Ok, here goes. Sorry,for the endless wait, guys, School´s keeping me pretty busy, but now I finally found the time... ^^ So, in reward, it´s gonna be extra long :D

Hope you like it, I sure do. Took me ´till after midnight, this one.

Sir Rendersom was coming straight at her. When he finally reached her, he bowed respectfully and held out a hand once again.

"May I now request a dance with you? I think you owe me one..."

A long pause of silence filled the moment, only the glistening of the curtains before the open window was to be heard. Sharon was at a loss what to say. Oz, Alice and Gilbert had warned her from this guy and now she was left alone with him and he wanted to dance with her. But on the other hand, the wouldn´t have left her without a reason, would they? No, she trusted her friends and thinking somewhere along these lines, she wanted to sink into a reverence, when a hand around her waist stoppped her in the movement.

"The only thing she owes you, Charlie, is a good beating"

Her eyes widened. This voice, she knew so well. This voice, comforting her in her dreams, this voice, that was now so near to her that she could hardly believe it.

Coming straight out of the night shadows, Xerxes leaned down to her. "Milady, may we proceed to a dance, before I lose my temper and throw a cake at him? I wouldn´t want to dishonour the cake like that, so maybe..."

Had this been any other situation and any other person speaking to her, Sharon would have laughed at him, or called him crazy, or both. But as this was Break, she Break she knew so well, the Break that she so loved in her own way, and she knew he wasn´t joking as much as he would like to seem, so, she gracefully took his hand and smiled at him.

"So, just for the grace of the cake, I´ll dance with you."

Break chuckled and led her to the dancefloor, tighting his grasp around her waist and swirling her around to the beautiful sounds of Mendelssohns Op.19 n°4. (A/N: I suggest, you listen to it sometime, it´s really beautiful!) His grin didn´t fade away one bit, it only changed a little, turning into a true, genuine smile, dedicated only to her and this moment, and not even the frown of his young mistress could bring down his good mood.

"Where were you?" Sharon whispered.

Break rolled his eye.

"You know, sometimes here and sometimes there and maybe even nowhere..."

"I´m serious, you know..." Oh, if she weren´t dancing with him, she surely would have hit him with a fan, made of good old wood and she surely wouldn´t be stingy about the pain.

He smiled again. "After breakfast, I recieved a message from glassesboy, that something fishy had been going on, down by the village, and that a certain someone had been collecting information about Pandora. Knowing that your Ladyship was too busy with her preparations, I went by myself, but I did leave you a letter explaining you everything, didn´t I ?"

It took Sharon a while to understand that 'glassesboy' was actually Reim Lunettes, but as she comprehended the sense of his sentence, she shot him a death glare.

"Your letter didn´t explain anything, you just told me not to worry and you would be late."

"You forgot to mention that I asked you to keep me some cake!" Break grinned.

"Well, I´m sorry, but Alice has already eaten it up.." Sharon pouted playfully.

He growled slightly in played anger "Ah, she´s sure gonna pay for that... Is there at least some liquor left?"

She just laughed heartily and enjoyed the feeling of them being so close together. This was the part of the evening she had been looking forward to the most.

"So, you went to the village to ensure my safety...?" she then asked, not quite sure, if she had gotten the essence of what he had said before.

"Yes, that´s right. Apparently, this Mr. Unknown had also started a file on information about you..."

"About me?" Now, she sure was surprised. True, information about Pandora was weird enough, but about her?

"I don´t know, I never saw the content, only the writing on the folder with your name on it and a question mark."

Sharon wasn´t sure at all what to make of this, but she had a vague feeling about who this Mr. Could be and her feminin 6th sense never mislead her. Then, she realized that Break´s face had lost his smile. He was rather ernest now, completely focussing on her, eye fixed upon her face.

"He also had a file about Sablier." He added with a sarcastic undertone.

Sharon frowned. "Break, ...I think I know who this guy could be..." she started, but his reaction showed her, that he already knew. He just nodded. "Oz told me, Sir Asshole tried to make a move on you two times?"

"Three times," she corrected him,"but the first was intercepted by Oz, the second by Gil and at the third time, you made your entrance..."

