Author's note: Just wanted to say a quick thank you to Hanairoh for your lovely reviews and notes. I've changed a few things in a previous chapter thanks to you :) Appreciate your support! (And everyone else's too!) Xx

During the first week, Taki held up quite well. Only a few details gave him away. His ears were always tuned to the nearest radio. He phoned headquarters a few times too often for updates, which were never forthcoming. He cast his eyes at the west exit every now and then. But no one who wasn't paying careful attention would have picked up on it.

He threw himself into campaigns and sorties. Murakumo and the fifteenth division's line of imposing tanks tried to draw as much Alliance attention as possible for as long as possible. He kept his word to Klaus.

Towards the end of the second week, his anxiety became slightly more palpable. He was even more taciturn than usual. Hasebe sometimes had to repeat himself before Taki heard him.

But by the end of the fourth week, even the cadets were able to see a change as he strode across the compound. His stiffness, the hard line of his mouth, his preoccupied gaze. It shook their confidence a little to see him that way. And that was if they saw him at all. He stayed in his bedroom for days between sorties, admitting only a few.

And yet not a word. Not a single one. Surely the Western Alliance would have given some signal? Whether it was that their railways were destroyed or if it was that they stopped the attack, took everyone prisoner and executed those in charge… surely we would know by now. And yet not a word.

An internal monologue on repeat, whether he was yelling orders through Murakumo, feeling blasts that made her metal walls shudder, or sitting quietly in his room trying to battle his way through a slice of toast.

Hans Regenwalde had been one of the few who paid careful attention even as far back as the first week. He'd regained consciousness the day after Klaus' departure and watched the interesting change in Taki's demeanour and even appearance. During the handful of times Taki came to the infirmary to speak to Hans, his clothes and hair appeared to have suffered slightly more since his last visit.

At first, Taki came to the infirmary only to speak to Hans regarding his shooting. Hans was easily able to identify the soldier who shot him; a young private who brought him his meals and was now facing court martial.

Taki spoke to the private personally before he was taken away. Twenty-year-old Fukuo Tamura had turned his face away when Taki icily told him he'd let down his people and his country in committing such a cowardly act as shooting a man behind bars. Until that point in his speech, however, Taki had been struck by the defiance in Tamura's gaze, something he was not used to seeing in any subordinate other than Klaus. The soldier's hatred of Hans ran deep.

Interrogations revealed more layers of this hatred. On both sides of the bars. Hans' men in their own cells, betrayed and seething. The guards who'd listened to their theories of Hans' defection, their immediate mistrust, their burning need to get rid of the snake in their midst. In total, four of Taki's men were court-martialled. Hans was right. It was striking how unifying hatred could be.

Lieutenant General Hans Regenwalde now sat up in bed. It was afternoon and the infirmary was almost empty. There were bandages around his torso in addition in to his old one around the left side of his head. One of his hands was cuffed to the bed railing. A guard stood by him, posted to watch him around the clock.

Hans eyed Taki's dull hair and the weed-like wrinkles that had begun to creep over his coat and uniform. The young commander sat in a chair, miles away, by Hans' bedside. It was sometime in the fourth week of Klaus' absence.

'I'm as far from spirituality and sentimentality as it is possible to be,' Hans said in careful, gentle tones. 'But I have this feeling based on, shall we say, instinct. He's alive and well.'

The fact that neither of them spoke Klaus' name allowed it to form silently in the air. Taki became keenly aware of the guard nearby.

'He's always excelled. At everything he ever tried. If there was ever a person whom the Gods would personally salvage from the direst of situations, it would be Captain Wolfstadt. Who else in the world can claim that a schoolbook protected him from bullets and saved his life?'

Taki looked at him warily. He could never get used to Hans' unsettling omnipresence.

'How did you know about that?'

Hans' look was clear. I can't tell you. Not until I have your complete trust.

'I was hoping, Commander,' he said instead, 'that you were able to tell me more about the recon mission. The secret airbase I helped locate. What did you find?'

A sudden gust of wind outside hurled brown leaves at the window beside Hans' bed. Autumn, Taki realised. It had arrived without anyone having paid attention.

