Neal gently placed a cool wet cloth on Keladry's forehead. A tear pricked the corner of his eye as he watched her chest rise and fall with labored breathing, her face twisted with heart wrenching agony. Why Kel? he thought. Of all people…why my best friend?

She moaned, sweat pouring from her face like a heated waterfall. It tore at him, watching her mangled, scarred body lay so lifelessly on the infirmary bed. He shuddered. At twenty-seven, he had seen some of his good friends limbless, dead, screaming for mercy…and yet none of those deaths touched him in such a way.

Kel…she had always been there for him. She was twenty-two now, a young woman who lay dying in a bed, a knight who had a future. He married Yuki for love that faded through the years. He had nothing to go home to but a loveless woman, with two children he deeply adored and loved, but knew next to nothing about. The only bright thing he had was his best friend, who supported what he did and carefully guided him back on the right path if he ever went astray.

Her eyes fluttered open, those ridiculously long lashes laced thinly with sweat drops and tears of pain. Green-hazel eyes, glazed and filmy with fever and grief, locked with his emerald ones, and she smiled weakly.

"Neal," she whispered hoarsely. Neal carefully kneeled down, gently stroking her sweat-sticky brown locks.

"'Lo, Kel," he said softly, smiling sadly down at her.

She swallowed, closing her eyes briefly against the hurt, and then opened them.

"I'm going to die."

It was not a question; it was a statement. His lip trembled. He could not lie to her.

"I did all I could, Kel," he said, his voice breaking. "But it wasn't enough."

Kel nodded, unsurprised. She moved her hand, wiggling her fingers. He grasped them tightly, bringing them to his lips as tears dripped down his face.

"Do you…Do you want me to tell Dom?"

She looked away, the thought of telling her sweetheart, a man she did not love, the news. "Tell him I died peacefully. Don't tell him how much I suffered."

Then the lady knight broke, weeping in fear and pain. The healer grabbed her, heedless to her injuries, and held her close to him. They cried together, best friends who would soon be parted.

"Neal…will you do something for me?"

He looked at her swollen, blood-speckled face, and knew he could not deny her anything, not even if she asked him to die with her.

"Kiss me," she whispered.

He never hesitated. His lips fell on her dry, chapped ones, letting her know he cared too. He loved Yuki, but his heart had always been Kel's.

"Kel, please, stay with me," he sobbed, tears streaming in torrents as he gazed at her pale face. "Don't go…I-I can't do this alone."

"Yes you can," she said softly. "I've always been here for you, and I still will be, you just won't see me."

"But –"

"Sshh. Just hold me."

So the man held his dying love, feeling her pulse begin to slow.

"I love you, Neal."

Her last breath was used to speak these words. All these years she had loved him, and he had been a blind fool.

"Kel," he whispered, holding her body to his. "I love you too."

And she died, peacefully, as a content smile spread across her face.

Neal cradled her face, kissing her tenderly, and lay her body on the bed. And the world made no more sense, as he dropped to his knees and screamed his anguish, letting the world know what he had lost.

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::sniff:: That was so sad. Sort of. Sorry, people, I had to write something to cure my writer's block. I don't think it even helped. -.- Oh well. R/R!