A/N: There isn't more to say. I just hope you liked it. I'm sorry if I disappointed anyone, but this wasn't supposed to be an action/adventure story, more of an emotional thing I just had to write because Shadow is just so…him. And for anyone who actually reads these things, I recommend the song "B.T." from .hack//sign because it's so lovely.

Thanks to: RockChick, Azure Pathos-Sketchit, Sakura Ishtill, Sparky the Seventh Chaos, Thefiendishpuppy, Blackspeed-Mistress, Brain Bloomfield, Sean Catlett and Raye-chan-chan-chan.

Bete Noire

Part 3 // Pari Passu

"Your Shadow…what was he, when he was alive?"

"A friend," She said softly, drying her cheeks with the touch of a white, careless sleeve. She had long given up crying and he had waited so patiently for her to stop and compose herself. They sat and both staring off into anything but each other. It was an unsaid agreement that neither remembered making. Yet, it was there. Shadow was sure of such, and he busied himself with the longer hand of a foreign clock that ticked the seconds away into oblivion. "He was…just a friend," said Maria.

Quite frankly, he wasn't sure if he was even allowed to look at her. So many things done in the past, so many years noosed and hung. "I see."

"And your Maria?" she asked politely, as he was afraid she would.

There was a miniscule piece of fluff that made its way from the ceiling to the window – that blasted, open window that made the room almost too bright for him to bear. He shrugged as nonchalantly as he could, swapped the air with his left hand and said, "A friend also," without daring to look at her. She was looking at him, he knew, and he could feel her stare. It felt like air.

"Oh," she said, nodding in useless agreement, "I see."

"Do you really believe me?" he asked painfully, abruptly. For the first time that hour, he mustered enough courage to face her without shrinking away into the safety of the dark. He so wanted to touch her, wanted to do anything, just as long as he knew that she wasn't going to fade away, or be ripped from view as he sped toward the earth again at such speed he could have burned. "About this world, about my other world, you believe this?"

A very small smile graced her lips. It was rather beautiful. "Why wouldn't I?"

Light, grim chuckles escaped his mouth. "Why would you?" he countered.

She hesitated, her features twisted with such beautiful grace into deep thought, and he watched with innocent wonder. Her eyes wandered, from the right, to the left, to the window, to Shadow. Her expression grew so terribly soft when she smiled again, at him, for him. "Because you are Shadow." And that was that.

He was taken aback. That was it and there was nothing more to say, but he honestly didn't comprehend it at all. It had never been that simple and suddenly, so suddenly, it was. He reached for her and let his hand drop to choke the covers. "I don't understand that."

She covered his fingers with her palm, silky and cool. There was no special feeling as she did so, no spark of electricity or rush of burning heat. It was a soft, feathery touch that did nothing more but what it was intended to do – to comfort. He didn't even realize that he was staring, that his eyes were still enough to bore a hole through her hand.

A frown, and then, "Don't touch me."

"You won't break, Shadow." She told him. "And neither will I."

His eyes darted immediately to her face, then they searched, and then they wondered what that possibly could have meant. To his frustration, he could find nothing but eerie sunlight that played on her jaw, nothing but eyelashes that ran lightly over her cheek, and that eldritch, unwavering smile. Opening his mouth, he said, "I don't…"

Closing his mouth, she said, "You don't have to."

Everything crashed down upon his head. But he was so broken, and so battered, and so horribly torn that he didn't even know where he was! He was so crazy, and so desperate, and so terribly lonely. He wanted to back away from her, wanted to know if she was really who he thought she was, if she was only his wild imagination, wanted to touch her! And he couldn't because he wouldn't. What did that, what did this entire day mean?

And he was so confused. "You don't have to understand anything, Shadow," she whispered, perhaps because she knew it was all he could take, "You don't have to understand, don't have to know anything if you don't want to."

He wondered if his eyes were staring, concluded that they were because he could not see anything but her. "Oh." He said. "What am I…supposed to think then? I can't understand anything, I'm afraid I don't want to understand anything. What am I supposed to do? I'm afraid you're going to fade away like my Maria." He told her.

"Like your Maria?"

He nodded twice. "Like my Maria, who abandoned me because she was afraid I was going to die, abandoned me for death. It was a long time, you know. It's been such a long time, I don't think I remember what to do." And then he laughed a bitter, rotten laugh. "She told me something, but I'm not sure exactly what. Save the world, destroy the world…I think…it all seemed the same to me."

Who was that who had just thrown her arms around him? He looked up, couldn't see Maria, realized it was because her head was beside his, her body against his, her hands clinging hopelessly to his back. "You feel so dead, Shadow, you know that?" She said, her voice was so fine and cracked and hoarse. "So cold and so limp. Don't do anything, don't try to remember, because it's alright now, you see? Everything is alright now, so you can rest."

He didn't care if the world stood still, if it spun off its axis into the sun, didn't notice that morning sunlight had faded into orange dusk, that shadows had begun to creep into the night. So slowly, ever so very slowly that it seemed years passed by, he wound his arms around her and felt her breathing against the side of his face, felt that wetness against his cheek although he wasn't crying, felt her touch and every other sensation that flooded in.

"Maria." He called. No one was going to fade away. No one was going to disappear into the empty abyss of space. "Maria? I want to try…to be your Shadow."

She stilled and he knew she smiled. "I'd like that." Her arms tightened. "Would you mind then…would you mind if I tried to be your Maria? We could just…try, but it'd be lovely and not as lonely. You wouldn't have to worry, have to do anything but try. We can be as slow as we want, never have to bother about time." She stopped, and then added, "I will never fade away."

"My Maria." he repeated, "I'd like that. I really would."

Fin