He considered Hans for long moments. He was well connected. He clearly had several informants within the compound itself. It could be risky telling him anything at all.

But he'd been nothing but truthful and undeniably useful for over a month. He'd claimed his allegiance to Taki and the Fifteenth Armoured Division multiple times, despite all disbelief and hostility and even an attempt on his life. And, at that very moment, Klaus might be in trouble.

The soldier who had been guarding the prisoner since that morning didn't hesitate when his commander dismissed him. And yet, as he left the infirmary, he felt a tingle on the back of his neck at the thought of leaving Taki-sama alone with someone so silent and unreadable.

Hans listened to Taki without interrupting. Taki felt, oddly, as though he were confessing his anxiety even though the words out of his mouth were phrased in the cold military terms of the earlier recon mission and the current one. Operation Hannibal.

'There's no way they could have completed the mission within two weeks,' was Hans' immediate assessment. 'If the Alliance was foolhardy enough to build supply railways near the Eastern front, they would be guarded twenty-four seven. Patrols, actual outposts, everything.'

Taki's heart sank like a stone. They'd been aware of the possibility but hearing it from Hans made it a certainty.

'But there would be blind spots where they simply couldn't maintain constant surveillance. I'm sure Klaus and his team figured this out early on. My guess is they're trying to find those blind spots. It'll take time. They'd have to rework the plan from scratch. But if you haven't heard any news, I think it's a good sign they haven't been caught.'

Again, Taki felt the weight of Hans' words like a physical presence.

'Have faith in your captain, Commander,' said Hans. 'Give him a bit more time.'

A dark figure emerged over the hill. Klaus tensed, hand on the trigger. A few flashes of torchlight from the figure calmed his pulse. He signalled to the others that it was only Ota and his men.

They waited in the gathering gloom for their comrades to cross the thick brush. Klaus craved a cigarette.

'Anything?' he asked as Lieutenant Shigeki Ota finally pushed past the trees.

He was Klaus' second in command; a mid-sized guy in his late forties with a permanent, affable scowl. Klaus had taken to him immediately at the outset of the mission.

'More of the same. They switch every three hours. A real changing of the royal fucking guards, no eyes are dropped anywhere. Airtight.' He looked at Klaus gravely. 'Except for Thermopylae.'

Klaus sighed. He crouched on the ground and picked up a stick, absently drawing two parallel lines in the dirt with arrows attacking it from a few different angles; an outline even he could barely see in the disappearing light. His men waited.

The entire length of the railway was heavily guarded except for where it ran through a narrow, rocky passage not far from where they were. But it was a hard place to watch over. With two high stone walls flanking the railway on either side, there was no room for a patrol, no cover for guards. A blind spot.

Ota and Klaus had taken to calling it Thermopylae. They'd recently begun to feel a bit like Leonidas and his three hundred men against an army of millions. And the narrow passageway was just the right amount of symbolic.

'Thermopylae it is, then,' Klaus said eventually. 'We'll move out at first light.'

Due to the passage's unforgiving terrain and lack of cover, they'd spent a few days scouting, hoping to find a better spot, but nothing had turned up. Thermopylae was precarious but it was the only opportunity they had.

The men set up camp silently and with heavy hearts.

In his tent, Klaus settled on his back and wondered how long it would take him to fall asleep. He wished he could see through the tent roof. There was something about stars filling in the gaps of canopy that always moved him.

He heard Ota take a long piss nearby before crawling into the tent, muttering softly under his breath about mosquitoes. He settled heavily beside Klaus. They lay in silence for a while.

The mission was two whole weeks over their projections. Klaus liked to imagine that Taki was worrying himself sick about him. The unlikely image made him smile a little. He pictured his master lying alone in that huge bed with light from the lamppost outside spilling onto the bedspread in arcs.

'Got anyone waiting at home?' he asked Ota.

'Yeah,' Ota grunted. 'Too many. Wife and mistress. Hope they haven't found out about each other.'

