Lonely Angel

Disclaimer: I do not own any bit of this story, Fushigi Yugi belongs to Yuu Watase, and Harry Potter/Hogwarts belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros.

Author's Note: The long-awaited death scene! (for me anyway) Does anyone die? Read to find out! Buahaha!

Meeting Death with a Smile

The four warriors were pushing their horses to the limit, trying to get to Kutou as fast as possible, but none of them with any real hope of getting there in time. Chiriko leaned against Tamahome's chest, and sighed in worry. He hadn't known Nozomi long, but she had stood up for him in a way not many people ever had. His mind flew back to when she'd insisted on talking with his mother.

Flashback

"Go on, take the troublesome little thing. He won't be of any use. All he does is study all day long. And when he's not studying, he's whining. It'll be nice to have some peace and quiet around here."

Nozomi had stared at his mother in open-mouthed shock. Trying to defend her, he'd started explaining all about her illness, and how it was responsible for her attitude. He hadn't gotten far though, when he was interrupted by the topic of his conversation.

"Oh shut up boy, no one cares. You study all day trying to find an excuse why I can't stand to have you around and fail to realize that you're just plain annoying. As I said, girl, take the boy. I don't care."

His priestess had taken a moment to collect herself, during which time she put a hand on his shoulder. It had felt comforting, like he had an ally when dealing with his ill mother.

"Thank you, ma'am, for allowing him to come with us. I assure you that I will do everything in my power to insure the safety of your son." Perhaps it was his imagination, but he thought she had put a slight emphasis on 'your son'.

His mother snorted. "He's the one who should be protecting you. Don't you go doing his job, missy. He can suck it up and face his responsibilities for once."

For the first time, he saw Nozomi's eyes harden into the frostiest glare he'd ever seen. Her entire body was tense, her hand tightened around his shoulder, and her voice was stern, but her words were polite.

"In my experience, ma'am, in dangerous situations, protection is a collective effort. I have every confidence that Chiriko will be more than capable of holding his own."

"Whatever, I'm tired, go away now."

"One more question, and then we'll leave you be. Where is your eldest son? I imagine Chiriko will wish to say goodbye to him as well."

"Don't go interrupting his work, now."

"I promise you we will make it brief." For a second he thought his mother wouldn't answer, but even she must have realized that Nozomi was not taking no for an answer. Her body language practically screamed that she meant to have her way with or without permission.

His conversation with his brother was much more civilized than the one with his mother. He had always gotten along pretty well with him. The two were comrades-in-arms against their mother after all. Nozomi had promised his brother that she would insure his safety, only with much more warmth in her voice.

Once they were on their way, he had expected her to start insulting his mother, he was used to it, but he still didn't like it. But all she did was kneel down so she could look him in the eye, her flower tiara slightly askew, and asked, "Chiriko, has your mother always been like this?"

He shook his head. "She got really sick after Dad died. That was when I was about two. Onii-san says she was really happy and nice before then."

All she did in response was to smile at him, and pull him in for a hug. Standing up, she retained hold of one of his hands. "Shall we?"

End Flashback

From then on, she had kept a close, but not too close of an eye on him, and she'd been nothing but nice. She always included him in the conversation, like he really was an adult. For the first time, he didn't feel like an idiot when his symbol wasn't shining. He figured that was what his mother would have been like before she got sick.

In Nozomi's absence, Tamahome had taken over looking after him, and reassuring him. He appreciated it, but he still missed Nozomi. Looking up into the clear blue sky, he prayed that someone would save his new friends.

'Kill me now. Put a sword through me, I'm done. This infernal pounding in my head is killing me anyway. It'd be an act of mercy.' Aloud, the only signal that the emperor was awake was a small groan. Without saying a word, for she knew what sound would do to his abused head, she put her cool hand on his forehead, and began massaging his temples with the other one.

'Oh, slight relief. Someone is trying to ease the pain. Keep going, please.' Without consciously realizing what he was doing, Hotohori leaned his head against Nozomi's shoulder while she continued to gently apply soothing pressure to his temples. Gradually the pain subsided enough to where Hotohori could sit up on his own and drink the water that had come with breakfast. When that was finished, and he'd gotten a little food in his stomach, he turned to Nozomi.

"What in the world happened yesterday?"

"Are you sure you're ready to hear this? Wouldn't you like to have a little more food before you ask?"

"I'm already sitting down, and nothing you could say would hurt me more than this headache."

Looking at her watch before answering, she replied, "We have an hour before our execution."

