A/N: Good morning one and all! This fic is almost halfway posted. (arcwise!) Woot! Here is the next part, thank you for reading and reviewing. I love you all!~
3-11
"I don't know what love is."
Self-pity doesn't work. It never works and Hikari pities Sora for using it as an excuse now.
However, she is also angry, angry at her lack of notice. To protect means to understand and no matter how much she observed them before, Hikari realizes she knows only enough about her friends to know how to keep them safe and alive, and not how to keep them happy. Damn.
It sorrows her and angers her and then she looks at Tailmon's lashing tail and claws raised towards Sora like she is a threat and wonders.
"Tailmon?" she says softly. The cat relaxes a hair, returning to all-fours by her feet. Sora just stares at them, tears threatening to fall and Hikari hesitates. Sora can't take a punch; Hikari doesn't care how many soccer balls she has kicked around for the school team, she has never been able to take a punch without wincing hard. Also, treating this like she had gone after Mimi was asking for a cat fight, earring pulling included.
So Hikari decides to do what she does best; accept, deny, and move on. "It doesn't mean you have to be alone, Sora-san."
"If you don't know what love is," Koushiro says in a hushed whisper, and Hikari gently ushers him forward. "You can... you know, learn about it, and figure it out."
"We'll help." Hikari is never so proud of Yamato's impulsive comments than now.
"Or we'll try anyway," Jyou mutters, grinning and pushing up his glasses.
"It can't be that hard," Mimi decides, crossing her arms. "No harder than listening to Etemon's bad singing!"
Takeru steps towards Sora, who flinches from her place on the other side of the clearing. "Please, Sora-san? You're not alone now, so..."
"No, Takeru-kun," Hikari counters gently. "She's never been alone."
For some reason, Sora cries and runs into a group hug that makes Hikari smile.
Then her body is wracked with agony, her blood screaming in unison with Tailmon's yowling of pain and her eyes are drawn towards the sky.
The demon, the voices sing, angels all. The demon is hungry.
She manages to convince the others that she's not dying, but yes, things are bad. Takeru is hovering by Yamato, looking scared and helpless and maybe a little mad.
Tailmon grits her teeth and whimpers in her arms. Hikari finds she can't even move her legs to roll over and remains on her side, hissing pain through her lips and trying desperately not to swear.
Coming. The demon is close.
Hungry and hunting, greedy. Slay it! You've done so much, just a few steps further!
They act like it's easy. She wheezes for air, and then forces herself to rise, looking towards the darkening sky. Sora's hand is at her wrist and though it's getting hard to hear whatever she is saying, Hikari raises her head to fix a blurry gaze on Sora's blue hat.
"You're... wrong," she says. "Just because you don't know what love is... doesn't mean you don't know how."
The world spirals not to black but to red, and Hikari gives up on thought as a fiery pain suddenly lashes into her torso like a whip.