Hello everyone! How's it going? School is up for just about everyone it seems, but IM STILL WAITING. What torture I go through waiting for school. (Yes Im the weirdo that likes school) Of course, with school approaching, that does mean that updates will be here and there like most other stories. Sooooooooo, yeah. Enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 25: Reciprocate

Sollux watched as Saruna rather gracefully moved his ninja star around with her psionics, sending it out feet away before returning it to her hand and repeating the process. She had improved immensely since he was last conscious, and she even seemed more confident with her abilities as she lifted multiple things at once. He admitted he was impressed with her natural talent, though it could have only been natural because she had been able to use her powers before her amnesia induced incident. The way she moved, however, had Sollux entranced. She looked like she was dancing anytime she made a grand movement, her feet gliding under her as she shifted to get better positioning to hold whatever items she grabbed out of Kanaya's home. Sometimes, however, she would noticeably cringe and Sollux would tense up, fearing that she was straining herself, but she would shortly afterwards recuperate and return to her practice like nothing happened.

Being unable to move very much, nor use his psionics without risk of hurting himself, Sollux could only offer her words of advice when she came closer enough to hear him. If he felt better tomorrow, he would try to get up and test his maneuverability cautiously. Saruna would more than likely scold him, but gog he wanted to help her, and he wanted to be sure that he could do as much as he could should Karkat and Terezi not return in time. He flinched when Saruna faltered slightly in her psionics and insisted that she rest for a while to recover, but she shook her head at him, offering the gentlest of smiles and returning to her practice. Truly, Sollux thought, she was almost as stubborn as him when it came to things like this. It was one tiny attribute to her that the Gemini troll had to have worried the most about.

When she finally ceased her practice, the sun was already setting, an end to the third day, and soon to being the fourth when the sun returned. Saruna hunched over once she halted the use of her psionics, and Sollux could tell she was breathing a little heavy with exhaustion. She had worked hard today, he almost didn't want to imagine what the last two days had done to her. Her steps were rather wobbly as she made her way to him, and she flopped down with a sigh of relief. Sollux stared at her with disapproving, albeit impressed, eyes.

"I know…" She panted softly without having looked at him once to see his unhappy stare. "You don't want me to strain myself. But Sollux, I need to get better with my powers now. There isn't much time left before Erebus returns… and if I can't do anything, what use would I be for anyone?"

"I get that." Sollux said bitterly. "Yet that's not an excuse to tire yourself out to the point that you look like you're gonna faint. That won't do you any good when the battle comes and you're too tired to put up a real fight. Then you really would not be able to help anyone out, don't you think?"

Saruna opened her mouth to speak, but clamped it shut when she realized she had no way to fight that statement. Taking in heavy breaths, she calmed herself down in a few minutes and looked down at Sollux thoughtfully. His gaze was distant, looking at the multi colored sky from the setting sun. He must have sensed her looking at him, for he tilted his head slightly to meet her eye to eye.

"I need to teach you how to fly." He randomly stated, and Saruna cringed noticeably at the idea.

"Well, I did somehow when I came back to save you from Aradia, but I was only about a foot off the ground." She confessed. "I guess I managed to do that because I was just so scared that I wouldn't make it in time, that you would already be dead by the time I got here."

"How did you know?" Sollux asked. "How did you know I was in trouble? I told you to run away… but I guess I shouldn't be complaining, huh? I should be glad you did come back, or I would be dead."

Saruna lightly tapped two fingers against her head, smiling at him faintly, "First, I heard the voices. They told me to go back and save you repeatedly, over and over. That was my first warning… but when I saw the fire in the distance, I remembered the dream you told me before we left your hive, about Aradia killing you in a field of fire. So I came back, and it seems that I had made it just in time too…"

"Yes, you did." Sollux agreed. "I am grateful you did. My body hurts like hell, but it's already better compared to before." He tried to lift his hand onto hers, but cringed at the unbelievable amount of pain it gave him just to try moving that much. Saruna took a hold of his hand and scolded him, running her thumb soothingly over the back of his hand until the pain eased. Honestly, it was the unbearable soreness in his muscles that was getting to him.

"Stop trying to move Sollux," Saruna sighed, setting his hand down once he was relaxed again. "You need to just stay down and rest before you cause yourself more harm than good."

"Only if you do the same." bargained Sollux.

She sighed at him, but the tired look in her eyes told him she did need to rest. He wondered if she had got any sleep since he was unconscious. However, she nodded at him and laid down next to him, resting her head near his shoulder. Sollux turned his head to see her better, pleased to know she would at least listen to him a little bit.

The sun gave out its last rays of light before disappearing to the other side of the world, replaced by a beautiful bright moon. For a moment, the Gemini troll had forgotten what night looked like; it was definitely more beautiful than absolute darkness. He felt Saruna shift closer to him suddenly as she grabbed his hand again, squeezing lightly. Normally when she gave him any sort of affectionate touch, Sollux came to learn, something was always bearing down on her mind that she needed to release to someone, and it was usually him.

"Are you alright?" He inquired in a gentle voice.

She didn't answer him immediately like he partially expected, but he chose not to prod at her thoughts. Whenever she desired, she would tell him what was bothering her, but he could take a reasonable guess. It was more than likely related to Erebus' return, Karkat and Terezi's unknown journey to find the blue flowers, or… maybe something else in the end. Sollux refused to take his eyes off of her until she spoke up.

