Alrighty, I wrote this after I wrote a nice happy drabble. You probably won't have to worry about random burst of giddiness because of the nature of this drabble, but excuse a little OOCness. Hopefully there won't be any, but, you never know. xD On another note, I have this drabble to be set some time after the first drabble I wrote "Electrical Reaction," and that drabble is made to be set after the 2nd gig, so just keep that in min das your reading this.


:Nothing Stays the Same:

It wasn't the first time her thoughts reeled back to that day. Whenever she had a spare moment, she would immediately remember him. His words to her while trapped under the rubble repeating over and over.

On this particular night, she lay awake in bed, the irony of it all too much to sleep on. She had been there for him near the beginning of his life, and she was there at the end. It doesn't get much more ironic than that.

"I never thought it would turn out…like this."

He wasn't completely a criminal in her eyes. No, he was trying to help the refugees, the people that looked up to him with the utmost admiration. It came at an unhealthy price, one that took his life. But she was beginning to realize now, that in order to help the people he cared for more than anything; some things just had to be given up. By hurting the government, Section 9, her, he had kept his promise to the refugees, and there was nothing wrong with that.

But, he also changed, no longer that innocent little boy lying in the hospital bed, folding origami. He far surpassed that boy now, getting by his fears of becoming a machine. He moved on, a different man from that point on. She changed as well, no longer that open minded girl, encouraging him over the days that passed by slowly after the accident that almost stole away both their lives. She now hid behind a façade, hidden under the beautiful features of the woman she became, prosthetic or not. Now, she only opens up to a given few, on of them gone already. She now understands that nothing stays the same.

He was gone, and that was that.

"I sometimes wonder, how things would have turned out…if he had survived,"

She turned her attention to her left, where Batou lay asleep, exhausted from earlier.

"Would it have ended like this?"

It would have. What she and Kuze had wasn't love, but a lasting vow of friendship. That being the reason they went to seek comfort in each other on that day. That was another thing of the past now, one more memory to add, one more burden to let her ghost handle, and not let it interfere with her every day life. Maybe what they had was unrequited, one wanting nothing more than a friendship after all these years, one wanting it to blossom into something far more beautiful. Blossom it would, but soon to be crushed by reality. She was the cop, and he the terrorist. Something like that would have never been.

She felt stirring beside her, and then felt a thick arm drape itself across her stomach. She brought a hand up to rest upon it, fingers tracing small lines over the warm surface, all the while fighting back the urge to sigh in confusion. She'd been thinking too much lately, looking too far into the matter. So far that she'd looked right over the answer she's been seeking out. It didn't take her long, however, to realize that she was satisfied. Besides, since when was she one to ponder on what if's? She needed to stop yearning for the things that she loved most, and make more lasting connections.


:I rather liked the ending, I can easily imagine that Motoko would mourn over Kuze's death. After knowing him for so long and then all at once losing him, it must have been stressful and upsetting. I guess you could say that this is my way of looking at the person Kuze had become just as it is Motoko's. Kind of a shame he died, but then again, maybe not.