Klaus chuckled. Ota was one of the few officers he'd ever met who couldn't care less about where Klaus came from. He treated everyone, regardless of nationality, with the same mix of camaraderie and apathy.

'You?' Ota asked noncommittally, as though obligated.

'I guess you could say that, yeah.'

'Yeesh. Sounds complicated.'

Klaus lifted and dropped his eyebrows. 'Complicated doesn't even come close. Just the other day, I was feeling sorry for whoever decides to write my biography.'

'No biographies till we win the war.'

'True. First chapter starts tomorrow at Thermopylae.'

Or last, they thought simultaneously.

Taki walked beside Hans and the tense guard in silence. Hans moved cautiously but well enough for someone who had been shot twice only weeks ago. They reached a low brick wall surrounding an abandoned ammunitions shed and Hans sat, stretching his legs out in front of him. It was a habit of his, Taki realised. His legs were very long.

Earlier, in the infirmary, he'd made a comment about not having seen the sunset in over a month. He then drily apologised for having been caught out; perhaps he was guilty of being sentimental after all. There was nothing at all suggestive about his comment. But the relief Taki had felt upon hearing his advice about Klaus was potent. There was also the lingering guilt of Hans nearly being killed in Taki's own holding cell. And, despite holding onto mistrust of varying shades in the back of his mind, there was an unassuming serenity to Hans that had lately begun to put him at ease.

And so, surprising both himself and Hans, he'd suggested a walk. The guard was called back to uncuff Hans from the bed, cuff his hands together instead, and accompany them to the perimeter.

After they'd walked and sat, Hans breathed deeply and stared at the tree line silhouetted in the setting sun. The guard stood beside them, statuesque. Taki took a few steps away, wondering why he'd come too.

'Thank you for accompanying me,' Hans said, cutting into his thoughts. 'I'm sure you must be busy.'

'Our next offensive isn't for a few days,' said Taki by way of excuse.

Something had been niggling in the back of his mind for a while. He hesitated.

'Before, when you said Klaus excelled at everything he tried. What were you referring to exactly?'

A faint smile touched Hans' lips.

'You've seen what he's capable of. His skills as a soldier and a pilot. It's always been like that. In school, he was the golden child. Teachers, parents, students, everyone adored him. He just had a way with people. He only gave hell to the teachers he didn't respect. He'd get sent to the principal's office with citations like "problems with authority" but he and the principal got along so well he never got into real trouble.'

The teachers he didn't respect. Taki suddenly imagined Hasebe at the head of a classroom.

'On top of that, he was a student leader. An athlete. He had a score of pretty girlfriends over the years.' (At this, Taki kept his gaze trained on the ground though his pulse picked up a little.) 'He was near the top of our class academically too. That was the only field in which I was able to rival him,' he added with ironic modesty. 'But I lost to him as many times as I won.'

Taki blinked. An academic Klaus? It was like trying to picture a tiger on a leash.

'You seem surprised,' Hans said with a hint of amusement. 'But you must have seen some of that in him. Didn't he become fluent in your language within just a few months of moving here? It took me several years to reach this level.'

Taki batted his hair down where a fresh draft of wind had lifted it. He felt a little dazed. On some level, he'd been aware of it, sure. But...

'I get the feeling he doesn't like people knowing how intelligent he really is,' said Hans. 'For whatever reason, he prefers to show off his brawn.'

The surprise gave way to something else. How much else didn't he know about his own knight?

His eyes took in the courtyard without really seeing it. Around the base of the trees, a handful of light, tiny petals were strewn amid the dry leaves. Now, thanks to him, Klaus was crouching in a godforsaken forest somewhere, putting his life on the line for a country that wasn't even his own.

He suddenly wanted very badly to be alone. He opened his mouth to excuse himself.

'In fact, the only person I've met whose resume is more accomplished than Klaus' is yours,' Hans said before he could speak. 'Academics, martial arts, military triumphs. Everything except the score of pretty girlfriends, it seems.' His eyes almost twinkled though his tone remained deadpan. 'But I suspect that owes to cultural difference more than anything else. Not to mention Klaus can be quite persuasive in that department. Or so I've heard.'

