-All I know-

April 7th, 2010

As Neirah looked up at the dark sky hanging above her head, it became hard for her to tell what bright specs were stars and which were cherry blossom petals drifting on the breeze. The sweet scent filled her senses as her blissful smile spread, and soon, her lashes drifted over her eyes. Her arms were spread at her sides as she spun. Round and round like the day when she and Anna danced with a stranger, she twirled in slow circles on her toes. Suddenly, she forgot that her every move was being filmed, or maybe she didn't care. For another perfect moment, her life was right, and it was all thanks to him.

A winded grunt followed her startled squeal when Neirah's arms bumped into Tatara, sending them both crashing into the lush park on their backs. Her guilt immediately piqued as she crawled over his moaning mass to make sure his equipment wasn't damaged. "Oh no! Tat-chan, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there!" she rushed. "Is your camera thingy okay?"

Tatara sighed through his docile smile and flopped his arms out by his sides against the fresh grass. "No, it's fine. Everything's fine." He wore an utterly defeated expression on his face despite his sassy grin. "I'm fine too, you know. I'm so glad you asked."

A low growl filled Neirah's throat as she flopped her belly against his chest and reached over his body to steal his recording device. After taking its unfamiliar features into account, she snorted softly and paused the recording. "I could do without the attitude," she quipped intolerantly. "You know I would die if anything were to happen to you."

Tatara finally opened his eyes, meeting her disapproving pout as she kicked her feet out on one side of his torso. He didn't want to say anything, given her current vexation, but Yō was right. For the size of her, she was kind of heavy. But even if his lung capacity was a little restricted by the weight of her breasts, he didn't complain. He may have found the mass somewhat comforting. He supposed that was one of the best things about being alive, all the sensations that came with living. Some people might have seen the position as uncomfortable or restricting, but what he felt was warmth and trust, instead.

When Tatara first met the skittish girl, she wouldn't let anyone touch her by accident much less by choice. So, what put pressure on his heart wasn't so much her heft, but the fond swell of triumph filling his chest. They had come a long way since those days.

"I think Nei-chan would be fine."

Hm? Neirah tilted her curiosity. After such a long moment of silence, she had lost track of their original tangent altogether. "What was that, Tat-chan?"

His softening expression flashed a confident smile to reassure her. "If something ever happened to me," he teased. "I know you'd be okay. That's all I said."

Tatara recoiled beneath the intensity of her scornful leer as she gently bopped his new toy against his brow while she had him pinned by his centre. She mercilessly snorted even as he whined for his discomfort. "You say the most ridiculous things sometimes."

"What? It's true!" he defended with an airy giggle. "Lion-chan is brave."

"What does bravery have to do with wanting to be by someone's side forever?" Neirah rolled his camera back into her line of sight, fiddling with any moving mechanism she could find. "Wouldn't it be more important to think positively even when your heart is in a dark place?"

"Would it not be scary if things changed suddenly and someone wasn't where they should be?" Despite her obvious discomfort with the thought, he persisted. "If that happened, wouldn't it take courage to keep moving forward?"

"Ah, but what good is living if you're just aimlessly powering forward in the wake of disaster?" she calmly theorized. "I think it would be more important to remember how to smile."

She could almost hear Tatara roll his eyes as he refuted her suggestion. "I mean, sure, it would be nice to think that we could just keep smiling if we lost someone close to us, but I don't think it's practical."

Neirah's sudden roar of laughter caused Tatara to flinch beneath her, craning his head so that he could face where she continued to restrict his airway. "Tat-chan, you are the least practical person I have ever met." Wiggling her hand, she emphasized her grip on his video camera with a playful chortle. "Just look at this hunk of junk. You should know that if you're clumsy and break it, I don't think it's something I can fix. None of these parts make any sense to me."

"Come on. It's not that old fashioned," Tatara tormented. "And what makes you think I'm going to break it?" To be honest, it was more likely he'd move on to another hobby before he ever broke his camera.

With a curt snort, Neirah diverted her attention again, her toes bouncing behind her in thought. "I'm just saying," she murmured thoughtfully. "And I don't think it's fair to say that I'd just be fine on my own. Tat-chan is like an orchestra conductor. He keeps my chaotic symphony in tune. Without you, I wouldn't be able to hear myself think." Two heartbeats needed to tap in time to the delicate pluck of tender heartstrings as she danced towards an uncertain future. Somehow, she just didn't feel like bravery would be enough to keep the melody soothing enough to ease the pain. Keeping herself together in the face of the challenge ahead wasn't easy either, but with him by her side, things seemed just a little easier.

"A conductor?" he sassed. "My record is full of neat little titles, isn't it?"

"Neat," she jeered under her breath. "Your perception of self-worth is just about as skewed as mine, I see."

"Maybe I just know these things," he confidently reassured her. "You're too much like King to be bothered by something like that."

She screwed up her face as if he'd just insulted her. "And what makes you think King-sama wouldn't be bothered?"