Hotohori looked at her like he still hadn't quite processed the implications of that sentence. "What?"

"Yesterday when the general brought you back, he said if neither of us talked before then, we would be publicly executed at noon."

"Wouldn't he just kill us anyway?"

Smiling a little, Nozomi said, "That's exactly what I told him, and he didn't deny it. He just looked pissed and walked away." Seeing Hotohori's continued distress, no doubt increased by the news she had just shared, Nozomi inched forward and continued her previous ministrations to his temples. "I don't know if I'll be able to do anything to save us. But I'll do anything I can."

"Great. I'll be facing death with the worst hangover in the history of mankind." He said sarcastically. "And also, aren't I the one who's supposed to protect you?"

"There are millions of girls in my world. There's only one Hotohori. Seems to me it makes more sense for me to protect you. I haven't done a very good job yet, but I'm hoping for a chance to redeem myself."

"There may be millions of girls in your world, but none of them are you. You're just as irreplaceable as me. I think even more so."

More than a little embarrassed, and trying to steer the conversation into a lighter tone, Nozomi teased, "Yeah, I guess a cross-breed between a bird and a fish is rather hard to come across."

"Nozomi…" he said in a warning tone.

"Yes?" Wide eyes blinked at him in would-be innocence. 'She can't fool me; she knows why I'm upset.'

"Don't play innocent with me. You know why I don't like that sentence. Your heritage is not the only thing that makes you special."

Clearly even more embarrassed, Nozomi tried widening her innocent smile. "How's your head?"

A small smile marring his stern expression, he struggled to continue scolding her. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing. You're changing the subject because you can't stand to hear yourself praised. I know you too well for you to fool me. I'm not always going to let you get away with it."

Meanwhile, during this speech, Nozomi was thanking every deity she'd ever heard of for small favors. 'Thank you that he can't remember last night. Thank you for giving me the perfect excuse for my embarrassment over that kiss. Thank you that his hangover is so bad he doesn't notice I'm blushing! Thank you, thank you, thank you!'

Noticing that his priestess seemed to be staring off into space, he called to her. "Are you paying attention?"

Snapping out of it rather quickly, she focused back on him. "What? Oh, yes, sorry. Of course I'm paying attention."

Confused, Hotohori ignored the persistent pounding in his head to study her. She did look rather flushed. Perhaps she was sick? That would explain her uncharacteristic inattention to someone when they were speaking. Perhaps she was suffering from all the sake she had consumed the other day.

"Are you feeling alright? You're acting a little strange, and now that I look at you, you're very red. Do you have a fever?" Shifting closer, he put his hand on her forehead. It seemed alright, but moving his hands down to her cheeks, they were warmer than usual. 'And getting warmer by the minute. Is this normal?'

Nozomi's heart started beating even harder as Hotohori's hands moved to cup her face, forcing her to look at him. The concern and love reflecting in his beautiful eyes made her catch her breath and even more color race into her cheeks. Her eyes drifted to his lips, reminding her even more forcefully of last night's kiss. Suddenly the urge she'd felt ever since then to repeat the performance, only better, became nearly unconquerable. As she slowly leaned into him, the small portion of her that was still sane, 'Or is it the insane part?' screamed at her to find a distraction.

As soon as Nozomi looked into his eyes, Hotohori knew he was lost. He was still worried that she might be ill, but with the unaccustomed color in her cheeks, and her slightly parted rosy mouth, she looked all too tempting. In addition, there was an expression in her eyes – which he had decided were neither green nor blue nor gray, but a combination of all three that looked oddly like the ocean – that made him hope she finally realized she cared for him as more than one of her warriors. His hands were still cupping her face, it would be all too easy to draw her in and taste her mouth…without consciously realizing it, that's exactly what he started to do.

They were mere centimeters from success when the clanging of the door at the end of the hall made them both jump. Nozomi's embarrassment caused her mind to shout at her 'Flee! Flee! And by the way, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!' Unfortunately there was nowhere to hide. So, she did the next best thing in her mind, turned around, and repeatedly banged her head against the wall. 'Idiot. You're acting like a 13 year old school girl with her first crush. What are you doing?'

Hotohori watched worriedly as she walked to the wall and began abusing her head against the cell wall. 'I must have pushed her too hard. Why did I do that? I'm letting my eagerness get the better of me. I should apologize.' Having come to a decision, he strode over to where she stood, still impersonating a bobble head doll, and gently turned her around in his arms, fully prepared to apologize for scaring her.