Taki concentrated hard on keeping his face neutral. Hans shifted gingerly on the brick wall to accommodate his wounds before carrying on. His lean, defined face and thin lips reminded Taki of marble.

'I didn't mean to sound disrespectful. What I originally meant to say is that it seems fated for two such remarkable individuals to have found one another.' He paused and stared at his lap. 'Forgive my forwardness, Commander, but it's a bond I envy a great deal. I envy Klaus, especially. For having found such purpose.'

The words knocked about in Taki's mind long after they parted. Hans' gaze had affected him as well in a way he couldn't figure out. Something both familiar and unfamiliar. He never knew what to do with those bursts of unexpected veneration. It always reminded him of Klaus, an association which, now, caused a hollow pang.

He wanted to sleep. Sleep for hours, days even, and wait for someone to wake him with news about Operation Hannibal. For a moment, before he opened the door to his empty room, he wondered if a tall, blonde man would materialise on the armchair by the window, swigging back a glass of scotch.

There was one other person in the compound who felt Klaus' absence as keenly as did Taki. Haruki Yamamoto always instinctively looked up when Taki's sure, firm step came echoing around a corner. These days, however, there was no one in his shadow.

His roommate, Ryoumei, was confused by the sudden gloom. He collapsed on his bed and sighed pointedly at Haruki who'd been sitting at the writing desk with a vacant look for almost twenty minutes.

'You're like a zoo animal that doesn't move,' Ryoumei informed him. 'Someone's going to poke you with a stick soon.'

No response. Not even that stupid grin of his.

Ryoumei was mostly worried because his best friend and roommate had always been gratingly cheerful. He was the kind to share the rice balls he'd snuck out of the cafeteria or laugh sincerely at jokes that weren't all that funny.

From time to time, Ryoumei even remembered with a shock how poorly they'd all once treated a small kid by the name of Toono. For years, he'd been the loner and the butt of every prank. Ryoumei himself had played a hand in the mindless bullying. No one remembered how Haruki had gradually changed all that. He'd simply started asked Toono if he wanted to join them, whether they were playing handball or just eating lunch. His openness was so complete that no one could question or counter it without seeming petty by comparison. Now, Toono was as much a part of their group as anyone else.

Only Ryoumei remembered what Haruki had done. In fact, he was certain even Haruki himself was oblivious of his own good nature.

Airhead, he thought fondly.

'What's got you so mopey anyway?' he said, scratching out his ear with a pencil. 'You on your period?'

'Have you seen Klaus-sama recently?'

Ryoumei groaned loudly. 'Not again with that.'

'Well, have you?'

'Didn't those other guys already try to beat you up for idolising him?'

'I don't give a crap what they think,' Haruki mumbled, chin in hand.

'And no, I haven't seen him,' Ryoumei quipped, a little irritated. 'Why are you so worried about where he is?'

'Don't you think it's strange? He's usually always with Taki-sama but I haven't seen him for over a month. Maybe something happened to him. Do you think I'd get in trouble if I asked Taki-sama himself?'

Ryoumei ogled him, pencil frozen in the air. 'Ask Taki-sama? Where his Saxon pet has gone? Are you crazy?'

Haruki sighed. He thought about the gun that was wrapped in one of his shirts and stashed under his mattress. He wondered what Ryoumei would think of Haruki having kept it for so long.

Ryoumei stared at him for a few more moments before giving up.

'When you're done pining for your boyfriend, join us on the court. Kaoru's mother sent him a basketball.'

'I'm not pining!'

Ryoumei snorted. 'Would have been smarter to say "he's not my boyfriend". Idiot.'

He was relieved to hear Haruki laugh for the first time.

'Screw off, Ryou. You know what I meant.'

After he left, Haruki's eyes fell again on the courtyard bench in the distance where a month ago he'd sat and heard about what it felt like to fly.

In Klaus' dream, Taki was young. A teenager. Fourteen, fifteen at most. He was stunning. Klaus remembered his heart thudding painfully just at the sight of him. Slender and strong. Slanted, shining eyes beneath a shock of jet black hair. And pale skin begging to be marked.