He sighed. "I don´t have any proof, but all evidences seem to lead up to the same conclusion: Sir Rendersome is a no good, flirtatious, womanizing, monkey headed..."

"Take a break right there!" she interrupted, before he could get impolite.

Disappointed, he let out the air he had been holding in and pouted. Then, he got serious again and concentrated on the woman in his arms that looked up at him attentively.

"I´m glad you eventually came, you know" she smiled.

"I promised, didn´t I ?" he said, returning it. And he realized that as the music came to the final chord, she stepped up closer to him and put her arms around his neck.

"Can I have one last dance?" she whispered, blushing slightely. Rosen irises gazed upon his red ones with a question in them.

"You can have as many as you like," he replied, pulling her closer to him. A slow, melancholic song started and the couples on the dancefloor soon began to exchange themselves with the ones that had been standing outside prevoiusly. Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, Sharon spotted Oz and Alice in a similar postition to hers, only they were not dancing. Catching Sharons gaze, Alice suddenly leaned forward, capturing Oz in a perfect lip lock, which he eagerly replied, but Alice kept one eye open and blinked to her. Sharon flushed deep red at the thought that her soulsister was actually implying that she should do the same to the one she loved.

But, would he even return the kiss? She wondered. Does he even think of me that way?

She was so uncertain about what to do about this. Should she dare? Or not? Fact was, that now could be the one and only chance for it, since she didn´t know when she would get another private moment with him again. She´d do anything to keep their relationship in the good way it was, but what if she could make it even better? She really loved him even more than her position in Pandora. Making her mind up, that now really was her only chance, she braced herself. Looking up at him through her eyelashes, she couldn´t hide a smile that stealed itself onto her lips as her regard traced his features. The flashing smile he returned made her heartbeat increase so much that she nearly lost the rythm of the song they were dancing to.

"I really enjoy dancing with you," he abruptly remarked.

She flushed in a furious red. "A...And why would that be so?"

"You´re a great dancer. Besides, I don´t need to talk to you about unimportant things. You understand me, even without words."

She suddenly felt like tearing up, throwing herself against him and quietly crying to him, whispering 'Yes, I love you',... but she could hold herself back at the last moment.

"I like dancing with you, too, you know,..." she carefully replied. Then she realized, that he was leaning down to her, slowly closing the gap between them.

"You know,... I..." she slowly began, but suddenly, a gust of wind blew in from the window and put out all the candles, setting the room in darkness.A chill wandered down her spine as slowly, but constantly the cold air crept upon them.

The mass of people that had previously been enjoying themselves, now went immediately quiet and then started whispering anxiously. She couldn´t make out anyone in the dark, not even Oz, Alice, or Gil, she only felt Break´s warmth comforting her with his presence. Then she felt something at her ear.

" I don´t think this is a coincidence" Break murmured under his breath. "I can´t see much, I only noticed that the lights went out."

Frightened at the sudden proximity, her fingers clutched into the fabric of his costume and she felt his presence now surrounding her even more, as he passed his arms around her.

"Don´t worry, it´s only me." he chuckled slightly. Letting out a suppressed sigh, she relaxed hersef as she realized how childish she had been, yet she didn´t break the embrace, it simply felt too good. But as slowly her vision began to adjust to the dim darkness filling the room, she noticed someone creeping up behind the both of them.

"Break," she whispered, "there´s someone..."

"...Right behind you with a gun ready to shoot, if you don´t comply to our wishes" A dark voice finished her sentence and she could feel something cold and hard inbetween her shoulderblades.

"Don´t do anything funny, you clown, or I´ll shoot the lady." The voice snarled. And Sharon knew that with that, they had Break completely under control. If they had threatened to kill him, he wouldn´t have cared at all, since he had the opinion that he was going to die anyway soon, he would have just beaten them up pretty badly and taken the risk. But Break would never risk someone elses life dear to him, especially not hers. He was her knight after all.

Her knight just growled. "Fine. What can we do for you? Tea? Cookies?" Break released her from his hug and was immediately punished for his sharp tongue by a hit on the head.

"I said nothing funny." The voice hissed.

