Ok, here's a thing to apologize for my being a little shit the past few months.

My tumblr followers will know that I am a NUT for one of the most minor pairing out there, like THEY DO NOT HAVE FANART (aside from mine and a few choice others) MINOR. So, yes, I am contributing to the reservoir for two of my favorite characters because there is simply not enough stories wherein they are even in the same scene.

So here we are.

:::..:::

"…You sure?" deep blue eyes glanced sideways at the determine brunette.

"What's this, Ikki? You care, now?" Sagittarius Seiya threw back his head in a throaty laugh. The blue-hair man grunted softly and turned away. He didn't like that laugh. It was too old to be coming out of the silly Pegasus.

"…Just making sure I won't have to cut my vacation short."

"Of course," the younger man gave him a wry grin. "It's fine Ikki, I have thought about this you know."

"You have…that's a scary thought."

"Hey!"

A large, rough hand descended into the dark brown curls giving them one…two rough caresses. Seiya quieted, and for a moment a strange want glittered from the depths of those brown eyes. Ikki had a brief inclination to drag his tangled fingers away from the messy locks, but he didn't.

"This…this will be good for me," The younger man insisted firmly. Who was he trying to convince? Ikki or himself. "I can't keep….I can't keep relying on you like I do. Heh, how embarrassing."

Maybe both it seems.

"Until you lose for real, right?"

"Yeah…until I'm beaten completely."

Perhaps they should have hugged or clasp hands; there were brothers. But that had never been the way they dealt with each other. And so Ikki departed with nary a glance behind.

Over the years, he saw Shun on occasion, maybe Hyouga once or twice when the blonde was down in the pacific. Neither Shiryu nor Seiya ever left their iconic posts. They were quiet years, peaceful years he was left to his own duties and meditations. It wasn't happiness, never happiness, but it was a good life for a delinquent like him.

Then Mars reared his ugly head. For a while Ikki welcome the change. It seems he was getting bored after all. Not a single living Martian ever manage to set foot on Kanon Island…nor indeed on the entirety of the Pacific Islands. It was child's play for him. But really Ikki was only at the very fringes of battle.

The phoenix would never admit to missing the hot-headed desperate war raging in Greece.

Apparently Seiya picked up a baby in a fight somewhere, Shun said…huh, only that idiot.

And then he felt it, and explosion of familiar cosmos, nearly divine, one so brilliant it could be felt halfway across the world.

"Fuck this." He summoned his cloth to him, welcoming the familiar heat and flew. His wings cut trails of fire through the air at the speed of light heading for Greece. He didn't particularly care about the promise at that time. Though he knew the Sagittarius would forgive him anyways. That idiot was crazy if he though Ikki was going to sit out of this one.

But it turned out, he need not have worried. He managed to keep his promise anyway, touching down in sanctuary only after Seiya's entire existence had been consumed.

And something important snapped in all of them that day. They fought like demons the four, but somehow, it was not enough, and it was only sending Shaina off to who knows where with Athena that they really "won" in any sense.

The peace had spoiled him, softened him. The shame of it was a bitter pill, worse than his torn and broken body. He fled back to his volcano…and submerged himself in his meditations, becoming one with the island. He was no use to them now.

'I'm sorry' went unspoken.

It was a spark of cosmos that woke him next blistering and familiar and pure pure white. For a moment he toyed with the thought that the idiot blockhead had returned. No, not so.

None the less, he felt the world disappearing around him. So Ikki anchored himself, became Kanon Island, and spread his cosmos despite the festering darkness in him and held his world down. Perhaps if he too was consumed, he'd find Seiya somewhere in the darkness. Shun would want him back.

Drained of power, be fell back into deep slumber after the ordeal, just as his stained, broken cloth was beginning to reassemble around him.

The next time he woke, he was aware. He was ready. And, by the dappled white and gold cosmos prickling his senses… it looks like he was just in time.

"Omattase."