The words died in his throat when she wrapped her arms around his waist and hid her head in his chest. After a few moments of just holding him, he heard her whisper something intelligible against the fabric of his yukata. "What was that?" he asked gently.

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with unshed tears. "I said why am I such an idiot? And don't worry; I don't really expect an answer."

"Why do you say that? I don't think you're an idiot. Far from it."

"It's just…I don't know how to explain it. I feel like my brain's been put in a blender, and now it's nothing but a big gray squishy mess. Have you ever felt like that?"

"I can't say that I have. But knowing you're about to be publicly executed would put stress on the strongest person."

At this she gave him an ironic little smile. "I had thought I'd dealt with that knowledge already, and was fully prepared to comfort you when I told you. Now you're the one comforting me. You're amazing, you know that?"

When Hotohori started to protest, she stopped him. "No, I mean it. When I see what you've accomplished with your life, I'm so awed, and…humbled. You have earned not only my trust and admiration, but a deep respect. You're so gentle and caring, but you have so much strength, both emotionally and physically. You are quite simply the best person, male or female, that I have ever known."

As he gathered her into another hug, she added in a whisper that he heard anyway, "I'm glad I met you."

This time when the door opened, they paid no attention to it until a voice interrupted the tender moment. "Come on you two, it's time."

Nozomi held onto Hotohori's hand until the guard forced them apart to bind them. Giving him a reassuring squeeze before she let go, she allowed the guard to tie the ropes that were beginning to cut off her circulation. Testing them, even though she didn't really think it'd work, she tried burning them off. As she expected, the fire just burnt her instead. The guard snickered at her efforts, but otherwise made no comments. Except for one very surprising one.

"I'm kinda sorry we have to kill ya. You're the first person who ever put the general in his place. That takes either a lot of bravery, or foolishness. Either way, it was funny as hell."

"Er, thanks, I guess. I don't suppose anyone would care to tell me what I said to him?"

"Nice try. Now start walking."

In single file they were waltzed out into the open air. The sun blinded the two prisoners for a few seconds, as they were by now accustomed to the darkness of their cell. When their vision cleared, they saw a city square filled to the brim with people, and in the center, a large scaffold with two nooses.

Silently they were prodded through the throng of people, all watching the procession with interest. Mostly they were looking at the girl who was supposedly from another world. She didn't look all that interesting; she was even dressed like them. Well, except for her pants. Really, you'd almost think she was a man.

Both prisoners remained silent as they were led up the stairs to the nooses, and then fitted. During the General's short speech about who they were and why they were dying, Nozomi turned to look at Hotohori. She was shaking, and struggling not to cry, but as she caught his eye, she attempted a small smile. It was watery and weak, but it was there.

"Nozomi…what?"

"If I'm going to die, I might as well do it with a smile." As she struggled to maintain the smile, she had to sniffle and blink back tears. Hotohori felt his heart reach out yet again to this girl, who suddenly seemed so small and vulnerable. She was trying so hard to be brave in the face of a rather painful death. He felt ashamed that he had done nothing to prevent it, and that even now he could do nothing to free her, as he had left his sword behind in the campsite.

What Hotohori didn't notice though, was that only some of her tears were from her fear of dying. Some of them were because behind his back, she was attempting to burn his rope down, and the fire was burning her palms almost unbearably. But she kept at it. If she died, the burn to her palm wouldn't mean much. And she would much rather die knowing Hotohori had a chance to survive.

The good thing about when the floor dropped out from under them was that it distracted her from the pain in her palms. The bad part was she knew she didn't have much more time. Concentrating all her energy, she poured her own body heat into her hands, increasing the temperature of the fire. The flames suddenly turned a white-ish blue, and the rope incased in it began fraying in earnest.

Right before her vision went black; she saw his body fall down to the dark, soft earth below them. Her eyes closed with a real smile this time.

Hotohori met his death with the composure expected from one of his position. He focused all his energy on keeping his face expressionless while he felt the air slowly drain from his body. The air around him began to get hotter, he felt almost like he was on fire, but his face never betrayed how he felt. He could feel himself slowly losing consciousness, when a floating/falling sensation came over him.

'So this is what dying is like.' Then he hit soft dirt, and the noose dropped to the floor. Coughing, he didn't even realize the implications of this until he looked next to him, and realized that Nozomi had not fallen with him. Panicked, he looked up, only to gasp in shock at what he saw.