"Funny? Me? I´ve never had a sense of humour" Break teased.

The shadow holding the gun just growled. "Go now, move." The second shadow that had sneaked up to Break followed silently behind them, still keeping himself to the background.

They led the two of them through the huge hall to the door leading to the gangway and were rudely pushed forward anytime they had to slow down, so as not to bump into somebody. Trying to reassure her, Break cautiously reached out for her hand, gently squeezing it shortly before letting it go again, very much to Sharon´s disappointment. Now more than ever, she wished for his presence as near as possible. As they reached the corridor, Sharon blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the sudden light, but her kidnappers didn´t give her a break, they just shoved her forward, making her stumble, after they had bound together their hands, disabling them of any move for fist combat.

"Where are you..."

"No questions" the guy with the gun bellowed as they continued through a small passage leading to the wing with the guest quarters. They jolted them into a small, darkened room and locked the door behind them after entering.

Sharon´s first impression was that there seemed to be a balcony window open, because a soft summer breeze cooled the sweat from her forehead as she moved into the pitch of black.

Then, one by one, candles were lit, illuminating the room in a light golden glow. She couldn´t see the faces of her predators just yet, but she could guess from the diminuating sound of footsteps that Break was pushed over to the couch in the middle of the room, while she was being walked over to the bed, still covered in unused sheets.

"What do you want from me?" Her voice tried to sound calm, but it also had an undefined hardness in it. She most certainly knew now that this had all been a setup from Sir Idiotism, yet she hadn´t seen him since she had started to dance with Break. But she also had been much to distracted and happy to have a look out for that spiv.

"It´s easy."

The second man now turned to her and the blood in her veins froze. Sir Assholes hair was a real mess, he looked like he had had a fight with a hurricane and his eyes were no longer blue, but deep red with dark circles under his eyes.

The first one, the one that had threatened to kill her with the gun, now grinned. "I´ll leave you to it, then. Just kill the lady, then the clown won´t do anything" Break just smirked. But Sharon knew better. This was a situation were the war had to be carried out via pschology and not physiology. And war had been declared, because no one, especially not him, would ever dare disturb such a precious moment to her and get away with it unharmed.

"Then enlighten me, I´m not a quick thinker," she hissed.

"Well, as you surely noticed, I tried to gain your hand in a dance, but unfortunately,..." he made a theatrical pause.

"Thankfully..." Sharon suggested.

He glared at her. "...Unfortunately, in vain. Now you surely ask yourself why I did that.., well I..."

"...You just wanted to bat your eyelashes at me, so I would be charmed..." she interrupted him. "Now, just a guess here, let´s say, I hypothetically go for that and find you attractive enough to dance with you more often, thus giving you more opportunity to lure me into the trap of me falling for you. After the ball, we would have had more and more contact, and then, if had been stupid enough, I even would have married you. So, concluding, you would be now the head of Pandora Organisation and could do with it what you want..."

"If you knew, then why did you theoretically agree to dance with me the third time around?" he asked sarcastically. But altough he obviously tried to keep his cool, he could hide the fact that he was extremely surprised that a woman had gotten behind his plan. Granted, not the best of plans, but anyway, she was a woman, she shouldn´t have been able to see through his intentions, at least so he thought.

She hid a smile. "Let´s just say, I had a feeling that my angel would watch over me. And besides, your idiotic plan has one flaw."

Encouraged by a raised eyebrow, she concluded

"You underestimated me. And just because I´m a woman. It´s a shame for you, that your miserable life will end a brief amount of time."

"I think not." He pulled out the gun and pointed it at Sharon. "Do you value your life?"

She snorted. "Of course I do. Everyone does, with the exeption of deluded, crazy or extremely arrogant persons. But although I value it, I would surely be willing to lay it down for the people I love."

"Love." Sir Rendersom snarled. "Is the most unimportant and useless thing in this crappy world."

Sharon´s eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Look, obviously, we´re not getting anywhere here. I know your plan, so what do you want from me?"

She was just glad that Break hadn´t said anything yet, that encreased the possibility of Mr. Idiot here forgetting him, thus giving Xerxes an escape possibility to go and fetch reinforcements.

