A/N: Yeah, I know this story has been idle for a month, but it's being continued, slowly but surely. The younger fic just has more ideas going for it, lol. Expect an update to Code Geese as well as one to Compromised Reality and The Improbable Truth. Definitely continuing, okay? Just because I take a month doesn't mean I'm discontinuing it. If I definitely go a whole year or no without any updates, you can bet it's abandoned. But a couple months means ideas are just compromised, that's all.

Chapter 12 Saki's perspective and Dollars rise

Saki was not stupid.

She was a very, very smart girl.

Izaya-sama told her as much, when he had saved her from being abused by her parents after years of them hurting her in many ways.

Then she'd met him.

Masaomi Kida, a young waif, taken in after his parents abandoned him on the street.

She'd met him when he was only around eleven and she was around twelve herself. She'd instantly taken a liking to him and thought of him as her younger brother of sorts. But as he got older, she found herself falling for him. Now that he was fifteen and she sixteen, she wondered if perhaps they could pursue a relationship now.

She saw him as her younger brother, true, but she lately thought of him in more intimate ways...being around him made her heart pound very fast, listening to his voice made her long to just be with him forever and hear nothing in the world other than his voice, to feel her hand touching his, to feel his breathing on hers, to listen to his heartbeat, just knowing that there was such a warm, kind caring person around who honestly cared for her so much made her feel so good.

Masaomi didn't realize it himself, but he was a sun for her. His rays never failed to brighten up her day, no matter how depressed she was feeling about being stuck in the hospital, being looked at by sympathetic doctors and nurses, who continually lied to her, telling her she'd get out of the hospital soon enough and helped her with physical therapy.

She hated the looks of pity they gave her. How they whispered behind her back that her life was ruined.

No, her life wasn't ruined just because she was hospitalized and couldn't walk. Life went on, whether you were able to walk or not. If she learned to walk again, that was good. If she learned to walk with a cane or a wheelchair, that was all right, too. She knew Masaomi would always be there for her, and he wouldn't let something like a disability get in the way of him loving her.

She'd brought it up to him before and he'd just paused, staring at her before cheerfully declaring that he would still support her no matter what. She'd smiled a lot that day and her nurse had teased her about her "crush" causing Saki to go quite red and protest.

But she didn't mind. Her days without him around were dark and gloomy and gray. It sucked to be away from the world while she could see the people outside laughing, talking and above all, walking, being mobile, not having to be transported from place to place, being able to walk and run and do things she once could do. She was envious in a way, that was why she would spend a lot of her time either watching television, reading or else looking out the window and "counting humans", like Izaya-sama did.

He came by and cheered her up, too, but Masaomi was special. He alone could cheer her up in that way that no one else ever could. Those eyes were even the color of the sun itself, so it was hard for her to not see him as the sun personified? A son of the sun god, Apollo, dropped down to Earth to meet her and take her away to the fields of Asphodel, where she would be happy.

Together, they could do everything.

Nothing could hold them back.

But then, two things happened to change their relationship forever.

The first was...Masaomi's sudden change in behavior. It happened all of a sudden.

Without warning, Masaomi was suddenly distant and more emotional around her, breaking down into tears around her, complaining of nightmares, and being scared of or wary around Izaya, whom he'd previously been close with, and then complaining of headaches.

It worried her when he'd started distancing himself from her, and seemed to grow more quiet during her time with him.

Why couldn't he tell her?

On top of that, why had he been so...scared of the hospital? Before, he'd been able to visit her without being scared, yet now he couldn't be happier to leave the hospital. She wondered what had happened to him. Did he see some scary movie about hospitals?

All the people here were very nice and kind, so she failed to see how that could come about, and Masaomi was a logical person. He was not one to believe in absurd things or illogical ideas, yet here he was, telling her stuff like "I believe in reincarnation" or telling her things about children who'd died of cancer (and her wondering where or when he'd met such a child).

Whatever. As long as he was hers, nothing mattered.

But then the accident happened and Masaomi was gone. He refused to visit her and when he did, he was depressed and spent a lot of the time crying, telling her how sorry he was. He cried silently, and seemed to be fully blaming himself for what happened. Even though she tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault, he blamed himself and seeing that tore her apart inside.

She couldn't bear to see him sacrifice himself for a worthless girl like her.

That was why she'd distanced herself from him, in the hopes that some time apart would help them adjust. But he'd refused, and sought more physical contact from her. And oddly enough, he would ask her about female problems, which totally puzzled her.

He hardly, if ever asked about those things.

Imagine her surprise when she had one day run out of feminine materials.

She had mentioned it to Kida off-handedly, and noticed his eyes widen before he'd offered to go get her some. She'd declined, stating that she would ask the nurse for some.

The next morning, she'd awakened to find several containers of them sitting on the table, having been bought by a certain someone.

How had he known about that or about the specifics of it? He was a guy.

She'd asked him off-handedly about it and he'd just shrugged as his answer.

Perhaps one of his classmates had asked him.

"Masaomi," She said to the fifteen-year old who looked away from the window.

"Huh?"

"Quit spacing out on me," She said with a chuckle, "I wanted to let you know that Izaya-sama has been worried about you and your...personality changes. I don't mind. I'm weird like you, no matter what." She said.

Kida blinked and nodded, before hugging her tightly.

"Thank you..." He whispered.

She'd wondered what had made him so much more emotional than usual.

Did guys get a man period? Aside from transgender men, she doubted it.

She couldn't ask Izaya-sama, she'd get a scolding and then his face would be beet red.

She debated teasing him anyway, but he was a total prude and it wasn't worth it.

"Are you truly all right?" She asked.

"I'm fine," He said softly. "Just..concerned about some things going on."

"Like what?" She asked.

"Like...my memories. My memories are getting weird." He said, sitting down beside her and running a hand through his blond hair.

"How so?"

"Well, they become more vivid and weird. I dreamed about me dying. I don't want to die."

Instantly, she hugged him.

"No matter what happens, I'm here for you, Masaomi."

"Thank you." He whispered and he was sounding like his old self again.

She was glad, she'd been so worried.

Saki was a confusing person, but her love was reassuring.

Still, I doubted even she could understand what I'd gone through.

Dying and being reborn was not something a sane person remembers.

All that mattered was that I lived.

I didn't want to die here.

I'd been given a fighting chance.

I'm a fighter first and foremost.

No matter what happens, I will keep on fighting.