AN: Thank you for your patience and I really hope you enjoy

Chapter Seven – Light as an Arrow

Kyoko smiled at the man she loves as he demonstrated his use of the sword, she had known him to be athletic and more capable than other men but the fact that he had trained definitely paid off. She saw the sack that they were practicing on burst into sixteen equal fragments and fall onto the ground as he stood back and took some deep breaths, his face covered by the mask.

"That was great," Kyoko told him before remembering how he had asked her to act as a student. "Icarus," she nodded to herself as he turned to her, "That was very impressive but I do have a question."

"Okay, what's your question?" Icarus asked in a formal and slightly emotionless way.

"If you're from the light side then how can you destroy things?" she asked and Icarus sighed. "I mean shouldn't you be a healer and -"

"You can heal if you're dark energy too," he told her, "The real meaning of the light and dark energy is the intentions and the motivations that you have, the feelings inside. I don't blame you for harvesting this dark energy, with your background it does make sense but if you give into joy and excitement and love then I think we can convert your energy into a light energy."

"I just have to control my anger?" Kyoko attempted to confirm and Icarus nodded.

"If you do that then I have hope that you'll be able to change the range of your powers. I have to tell you though, I am not going to let you practice fighting against me until I know that you are in control. If you did send dark energy to me that I couldn't deflect, I might pass without the chance of coming back," he told her thinking about what his father said.

With deep breaths, Icarus managed to hang another bag with just a couple of waves of his hand. "I think it's your turn," he said before looking at the bow and arrow beside her, "I'm asking you for one center arrow. Once we have that task down we can take a break."

Kyoko nodded as she stepped forward. She was happy that he was sacrificing so much for her and she understood why he wanted to still keep his face hidden. Having "Icarus" teach her these things rather than continuing to see Kuon or think of him as Tsuruga-san, kept her focused. She didn't want to allow the distraction of him being by her side to mean harming him.

Kyoko shot a few arrows, most of them hitting the bag but not in the center just yet.

"Visualize where you want it to go," he advised her, "When you are a normal person, you can't control the energy inside your body, you have energy to use but no distinct level. You want to bring any energy inside you to the center of your body and visualize where you want the arrow to go," he said in his training manner.

Kyoko took a few deep breaths before shooting the arrow, she froze as it hit the middle of the bag but her eyes weren't caught on that. All of the arrows that she shot before had been black with a dark purple glow to them, this arrow was golden and had a silver sparkle around it. She froze. Was that good?

Her heart stopped as Icarus removed his mask and she saw Kuon's surprised face. She smiled to him before blushing. Was he impressed by her skill already? If this is how he looked when he was impressed then she wanted to continue doing it. "That was okay, wasn't it?" she asked and Kuon reached out to touch the arrow. He pulled it out of the sack before smiling as he removed one of the gloves that he was wearing.

"More than okay," he said as he let his finger go over the arrow. He turned to her and smiled as she watched him cautiously. He had already told her that touching the dark arrows gave him a slight pain without the gloves on but he was holding this one as if it wasn't painful at all.

"Do you know how you created this?" he asked her with his smile which always took her breath away.

"No, I'm…I'm still learning from my sensei," Kyoko replied as Kuon laughed.

"This arrow is one from the light," he said, "Which means that your light might soon overtake your darkness. I knew that you were a quick learner but I didn't realize that you could train your body so quickly. What thoughts were in your mind when you shot this?" he asked.

Kyoko looked down with a slight blush before looking at him again, "I was feeling happy that you were here with me. I wanted to make you proud of being my teacher," she said before putting a hand to her heart. "I wanted to show you that I appreciate you, that I love you," she said as Kuon's expression softened at that.

"Then how about we keep training?" he asked, "We need to build up those emotions. I'm so happy that I came back for you and so relieved this is working. Thank you."

Kyoko froze before smiling, "I should be the one thanking you for everything. I don't know if anybody else would make the same sacrifices for me. If I can continue to make you happy and continue to be by your side, whether as Kuon or Icarus, then I don't want anything else. I just want you."

…..

…..

Kuon was well-schooled. Maybe people cared more about his acting ability and his being able to get into different characters more than they cared about the fact that he was in fact very intelligent. He hadn't followed a faith himself but this trek above water felt so much like Moses in the desert and he was wanting to give up.