" Well, actually this makes things a bit easier. Now I don´t have to flatter you to give me what I want."

"What is it you actually want?" Sharon got impatient, only irritating her kidnapper by her behaviour. Any victim he had taken before had either shut her mouth and cried silently or begged him for mercy.

He tried to regain his pokerface and went over, kneeling down before her. Lifting her chin with his finger, he spoke to her with his husky voice she now so detested.

"I want you to hand over the controls for the Organisation. I want to know everything about the chain called Alice and..." he shot a glance at Break who just sat there by the couch, making himself comfortable. "...I want every information about Sablier and Glen."

"Don´t mind my asking, but do I look like I know such stuff?" Break asked casually.

Sir Rendersom snorted again and stood up, pointing the gun in his direction. "Don´t play funny with me, Mad Hatter, You´ll really regret it, I swear."

"Please don´t. Swearing is very rude, you know? It´s not opportune for a gentleman of high society to swear." Break joked.

Sir Idiotism went over to him, his face a grim mask of hatred. Then, he directed his gun towards his chest and smiled slyly as he released the safety catch of the weapon and slowly, his finger closed in on the trigger.

"You asked for it."

Breaks eye widened in shock as the bullet penetrated his flesh, grazing his lung only and inch away from his heart. Blood spattered from his mouth as his internal wound nearly made him go crazy at the pain. Like a fly in amber, he saw the floor coming towards him, only in slow motion did he hear Lady Sharon yell his name as he cast his last glance upon her crying face, filled with shock and pain and he swore to always remember her. Maybe it was this last thought that made him smile one last time, maybe it was the thought of it finally being all over, he didn´t know.

He wasn´t conscious anymore when he hit the floor.

The next thing he felt was emptyness.

Sir Rendersom only laughed evilly at the dramatic atmosphere.

"That´s what you get for not obeying my orders."

Then, turning towards his second victim, a small, ever so evil smile curled on his lips. With tear pricked eyes, Sharon looked upon his wicked face, drawing closer to her with every breath.

"You´re a monster." She whispered. "But nontheless, I won´t give you what you want."

"Oh, but you will."

"My, what a original reply." She mocked. Even now, under these circumstances did she try to confuse him, still searching for a way out of this. Because she would get out of this. Alive. And together with Break.

With Break, because he wasn´t dead. She could feel that. The moment the bullet hat hit him, she would have gladly layed down her life to save him, but she knew he would get up again. If you love someone, you simply know.

"You know, that line was already used in Frances Hogson Burnetts 'The secret Garden', in Jane Austen´s 'Mansfield Park' and in Lewis Carrol´s 'Alice in Wonderland`." She continued. "So there, a typical cliché. Kill me if you wish, but I won´t do what you tell me."

Her brabbeling sure had an unsettling effect on her opponent, so much she could see.

"I don´t care. But maybe you´ll be more willing to do as I please after I will have made you mine." He hissed, tracing her jawline with his finger. She only growled in response and leaned her head back as much as possible, so as to elude him, but unfortunately, her uncomfortable position didn´t allow much latitude.

"You know, I´ve always wondered how good you are. And not only on the dancing floor, mind you." And there was that grin again.

Slowly, his slender fingers began unbuttoning the back of her dress, and she could do nothing about it, but watch helplessly as one by one, her hooks unclasped and she could feel the cloth slide down her shoulders.

"You´ll certainly regret this." Her voice grew more and more desperate with every word.

He only grinned. "Now who´s using clishés?" But he stopped opening her up and knelt even closer to her, placing one knee inbetween her legs, letting his suit coat glide down his shoulder, revealing his muscular stature. But Sharon stayed unimpressed. He would pay for this. With his life.

When Break woke up again, he closed his eye in irritation. He felt like he was in the Abyss, but it was much to bright for that.

A deep, hollow voice laughed and the sound echoed throughout every corner of his very soul, as he slowly got up and turned around to see where he was.

"So, we´ve woken up, haven´t we?"

"Who are you?"

The voice laughed again. "Oh come on, Break, you know me. Better than the back of your hand, if I may add."

