Considering which month this is, you were probably all wondering which pairing I would honour with Valentines. Here's your answer – my first and only OTP.

Day 14

Long Gone

(established Hikaru/Hyoma)

When she opened her eyes, she was cold.

For a moment, she didn't register why this was so strange. She'd slept outside and in draughty warehouses before. Then she remembered. Oh yes. She was in Hyoma's house, high in the mountains, safely hidden in Koma Village.

But... if she was indoors, why was she so cold?

Hikaru sat up and reached over to the bedside table to light a candle. When the flame flickered into existence, she looked around in confusion. Yes, they were a long way up, but that was no excuse. The house had been pleasantly warm that evening as she, Hyoma, Gingka, Hokuto, Kenta and Madoka had sat around the fire exchanging stories of the past few months. Gingka was leaving for Europe in a few weeks, so they were all spending as much time as possible together. Of course, a single house didn't have enough room for all of them, and so the six of them had drawn lots until Gingka had the camp-bed, Madoka the sofa, Kenta the floor – and herself Hyoma's bed. Hyoma had just grinned at her and fetched the hammock from outside, stringing it up from the rafters and happily settling in for the night.

Something felt wrong.

Instantly, every sense was on high alert. Something was different, and not in a good way. She froze, listening with all her might. That was Gingka, snoring in the next room. The faint snuffling was Hokuto.

That was when she realised that she couldn't hear Hyoma's soft breathing from the hammock above her head.

Quietly, Hikaru slid out from under the covers, wincing as her feet touched the cold floor. A gentle poke to the bottom of the hammock confirmed that it was no longer occupied, to her consternation. Where could he have gone?

It was the cold that told her. Frowning, she pulled her boots and coat on, and slipped out of the bedroom, manoeuvring around the sofa where Madoka was still fast asleep, and trying not to tread on any part of Kenta, who was sprawled close to the embers in the grate. Her guess was proved correct when she reached the door to the outside; it was loose on the latch and kept swinging slightly in the wind.

At first, she couldn't see anything unusual outside either. The open square of the village centre was completely empty, and there was no-one in the front garden either. But she knew something wasn't right.

She found him almost at the edge of the village, bracing himself against a wooden-railed fence that came up to his chest. He wasn't looking her way, and he seemed to be muttering something under his breath.

"Hyoma?"

He startled as if she'd fired a gun behind him, and whirled around, Aries already prepared to launch. She automatically backed up a step, but managed to stop herself from lunging for her own blade by sheer force of will.

Hyoma had never pulled Aries on her before.

"Hyoma, are... are you alright?"

He looked awful. The moon was full, and right overhead, so it did nothing to disguise the shadows under his eyes. Even allowing for the light, though, he was pale, and his fingers on the ripcord shook slightly. "Oh... Hikaru," he sighed. "It's just you."

"Who did you think it would be?"

He slowly unlocked Aries from the launcher and slid the blade back into its holder. "Maybe Gingka," he said, but she could tell he was lying, because his voice was too high.

"Would you have pulled Aries on Gingka too?" she asked, and he couldn't look at her.

The silence stretched between them for the longest time. He was staring at a spot just to the left of her foot, unmoving apart from his shoulders as he breathed.

"Hyoma?" she asked eventually. "Hyoma, talk to me."

"I'm fine," he said, looking at her again and trying to smile. It just made him look even worse. "You should go back to bed. Why are you up, anyway?"

"I woke up and it was cold," she explained, and he groaned.

"I'll fix that latch tomorrow," he muttered to himself. "Stupid thing never sticks properly during the winter."

"Why are you outside? It's even colder out here."

He shrugged uncomfortably. "I needed some air. I'm not used to sleeping in a house with five others."

"So you came out here where it's absolutely freezing?"

He half-laughed, and it didn't sound right, it wasn't right because there was no light in his eyes and he was so tense that she was surprised that the wind hadn't shattered him. "I'm used to it." His expression sharpened. "But you're not, so go back to bed before you freeze."

"I'm tougher than I look," she shot back.

"I know," was his only response, and he looked away again.

She stepped forwards until she was next to him, leaning against the fence. Looking up, she could see thousands upon thousands of stars dotted across the sky, overshadowed by the vast white moon. There, so far above her head, was the constant reminder of her power and the strength that could not leave her, no matter whether she held and launched a bey or not. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he slowly imitated her, the tension beginning to drip from his shoulders.

They stood there for nearly half an hour in silence before Hyoma finally tore his gaze away from the stars and looked across to the forest before closing his eyes tightly.

"Hyoma..." She was going to add something else, but she didn't know where to start.

"I just keep seeing it," he said finally, voice choked. "R-Reiji. The... the way he grinned as Aries shattered. The glint off of those terrible blades he had on his attack ring. The way he laughed." He swallowed painfully. "The way he just wouldn't stop."

