Warnings:
Genre: RuHana shonen-ai
Character death
Inspired by X/1999 TV episodes.
Proofed only by me and my spell checker.


Purge Apocalypse
By Dementia_12

As I lay looking up at his face, I flashed so hard on our first time together.

Flushed and sweating, looking down at me with open love on his usually cold face. Rukawa was so ethereal in that moment. I could scarcely fathom that he was mine.

It had been a terribly hard thing, this pursuit of romance between us. Especially because of hate-filled relationship in the past. But in the face of adversity, we somehow ended up in the middle of the battlefield face-to-face and ready for the war ahead. It was us against all things and we would remain standing as long as I had Rukawa.

He was the source of my strength, my reason for knowing that love this intense could actually exist in a person - that it wouldn't tear them asunder but infuse them with a quiet power from within.

With such hardships aside and faded from newer and happier memories washing down on them, I never would have seen this end.

This night.
This finale.
This 'us'.

I'll always protect you, Rukawa.

Zettai.

He had smirked at me when I blurted those words to him one day, while we were eating lunch together in our apartment. It was such an ordinary day, scattered with trivial fun and little pleasures. I loved those kinds of days with him. He was Just sitting there in front of me when I thought that anything could happen. A random act could take him away from me and I wouldn't be part of an 'us' anymore.

That is something I would protect, no matter what.

But this…this gentle night's walk together.
This man and his cronies who were angry at the world…
This last night of us…

I fought them. We fought them and we were winning. I was so into it - it was like the good old days.

But the coward…one attacked me from the back. I heard Rukawa shout at me as I was fighting but one guy wrapped his arm around my neck, cutting off my air and the other has a knife…and that's when the 'us' disintegrated into the air like a phantom, whose existence was never certain.

A small spurt of blood flew in front of me as I was stabbed in the chest, dead centre. I heard myself make a sound of shock and felt the energy slide out of my body. They let go of me and I collapsed onto my knees before falling on my side. Speckles of grey edged in and dissolved into my vision as I distantly heard the metallic clatter of a knife hitting concrete and the sound of feet rapidly running away.

A hand turned me onto my back and I panted for life. For Rukawa's pale visage as he looked down on me with overly-bright blue eyes.

"Ah, you look so beautiful…and I can't do anything about it. That sucks." I huffed out with effort.

Rukawa exhaled sharply, something that sounded like a mix between a surprised laugh and a sob. He put a shaky hand on my bleeding wound and murmured something about a hospital.

"No…time." I breathed, feeling the absolute truth of my words to the bone.

"Shut up, Do'aho."

"I want to say…"

"Shut up! I'll get you to a hospital!", Rukawa shouted at me, ignoring the increased flow of my blood spilling over his fingers. Tears fell down his cheeks and onto his trembling hand that was now fisted painfully into my shirt.

I could feel the pain leaving me…I could feel me leaving me….

I tried to speak again but Rukawa pressed his crimson-stained hand to my mouth as I had parted my lips to speak. Curled over my head, I could no longer see the stars and the night but only Rukawa.

The salt of my blood and his tears seeped between my lips as he cried.

"I don't want to hear your words of goodbye. So shut up!" He started to shout out for help but there were few people in the street and not those who would help in such a situation.

"Mamori…mamoritai. Zutto….p-protect you always…"

I think he heard my hushed words against his hand…

I hope so because I couldn't speak anymore.

The greyness was darkening and the blackness swam in and out of my view. I used the last of my strength of touch the hand covering my mouth when I felt myself leaving, his hovering face the last image I see.

And as my night deepened into oblivion, all I could hear was his pleas for me to stay with him…to keep 'us' alive.


Rukawa…I'll always protect you.

Zettai.

~Owari~