Tatara whimpered softly under her scrutiny, wishing he could flee despite barely being able to breathe. "Ah, well, that wasn't really what I meant-"

Neirah scoffed curtly and turned her eyes away from his prattling. "This discussion is over," she commanded briskly. "You promised you wouldn't disappear, remember? We're going to be together forever, so you're just going to have to get used to my lousy attitude and bad habits. There's no need to think about what would happen if anything changed because it's not going to."

"You said it, right?"

Neirah froze, her vacant gaze piercing his equipment as their heart rates started to synchronize against each other on the dewy grass.

"We're going to be together forever. So that means… you have to come back from Nagasaki."

Her guilty tone lowered as her half-lidded gaze fluttered with doubt. "Of course," she whispered ambiguously. "Isn't that obvious?"

Despite the notes of sadness in his eyes, his expression remained bright with his reassuring smile. "Right, sorry. That was a silly thing to say."

"Baka," she tenderly whispered. "If I was so brave, I wouldn't be shaking right now."

He didn't want to say anything, but he could feel it. It was why Neirah had kept her hands fidgeting as they laid under the shedding trees, letting the velvet petals bury them like snowflakes. When Tatara looked into the clear sky above them, his smile returned, and his arms started to shift. Despite the pressure of her on his side, he slowly fanned his arms and legs against the ground, humming casually in thought. "Maybe it's not fear so much as it is excitement," he kindly reassured her. "You're going somewhere you haven't been before, and you'll probably see lots of new things. Maybe you'll even make friends while you're there."

Neirah seemed to dismiss his outlandish suggestions entirely so that she could turn coiled curiosity towards his flailing. "Tat-chan, what are you doing?"

"Well, I figured while I'm stuck down here, I would make a-"

Neirah shoved away from him with a disgruntled twist in her face. "If you wanted to sit up, you could have told me!"

Tatara laughed, unconfrontationally accepting the slap he'd earned against his freed chest. "Ah, but you were comfortable, and it was nice too. You were keeping the cold air away."

"At the expense of you flopping around like a fish," she scolded. "Now, what was it you were doing?"

Without looking her way, he continued to lay flat against the ground and shot his arm straight up. "I'll show you, but you need to help me up."

A gentle coo whispered past her lips as she moved towards his feet and cocked her head to one side. "Are your legs numb?"

His smile broadened. "You'll see."

Neirah carefully reached forward and linked their arms, helping Tatara to bounce to his feet. Unfortunately, he hadn't expected his legs to be as numb as she suggested, so through a fit of giggles, they had to steady him before he could explain.

Tatara turned around, delighted that enough flowers had shed from the trees to make his effort worthwhile. "Look!" he sang spiritedly. "I made a special hanami sakura angel."

"An angel? Like a guardian angel?"

"I think so," he announced proudly through his smile. "I saw one of the tourists do it earlier this morning, and I wanted to try it too."

Neirah giggled and gave his shoulder a playful nudge. "So impressionable."

"I think they said they normally do this sort of thing in the snow, but my English isn't that good. I definitely don't think I would want to lay in the snow and do that. Just think about how cold it would be."

"I told you I could teach you," she reminded him dryly. "You know… if you didn't have a million other things on the go to keep you distracted." She ignored the way he tried to avoid her intense leer as she wagged his newest pastime in his face. "I know you could do some great things if you put your mind to it."

Tatara sighed and gently retrieved his camera from her hands with a humble smile. "That's okay. I don't need to do great things. I'm okay just being here with you and King and Kusanagi-san. I don't think anything has to change."

Neirah quietly bowed her head and observed the gentle sprinkle of blossoms continuing to fall on the creation Tatara had hollowed out in the grass. "I think you're right," she whispered. "Maybe the great things you do are more subtle. Like reminding us what's beautiful in life." Her eyes widened to the sight of a burning butterfly delicately fluttering past her nose, another quickly following. Her expression softened as she turned to face him with a delighted smile. "Overachiever."

"They really seem to like you," Tatara tittered. "You're like a butterfly keeper."

Neirah cocked her head to one side, observing the fiery flutter as she held her finger out for one of the creatures to land on her outstretched forefinger. "Don't you control them?"

She was surprised when Tatara slowly shook his head, waving his glowing finger through the air like he attempted to conduct the insects' heavenly dance. "It's hard to explain, but I guess I sort of just give them life, but what they do with it is their choice." He watched the red wings beat aimlessly for another little while before the sparks sputtered and crumbled into the night. "They seem attracted to King's sword too. Kind of like moths to a flame."

"Except the flame is them," she teased. She quietly promised herself that during her stay in Nagasaki, she would learn to do something less destructive with her flame, something to prove to him how much he inspired her the night they decided they would never be apart. "Does it make you feel like Izanagi-sama?"

Eh?

"God of Creation, no?" She turned and released his butterfly into the night, watching the last of its flames disintegrate until nothing remained but a couple of scalding embers. "What with you giving life to butterflies and guardian angels."