Hikaru felt something painful grip her chest. "Hyoma, he's gone. He can't hurt you any more. It's over now, you..."

Hyoma whirled around, eyes blazing. "Do you think I don't know that?" he snarled. "Do - do you think there is anyone – anyone – in this world who knows that better than me?" His hands clenched themselves into crumpled claws, only just preventing him from digging his nails into his palms. "I'm the one who... who reads his psychiatrist's reports, who checks every week that he's still in the same psychiatry ward of the hospital, the one who buried Poison Serpent in seven pieces in the forest outside Koma Village where no-one but me and Hokuto could ever find them. I know he's gone. But..."

His breath came in great, shuddering gasps, and he turned away from her, wrapping his slender fingers around the top rail of the fence. She stood there, wanting to step forwards and just help him because goodness only knew that he needed something, someone right now. But she couldn't. Her brain was blank of all comforting words or touches, whirling around the single fact that he was there in front of her, he was hurting in front of her and she was his girlfriend so why couldn't she think of some way to help him?

"Go back to bed," Hyoma whispered, head lowered. "I'll come inside in a bit. I just need some air."

"No." She saw the way his shoulders tensed, but in this at least she wouldn't back down. "No, I'm not going anywhere without you."

If he had been anyone else, she would have wondered if he would strike her. But even when he was hurt like this, reacting like a wounded animal, she trusted him. She had always trusted him, even when there was nothing else in the whole world that she could rely on. Hyoma had been there for her every single time that she had woken screaming from facing her Nightmare. And yes, she considered it to have a capital letter because that was its name. It wasn't completely Ryuga, or completely L-Drago, but some unholy combination of the two. It had driven her out of sleep more times than she cared to admit. Even now, she couldn't be in a room with too much purple in it or it would trigger the beginnings of a flashback.

Now it seemed that it was her turn to help him.

"Hyoma, I'm staying," she said clearly.

"You don't have to," he answered, voice dull. "It's not as if you couldn't find someone else who wasn't this broken. Someone more suitable for you."

Her breath caught in her chest. "No!" she exclaimed. "No, Hyoma. Don't say that."

"You could have been with Kyouya," he pointed out. "Julian would have had you. Tsubasa. Even Gingka."

"No, I couldn't," she whispered. "They don't... they don't understand the Nightmares like you do."

"I wish I didn't," he spat, but the anger wasn't aimed at her. "I wish I'd never even heard of Battle Bladers. I wish none of this had happened."

"None?" she asked softly, catching his eye and holding it.

He let out a long, slow, shuddering breath. "No," he admitted finally. "No, not everything. Just... just all the... the..." He couldn't finish, and just looked at her as if begging her to understand him.

The thing was, she did. He dreamed of Reiji and a blade with fifteen spikes whilst she dreamed of Ryuga and a blade with three dragons, but it really wasn't that different. She knew the strain of fighting the Nightmares that the past produced so easily in sleep. It had nearly destroyed her.

But he'd stayed strong, much stronger than she had. He'd been able to keep protecting his village with his bey, whilst she had only been able to pull Storm Aquario out of its holder in order to save the world. Admittedly, twice.

And all the while, he'd been working alongside her, pale blue hair dancing in the wind and eyes shining with life and freedom. It was his determination to fight through his demons that had inspired her to go back towards the world of blading, even if it was from an office rather than at the side of the dish. He was everything to her.

"You know," she said, and her cheeks were burning. "You know, I really do love you."

He made a strange sound, a sort of choked sob, and her heart broke. Hyoma was strong and tough – he had to be, to beat Gingka for so many years – and he was not a crybaby. But somehow Serpent's poison had not only destroyed his bey but had damaged the very core of his being. He was like frozen steel, strong but cold and as brittle as thin ice.

Suddenly, he turned to her and she automatically opened her arms as he stepped into them, an instinctive embrace that meant everything and somehow more than everything. His fingers clenched against the fabric of her jacket, and she felt the shudder run though him as he drew in breath after ragged breath, fighting to maintain the trembling façade of normality.

"It's okay," she whispered. "You can let go. I'm here."

She wasn't sure if the half-gasp he made was a laugh or a sob, and decided it didn't matter. He buried his face in her shoulder as she pressed her cheek to his hair, not knowing what else to do, what else to say. He'd been strong for so long that she hadn't even noticed that he was reaching his breaking point. Perhaps they were together, but there were still walls that stood in their way.

He turned his head against her shoulder, and she suddenly realised that her coat was damp. He was crying, actually crying, and the realisation made her mind screech to a halt. This was Hyoma. Her Hyoma. The one she had relied on utterly for the strength to carry on. The one who had declared his intention to face Ryuga whilst knowing what the other man was capable of. The one who had matched both Kyouya and Gingka in battle. The one who had braved everything the world could throw at him to defend his village since the day he was old enough to understand why.

And she couldn't do anything except wrap her arms more firmly around him and try not to cry herself.

