I forgot a Disclaimer last time. Haha.

Disclaimer: Really, you can guess what's supposed to go here, seeing as I'm too lazy to type it all out.
Author's Note: Woot, deciding to try out a new form of formatting, that will hopefully not screw me up with the lines and everything. -Cough.- Anyways, here's the next chapter. I'm getting lazy writing these things. XD So I think I'm ganna update less frequently but with longer chapters. I've been having so much crap with the homework I get lately. It's annoying. . Now, on with the show. Also, I've just now realized, that I keep switching 'Kokoro' around in the title, repeating myself in stupid ways. I've decided to simply use the word: 'Spirit' or essence, as it's the term of the body, mind, and soul added together.

I'm making stupid comments again... Wooh, I need mental help.

Gomen, all, this is getting to a part where I need to put in the alone time again. I thought this would be a good scene for Motoko to think. Sorry it it's a bit slow and mushy. . But I need to support the angst genre a bit.

This chapter's reallllllllyyyyyy short. I've been slow on updates because I've been playing DDR. And my mind is really beginning to form a block again, seeing as I'm going to have to include Naru's revenge, via Kitsune.

Oh, and motoko lover!, calm... XD Haha, well that's 1 vote for the lemons. Remember to tell me if you want it or not.

And one final note: Thanks to my new pre-reader, who scares me sometimes... Anyways, THANKIES KLUNKY-POO! (That's his nickname, haha.)

[Update 5-13-2009]The author has gone back through his previously written story (I wrote this story five years ago), and has taken out the separate author's notes and has decided to change the status of this story to complete. Enjoy the last bit of the story.

Kokoro no Tsubasa
Wings of the Heart

Final Chapter

Lazy was the night, barely moving in its torpor, unknowing what the definition of time is. It's interesting how I can never think of the night or day as many others picture it. To me, they're not simply periods of time, but rather channels that generate different feelings, and affect the mind as, say, different temperatures would.

But this time, I couldn't help but listen to the soft sounds of his breathing, exhaling and inhaling against the still night air. It was strangely cold, although I knew it was warm under the soft covers of the bed, I felt chilly in the aspect that somehow I was missing something to keep me alight.

It's possible that I was merely yearning for another body beside mine.

But I didn't like the way my mind worked when it came to that idea.

It was that ingenious voice within myself again. I appreciated it as a little someone who reminded me that there was something besides reasonable logic. Simply put, without it, I never would have seen past the logic that's always there.

Yet, is it wrong to talk to myself, for I know I was and still am?

'Yes. You're mental.'

Softly, I let a slight laugh through the still air, realizing that it was my own stupidity taking a prod at my more logical mind. Yes, I, the great swordswoman that resided in Hinata-Sou could indeed be stupid.

The harder it is for you to admit something, the more you wish it was true. Indeed, it was true, to have something so close and yet so far away.

He was asleep though, body tossing and turning occasionally as he muttered incomprehensible phrases in his sleep. As I sat myself up against the wooden front of the high bed, I noticed the faint, evanescent moonlight shine down upon his face, leaving the man to be glorified by its touch.

A soft, dull stiffness came to my breast, feeling as if it was there to stay. The night was beginning to age, as its more visible part of the endless cycle drew to a close. The room was peaceful, as there were no active occupant in other rooms, doing all those things...

Making those noises...

I shook my head softly, allowing a faint smile to tug at the corners of my neutral face. Orbs continued to watch Keitaro as he slept, my eyes viewing the gentle breathing puncturing the eternity which surrounded us. To think that I have supplanted enmity with love of this man, his kind soul to teach me the nature of love.

And he told me he was in love with me. Me. Someone who had caused him so much pain for so long. How long am I to hold myself together like this? Before I become entangled within his embrace, seeking for a touch, soft yet passionate in its enflaming properties.

And I haven't told him I loved him.

Simply deciding that I couldn't sleep in a bed designed in such a fashion, I gently lifted my legs off the soft, angelic white sheets and placed my feet in the slippers they had given. Soft feet tread upon carpeted ground as I stood myself up, wearing a simple night gown. By the time I reached his sleeping form, I realized there was nothing to prevent him from seeing the more embarrassing parts of me.

But I simply shrugged it off.

Gently placing my hands on the warm, familiarly styled futon and tatami mat, I leaned close to his ear, whispering to him against his slumber.

"Keitaro... Move over please?"

As if he had been awake, the sleeping man acquiesced to her suggestion, turning his form so that his face would be looking at the ceiling when he awoke.

Even though I realized how awkward this seemed, as soon as I managed to place myself against him as he slept, I found it far easier to close my eyes and rest. I felt one arm drape across my shoulders, as well as a soft murmur of my name on his lips, and knew that his dreams were sweet. A soft grin etched on my tired form, I began to realized how much I needed to rest.

Realizing what I had thought of before, I kissed him softly on the lips, causing Keitaro to speak something in his slumber.

My eyes closed, and I felt the emotional weight of sleep begin bearing down on me. And as I shifted slightly to become closer to his body, my mind made me speak of the words I had been struggling with for so long.

"Aishiteru, Keitaro..."

Giving in, I titled my head so that it rested on the pillow by his neck, hands folded against his chest on the futon. But before I finished my own contemplations, I could've sworn I saw his image, beautiful and smiling, as if he had known what I had said.