Tatara seemed humbled to recall Neirah's interest. "That's right. I forgot that you were interested in these types of things. It's pretty strange when you consider how bored you get when Kusanagi-san tries to help you with your history homework."

Neirah couldn't help but smile, a bashful shade of garnet colouring dusting her cheeks. "I guess I've always had an interest in fantastical beings." Surrendering her glittering gaze, she turned back to face where Tatara had knelt to pick out stray petals that had fallen in the lines of his creation. "Can you imagine being there when it all started? Being the hands that cultivated it?"

He carelessly flicked the tiny petals behind him with a delicate snigger. "Ah, now Nei-chan is telling stories," he cooed.

"Am I?" she sassed playfully. "What about the kings, and the slate? Maybe it's our turn now, and we're all a part of something that could very well reshape the world as we know it."

"But whose world would we change?" When he felt the pressure of her curiosity on him, Tatara calmly stood and dusted the stray flowers from his lap. "You said it yourself. It's like we're from two different worlds, and if that's true, do we have any right to change it?" He turned and watched a stray couple steal a kiss under the romantic sight of a new beginning before diverting his eyes. "Maybe they like things the way they are too."

"Then maybe our job as modern deities isn't to change the world around us, but to create a perfect world for those of us who were rejected by the one we used to call home." With a soft sigh, Neirah reached out and folded her arms around Tatara's waist, nuzzling into his warm embrace to comfort in his reassuring stability. "Who knows, they might not let me crossover back into our world after I return from Nagasaki. We could end up a tragic story in Dresden Slate lore."

After wrapping one arm around her shoulder, Tatara touched his chest with his second set of fingers to announce his earnest devotion. "Fair valkyrie, I would travel to the ends of the earth just to open the door for you." Despite him ironically combining multiple region's traditions, he was relieved when Neirah didn't begin to pester him about it.

As dramatically as he projected the passionate proclamation, Neirah responded by dusting her palm to her brow and turning her dismayed expression away. "Oh, but the perils you will face!" She flopped limply backwards over his supporting arm like she was faint. "It would serve you well to go on without me."

"No matter." Tatara dropped to one knee, taking her free hand in his to clutch it theatrically. "I would face them bravely and a thousand more to return you to your place among us!" Tatara expected to cue her hysterics any moment, but surprisingly enough, she didn't jeer him for pretending like he was some brave warrior.

Instead, Neirah slowly retracted her hand from her brow with a modest flush in her cheeks as she considered his fond sincerity. "Would you really?"

Tatara supported her diversion by quietly rolling his fingers over the back of her hand, touched by her unyielding faith in him. "I promised you that I wouldn't disappear, remember?" His sassy tone mocked her earlier recollection, but there was genuine honesty in his oath. "So, it's okay if I have to wait, because, you know things won't be right unless we're all together."

Neirah's vision started to blur as she felt tears note their presence in her eyes, her throat burning with affection. "My prince, how ever could I repay you?"

Eeek!

Neirah and Tatara simultaneously flinched when a pair of women walking along the path they'd diverged from joined their company. They might have been walking home from work, or late-night classes, but no matter what brought them to that spot, they couldn't help squealing when they saw Tatara down on one knee in front of Neirah's glassy gaze. Upon understanding the situation, the pair froze and simultaneously fought for an explanation.

"What did she say!?"

"Oh, please tell me she said yes!"

"Baka, Bibi- How could she say no to that!?"

The guilty parties dropped their heads, Neirah's eyes drying before her tears could ever fall. She supposed she should be used to people's assumptions when she was around her slightly eccentric roommate. "Ah, this isn't what it looks like..."

Tatara couldn't help but laugh as he climbed to his feet with a spirited chuckle, watching their company depart in an apologetic huff. "Wow, they seemed kind of disappointed, huh?"

"They just don't understand."

Tatara tilted his head to observe where she clung to his arm with an affronted pout.

"Tat-chan is my guardian angel, and he keeps my heart safe." She turned her starry eyes towards him with a faint smile. "That's better than any husband."

"Are you sure you're not just saying that because Kusanagi-san won't let you date yet?"

"No time for dating," she firmly corrected. "Too busy saving worlds."

"Saving them? I thought we were creating them?"

"Same-same."

A comfortable silence fell between them as they walked arm-in-arm along the quiet walkway.

"You know," Tatara finally instigated. "If Kamamoto-kun were a god, he would be the God of Food, I bet."

"I want to be the God of Sencha Tea!"

Tatara groaned slightly. "Really? Not the moon? But Tsukiyo-"

"Tea, Tat-chan," she growled.

Tatara raised his free hand to his face to cup his curiosity while his thoughts meandered. "Hm, I wonder what everyone else would be. We should ask them sometime."

"I think Yata would be a komainu."

"You think so?"

Hai. She nodded. "And Fushimi-san is the God of Irritability."

"Nei-chan!"