Thank you all for staying with me and being patient through some of the preceding chapters. There was a method behind the madness I assure you. The two main purposes were giving insight to her past without using numerous, lengthy flashbacks and foreshadowing events to come without giving anything away. I'm not sure how anyone is feeling about this since no one has reviewed so thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

The sun hung high in the sky; a blazing ball of white light punishing all those below with its heat. Miyu drew the shades, then the curtains. The carnation pink curtains spread their rose colored hue across the room from the rays of the sun filtering around the edges of the thick canvas shade meant to block them.

Laying down on the bed, she sighed. Exhausted. Frustrated. Afraid. She had not heard from Kuki. Not a phone call. Not a text. She had been sure he would turn up at her door when the mission was complete.

Staring at the ceiling, she tried not to allow terrible scenes of his demise to unfold in her head, implanting a seed of doubt that he had not survived. Rolling onto her side, she held her pillow to her quivering belly in hopes of quelling the nausea brought on by worry.

Bang, bang, bang! Someone beat on her back door as if they intended to break it down to gain entry.

Hopping off the bed, Miyu ran down the stairs nearly falling twice before careening across the small foyer to slide in the door with a bang that mimicked the earlier intense knocking. She threw open the door to be grabbed, strong arms encasing her waist and squeezing as if they wanted to break her in two. The momentum with which he hit her slammed them both into the wall beside the foot of the staircase. His hands cradled her head, preventing her skull from taking an abusive hit. The body leaning against her was lean, rangy, but powerful - and trembling.

A warm wetness dribbled onto her face as she tried but failed to focus on the face mere inches from her eyes. She recognized the two distinct moles under the left eye that was closed tightly, tears streaming from the inner corner sliding along the side of his narrow nose, across his lips, and dripping from his chin onto her chest.

"Kuki, what - " Before she could complete the inquiry, his lips smashed against hers in a brutal, forceful kiss.

His hands moved from holding her head to holding her face between his palms. He covered her entire face with many hard kisses before finding her lips again. The kiss this time was far gentler, seeking comfort, no longer wanting to consume her in his panic. His mouth slid from hers, catching her full lower lip between his thin lips in an strange but provocative kiss.

Miyu moaned as his bare hands on her face created an electrical sting that awakened every nerve in her body. His touch had the most bizarre way of exciting her on a disturbingly deep level. Her arms encircled his shoulders, holding him to her chest. His mouth glided away from hers, his lips skimming along her neck.

"What happened?" she croaked, stroking his head.

Her body started shaking under the soft caress of his hands moving along her arms. Her knees dissolved into jelly, and her body made a gradual, slightly controlled, slide down the wall. They crumpled onto the floor together, her holding his head against his chest that was becoming soaked with his tears. His entire body quaked in her arms so fiercely he vibrated her body as well.

"So many died. It was awful. He's dead. He died right in front of me. He's dead. I couldn't save him. He's dead. He's dead," he chanted cryptically, his voice rising each time he repeated the phrase. He continued chanting, gaining volume until he screamed the words, his fists pounding the floor and cracking the hardwood planks.

"Wh-who?" she stammered, her palm touching his cheek.

She grunted and flinched from the influx of emotional anguish that created physical pain. Her chest constricted, crushing her lungs, and expelling the air out of them. Her heart seemed to swell, beating faster, aching as if it was trying to pound through her compressed rib cage because it had grown too big. Refusing to let him go, she constrained herself to hold him, to suffer with him, experiencing his sorrow as a bodily affliction.

Gradually, developing through a white spotted haze like a blinding blizzard, a mental picture took form. She could see Ginshi's face, paled by impending death. Seeing him through Kuki's eyes, she was able to get a glimpse of the lethal injury he had received during the battle. The sight of a huge chunk of Ginshi's side, half of his torso, missing came into horrifyingly clear focus.

"Oh, my god," she gasped, clutching at Kuki's back with her other hand to pull him closer.

Her palm pressed heavily to his face to draw in more of the memory and to draw out his misery. She continued to observe the gruesome scene through Kuki's memory. Ginshi's organs and muscles had started to reform. Thick bloody chords, slithering across the dirty floor under them, seeking each other in their attempt to reconnect and reform, to heal the hopelessly broken body. Although powerful and able to regenerate, ghouls were not immortal.

"Where are you? Hey, guys! Where are you?!" Ginishi was calling.

He was afraid. Although his team, his friends, his family, was there he could not see or hear them. Despite that fact Kuki held his hand, yelling his name, telling him he was right there. Ginshi was blind and deaf - and terrified while he believed he was dying alone. Finally, his eyes drifted closed. Then, he stopped sucking in the raspy, gurgling breaths. His hand went limp, but Kuki held on to it, bellowing at him to open his eyes.

Miyu peeled her hand from his tear dampened cheek to dispel the dreadful picture before she had to endure anymore. She held the man in her arms who sobbed like a child, allowing the sorrow flow freely out of him. He wailed loudly, his breaths in between each mournful cry coming in noisy, raspy inhales. His hands still soaked with Ginshi's blood, pulled at her snow white shirt, spreading offensive maroon splotches of dried blood across the sides.