Nozomi's noose had disintegrated by a red glow that surrounded her and held her limp body high above the interference of the crowd below. Suddenly that glow surrounded him as well, and he was transported next to Nozomi.

Gathering her in his arms, he found that she was cold as ice, and breathing very shallowly. Holding her close, he tried to give her whatever warmth he could offer. Meanwhile, the red around them got more and more intense, until he couldn't see or hear a thing around them.

A young man in the audience sighed internally. This had been far too close of a call. When the priestess and emperor had gotten captured, his magic had been blocked. He could do nothing against the two men who took them away. The only thing he could do was follow them, and hope that somewhere, whoever was in charge would make a mistake.

Quickly surrounding her with a protective shield, he destroyed her bindings, and lost no time transporting the emperor next to her. Increasing his concentration, he summoned the reserves of his power and transported them all to the one place he knew they'd be safe.

Nozomi stood in a void, nothing around her but blackness. Slightly wondering what she was doing here, and where here was, she began aimlessly walking. After she had walked a considerable way, a voice called her name from behind. Turning around in surprise, she found Hotohori standing where she had originally started. Happy that he was here with her, she started running towards him. But the closer she got, the more he faded into the distance.

"No, wait, Hotohori! I need to talk to you! Please wait!" It was useless. With each passing second he became even fainter. To Nozomi, it seemed her heart was disappearing with him, just like that time nine years ago when her grandfather was taken from her. Only this time it hurt so much more. Stopping as she realized she wasn't going to reach him, she could only weakly say through the tears, "Wait…I love you."

She awoke to a bright light shining in her face. "Mou…turn off the sun!" she grumbled as she rolled over, dragging the sheets with her. 'Wait a minute, sheets? Where am I?' Slowly, she opened her eyes to find out that there was no actual light; she was just in a very bright room. "What?" Suddenly a very high pitched voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Wakey wakey! Taiitsukun will want to talk with you!"

Searching in vain for the cause of this rather annoying phenomenon, Nozomi looked down when something tugged on her sheets. A small girl with pigtails stood grinning up at her, entirely too cheerful in Nozomi's opinion.

"Who are you?" she asked rather bluntly. The small girl wasn't fazed by her rudeness, though.

"Nyan-Nyan!"

"Okay…" she struggled to comprehend the odd things that were happening. During her pondering, however, she realized one rather important detail. "Why am I naked?"

"Nyan-Nyan fixed your clothes!"

"Where am I?"

"No time! Get dressed! Get dressed!" At this, the Nyan-thingy grabbed her hand and dragged her with surprising strength towards a door Nozomi had not noticed. Haphazardly clinging to the sheet to preserve her modesty, she tried desperately not to trip on it in Nyan-Nyan's haste.

Unceremoniously throwing her in, Nyan-Nyan bid her to hurry, and banged the door shut. Seeing her clothes, which were indeed clean and looking brand-new, she hurried to dress lest someone come in unannounced (mostly Nyan-Nyan) before she was properly covered.

No sooner had she emerged from the room than Nyan-Nyan had grabbed her hand yet again, and was dragging her through a maze of hallways and grandiose rooms. When they finally reached their destination, Nozomi had no time to look around her, for she was panting a little and glaring at her companion.

"You just had to run, didn't you?"

Smiling much too brightly for her tastes at the moment, Nyan-Nyan insisted to the truth of that. "Yes! Yes! Run! Run!"

She had no time to mutter the obscenities running through her head because at that moment Hotohori gently put a hand to her chin, and lifted her face to look at him. Almost forgetting to breathe when she saw him, she wondered nervously if her new discovery was written all over her face for everyone to see. "Um…hi."

Looking at her rather reproachfully, his only response was, "At first I thought Chichiri was the one who saved both of us. But then he told me about your little stunt. You saved me, again, I might add, but did nothing to stop your own death. Why?"

She looked at him for a moment, debating what to say. 'I can't really tell him that I did it because his life is more important to me than my own. I can't tell him that I just realized I love him.' Not knowing what else to say, she gave him the best excuse she could.

"I couldn't do anything about my own bindings. But I could with yours. It makes sense, really." Hotohori arched an eyebrow at her tone. "Okay, so it sounds more like I'm trying to convince me than you, but honestly it did make sense at the time."

Thinking more in depth about what happened; more questions came to her mind. "Wait a minute. How come we can talk?" Feeling around her throat for soreness, she found nothing. "My neck's not bruised." Bringing her hand to her face, she saw her normal palm. "And I'm not burnt. What's going on?"

