He was the one that was always there for her and he was her knight in shining armor. Content with this knowledge, Iris sighed contentedly and wrapped her arms around her savior, pressing her face into his back. "Are we ever going to tell them?"

He was working on some report or another but he paused for her, paused to answer her question. "About us? I don't see why they need to know. It's none of their business."

Slipping her arms from around him Iris stepped back and frowned. "True but Zero loves me. I can't just tell him that I don't care about him anymore without giving him a reason why. He deserves to know the truth."

"Then tell him." The subject was something that he was still sensitive on and something that he avoided. Before going back to work, he added: "If we did tell them they'd hate us forever. It'd be better to pretend that we didn't feel like way."

Iris sighed again, this one full of anger and depression. "They wouldn't understand, would they? I guess you're right."

"I'm always right."

----

She could feel herself dying and, oddly enough, she didn't feel sad or scared. Zero was next to her, holding her hands, telling her to hold on and that everything was going to be all right. And it was but not in the way that Zero thought. Smiling, Iris felt her life slipping away from her, her last thought about him.

Colonel…