Title: Dawn's Darkest Hour

Author: Ume Chikuzan

Rating: PG

Pairing: Sai/Kaede

Summary: It is at dawn's darkest hour that all that might go right will go right. . . and all that can go wrong will go wrong.

Disclaimer: I don't own Angelic Layer. Angelic Layer belongs to CLAMP, bless their little hearts. May they spend the rest of their days making money off of Angelic Layer and all of their forthcoming mangas.

A/N: Warning, I'm working off of a badly subbed version of the show, so if my wording is way off, blame it on that ^.^ I apologize also if this is convoluted - I'm currently reading a trilogy where all the characters speak in an old-fashioned way (read: like knights and such), so I'm a tad bit under the influence at the moment.

Feedback: Umm, I haven't written fan fiction in a while, let alone anime fanfic, so I'm a tad bit rusty. Please, be gentle.

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Part 1 - Musings

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I'm pretty sure I know when it happened.

It had been long in the making. Creeping towards the border each day, sidling along and darting from dark corner to shadowed nook. Hoping to escape my attention. In a way, I knew it was happening, but decided to just ignore it - maybe it would just go away.

But it never did go away, although sometimes it would stop it's forward progress for weeks, even months at a time. And I would think, ÔThank god, maybe it has decided to give up and move on. Maybe it will find something better, something more attainable.' But then it would appear again, and I would realize that it had spent its time gathering strength to make a leap forward.

Lin had always said that someday I would have to succumb to it. It hadn't been around then, only some of its distant relatives. But she knew, as only a sister could, that when it finally did appear I would fight it to the bitter end.

After Lin died, I had sworn to never let any form of it do to me what losing her had. I locked myself away in a chest of ice, and I had a guardian for the lock - my angel, Shirahime. Lin's creation, the White Princess. She became my life, and thus I never had to fear that it would rear its head and rip me to shreds.

And then she appeared. With a white angel of her own, she sat in her desk beside mine, and it was as if she had just come into existence at that moment. She smiled that famous smile of hers, and without any warning the chest of ice cracked.

I tried avoiding her at first. She wasn't anybody, she didn't exist for me. I buried myself in my angel even more, frantically trying to repair the damage she had done. I thought to myself that surely she would go away then, fade back into obscurity.

She didn't. She persisted, and in the end I gave in to her warmth. The ice cracked, and chunks fell off. And when she smiled at me, I was hard pressed to not smile back.

The first time I had seen her duel was when it first showed up.

She was so graceful, so at peace in this world of violence. She disarmed her opponent with her affable charm, and her angel destroyed the challenger with an ease belied by her aura of gentleness. And as her adversary stammered her congratulations, she looked at me with such happiness in her sage eyes that my breath hitched and I felt faint.

It had a nail in, and was proceeding to break my shell apart.

But I never really admitted it was there until that day. I had lost before, and I knew I would lose again, but at that moment, I couldn't help but be astonished. I prided myself on my ability to find the weakness and strengths of my opponents, and yet here I had missed the obvious - this tiny half-child, this girl who had made her way through the ranks of the chosen of Angelic Layer, was possessed of a singular ability - the ability to learn her own strengths when the pressure was highest. And so I had underestimated my rival, and I was beaten.

I walked down that empty hall, staring at my White Princess as I listened to the cheers behind me. And when I looked up, she was standing there.

"Kaede," I said, surprised. I had expected her to be in the stands. I never expected her to be next to me. But one look at her and I knew that she really wouldn't have been anywhere else.

I walked up to her, pausing by her side. I could feel the heat from her body emanating outwards, warming me as she always had. Always melting me. "I lost," I said, with a small smile on my face.

"But I sense that you're happy," she said, her own lips twitching upwards. She was right, of course - she somehow always knew how I felt. It did not always work both ways. She was an enigma to me sometimes.

"I often wondered why you're always smiling, Kaede," I said, speaking to her as I would never speak to anyone else. Openly, honestly, without any barriers. "I don't know when I found out, but you are actually very strong, Kaede." I felt peaceful now, with her by me.

"It isn't that," she said suddenly. "There's a secret." Her voice had thickened slightly, causing me to start. I had not expected the emotion in her voice.

"When you cry, you just cry as you can.

It was at that moment that it shattered the ice.

It was at that moment that I knew I loved her.

tbc