A/N: This is a sequel to my one-shot "Can't Do Without Without You". Because I'm hopelessly in love with these two to an unhealthy degree.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. No matter how much I wish it were so.
...
And it's only then, as the bright light in the back of his head grows dim and he is left horribly alone, that he realizes the underlying truth behind his customary declaration that 'he could not do without her'. He begins to understand the fundamentality of those six words and their sentiments.
He knows logically that he could force himself to function sufficiently in her absence. Should, in fact, regardless that he simply does not care to continue without her. But as the darkness created by her absence spreads, so his logic equally recedes. He cannot think, he cannot breathe, he cannot be.
His organs start shutting down before he has finished climbing into the death bed to stretch out next her. His beloved Nyota. As he settles beside her cooling body a strange calm covers him.
There was no hesitation. No thought of the horror that would fill their family and friends when they entered the chamber, perhaps only seconds from now, to find the departure of a mother as well as a father, an unexpected loss of a son, a goodbye to not one, but two good friends.
He slipped just as peacefully from this world as his adun'a had moments before; and in death, as in life, he set himself to find the one thing he couldn't be without.