Authors Note: SE does not belong to me. That really has not changed ever since I started writing. Ah...finally something for this tale. I might add another one in the coming weeks. Re-reading it made this scene suddenly pop into my mind. After all, they're the other half that concerns our intrepid hero and heroine. Wish me luck and thanks for those that read this from the very start.


PARTNERSHIPS

BLACK STAR

I know far more that I let on. Sure, I let them think that I don't think. Frankly that's because thinking bores me and tires me out faster than a thousand high kicks done at Mach speed. Thinking, I always believed, is something for those that can't do much of anything except sit and speculate. Now me, I'm more of the action type of dudes. If I can't do it, frankly, I will try until I CAN. There is nothing I will accept as impossible for me. If its impossible, it only makes me burn that much more to make it possible. Well, everything except thinking and being smart. That and studying just plain escapes me. Training I understand but sitting and staring at paper all day? Bleh! It doesn't mean though, that I don't indulge in that rare commodity every once in a while. I do. I occasionally indulge in thought twice a week. Gives me a moth of headaches, though. As I said, I just find it too troublesome to do so.

However, this time I guess I have to indulge in my most hated activity. My partner, after all, is being troubled by the idea that our partnerships about to go kaput. Not that anyone shouldn't feel the least bit apprehensive—I can understand his hesitation. I am the greatest after all. I was prepared for him to be clingy and afraid—not that he ever would, the arrogant bastard. What I wasn't prepared for what was that he would be both hesitant and all too willing. Even now, I can see the far away look in his eyes and know that he would soon belong to someone else.

Soul bound. Even a certifiable dumb-ass like me understands that it's something serious. I understand the "bound" and "soul" part just as well. It's the implication that it's somehow so very fricking important that people make a big deal out of it that I don't understand.

I have known ever since we paired up that we were at best, was an acquired taste; what we had, a temporary thing. I trusted my tech—there no was no question about it. He was loyal and fierce—friendly and suave as I have never been nor been able to. He is formal, elegant and cultured. I am, as many had the temerity to say—even to my face—am something short of an actual barbarian. It has become a private joke between us. People judge us—they judge by our clothes and our words. But they do not see beyond that. Beyond the truth that I hide whatever sensitivity I got with sheer crassness and he hides his barbarianism with the cold, unfeeling politeness. Hey, I never said we didn't have flaws, we only know how to deal with it in our own way.

I know how the world sees us. I also know that they are blind to what we are to one another. He is the icy edge to my fiery intensity. Whereas I burn with the flames of a thousand stars—some say TOO much intensity, he meets every challenge with the arctic precision of a cold-blooded, expertly wielded scythe. I am well aware that I rush headlong into battle—that doesn't imply that I don't bring my brain to go along with it. I bring him.

I needed his coolness to temper my flames—ones that I know would get me into serious trouble someday. I need his impartiality and his cold demeanor to hold me back when I would otherwise go off-kilter and jus rush on ahead without plan or forethought. And he needs me to fuel his rage. He is too cold at times—too much like his bladed self—he hungers for the fight but he needed my strength to fuel the battle-lust that flows through him. I lend him my fire—he grounds me with his ice. Together we have forged a formidable partnership.

Now, with this latest shocker, I can clearly see where my partner's new discovery is headed. It is a fact that I found I am not too mad or even resentful of. I have known—always—that there were sides of him locked away from me. That's why we never resonated. At first we assumed it's simply because we were both of us Alpha-male types. The idea of baring our souls and forging together gave me the heebie-jeebies. It's like declaring love and hugging like crazy in front of an assembled crowd and sharing with him MY stage. The sheer notion is enough to make me contemplate gutting the damned idiot myself.

With the truth now out that we were both intended for someone else, is it any wonder that we are sharing a look all our previous foes discovered led to their utter demise? And is it any wonder why our sometimes Boss and long-suffering friend wished he was anywhere except near us? Go figure it out yourself. I'm too tired. I spent too much time thing. Damnit, I knew it was a bad idea. Gods, now I have a migraine. Gotta eat…thinking is hungry, tiresome work.


TSUBAKI

I have failed her.

I know that she will never see it the way I do. I know that to her, even now, it was she that failed in yet another way. Failed to meet up with the expectations of the one she has bled so much for to gain the slightest bit of approval. I wonder if this trial—this test was somehow just another way for Kami-san to show her daughter that she has been found wanting yet again.

I wish I could have the words needed to heal her…comfort her. My presence is a paltry excuse for companionship when I am unable to even do the most basic of a weapon's task—resonate with her Meister. I know that she treasures me—just as deeply I treasure her. I will deny her nothing that could and would make her stronger. Anything that could let her gain even a speck more of confidence and peace, I would willingly trade blood for. But with a few words and a truth too unnerving and consuming for us to deny—here we are—left with nothing but our spirits broken and our minds in turmoil.

I cannot be with her. She may never see the truth of it, but Professor Stein had. And with his words, I saw my own failure and the truth we both denied unknowingly. Something that has nagged at me countless of night before whenever I berated myself for being selfish and petty. I knew deep inside of me that there was a void—an emptiness to our bond—one we have attempted to fill in through friendship and sisterly love, with training and studies and endless hours of battles. But it was all in vain…in the end, everything we have worked for until that moment now pales in comparison with the unyielding truth Prof. Stein has presented to us. We cannot be together.

I knew—deep in my heart that the fault does not rely on either of us. It is simply fate and birth that separates us—just as it was always destined to do so. The bitter taste of failure is by no whit lessened by it though…the knowledge mocks me still. I have failed her because after all that we have been through, she still doesn't need me. Not like I needed her. My Meister is strong. Her heart—her soul is undaunted by darkness. Though she fears and doubts and wonders—she is still pure, still fearless. Even without me she is like this. She doesn't need my strength—she doesn't yearn for my serenity. She does not long for what I can give her—she simply waits for what I deem to give her. She never asks, never demands…only waits. She keeps waiting for something I do not know if I could give her.

She is not complete—that much I know. But whatever she hungers for, I can only give a paltry illusion of it. And the truth pains me like nothing else. I wish we could find our intended half, even if my Meister fears and resents our impending separation. I do not relish the dissolution of our bond—I will miss her. I do know, even if she doesn't, that I could never complete her. I want her to be with the one she deserves. The one that could make her great. Just as I long for someone who could finally face up to the cursed blood inside of me that's too hungry and too strong for the fragile, brave soul that once shared mine. I wish for that most of all.