"Is it wrong of me to be scared Sollux?" Saruna's bright bi-colored eyes were on him suddenly, her voice coming out in a shaky tone as her fingers curled tighter around his hand. "Is it wrong that I am scared for when Erebus returns in four days? That I have doubts? Aren't I supposed to be ready by now?"

"No one said you couldn't be scared or doubt that we will win.." Sollux lisped, and managed to roll his arm so he could hold Saruna's hand in his palm. He realized she was quivering. "I'm scared too, you know. There isn't a day lately that I don't think that I'm going to lose you, Karkat, or Terezi. That's why I fight so hard, and why I'm so stubborn I guess. I don't want to go through with losing another person so close to me."

"And what if I lose you, Sollux? What do I do then?"

She thought she would lose him? If Sollux swore on anything, he had sworn that he would survive long enough to make sure Saruna remained safe and alive. He certainly could not claim that he wouldn't die, seeing that he was so close to it just hours before. Undeniably, if anyone had to die, Sollux prayed it would be him instead of her. Pondering the right words to say, Sollux felt Saruna tremble at his lack of immediacy in denying her fearful claim.

"Sollux…?" She meekly whispered in a pleading voice, practically begging him to tell her that she wouldn't ever lose him. He didn't want to potentially say a lie but… he also didn't want her to panic or begin to cry or reprimand him for the thought that maybe he wouldn't make it.

The potential truth… that he could die.

"You won't lose me, Saruna." The Gemini troll said, wishing he didn't have to stretch the truth by a lot. He felt like an ass doing this; lying to her. "I'm not going to die on you. Nobody is going to die except Erebus and… those who are under his control. You just have to hold onto hope that we will succeed in this upcoming battle."

Fuck, he felt terrible. No, the future wasn't decided and for all he knew, he would survive the fight and live! However, the nightmare plagued him, just like every other nightmare he had. Karkat and Terezi were killed, slaughtered in his dream. It was easy to tell based on the bashed in head that Gamzee had got to Karkat, but Terezi's wound was from an unknown source. Sollux could imagine the fight would go two on one. There were nine enemies in all, so the four heroes could face two each, and depending on if Erebus joined would decide if Sollux would face three. There was no way he would allow anyone else to take on the demonic cloud troll. They would choose their enemies when Karkat and Terezi returned, but Sollux made a mental note to try and keep Karkat away from Gamzee. They had once been moirails, but it became a destroyed friendship and trust.

Sollux felt Saruna sigh against his shoulder, her breath warm on his skin. He kept forgetting that his shirt was gone, torn into strips to be used as tourniquets in order to halt the heavy bleeding. Bandages were his only cover on his chest and back, but half of his stomach could be seen clearly. At least he had his… torn up pants still on. As if it should have bothered him honestly. Terezi had done well to mend what she could with what she had.

"Okay… I believe you." Saruna gave his hand a squeeze and Sollux felt ten times worse, fearing his potential lies even more. "As long as you just… don't die. I don't want to lose you Sollux… so please, be careful."

The amount of care he heard in those words made his blood pumper quicken in pace. He wondered how it had come to this after meeting the timid amnesiac in such awful circumstance. There had been a time where she did not trust him, there had been a time where she was afraid of him. But that was twenty days ago, almost twenty-one now. Here in this time, they had full confidence in each other, they trusted each other, and cared about each other immensely. Sollux recalled when she had been most wounded by the toothbeasts, how scared he had been, and confessing to Karkat that he pitied her. He still did… but it was stronger than before, like it was being drilled into his brain every second, and anytime she was close to him like this… he always felt better, happier.

Strange… the last time he could remember feeling like this was…

Sollux restrained himself from sighing out loud, otherwise Saruna would surely question it and leave him at a loss for words to explain. The truth was plain and simple; he was red for Saruna. He loved her, and he was more than willing to give his life up for her any day at any time. If this battle would be his last, he was whole-heartedly prepared for it so long as the others were safe. Yes, that was going to be his plan, and Saruna could not know about it… not until… it was basically too late. Gazing at the stars appearing in the sky, Sollux felt rather shitty knowing that this was what he was doing to Saruna, but he had no regrets.

However, that also brought forth the question of whether he should tell her that he loved her. Frankly it would almost be cruel to tell her, only to die in a few days afterwards, but similarly, if she felt the same, it would be time he could have intimately shared with her, lost without ever knowing if she did or not. Sollux was afraid too. Both of the trolls he had loved before were killed, and he had almost started to believe that he was a curse in itself. The Mage of Doom had many terrible deals to it.

Still…

Sollux titled his head toward Saruna, finding her eyes closed, breathing light and serene. She had fallen asleep, and it had to be the most beautiful sight he could have seen laying in the field beneath the moon and stars. Her hand remained in his, looser than before but there. He watched her for a few seconds, admiring her with half lidded eyes. Ideas were certainly starting to get the best of him until he couldn't resist a single thought. He pondered on it.

Maybe if he could just… lean forward a little and… like his dream when she…

His lips brushed over her forehead sooner than he expected the distance to be, tenderly, just under the forming scar from the toothbeasts and he pulled back from her slowly. Damn. He had pulled off the cheesiest and sweetest move ever on the sleeping female before him, and he never felt more pleased doing it. A smile creased his lips as he looked over her facial frame once more. Nestling comfortably against the ground, Sollux allowed himself to relax and flutter his eyes closed. He wasn't very tired since he had literally slept for two days, but with Saruna at his side, he was more than willing to rest up again.

It was the best sleep he had compared to the two days of unconscious.