Miyu pushed the overwrought man up onto his knees then struggled to stand so she could pull him to his feet and to a standing position. Without reducing him to the humiliation of a princess carry, she held him to her side to get him up the stairs and into her apartment. She took him straight to her bathroom, removing his bloodstained clothing.

Considering the circumstances, romance was not a thought in her head so it did not concern her when she stripped off her blood smeared shirt to throw it on the pile of blood covered clothing. She glanced at him while she turned on the water to fill the tub, waiting for it to come up to a suitable temperature. He sat on the floor, his body slumped against the side of the claw footed iron tub, staring straight ahead intently but seeing absolutely nothing.

Biting her lower lip, she refused to let her own tears fall. Tears she wanted to cry for him. He did not need her pity, and he had plenty of sorrow of his own. He needed her to be strong in this moment, to take care of him.

Hooking her arms under his, pressing his bare chest to hers, she lifted him into the bathtub. Keeping his ankles from banging against the edges of the metal basin was no easy task, but she made sure she managed it to keep from causing him anymore discomfort. Lowering him to a seated position, she set about wiping the droplets of blood from his face, rinsing away the macabre physical memory.

Kuki had received only minor, superficial injuries. Lots of scrapes and bruises. Or perhaps these were the remnants of more severe wounds and his body had healed. Either way, there was not much damage remaining.

Miyu scrubbed and cleaned, washing away the blood until the water turned pink. If only his mental wound could be washed away so easily.

"This is mortifying," he mumbled as she wrapped a towel around his naked body.

"You're suffering. You've been a through a terrible trauma," she said flatly, assisting him as he stepped out of the tub on his own.

"I'm weak. I couldn't save him. I should have been able to save him," he murmured, his eyes wide open and devoid of emotion or rational thought.

"He wasn't your responsibility," she snapped already having a good idea of who laid blame on him. "He was the leader. The captain of the team. It was his duty to lay down his life to save his subordinates. That's what leaders do."

"But Haise said - "

"That wasn't Haise," she growled, cutting off sentence. Shaking her head, she took him by the arm to lead him to the bed. "I don't want to talk about any of that right now. Unless you want to. If you need to talk to get it - "

"No!" he yelled, his eyes finally blinking as if had broken himself out of a trance. "No. I don't want to talk about it."

He glanced around as if he were seeing her apartment for the first time. He plopped down on the bed, looking around until his bleary eyes latched onto her face. The wheels of thought were turning once again behind his supremely dark and serious eyes. Then confusion no longer clouded his dense grey, nearly black irises.

"How did I get here?" he asked.

"My apartment?"

"Your bed."

"Shock will do that. Everything will be all right. I'll make you some coffee," she offered, heading to the kitchen.

"Why am I naked?" he inquired, burrowing under the patchwork quilt on her bed.

"Uhm, you were covered in blood. I needed to clean you off," she explained, distracting herself with making the coffee. "There's no reason to be ashamed or embarrassed."

"I'm not," he immediately countered like a defiant child.

That's not what you said earlier. Speaking her words internally only, she reminded herself that he was in an extremely fragile emotional state despite his boundless pride.

Filling two plain heavy white mugs with the steaming black liquid, Miyu took them to her 'bedroom.' Handing one cup to Kuki, she sat hers down on the bedside table before sitting down on the bed next to him. She pretended to ignore his eyes roaming over her from head to toe. Too late she remembered she was dressed only in a fluffy pink towel.

"You were naked too?" he inquired.

"That's usually how one takes a bath, yes," she snidely remarked.

"I hate I was in altered state and missed it," he murmured into his coffee mug.

"I'm sure you'll get another chance to see it," she returned.

Taking a sip of the coffee enabled her to hide her amused smirk as he coughed violently to expel the coffee he had accidentally inhaled in response to her words. He was the one who had threatened to come back and make her his for god's sake. She doubted that entailed something as drastic and mainstream as a marriage proposal. How dare he try to act coy?

They drank their coffee in silence, savoring the delicious aroma of the comforting hot beverage and the tranquility of each others presence.

"You can stay as long as you want to...I mean, as long as you need to," she added, fumbling around for the correct words as not to seem forward.

However, she had stripped him naked and bathed him. Presently they were sitting in her bed together, wrapped in towels, drinking coffee. The bounds of propriety had been breached long ago. Probably as soon as he had tackled her in the downstairs hall.

"Kuki," she said, looking over at him. "If there's anything I can do to help..."

"Don't say anything else," he commanded her in a low voice, taking the mug out of her hands. He put it and his cup on the table on his side of the bed.

When he lay down flat on his back, Miyu took that as a cue he was ready to sleep. Wiggling under the covers, she took off the damp towel and dropped it onto the floor. Turning her back to him and rolling herself up in the sheet under the quilt, she prepared to go to sleep.

Then she felt the bed moving as he eased closer to her. His body lay on top of the sheet while hers was encapsulated by it, separating their bodies by a thin barrier of cotton. One of his arms slid under her neck, making his bicep her pillow as he fitted his body to hers, his front to her back. His other arm draped across her waist to hold her securely. He need not worry about her trying to escape his embrace.

"As much I want to make love you to you, now is not the time," he whispered in her ear, kissing her cheek. "I just want to hold you."

"That's fine by me. You remember our promise?"

"I'll never let you go." He pulled her tightly to him. "Never."

"Same here."