Cresselia stirred.
As soon as she felt herself regaining consciousness, the events of the night before started to flood back into her mind: she'd finally felt Darkrai's aura again, after so many months; she'd hurried over to his island in hopes of finding him; she'd restored his wounds using Lunar Dance, and thus had fallen into a deep sleep as a result.
She had yet to open her eyes, but something felt just a little bit off - the quiet drip drip drip noises she heard was an indicator that she was not in the small clearing she had passed out in, but rather, in a cave. Was it her own cave, or Darkrai's? She wasn't sure, and to be quite honest, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to open her eyes and find out.
If she were to open her eyes and see her own cave around her, then she would assume the worst. Everything that had happened before had been merely a dream, and Darkrai was still out there somewhere. That would've been a fate she couldn't bear: she may have ruled over dreams, but ironically, her own dreams served to taunt her. They would show her visions of things that had never happened and never will happen. She would be haunted with images of him, almost as if he were tormenting her with these nightmares himself.
However, if she were to open her eyes and see his cave...
She almost didn't want to take the chance, but eventually, her curiosity got the better of her. After all, she would never know if she didn't look.
Taking a deep breath, Cresselia opened her eyes, and was immediately greeted with a relieving image. The cave was considerably darker than her own was, with many dripping stalactites hanging from the ceiling. There was a shallow, circular pool right in the center, and a bed of soft grasses beneath her.
She was most definitely on Newmoon Island.
The realization did little to calm her nerves, though; while it had proved that Darkrai's return had been anything but a dream, she had stopped feeling his presence again. Trying not to panic, her wings began to vibrate, pulling her up into a steady hover. She dashed out of the cave and into the clearing everything had happened in the night before.
The sun was up now - it was probably around midday. But that thought barely registered in her mind. She was preoccupied with something else entirely as she hovered around the island, trying her hardest to remain calm: where had he gone? Had he returned to that town to fight again? Was he going to come back nearly dead again? Would he even come back?
These questions plagued her mind as she continued her search. She looked high and low, over and under, for any signs of him. She'd even crossed over to her own island to see if he was there for some reason, but ultimately, she turned up with nothing. Dejected, she eventually made her way back into the cave she'd awakened in. If she wasn't going to find him anywhere, then she would just wait for him.
Why, she wasn't entirely sure. Perhaps she just wanted some closure - how exactly Darkrai had ended up so injured in the first place, why he had gotten himself into such a situation... or perhaps it was because she hadn't realized how much she had missed him until she'd seen him again the night before.
She cared for her counterpart, that much she was certain of. Why else would she have used her most powerful healing spell on him, even at the cost of her own energy? She didn't want to see him in such pain. Though, to be fair, she didn't want to see anyone in pain, but especially not Darkrai. It was as if his pain was her pain as well.
And, now that he was gone again, it felt like her own pain had increased tenfold. And so, she would wait for him to come back and relieve her of it.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do while she waited. She'd counted the number of stalactites on the ceiling several times over - every time ending up with a different number - and had now settled on watching one in particular. Drip, drip, drip. There was a small puddle beneath it, and it continued to drip drip drip down. Cresselia had even started counting how many times it dripped down into said puddle.
She lost count at 5,234, but that was only because she felt something at the back of her mind: something incredibly distinctive, and very familiar, almost as if she'd felt it very recently.
She could sense him again.
Lifting herself off of the grassy bed, she fixed her eyes on the mouth of the cave, watching for any sign of movement. It was dark outside now, so if he were to enter, she wouldn't be able to tell immediately. But he was here, she knew that much. And oh boy was she going to let him have it when she saw him.
A glowing cyan eye came into view, and she was immediately upon it, stopping only mere inches from its owner.
"Darkrai! Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you! Do you have any idea how worried sick I've been?"
Needless to say, Darkrai was quite taken aback, both by her presence and her sudden onslaught of questions. "Relax, Cresselia!" he exclaimed, backing away from her slightly. "One question at a time!"
Due to the adrenaline rush, and the fact that she'd asked all of those questions pretty much in one breath, she took a few deep breaths before speaking again. "...don't do that to me again! I woke up this morning and couldn't feel your presence, and I assumed the worst! Where did you go so suddenly? You... you didn't go back and fight again, did you? Because I swear, if I have to heal you again--"
"Relax," he repeated, holding his hands up in front of him. "I just..." His voice was surprisingly calm, in a stark contrast to hers, "I had to make sure Alamos was still there."
And then her train of thought was completely derailed. "Alamos...?"
"The town." Darkrai shrugged, as if the answer were the most obvious thing in the world. "I had to make sure it hadn't been destroyed. I had to make sure that the garden was still there. And it was. So no, I didn't return to fight again."
Well, that was a relief. Cresselia let out a long sigh as she started to calm down. She had no idea what 'garden' he was talking about, but obviously it was something important to him. "You could have told me you were going back," she said quietly, trying not to sound as hurt as she was by his sudden disappearance.
"No, Cresselia, I couldn't have," he replied, "when I left the town, it was mere minutes from being destroyed completely. So as soon as I was able, I had to return so I could make sure it was okay. I needed that bit of closure." He paused for a moment, and then added, "not to mention, you were out cold, so you wouldn't have heard me even if I had told you."
Closure. She could understand that. She had needed some closure herself, and she had gotten hers, so it was only fair that he got his, right? She nodded at him and glanced down at the ground, unsure of how to respond.
She didn't need to, anyway, because he spoke again before she could. "Regardless, I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to worry you at all; I only did what I had to do."
"...I see." He may not have meant to worry her, but she'd worried nonetheless - it was in her nature to do so. "I just... you left so suddenly that I was afraid you wouldn't come back..." She sighed again. "It gets lonely without you here, you know. Our islands are out here in the middle of the ocean, not really close to anything else. And you were gone so long the first time that..." Cresselia trailed off, unable to finish that thought.
But again, she didn't have to, because he acted before she had the chance to do anything else: Darkrai reached up and roughly took her face in his claws, looking her straight in the eyes. "As long as you are here," he started, voice unusually soft in a direct contrast to his physical actions, "then I will be as well. There can be no full moon without the new moon to offset it, after all."
Silently, she considered his words for a moment. Did he really mean that? Her eyes bored into his, searching for any signs of insincerity - he was the ruler of nightmares, after all, and toying with minds wasn't beyond his boundaries - but she was relieved to find nothing of the sort. Her anxiety fading completely, she nodded again, not once taking her eyes off of him.
"I'm glad," she whispered, a faint smile forming on her face. "I'm glad you're here. And that... you're okay."
"I have you to thank for that." He let go of her, crossing his arms. If he had a visible mouth, then it would definitely be smirking. "But try not to use Lunar Dance next time, alright?"