This is it. This is where he died.
My eyes shifted to the ground, focusing on the nearly dissolved footsteps and edge of the crater I stood on. He had died here, the one I'd always cared for but never told for that over-cliche fear of a broken friendship. Hyuuga Neji, how I wish I wasn't so paranoid...
I caught a glimpse of something gold from the corner of my eyes and looked towards the center of the crater. I couldn't quite see it so my curiosity took the better of me and I drifted over to it. Brushing my long, blood-red hair from my face, I knelt down and picked up the shining object. It was a feather.
The ground below me shook and I tried to brace myself, crushing the feather in my palm as I fell over clumsily. I tucked my feet under me and clutched my knees.
Something was coming out of a tree not too far. Something I couldn't identify from my place in the crater. Shivers flew down my spine and I lowered my left knee, preparing to pounce if the need arrived.
Slowly but surely, a black-haired, pale-skinned figure with frighteningly intense pale eyes stepped out of the tree. Neji.
I blinked hard, unable to believe what I saw. When the vision didn't leave, I closed my eyes again, thinking harder, focusing more on how impossible it was for him to be alive and walking towards me. I held myself like that for long that I nearly screamed as someone's arms were thrown around me. I only gasped.
He didn't speak at first, and neither did I. Instead I cherished the feeling of him against me, of his clothing against my skin, of his breath against my neck. I buried my face in his hair. Despite the breeze and the flutter of birds' wings around us, I heard the hardly audible, muffled sigh that came from Neji's lips. He pulled away and stood, offering me a hand. I took it gratefully and stood as well, staring him straight in the eyes.
"I missed you," I muttered, not breaking the stare. He smirked.
"As did I." He turned my hand over to reveal the crushed feather I had long forgotten about. "Interesting," he said, then smiled and reached into a pocket on the inside of his shirt. When he pulled his hand back out, he held an identical feather. I knew the words instantly, even before he said them.
"This is fate," we muttered, with me repeating him in my thoughts. With that, he closed his eyes and touched his lips to mine.