Disclaimer: Fushigi Yuugi belongs to Ms. Watase and company.

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Cold

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It always began this way…with the rain.

The cold, and the rain, and the callous words coming out of his mouth that he couldn't keep back… when he heard the crash, he turned, and she lay there like a flower someone had stepped on…because of him…

She lay deathly still in the grass, pale as the clouds overhead, as a crimson flood spread over her chest… only his hands were warm, wet with her blood…

No…

He gazed at her, his chest aching with loss, even as he knew she was going home to be safe and get well… as she was engulfed in scarlet light, he couldn't help stretching out a hand as she vanished, lips moving in a silent plea…

Please…

He stepped into a round tent, his heart pounding with dread…found her lying on the hard dirt floor, beaten, bruised, her clothing torn, skin covered with gooseflesh from the cruel cold… her eyes wide and glassy with shock as she begged him, too late, not to look at her…

Please, no…

He slipped her ring off his finger as they stood in the moonlight…trying to stay calm, keep his lips from trembling, looking at her expression of silent agony as he placed the ring in her hand, and his heart with it…the cold creeping over him, moving down the back of his neck, prickling his scalp…

No…

He stared, aghast, into her pain-filled but loving eyes as she looked over her shoulder at him, after taking a lethal blow meant for him…she sank toward the floor like a falling leaf…

The cold consumed him, creeping toward his heart, as her image faded, and the tears began to fall…

"Taka? Taka!"

His stinging eyes wouldn't open, and he couldn't answer; he curled tighter on his side, putting his hands over his face, shivering as he tried to hold the tears in.

He never could. He shook and moaned with the sobs and the cold, hearing Miaka's anxious voice.

As he trembled, he felt her pull the blankets back up over them. She lay down behind him and wrapped an arm around his chest, warm against his chilled skin. Her head came to rest against his. "It's over," she whispered. "I'm here."

"I'm sorry," he whispered between sobs, as he always did, and turned over to embrace her tightly, as he waited for her warmth to drive the cold away again.