She stood at the top of the tall tower and gazed out across the sparkling lights and hustling flashes that made up the myriad of buildings in the city. The sky was dark but somehow the night was alive with energy. Cars were the size of ants, and if she squinted hard enough, she could see microscopic blobs that moved slowly along the strips of sidewalks beneath her feet. People. So insignificant.

Soon, there would be one less person to burden the world with.

The metal railing felt cool against her gloved hands, and the falling snow only emphasized the temperature of the season. She cupped her face with the pink mittens and shivered even though she had ear muffs on and a white scarf wrapped around her neck. Her warm, white breath escaped through a gap in her hands and she watched it fade away into the night sky.

For a moment, she felt an unearthly presence behind her back touching her shoulders, but when she turned around, no one was there. Alone. So utterly alone. This was fine; the deed would be said and done with soon.

She felt herself lean forward, and over the railing she fell, weightlessness settling across her skin, and her coat and scarf whipped around her body as she accelerated through the air. The glowing lights of the top of the tower started to become smaller and more distant as the wind rushed past her ears, the particular feeling of falling settling into her chest and head, the one that seemed to pull her body in the opposite direction from the one she was accelerating toward.

"Luka!"

She jumped and opened her eyes, jerking forward involuntarily, and she watched as the city appeared before her like an open canvas. She hadn't actually fallen yet, but half of her body was over the railing and she felt herself tip forward to tumble thousands of feet into the unknown. Fear, previously missing, settled into her stomach.

"No!"

A hand grabbed the back of her coat and yanked, causing her to fall backwards and into safety again, her vision turning toward the white-spotted black slate of the sky as she landed on her backside. A snowflake fell into her eye and she blinked. Her head turned to the person who had screamed.

"Luka, what do you think you were doing?"

Surprised, Luka observed the girl who had saved her life, her chest heaving as she panted from the effort of running, large white puffs escaping from her mouth like smoke. As the panting girl tilted her head forward, a visible stream of tears glistened down her face and created a stark contrast with her teal-green hair that hung like frazzled curtains on either side of her small face. She was still beautiful even then, Luka thought.

"Luka. Luka, why did you-" Her sentence was broken with a sudden sob. "Why?" she choked out.

Luka didn't say anything. She felt strangely detached from the scene, almost as if she were a ghost, and the previous fear she felt had vanished before she could even think about it. However, as the girl in front of her collapsed to her knees, the crying intensified, and she felt that she should say something.

"Why?" she said, almost as if she were asking herself. "Why, what? Why are you here?"

Pained green eyes locked onto her own.

"Kaito said he saw you enter the tower, and he had a feeling you were going to try to..." She trailed off, sniffling and coughing, once she saw the look on Luka's face after she mentioned Kaito's name. The look was so deranged, so hateful, that she felt a jolt of instinctive fear travel down her spine; she understood now. Still, she had to make sure. "Luka, do you hate Kaito?"

The question caught Luka off guard. Then she scoffed. "Kaito. I don't hate him specifically," she muttered. The floor was cold, so she pushed herself off the cement and stood up. The girl in front of her looked pathetic, collapsed on the ground with tears down her face, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring herself to think of the girl as anything but beautiful. Her heart thumped painfully in her chest.

"Then why? Why did you try to do this?"

"Miku," she said. The name felt wonderful coming off her lips, so right that her heartbeat quickened. "There's no reason for me to stay."

"Yes, yes there is! Think of all your friends! Gumi, Lily, Meiko, Gakupo, Rin, Len, Miki, Sonika... Kaito... and me. We all need you," Miku cried. "Your family loves you very much, too. Don't do this, Luka. Please, please. Please."

Her heart twitched; her face refused to betray emotion. "None of them will love me anymore. You don't love me, either, not after-" She stopped, something suddenly blocking her throat. She swallowed thickly. "Not after that letter," she whispered, looking down at the city and turning away from Miku's shaking form.

"Is that what's wrong?" Miku whispered back. Luka heard a rustle, and she turned back to see Miku reaching into her pocket and pulling out a wrinkled white envelope. Her heart stopped beating.

"You... still have it?" Her voice came out weak, lost, and desperate.

"Why would I throw it away? It contains your precious feelings inside each and every word," Miku replied, a small and gentle smile appearing across her face as she looked up at Luka. A small gust of wind swept her teal hair away from her face and, framed by falling snowflakes, Luka decided that she had never seen anything more close to an angel than this girl before her.

"You're not... disgusted? Angry?" she asked. She couldn't hear herself breathe anymore.

"No, no I'm not," Miku shook her head. Slowly, painfully, she also stood up and stumbled shakily to grasp Luka's gloved hand. The glow of yellow light from the tower encased the two as if it were embracing their presence. "In fact, I'm quite happy."

Luka was startled to see Miku's face turn red in the golden illumination. She couldn't quite believe what was going on. "You're happy?" Her voice was breaking. Miku shyly nodded.

"I'm happy. You're my best friend, Luka," she told her. Disappointment sank down into the pit of her stomach. Of course. Just best friends, that was all they were. Luka closed her eyes and sighed. Because she did so, though, she missed Miku taking her other hand and moving it to cup Luka's cheek, and blue eyes popped open at the sudden cold contact of hand on skin. "And... I'd like you to be a little more than that as well."

Luka gaped dumbly down at Miku. Her heart had jump-started again, and this time, it was going into overdrive for entirely different reasons. "Really?" she breathed out.

"Really."

Tears began to stream down Luka's face. The girl moved forward and embraced Miku tightly, pressing the smaller girl against herself as if she were afraid that Miku would disappear at any moment, and Miku gasped lightly in response. Luka began to sob, her crying disturbing the peaceful cold air as they stood suspended above the city on a small platform. Miku merely moved her arms to return the hug, closed her eyes, and smiled softly as she held the crying girl. Everything would be alright now.

They didn't know how long Luka cried in Miku's arms, but they were both certain that centuries and lifetimes had passed in that span of time.

"You can't leave me now, okay?" Miku told her, gently rubbing circles against Luka's warm back.

"I promise," Luka replied, clutching Miku closer. "I just..."

"Don't be afraid. Our friends will still love us no matter what. I'm certain," Miku smiled into Luka's shoulder. "Our families, too."

Luka opened her mouth, and then she closed it. Instead, she pulled slightly away from Miku and looked down at the girl, moving one hand to cup her chin. Sensing what Luka intended to do, Miku slowly brought her arms up and around Luka's neck and gazed directly into Luka's icy eyes without hesitation or doubt. The taller girl moved her head down.

What they shared could simply be stated as contact brought on by desire and longing. What it was was a declaration of something much deeper and so precious that it could not be described by mere words in any language, and when they gradually pulled away from one another, both understood what was exchanged without needing confirmation.

"Miku, I-"

Miku sneezed. "I'm sorry, what was that?" she sniffled, rubbing at her nose, a red flush spreading across her face.

Luka hesitated for a moment and shook her head. A smile, the first one of the night, settled gently on her face. "Nothing. Let's go down and get somewhere warm, okay?"

There would be plenty of time left in her life to let Miku know what she had just prepared to say. This life was a new one Miku had given her, and she was eternally grateful that her soul had been saved. Taking Miku's hands, she gently covered them with her own and pulled the blushing girl toward the elevator, her smile growing bigger by the minute.

Yes, she was glad that rather than a place of sorrow and despair, the tower had been a place of new love that night.

A/N: Just... something I needed to write before my feelings destroyed me. I feel a lot better now that I've written this out. Short, but I haven't written cheese in a while so I thought I'd give it a try again. Meh.

Thanks to Nishizono for the proofreading.