His eye widened. Slowly turning around, he then came to face his own Chain.

"Mad Hatter."

"At your service."

"Where am I here?"

His chain chuckled. "You´re somewhere between Abyss and the so called reality. Some people would call this heaven other hell, whatever you preferences are. But I like to call Nirvana"

"Then why not 'The great infinity', if you´re at it." Break suggested.

"Smartass."

"At your service. But honestly, why am I not, how should I put this, FULLY dead?"

"You are...up to some point. But the thing is, well, call it fate, nature, a horse, whatever, SOMETHING brought you here to give something to you."

"And what would that be."

"The choice."

"Between...?" Break grew impatient.

"Dying and returning to your previous destination."

"My previous...?"

"It is possible, you know..."

Mad Hatter swirled around, creating something like a window through which Break could see the room where he had previously been shot. He could also somewhat sense his dead body lying somewhere by the couch and then he could see...Sharon. Now it was true that he couldn´t see very well, but when it came to her, he could feel her so clearly, as if he had never suffered the loss of his eyesight. Her voice was burnt into his memories, her features in his mind as sharp as the original. And now he sensed...Fear. In a mixture with hate, anger and most of all...desperation. He gritted his teeth as he saw why she was feeling like that. Sir Baka was leaning over her, placing two hands on her back and he seemed to be opening the first hook of her dress.

Break snorted. "You´re connection is really bad. Try getting another provider."

Mad Hatter sighed. "Yeah, I kinda get that a lot. Now if you´re wondering, as to why they´re moving so slowly,..."

"I know." Break interrupted. "Time in Abyss goes by more quickly than in reality. Therefore, it seems to us that the outside is moving very slowly."

"Oh, so you payed attention, when Reim explains something?" Hatter mocked.

"Yes, for once in my life. But only because I was bored."

Then, Xerxes put a finger to his chin and started pacing up and down. He stopped abruptely when his chain asked what he was thinking so intensively about.

"What do I have to do, to get back out there again?"

"So you wanna go?"

He snorted again."Of course I wanna go out and kicking again. Besides, you don´t think I would let her be groped by such a perverted..." he took a deep breath, calming himself down "...I don´t know any adjective polite enough to keep this conversation T rated, so I´ll just stick with asshole."

Hatter chuckled. "Fine. You can go. I´ll think about the price when your time comes."

"Wait...So I can go without paying?"

"I told you, this isn´t the Abyss, nor the Grand Central Station. Be careful on your way and don´t lose and money." With that, the image of his chain fade away more and more into the distance, until an excruciatingly bright ray of light forced him to close his eyes as he felt that he was beeing sucked into something.

The next thing he knew was, that felt something fluffy against his cheek.

The good news was: the fluffy thing waas the carpet spread throughout the room.

The bad one was: when he tried to move, it hurt like hell.

He could hear Sir Asshole mumbling something and from the volume of his voice, he could judge that he was very near now to Miss Sharon. He didn´t dare open his eyes yet, but he distinctly could hear what the two of them were tlking about.

"Now who´s using clichés?"

Using clichés? That guy was one hell of a personification of a cliché. This was the type of bad guy that simply had this look on his face which screamed I am an incompetent good for nothing, please shoot me. Break dared to peek from inbetween a half closed lid and what he saw maded him want to jump up and start killing everyone in perimeter of a hundered metres. This bitching slut of a faggot was trying to lay her down. Oh, he would pay for this. With his life.

But when he listened closely, he could hear people in the room below, anxiously whispering and crying. They hadn´t only kidnapped the two of them, but this also seemed to be a major operation. But this idiot surely couldn´t have done it alone. And as he thought it out, Break had to come to the conclusion that somebody, maybe even Sir Idiot himself had to have a chain, otherwise a plan this big would have never functioned.

"You´ll be mine. For ever."

And anger arose in his chest. Lady Sharon belonged to no one but to him and most certainly not to someone who didn´t even deserve her grace.

Her kindness, her smile, the endearment of her movements, her love for poetry and beauty in life and her love towards all of those she held dear, was everything to him. She was everything to him. And he was her knight after all. But he knew that if he wanted to stop this, he would have to access the power of Mad Hatter, which could drive every energy from him. But if it was to protect her, he would try.

