato's hand to her heart even harder. This time she was the one to trace a finger over Yamato's lips before drawing her into another kiss. "It doesn't matter. I will never take another sacrifice again, no many how many times you plead."
"If there is someone better than me, Kouya, I want you to take them."
"Never," Kouya spat.
"Do you not love me enough?" Yamato fluttered her eyelashes. "After all the things I do for you. Even losing our name."
"No." Kouya rested her head on Yamato's shoulder. "I love you too much." The mist of a tear clouded her vision. She ran her index finger over the ghost of the name left on Yamato. The pad of her finger became the tip, which turned into the fingernail. Pressing the nail harder and finally hard enough to draw blood, she cut their shared name into the pale skin manually.
Finally the flood of frustration undammed itself from behind Kouya's glossy brown eyes. She kissed the raw skin that bled unfeelingly. The blood, the skin, the nerves knew nothing of physical pain. Nothing but pain of the heart. "I don't care if I spend every night rewriting it on your skin, on our skin."
"You know, Kouya, sometimes I just think you are selfish because you won't choose another sacrifice." Yamato smiled, and stroked her fingers through her fighter's onyx shining hair. "You just want me all to yourself. I know you eye my friends suspiciously because they don't have ears. You wouldn't have a clue if I was doing anything with them."
"You couldn't leave me if you tried." Kouya narrowed her eyes at her sacrifice, but then returned to nuzzle in close to Yamato. "I have a test tomorrow. I need to study," she whispered when she pulled away.
"I love the way you still play hard to get," Yamato rebuttoned the top of her shirt. "Even after I you know I have conquered you inside and out. It's so cute"
Kouya pretended to be mad, but as always, her heart was never in it. Instead, her face just slid into its serious default mask. The taller zero dipped down and kissed her shorter partner one last time before separating. Kouya's skin flushed at the touch again, the first time like the last time. The pleasure of being touched for the very first time flooded her sense every time their bond was reforged. This is what she liked best about rewriting Yamato. Unlike the name on Yamato's skin, their love would never- no could never- disappear.