In order to keep a promise
One-shot
Finally classes ended. Ken let out a groan. He now knew why his sempais always complained about Mr. Ekoda. It was a miracle Mitsuru didn't fire the guy already. That or she didn't have him, when she was attending Gekkougan High.
"Hey Ken, you going somewhere?" asked Maiko. She was his best friend. Some thought they were together, but that was only a rumor.
Two years after the incidents, Maiko awakened to Hemera and everything was explained to her. The result? Multiple burns and a pretty long hospital bill.
"Actually I wanted to go somewhere..." Ken trailed off. Maiko nodded. Whenever he talked in this tone, he talked about the cemetery.
"I'm going too."
So the two made their way, avoiding their respectable fanclubs and random people who asked them on a date. They were often in pairs and not always the opposite gender.
None of them talked. They were always like this, when they headed towards the cemetery.
Ken thought about the times he fought alongside them in Tartarus. They were always so calm and collective, they never panicked, no matter how bad it got.
He remembered the times they hung out with him, made jokes about how mature he acted, even cooked together.
They even defended him after the fiasco with Shinji. And then there was the promise he made with her. He wished he would have at least told her, when she was alive.
Maiko thought about the times they played together on the playground. No matter how childish it was, the two played along. They always made her smile.
She remembered the times they ate takoyaki together, played with the white dog Koromaru, they even came to a play she acted in elementary school.
They brought her parents to her, when she was about to run away from home. And then there was the promise she made with him. She wished she would have at least told him when he was alive.
Both let out a deep sigh at the same time. Totally depressed they stepped out of the train and walked towards the cemetery. They came across the old bookstore, which was closed up. It has yet to be sold again. The couple died three years ago. It was there where Maiko and Ken first met, together with them.
From time to time, the two would play together, sometimes even with the other two. They met again in Inaba, where she got caught up in the Arena incident. Maiko was the one who defeated the two behind the whole scheme and everyone had been impressed.
Well actually it was no surprise, seeing how she had been capable in beating the shit out of all of them. She shouted they didn't try hard enough and going on with their lives wouldn't make Erebus go away. She shouted that all they did was sitting on their lousy asses, while the two were suffering for all of them. Ken shuddered as he remembered the pain he'd gone through.
Finally they arrived at their graves. Come to think of it, none of them had the live each of them deserved. Shoved around from relative to relative, then they did everything for everyone and in the end sacrificed themselves. Did they ever have a moment of peace in their lives?
Ken put down the roses he'd bought on the way, while Maiko would have done the same with chrysanthemums, but they only bloomed during September. It was May by the way.
There was nothing they could tell them. They could now tell them about what happened recently, but then they remembered they just visited two days ago.
Their visits were growing short lately. At this rate they'd be soon visiting each day. None of the two could let go, that was a given, not when they don't know the answer to their one question they'd meant to ask.
"Should we go?" Ken finally asked.
Maiko glanced at her watch. They'd been there for two hours. Their visits grew longer as well. At this rate they'd built up tents.
"A few more minutes, okay?"
Ken nodded. He was not like going away anyway. He sat down on a nearby bench staring up into the sky. From the corner of his eye he noticed someone else approaching the grave.
The twins had a lot of friends, so it was no surprise. That reminded Ken, none of their relatives had attended the funeral. It wouldn't surprise them if they didn't even know. The two didn't like talking about their relatives.
A sudden scream from Maiko, brought Ken back to reality. But when he was about to look, someone covered his eyes with a hand and sat down on his lab. He heard two people laughing, one male the other female.
Ken tried to free himself, but whoever it was, the person pressed him against the bench.
"Who are you?" Ken exclaimed. He could feel the breath of this person on his ear.
"It is time, isn't it?"
He gasped. He knew that voice all too well. He heard someone giggling. She finally took her hand from his face. He found himself staring into red orbs. Maiko was the one giggling as she was tickled to death by him.
"You sure have grown, Ken."
"M-Minako!?"
XXX
Around twenty minutes later, the four were at the shrine, seeing as the cemetery wasn't really the place of a lovely reunion.
Maiko had placed herself on Minato, while Minako did the same with Ken. The boy almost got a heart attack.
"Why, how are you two here?" he finally asked.
"To keep our promises, simple as that." Minato replied, placing his head on Maiko's shoulder, ready to fall asleep.
"And how did you do it?" Maiko asked. The twins gave each other an uncomfortable look, before Minako spoke up.
"Well of course, we couldn't just leave Nyx and Erebus unguarded"
"So we took them with us." Minato finished.
"What!?" The two others exclaimed.
"Well, Erebus is sealed in Minato and Nyx is sealed inside me. Nothing new to us, Death was sealed in us for ten years." Minako tried to ease the situation up. Of course it was not as simple as that, there were a lot of risks to be considered.
Of course the two others were ready to scold them, but the twins were prepared for this kind of situation. Minako gave Ken her best puppy dog eyes, while Minato gave Maiko his best charming smile.
A big party was thrown the next day, along with a public execution a la Mitsuru Kirijo. The charges were brainlessly sacrificing themselves, not trusting their friends enough and stupidly taking even more risks, by letting Elizabeth and Theodore seal two gods inside them.
Along with being frozen for 24 hours, the two had to report every two hours (except sleeping period) to see if anything changes and Aigis was now their watch dog.
Every night the twins had visitors again in form of a boy and a girl. The first night their visitors laughed their asses off, seeing their host being completely frozen. Maybe life wasn't that worthless?
Minato and Maiko, Minako and Ken were officially couples now. Seeing the two new transfer students being together with the two most popular students caused quite the uproar.
By the way, some teachers called sick after seeing the two supposed to be dead students again. Ekoda changed the school he was working in.
XXX
After the phone call to Mitsuru and a last check up by Aigis' upgraded sensors, Minako snuggled herself next to Ken under the blanket of his bed. She sneaked into his room, like Minato did with Maiko.
"You've grown so much, looks like this whole milk drinking wasn't for nothing." she teased before placing her head on his chest. Ken just smiled and stroke slowly through her hair.
"I thought by now you'd have a girlfriend." she continued.
"No. I guess I couldn't really live on without you. More than ones I asked myself if I even had a reason to live. Now I have my answer. It was worth the wait."
Minako turned around and placed a kiss on his lips. It was totally worth the wait.
xxx
Maiko hung up the phone and let out a deep sigh. She just confessed that she was actually pregnant. She'd sent them a picture of Minato and boy, were they surprised to see someone who was supposed to be dead. They'd attended the funeral with her and seen him quite a few times.
Maiko would have to do a lot of explanation later.
Minato wasn't against the child. He actually informed himself about parenthood and attended special classes for teenagers who become parents.
Maiko placed herself next to Minato, who circled with his hand on her growing stomach.
"He or she will have the power of Erebus and the universe. We have to be careful no one uses our child." he said in a caring father tone.
Maiko kissed his cheek. "You managed to save the entire the world. This should be nothing more than practice exercising to you."
Minato smiled. In the back of his head he knew Erebus would be the child and sometime in the future Minako would give birth to Nyx. They just needed to teach them what was right and wrong, so when they awakened to their memories they wouldn't see humanity as a waste of space.
None of the siblings cared their children would be the ones who tried to destroy humanity. And they would protect them, no matter the cost.