And summoning the power inside, he could feel it run through his veins.

"You don´t impress me with your words." Sharon hissed furiously as her predator leaned over her. To her surprise, he untied her hands.

"If it is not with words that I can impress you, then what about with deeds?" came the smug reply. The bitchslap made him realize that undoing her hands hadn´t been such a good idea after all.

"Don´t you dare touch me." he lower lip trembled as spat those words at him, but as she tried to evade him, her strength failed her. She had so long kept her muscles tense from fear that she couldn´t move them anymore. In the darkness of the room she was glad that she could only see his face in the moonlight shadow.

"Now don´t worry, this won´t hurt as much as you think." His breath came closer and closer.

As she closed her eyes, to at least gather her strength for a runaway, she felt the floor tremble slightly. And a warm, comfortable feeling settled itself in her chest as if she knew. Carefully daring a glance from between her eyelashes, she peeked towards where Break had previously been lying, only to find the place...empty.

A malicious smile graced her lips. So she had been right. He wasn´t dead. And now there was hope that this crazy jackass would be stopped to his world overtaking plans.

"You know..." she began. "I really sorry to break it to you, but...you´ve lost the game."

She only recieved an irritated look. "Now why´s that?"

"Congratulations on the superb accoplishment of your plan, but in your calculations, you missed out an important factor."

Sir Rendersom chuckled. "I don´t think so. You´re just trying to distract me from doing this to you."

Then, he nearly fell over backwards, as the room now shook with the intensity of an earthquake.

"You better take your hands from that lady or I´ll stick my foot so far up your ass that you can scrath your nonexistent brains simply by nodding."

Completely taken by surprise and off guard, Sir Asshole jumped around. Break was floating in the air, and behind him, Mad Hatter opened his eye.

"In your calculations, Sir Idiot, you didn´t include the fact that I am extremely, overly and utterly stubborn, especially when it comes to things like dying."

Sir Rendersom simply huffed. "You don´t think you can keep this up for long, can you, old man?"

Break grinned evilly. "You´ll only get out of here dead, Charlie, and I´ll make sure that the deed is done properly." And as he spoke, a red light flashed where his left eye had used to be, whilst his other one glowed in a similar way. And Sharon knew that now was the time where Break completely unleashed his crazyness to his full extent, becuse if you could handle a Chain like Mad Hatter, you had to be crazy to some point. She didn´t dare move, so as to not break his concentration, but she couldn´t help smiling as the tears of relief streamed down her cheeks.

Suddenly, chains of metal started to fly out of nowhere, laying themselves around the Duke´s body, rendering him completely immobile.

"You haven´t seen my last trump yet, clown" he then hissed, returning the grin. And now behind him, a huge fat rat started to rise, gawking in hatred at the Chaindevourer. Break gritted his teeth and then, he completely let go of his madness.

You yould also say hell broke loose.

Claws, jaws, and other unnameable body parts flew threw the air, trying to tear the enemy to shreds. Break´s chains flew here and there, foiling every attempt of the rat to get to Break, while Mad Hatter started swirling around, trying to confuse the enemy and heating up the air with electricity. Sir Rendersom had successfully freed himself from his chains and was fighting his way to Break, ducking from flying chairs and chains. But Sharon realized that he wouldn´t be able to make it if she didn´t do something. Remembering something and being unable to stand upright, she dragged herself to the desk not far away and opened a drawer, from which she drew a paperknife.

"Hold on, Break, I´ll help you." she mumbled. Using Eques was out of the question, since was so weak and that didn´t leave her any option but to kill that guy herself. And with the last bit of strenght she had available, she pulled herself up and made her way to the two monsters in the middle of the room, fighting as if tomorrow was never to come. Sir Rendersom didn´t see her coming, he was still to busy making his way through the hurricane they had created, having only his goal in mind. Killing that clown. For good, this time.

"Charles" Sharon yelled.

Surprised, he turned his face to where the voice was coming from.

"Don´t ever underestimate a woman." She shouted.