"Nyan-Nyan healed both of you." said a two-pack-a-day voice from the corner. Nozomi looked over and clapped a hand over her mouth to suppress a scream at the oldest, ugliest, she-male she'd ever seen in her life. Once she could trust her voice, she removed her hand and searched for another subject to comment on.

"Nyan-Nyan is very talented." Turning to the small girl who was still next to her, she continued. "Thank you." Looking back at the she-male with odd ribbons floating all around her, Nozomi continued her barrage of questions. "I don't mean to be rude but, who are you? And who's Chichiri? And just in general, what happened?"

Without any change in expression, she answered her questions. "I am Taiitsukun, ruler of this world. Chichiri is over in the corner there, he is one of your warriors. I'll let him tell you how he saved you in Kutou."

Nozomi looked over to the corner indicated, and yet again had to try and cover up her surprise. The man standing there was actually quite good looking, tall and lean, with blue hair. Part of it was pulled back into a ponytail like Tamahome's, but his bangs arched high over his face. It was his face that gave Nozomi pause. He was wearing a mask. But all those thoughts became immaterial as she realized one thing Taiitsukun said.

"You're Chichiri? One of the warriors of Suzaku?"

"That's right, no da!"

Smiling widely, Nozomi felt better than she had in days. "That's great! That means we've found six. Only one left! I'm Nozomi, Priestess of Suzaku." Like the first day she had come into this world, she forgot she wasn't in England, and extended her hand. At Chichiri's odd look, she realized her mistake. "I keep forgetting, I'm sorry." Then she made the proper bow. "Thank you, for saving both our lives."

"I wouldn't have been able to if it wasn't for you, Miko-sama."

"Huh?"

"As I just finished explaining to Taiitsukun and Hotohori-sama, someone was blocking my magic, both when you were captured and when you were escorted to your execution."

"You were there when we were captured?"

"I've been watching you for quite a while now, no da! You would have had a lot more trouble with Kutou if I hadn't, no da!"

"So they were blocking your magic as well as mine. How did you get us out?"

"You did, no da! When you successfully burnt Hotohori-sama's bindings, it created a small hole in their defenses. Once that happened I could slip in and get you out of there, no da."

"Chichiri brought you here, partly because I wished to meet you in person, and partly because he knew I was the only one who had the power to heal you."

"What do you mean?"

This time it was Hotohori who answered her. "You were almost dead when we brought you here. You were cold as ice, plus the burn on your hand, the bruising around your neck, and you had other cuts on your body you hadn't told me about."

"Well, the general guy did torture me before he tried the whole sake thing."

"Okay, so why were you that cold? No one should be that cold unless they're dead."

"I don't want to tell you."

Hurt, Hotohori asked, "Why not?"

"Because you'll be mad."

Grabbing her shoulders, Hotohori tried to keep his voice even. "Nozomi, please?"

Not looking at him, she explained. "In order to burn through your noose before I lost consciousness, I had to superheat my fire a little, which means stealing it from my own body heat."

"So basically you froze yourself from the inside out?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Normally I can keep it up for much longer than that, but my body was already weak, so I could only manage those few seconds."

"What am I going to do with you?"

After thinking for a second, Nozomi suggested, "Feed me?"

Without another word, Taiitsukun started floating out the door. All looked at her in confusion except for Chichiri. Speaking up, he explained her actions. "Taiitsukun already has food prepared for us, no da! The dining room is this way."

Once everyone had gotten their fill of the delicious food, Taiitsukun began speaking.

"You know Nozomi, when you first came to this world, I thought that either Suzaku was crazy for picking you as his priestess, or that you weren't really the girl of legend. But I've been watching you. Now I think I understand why he picked you."

'What do you say to that?' After a moment's deliberation, she said, "I will perform my duties as Priestess to the very best of my ability."

"I know you will. As I said, I've been watching you."

"I just thought of something." Hotohori piped up. "You've been watching us, so has Chichiri, and we've just learned that more Kutou spies than we ever knew about were following us as well. Anyone else we should know about?"

"Not that I've sensed, no da. And you're safe for as long as you're here."

"But we'll need to get back soon. I'm sure everyone else is worried about us."

"Yes, especially since one of the advisors contacted them asking about your execution." Taiitsukun informed them gravely.

"The palace advisors know about this?"

"Yes, why?"

Nozomi and Hotohori shared a look, then almost in complete sync, rolled their eyes and said, "Oh boy."