Author's Note: Major warning for fluff and OOCness…^__^ Its about a couple not many people have considered; I wish there were more stories out there but since there aren't… please review! (This slightly AU fiction takes place in the movieverse and yes, I've heard that Dilandau was originally a woman, but no this isn't a yaoi fic. Get yer minds outta the gutter people! )

Silent... it was always silent.

Now that things were different, now that she was gone. His eyes ached dully as he thought back on the past... There had been blood and fire... many had been destroyed. Because of him. Because he could not control his blood lust, his desire for the blood burning fire that ran through his veins at the mention of battle.

He could not control it.

He had become the thing of nightmare, made to serve the evil that had twisted his body and reshaped it till he was no longer recognizable... he had become a perversion on nature.

Now, as he stood bathed in the failing light of the sun setting before him, he found himself staring down at the hands that gripped the balcony railing before him. What he had been... what he was now; could those hands be the same that had once taken up the sword against his own kin?

...No. Things had changed; he had changed. How could he look upon his past and see the wrongness of it if he had not?

The sun warmed him as his mind turned to her; yes, she had changed him. The woman had given him the sight to see his way out of the dark fate that had been set before him. She had changed him.

And now... she was gone. Before he could tell her... what? What might he have said to her if things had ended differently? Would she have listened to him; would she have cared?

He found he could not answer the questions his mind assaulted him with.

If only he could have just seen her... just to speak to her for a moment… and tell her that he… Lifting his face to the fading sun, he found himself wishing he could have known.

She looked out the window; it was getting dark. Soon the sun would fall behind the distant mountains and leave her in the darkness. It was only the sun, setting as it had every day; but she felt as if it were depriving her of something vital.

She did not want to be left alone.

Since her return, she had felt the difference, as if something had remained behind. Not just he friends, her home; something that should have been had not.

If only...

There was a noise behind her, a subtle sound like pages of a book turning; she glanced over her shoulder... but no one was there. She turned to let herself out; the last rays of the sun were so inviting and the room was suffocating her.

A faint breeze lifted her hair as she stepped through the doorway and out into the fading day. Her eyes were scanning the horizon, almost unconsciously taking in the view as she walked out onto the uncut grass.

And then there was a voice behind her. It spoke her name.

"...Hitomi."

She turned at the familiar sound. And found herself at a loss for words.

He stood before her, black leather creaking softly as he made to move closer. For a moment she was frozen, shocked by the image of him, the impossibility of it. In his eyes, his crimson eyes threatening to betray him, she saw something break.

"You... you're here--"

He closed the distance between them, silencing the need for words...

His eyes sought hers and held them as he brought his lips down onto hers in a kiss that burned. For a moment, her hands pushed at his chest, battling him and the emotions that threatened to drown her. And then, slowly, her fingers curled into the leather of his uniform. His mouth was like fire, igniting her as they let themselves be overtaken by the moment.

Finally, he drew back, as breathless as she. Softly his hand traced the line of her cheek.

"Dilandau… why? Why have you come?"

The pale man looked away, as if afraid to break the rapture that had been created between them only moments ago.

Then with a strange softness to his eyes, he answered her.

"There was a emptiness no-one on Gaea could fill… not like you do, Hitomi. And I have come to realize that I…" Slowly he took her hands in his, and his gaze was steady.

"I love you, Hitomi."

Author's Note: Wow. Ahem. Er… that was very very unlike our pyro friend, wasn't it? O__o This kind of thing happens from reading tooo many sappy fics all day long. So… uh… please review!