Her next move slit his throat with a clean cut and he fell to the ground, his eyes rigid with fear. But it wasn´t quite over yet. Mad Hatter grinned.

"I know a good price Break. Let´s trade your soul for his and the one of his chain." With that, a huge whirlpool opened, taking the dead body and the rat with it.

"Then your debt for this one is paid. Was nice meeting ya all" he laughed before disappearing himself in the pitch of darkness.

Next, everything fell. The room silent, Sharon to the ground and Break next to her. Covered with perls of sweat, Sharon tried to regain her breath. She had never been so afraid in her life. Realizing that Break was next to her, unconscious, she took his head on her lap and started talking to him.

"Please Break. Now don´t you dare leave me. Do you understand?"

Silent tears cut down her voice. She certainly wouldn´t let him die here in her arms. That would be simply too much lovestory cliché for her to take.

"Did you leave some cake for me?"

She blinked in surprised. Break chuckled and slowly sat up, leaning against the now completely shredded couch which showed the traces of their fight.

"Is...Is liquor fine too?" she laughed and cried at the same time. Not being able to hold back any longer, she let herself sing into a comforting embrace.

"Oh Break..."

His genuine smile appeared again, as he slowly wiped away the blood he had coughed up and that was dripping from his chin. And as tender as you would stroke a rose, he returned the hug, gently pulling her against him, resting his head on hers.

She allowed herself to stay there for a while, when she suddenly felt a finger brush away her tears.

"It´s fine. We did it."

She couldn´t do anything but to nod into him.

And just like once before, he gave her a tender kiss on her forehead.

Surprised, she looked up at him, her lilac irises waiting, even longing for him to say something. And in response, he simply kissed away her tears, one by one, gently moving downwards, until he finally met her lips.

Words failed to describe what she felt at that moment, she only knew that she had passed her arms around his neck, wishing for to never have to let him go. His lips were soft and comforting, a little salty from her tears, but even more wonderful that she had ever imagined in her dreams. She didn´t know how this kiss had come to be, yet she dreaded its end. But for now, she simply enjoyed the comfort of his arms around her.

When he softly pulled away, he too wished he hadn´t. He could still taste her silky scent and longed for more, but for now, he contented himself with simply holding her in his arms.

It turned out Mad Hatter had also taken care of the other villains with the help of Gil, Oz and Alice and when they searched the house for Lady Sharon, they found her unconscious in Breaks arms, who had managed to carry her to the ball room and after he had carefully layed her down, he passed out too.

He woke up with a headache like after a hangover, but the internal bleedings had stopped and he could move halfway through the room without yelling in pain and agony. Also had his wounds been cleaned, his bandages taken care of and he found himself in a big and comfortable bed. When he opened his eye, his friends were all waiting for him.

Gil, Oz Alice, Reim and of course Sharon.

They visited him day after day and once, after they all had wished him good luck for the healing and left him some peace, only Sharon stayed behind.

Blushing, she sat down on the corner of his bed, still smiling gracefully at him.

"I´m glad you´re going to recover soon."

"Yeah, well,... are you sure,... I feel this kind of stingy pain in my little left toe" Break teased.

She giggled and went sitting face to face with him, as he sat up and leaned against the cushion behind him. Her small, white hands were placed next to his, but she didn´t dare take it.

"Break...back then...after the fight...when you kissed me." she felt herself flushing as she spoke those words.

"...was that...was it meant like this?"

She had been rolling this over and over in her thoughts and now she wanted the clarity that he really loved her back and that he hadn´t just kissed her to comfort her or make her feel safe.

He leaned forward, putting a finger under her chin.

"That kiss was meant solely for the purpose of telling you how much feel for you, that I´m glad you are alive and that I would have done anything for you and would still do. That I love you."

With that he closed the gap once again. And this time, the kiss grew to be a little more enthusiastic than the last one.

"I love you too" she whispered happily in his arms.

The END! Sooooo, who noticed my 'Tangled' referrence? And how did you like the kiss? And while you´re at it, simply review the whole story ´kay? ^^ Again, sorry for the long wait, but I think this as an extra long chapter to soothe the thirst of those who have waited so long, is kind of a worthy excuse, don´t you think?