But Klaus had been unable to move from his chair. Arms and legs petrified.

Doesn't matter, Taki had said, unbuttoning his uniform. Leave it to me. Had his mouth said that or his eyes?

When he was naked, he straddled Klaus and slowly peeled his shirt away. Klaus thought he may faint from the overwhelming strength of Taki's scent. Taki kissed him deeply, his mouth melting hotly against his. Klaus' erection strained.

Where is it? Taki's eyes/mouth said.

Where's what?

It? Where is it?

Oh. Oh, it's there. You just have to undo my… my…

To Klaus' relief he seemed to understand. And then like magic, Klaus' pants were gone. With a hand on Klaus' shoulder, he lifted himself up and held Klaus' cock in his slender hand. He lowered himself slowly and, as Klaus' cock pushed in, a long exhale escaped his body. Klaus wanted badly to move his hands, to pinch his nipples hard and make him moan, touch his thumb to his lips, but his useless arms remained plastered to the armrests.

Young Taki sped up the pace and took Klaus deeper, from the tip all the way to the hilt.

Is this what you've wanted? Taki said, or sent, his eyes half-lidded with lust. This whole time?

What?

Please don't be angry with me, he whispered, really whispered this time, into Klaus' ear as he rode him. I wish I could have given you all of this.

Taki kissed him again and Klaus felt himself come in terrible, bucking spasms deep inside his small body.

He thought back to the dream all day, even while he and his men skirted the enemy's supply railway, laying explosives. He couldn't shake the feeling of it, the pearly whiteness of Taki's body. It felt more real than his real memories of Taki.

They lay the bombs over the course of a kilometre along Thermopylae, constantly stopping and starting each time they heard the rumble of a train. Once, they even retreated over five hundred metres towards the forest when they thought they spied a patrol in the distance.

By nightfall, all three hundred bombs were almost laid out. Ota and a few others were laying the finishing touches in the shadows of the rocky outcrop while Klaus' unit stood watch.

For the past twenty minutes, Klaus had been uneasy. He felt like he'd memorised every detail of his surroundings and seen nothing out of the ordinary. And yet he had a bad feeling. It was like when something dark moves silently in an even greater darkness. There was something he wasn't seeing.

The first shot took out the man on Ota's immediate right.

Another dropped near Klaus.

Adrenaline flushing through him like ice water, he vaulted for the nearest cover behind a moss-covered rock. He yelled for everyone to do the same.

Thermopylae was a fateful name for their operation. Klaus quickly realised that an enemy patrol had snuck through a trail behind them in the mountains while their gazes were trained in the opposite direction. The shots came from behind and above.

Klaus gave the order to retreat.

His men were falling. Bullets sliced through the air, ricocheting off rock. They scrambled up the railway line, sprinting past explosives they'd spent hours meticulously laying down. Klaus felt everything slip through his fingers. They'd been so fucking close.

Driven by anger and anger alone, he turned and fired blindly into the side of the mountain as he sprinted, never knowing if he took out zero or twenty, never knowing if they were complete strangers or people with whom he'd caught the school bus back when he was a westerner and nothing more.

When the bullet tore through his left arm, his first thought was, There. Finally.

And then his universe was reduced to that singular point of pain. He cried out and sank to the floor.

'Captain!'

He heard Ota over the tumult. Gasping for breath, blinking through the pain, Klaus turned. Amazingly, Ota had remained among the bodies of his fellows to try to rig up the detonator.

'Captain!' he called again.

Feeling as though the weight of the entire world was skewed towards the hole in his arm, Klaus staggered to his feet. He headed for Ota, once even stumbling like an idiot over the railway planks. He kept his eyes on Ota's outline hunkering at the end of the narrow stone passage. He expected, at any moment, to see a spurt of blood, Ota's figure to shudder as though mildly surprised and then sink to the ground. But he seemed immune to bullets, his figure crouched and focused. His position was somewhat sheltered by the angle of the outcrop, but if there had been just a bit more light he would have been done for.

