Disclaimer: I do not own Kamen Rider OOO, and I am making no money off of this. This is solely for my own and other's entertainment.

AN: I listened to the song Breath by Breaking Benjamin, and I suddenly couldn't get the image of Ankh and Eiji out of my mind. The whole song seems to reflect their current relationship (as of Ep 45), but the lines I have in italics were what struck me hardest and stuck with me. Let me know what you guys think.

Warnings: Spoilers up to 44, a bit of implied Ankh/Eiji. Also, angst because the current episodes do not leave for happy places in the Ankh/Eiji fandom if you stay with canon timeline (and I'm hoping it gets better as there are only a few more eps left, 48 total from what I gather as Fourze is supposed to start Sept 4)

Breathe

You take the breath right out of me
You left a hole where my heart should be
You've gotta fight just to make it through
Cause I will be the death of you

Watching Ankh leave – turn his back on everything they had made and could be – had hurt, caused him pain in ways he hadn't thought possible again after what had happened a year ago. Seeing his former lover again – now allied with those they had fought together – had been infinitely worse, like someone had twisted the knife before pouring battery acid on the wound. It hadn't just been the betrayal either – Eiji had almost expected that, no matter how much he had hoped and prayed that it wouldn't come to that. What had hurt worse was that he could see the dissatisfaction in the blonde's eyes, could tell that – if anything – Ankh was less happy and more at war with himself than he had ever been before. Knowing that his lover was unhappy and too dead-set in his ways to find happiness another way was what had hurt more.

The most ironic thing about meeting Ankh on that particular day was that Hina-chan and Goto-san had just spend the day trying to help him find a desire for himself so that he could control the purple medals. What they didn't know – had no way of knowing really – was that he'd had something he'd wanted more than anything already – had found the one thing he'd desired above all others – but it had, much like his desires a year ago, been ripped away from him – this time by the only person who had the power to do such a thing…Ankh himself.

Eiji had felt like he had the world at his fingertips whenever he and Ankh had been together, and the blonde had ripped open only recently healed wounds when he'd left of his own volition.

To think, Ankh was the one who most wanted him to be able to control the purple medals, to stop them from getting stronger and taking control. The blonde had given him the key to it too, unwittingly planting the seeds of the first real desire he'd had in over a year – the desire to have the other happy and by his side, to have Ankh care for him as he cared for the blonde. The other male had also taken it away from him – figuratively ripping his heart out – and practically guaranteed the purple medals a second host they'd be able to control, to use.

All it came down to now was a matter of time. He would continue to fight on all fronts, against the Greeed and the ever-more sentient purple medals, to try and make it trough the to the end, to try and make an end where everyone might be alive and happy, just as he knew Ankh would. At this rate, though, he would be gone – one way or another – in the end, either one of the Greeed would kill him – Dr. Make most likely at this rate – or the purple medals would take over his body so that his consciousness ceased to exist – which he would not allow to happen, he would kill himself before that happened because when it did his body would very likely be the cause of many deaths, including but not limited to the one person he could not, would not,kill…Ankh. So, all that was left in the end was to fight for as long as he could and try to make sure that everyone would be safe and happy once he was gone.