Was this purgatory?

That made more sense than anything else. An endless wandering as he was caught between heaven and hell. His earlier actions as the American teenager would most likely have put him below if there was such a place but maybe he had made up for it.

He took another deep breath. There were things that he could do alone, he had often spent time alone and especially these past years as Ren when he didn't want anybody to get too close to him.

His eyes snapped open as he saw a woman before him with the same confusion in her eyes and he ran towards her. Yes, this wasn't Mogami-san, but if Kyoko were in a place like this he would definitely be worried about it. "Hi," he said as he stood behind her and caught her looking at him.

"Great, another person and it turns out to be a fricken celebrity," she said as Kuon shifted uncomfortably. He wished that she wouldn't just see it as that. Right now there shouldn't be a divide between them since they were both people who were in this strange place. He sighed before holding out his hand.

"I'm sorry, I hope we can work as equals," he said to her with a weak smile and she glared at him.

"Well, whilst we're here I guess we have to be," she said. "Don't slow me down," she said as she continued walking and Kuon sighed before bowing his head.

"Do we even know where we're going?" he asked her and the woman glared at him.

"Are all celebrities idiots?" she asked as Kuon sighed. Hopefully finding another person here wouldn't make things more difficult.

…..

…..

As Kuon stared off into the shrine without his mask or training gear on, he lost track of what was going on around him. That was until a cup of black coffee was passed to him.

"Here," Kyoko said as she caught his surprised smile, "I know you take it black and you look so exhausted, please drink it," she whispered as he smiled to her before taking the mug. "Was it something that you can share?" Kyoko asked as she sat down beside him.

"Kyoko," Kuon whispered, he opened his mouth wondering whether to talk about his death or not, he chickened out of it. "How do you feel about the training that I'm having you do? Is it too hard or are we okay."

"It feels good, I mean really good that you've decided to help me," Kyoko smiled at him. "I trust you completely. I know that you're keeping an eye out for me and that if it was too hard or if you thought I was hurting, you'd help me. I don't think the training is the reason you're out here but…" she looked down, "if you want to keep that -"

"Death." Kuon said as he took a sip from the coffee finding it refreshing, "I was thinking about what I went through after my death. It wasn't a good time for me."

"Kuon, I really am sorry about that," Kyoko said before falling into a dogeza with tears in her eyes. That was the worst thing that she had ever done to him. The fact that he was Corn made it even worse. He had risked his life and lost his life to help her and after two years he probably wasn't just feeling as fine as he was telling her.

"Please don't blame yourself," the former-actor said to her although they both knew that his wanting to help her was the cause of his death. He ran a hand through his blond hair and smiled, "I was really impressed by you today," he said changing the subject, "How you concentrated and made those shining arrows. You've always been a very fast learner."

"You've always been the most amazing teacher," Kyoko grinned to him. She studied his face, he really didn't look okay. She bowed her head as she tried to think of how to help him in the same way as he had always brought her confidence and made her feel safe and protected. "Kuon, did you want to talk about what happens after death? I'm willing to just listen if you want me to. If you need to vent then I'm here no matter what you want to say about the experience or the….cause of the experience."

Kuon frowned, "I don't think I'm able to yet," he told her. "Did you want to continue the training or did you want to end it for today?" he asked and Kyoko looked at him. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what the right choice was.

"Are you really okay?" she asked with a tilt of her head. "Kuon, you can tell me anything. I can handle it. I love you," she blushed as she saw some happiness in his eyes because of that.

"How about we try some meditation?" he asked her and Kyoko nodded. "That's been one of the things that has calmed me down through all of this. I'm sure you'll be good at that as well."

"Then let's do that," Kyoko said with a smile as she watched him drink the last sip of the small cup of coffee and stand up, cleaning up the cup with another wave of his hand. She wanted to do something to prove to him how deep her love was for him and how much she accepted him as he was. Maybe he didn't think that he was her prince Corn anymore, but she would always see him as a prince no matter what name he used. She had never believed that she could love anybody as much.

End of Chapter Seven

Thank you so much for reading

Thank you, reviewers of Chapter Six

Erza, ktoll9, PaulaGaTo