Anata ga Ita Kara
See disclaimer in 01
Theme: 35 – "Love is, in fact, everything it's cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more."
Rating: T
Summary: Nothing else could ever have made Kumo run into the darkness. But Kiri… saving him was more than worth the risk. (Kokoro no Hanashi)
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The darkness held a special kind of personal horror for Kumo.
He was the one, after all, who'd found himself surrounded by it with no escape, had had his heart torn away by one of its servants. Nothing could quite soothe away the fear that unless he got away now, the same could happen again.
Not the fact that he wasn't alone, not the fact that the rest of their party fought the darkness without fear. Not even the fact that Kiri was right beside him, would rather die than let anything bad happen to him.
Summoning was a temporary reprieve. And anyway, he was here, in what little light was left, protected by his companions' tight circle. Given something to concentrate on, he was fine—or would've been, had the darkness not reached out and crushed his fragile hope.
But then Kiri had…
Terror had frozen Kumo straight to the spot, and only Lisa's running past him as Kiri bowed back with that tiny pained gasp as the darkness prized his chest open had awakened him. What was he doing? Why was he just standing here, when the one he loved the most…
When the darkness reached out again, clutching for Kiri and Lisa, Kumo forgot that he had ever been afraid.
With his sword at the ready, he ran, leaving the light behind, seeing only what was truly important.
"Niisama!!"
Owari.