"It's hard," she said, because she knew what he felt and knew that the answer of It'll get better was both false and unhelpful right now. Yes, one day they would be healed, but not yet, not whilst their Nightmares dragged them screaming into the dark. He looked up at her, dragging one hand across his eyes to rub the water away, and she took a deep breath. "But I love you. I always will."

His eyes glowed in the moonlight, full of some strange emotion she could give no name to. Then he leaned in, and kissed her.

He tasted of salt, even though his lips were dry and somewhat chapped. She held on to him, winding the fingers of one hand through his hair as he wound one arm around her waist and the other over her shoulders.

The slightest movement of his head and she loosened her grip, dropping her hands and stepping back a little, though not enough to fully break contact. At least he was meeting her eyes properly now.

"I..." He closed his eyes for a second, then looked back at her. "I love you too, Hikaru."

She pressed her forehead to his. "Come back to bed," she said quietly. "I'll stay with you."

He laughed, but the sound was wet and half-choked. "I'm in the hammock," he said. "There isn't room for two."

She bit her lip, knowing what his boundaries – and hers – were. "Then we'll share my bed," she decided. "We've slept together before, haven't we?" At his look of mingled amusement and scandal, she rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant. You and I shared the last time we were all up here, because Kyouya was here too, and he took the hammock."

"I know," he said softly, leaning into her. "That... that would be nice. Just... sleeping."

"Just sleeping," she confirmed, wrapping both her hands around one of his. "Now, shall we go?"

He looked down at their joined hands. "Yes," he sighed, but it was with somewhat more of a smile than before – and he didn't let go.

She kept hold of his hand all the way back to the house, even when shutting the door and latching it firmly closed against the cold. In fact, she didn't let go until she was back in the bedroom, blinking in the candlelight. She took off her coat and boots so that she could slide under the now-cold covers, but he hesitated.

"If you're that bothered, grab your own blankets and curl up in them," she said. "But I'm not letting you sleep alone again – not tonight at any rate."

He shook his head and reached up to grab the end of the blanket that was just trailing down from the hammock. "You think of everything."

"Not everything," she protested half-heartedly as he joined her, pulling his own blankets over himself as she did the same, before dragging the biggest one over both of them. She shivered as she leaned over him to blow the candle out.

But as the light went out, she felt him tense up, his breathing suddenly becoming erratic as the darkness closed in.

"Hyoma," she hissed. "Hyoma, it's alright. You're safe. He can't hurt you any more."

He shuddered and slowly, so slowly forced himself to relax. He tugged his blankets up to his chin and rolled himself right up in them so that there was an additional barrier between the two of them, before turning over so that he was facing away from her.

"Hey," she called. "That wasn't quite the point of being in the same bed."

"Sorry," he muttered. "You shouldn't have to put up with all this."

She smiled sadly. "But I want to. I want you."

He rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. She could tell that he didn't have an answer for that. For a long time, they lay there side-by-side, shoulders just touching. Finally, she turned onto her side so that her head would just rest at the top of his shoulder, and the movement made tension wash down him again.

"I'm not going away," she whispered. "I'm right here."

"Oh," he murmured as he relaxed again, half asleep, half smiling. "So you are." His hand reached down under the covers and twined loosely into hers. "So you are."

.

The next morning, the sun was shining brightly, and the birds were singing outside the windows. All evidence of the darkness had passed.

Hikaru sat up. Hyoma was already up, it seemed – the smell of cooking breakfast told her that he'd already been out to the stream to catch some fish. She could hear the faint murmur of familiar voices from the main room, so Gingka and Madoka at least were awake.

It would come back. Hikaru knew that. She had faced her Nightmare more times than she could count, and Hyoma's Nightmare wasn't any less persistent. All they had was the knowledge that the sun would come back again, but during the nights when it seemed like sunrise was an eternity away, sometimes even that wasn't enough.

And for that, they had each other. They might be broken, but they were together. That was all that mattered in the end.

"Hyoma's making breakfast," Hokuto informed her when she eventually arrived in the main room. "You could go and see if he needs some help."

She smiled and nodded, though she knew it was just an excuse. Hokuto could always tell when Hyoma had slept badly.

He was leaning against the worktop, looking out of the window rather absently. "I've already told you, Gingka," he said as she came in. "Another five minutes."

"I appreciate the information, but I'm not Gingka."

He almost jumped, and spun around. "Hikaru!"

"Good morning." She smiled pleasantly at him. "Sleep well?"

"Yes. And you?"

"Fine, thank you."

They could play this routine very well by now. It was their disguise, their veil from the world.

But between the two of them, their veils had fallen. They fought on side by side, back to back against the Darkness in all of its forms, and they would never have to face it alone again.

So she leaned in and kissed him, slow and deep and careful, trying to tell him wordlessly all the things she would only ever say aloud in the dark.

She knew he understood when he kissed her back.