Klaus reached him and sank to the ground beside two dead men. Men who had been alive and breathing and even digesting two minutes before.

'You're hit,' Ota said simply.

'Yeah, saw that.'

'Help me get this in the ground. Then pull that cord through.'

Klaus worked one-handed, his left arm searing. Flesh wound? Bone? Who cares. He was about to die soon anyway.

'Fuck,' Ota commented when a bullet came so close it left a black mark on the plunger in his hand. Klaus turned and fired at nothing. It was too dark.

'What else do we need to do?' he said.

'Nothing. It's set. It should blow.'

If all had gone to plan, they would have bolted into the clear, dragging the cord behind them, and exploded the bombs from a safe distance. No such luxury now.

Klaus's vision reduced to a fine point in the darkness and bullet-riddled chaos in front of him. He almost felt calm. He felt strangely grateful for the Taki that had come to him in his last dream.

'Good work,' he said numbly to Ota, taking the plunger and box from him with his good hand. It was surprisingly heavy. 'Now get out of here.'

'What?'

'Follow the others down the line. Stick to the south side, you'll be right under them and they won't be able to see you.'

For a precarious moment, Ota just watched him.

'That's an order, Lieutenant.'

Ota nodded a few times, wearing his usual scowl. Then he snatched the box and plunger back from Klaus and took off down the railway line.

'Ota!'

He got up to follow, bellowing as his arm oozed fresh blood. He couldn't even hear Ota's footsteps anymore. The guy's turned into a fucking gazelle all of a sudden, Klaus thought. He had to catch up. He had to –

The explosions shook the world to its core. Where there was once pitch blackness, the night was swallowed in flame after flame that blew away the railway and the rocky outcrop, their Thermopylae. Metal and rock flew into space before collapsing.

Klaus felt the burning heat even from where he was. He saw the place where Ota would have been engulfed in fire. His last thought, before a huge, heavy, unyielding something fell and knocked him unconscious, was whether the wife and mistress would ever meet.

The news came through to the Fifteenth Armoured Division that night.

Railway supply line destroyed on the Eastern front.

Hostilities took place before detonation.

Back-up platoon reached their location after detonation, eliminated few remaining unfriendlies, salvaged survivors. Among them, Captain Klaus von Wolfstadt. Injured.

The word cut through Taki like glass.

They were being taken, on foot, to the nearest hospital on their side. It would take at least a day.

Injured. A useless word that captured a spectrum of meanings from a papercut to a lost limb.

He didn't sleep.

But by the end of the following day, colour had returned to his face. The cadets saw the decisiveness of his step. Hasebe and Uemura were again racing to keep up during strategy meetings. Hans cast an appraising eye over his hair and clothes, the strength of his frame. And Taki himself barely had time to retreat into his room.

A single phone call from a hospital on the Eastern Front had brought him back.

Master.

Taki played the conversation in his head again as he took a seat in the general meeting room.

We did it.

To Taki's humiliation, tears had pricked his eyes. He held them back with an inhuman effort.

We lost a lot of people. Really good guys. There's one especially I need to tell you about. But we did it.

He told Klaus it was a job well done.

But apparently it's not over yet, huh? That's what they're saying here anyway.

No. The Alliance were no longer able to bring any new supplies in but they were gearing up to give it their all with what they already had. The general room was abuzz with the new developments.

Sounds like it'll be an epic last stand.

A low rumble of a chuckle.

I guess it's not as easy as I thought to win a war single-handedly.

Taki had wanted to impress upon Klaus the significance of what he'd done. Instead he'd asked, with bated breath, how he was.

I'm fine. They're fussing over nothing. Bullet got my left arm. It's in a sling. And a rock crushed one or two of my left ribs. Whole left side of me is a bit useless at the moment, really. Got this big ugly brace thing. I'm wearing it well, though. All the nurses say so.

Relief. Anxiety. Guilt.

I'll be out of here soon. I'll be next to you for that last stand. Wait for me, okay? Taki?

Taki straightened in his chair and called the general meeting to order.

'Okay. Let's get started.'