Guardians

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Chapter Twenty Two: Darkness Dispelled

It felt like her head was being split open. Everything blurred and she saw flashing white lights, but still she held the hole open. Though it may have been her imagination due to her condition, she thought she felt a hand on her arm, keeping her standing.

Just a minute more, Karmina.

Can't… hold… it… any… long-

She teetered and fell into the arms of a surprised Seto, who glanced fearfully at the smoking ruin that was the monster.

"YOU HAVE NOT WON YET, HUMANS!" It shrieked, stirring despite the fact that it was rapidly melting. The flesh of its wings was dripping off, leaving nothing behind, where there should have been bone. It crawled slowly, painfully, toward them, looking at Karmina as though she were a very disgusting child. "You have poor taste in lovers," it said, its vile voice lowered by the life that was leaving it.

"Do you plan on dying or must I finish you off?" Seto remarked, looking helplessly at Karmina. He didn't know how to play the hero, and he didn't know how to play the doctor. All he could really do was be himself, which didn't appear to be helping much. Karmina wriggled in his arms. She wasn't very good at being a helpless damsel in distress. She certainly could faint, but she didn't stay that way long.

"Oh, I'll be dying, alright. But then…" It never got to finish that sentence, for its life was at an end.

Karmina's eyes fluttered. "Seto?" she asked in a daze, her eyes glossy.

He nodded gravely, standing slowly and painfully, and not at all gracefully, nearly dropping her. She smiled. "Is… over?"

Again, he nodded. "Can you walk?"

She cocked her head and then slid shakily out of his arms and dropped like a rock. "Try… ankle… not carry…"

Trying not to think about his concern for her, he pulled her up and draped her arm over his shoulder. Leaning on him, she took a shaky step, then another. "That's good, then. We'll get there eventually."

She nodded, eyes still hazy. This is bitter sweet… am I dreaming? Everything seems… fuzzy… and it's awfully… hot… or maybe that's just Seto… She laughed out loud at her mental joke.

"Okay, you're delusional. That's great," he remarked, since she probably wouldn't even notice.

"It is? I… thought… bad… which rhymes with… bed… where… I… sleep… tired…" she rambled.

"Just keep walking," he said curtly, not sure how to deal with a feverish Karmina. The usual one was confusing enough.

She obeyed him, and through her glazed eyes he thought he could see admiration and fondness. She really IS out of it. No one admires ME.

"Can… still… hear… thoughts…" she noted dimly, taking a bad step and falling, pulling him down with her and giving a high pitched giggle. Her eyes cleared for a moment with the pain. "I do admire you… Seto. You're a lot b-braver than… I am. Why w-would you think I'd h-have to be out of it to admire th-that?"

He just shook his head and thought hard about a string of numbers that made Karmina's foggy head hurt even worse.

After what seemed like forever to both of them, though not so much to Karmina, who was now seeing pink bunnies out of the corner of her eyes, which kept her mildly occupied.

As Seto unceremoniously flung the gate open, Wingweaver and Blue Eyes rushed out of the castle towards them, both wearing bright smiles.

"You've done it!" Wingweaver called, looking like she might kiss Seto. But then her eyes fell on her charge and her eyes darkened. "She wore herself out, then, didn't she?"

He nodded. "She's been talking crazy. For that last stretch, she insisted that we had to stop to save the pink bunnies. It was very annoying."

"Indeed, it must be, to feel that helpless, and have her advertise her illness like that," Blue Eyes noted with a smirk.

"I'm not worried," he snapped, handing the girl over to Wingweaver awfully cautiously for someone who didn't care.

"You look a bit roughed up," his guardian said, hiding his concern even better than Seto.

"Oh, come of it, Blue Eyes. Let's get them to the infirmary so they can be healed."

Against Kaiba's protests, they were taken to the infirmary for healing. A wide variety of fairies and the like inspected their wounds.

"You've cracked at least three ribs," one of them said the instant they got his shirt off, against more protesting, which was something that made Karmina giggle even more.

"Broken ankle, fractured in two places," another told Karmina, who didn't look like she understood. "But the mental condition isn't very good. She took a lot of strain. Overheated her brain, it would appear. She needs a lot of rest."

"Tired," Karmina whispered, giving Seto another giddy grin before shutting her eyes and falling asleep.

Finally. She almost looks peaceful… except for that cast.

He fingered his bandages and winced. His whole chest was still very sore, making it near impossible for him to enjoy the same rest as Karmina.

After a while, she started to twitch and mutter, and he no longer envied her so much. Wondering, not for the first time, if he could purposely go into her mind, he tried to force entry into her dream. Catching a glimpse of the dark mass they had just fought, he felt a jolt of excitement before he was once again staring at her face.

Why can't I see more than that?

He had tried this several nights, and never gotten more than a brief glimpse into the dreams of the young singer.

What is it that you don't want me to see, Karmina?

Because despite the fact that he could read her mind, she was still a puzzle to him. In fact, the only person better guarded against being understood was surely he himself.

At 12:01 AM, Seto Kaiba fell asleep and had dreams of his own.

Early the next morning, Karmina woke up and took a look around her. Oh… he's not wearing a shirt… and he's hurt… I think I vaguely recall… but…

"Good morning, Miss Karmina. Would you like to take your breakfast now or wait for Mr. Kaiba?"

"I think I'll w-wait," she told the fairy, giving her a faint smile. She wasn't feeling all that steady, and her dreams had been dark. Food didn't sound very appealing at the moment.

Glancing back at Seto, she was suddenly put in mind of another morning where she'd woken in a bed that was not her own. That particular time she'd snuck out to buy herself new CDs and ended up slipping on the ice and hitting her head. Still, she had told Wingweaver, it was worth it. She had badly needed to hear a soothing voice that was male, and rather more distant than the ones that seemed to come from her own heart. Many nights she'd fallen asleep listening to the soft voice of Jesse McCartney. And she hadn't cried over his lyrics once. In fact, they were much more upbeat than what she was used to.

"I haven't sung anything happy in the longest time," she told herself. "I never was happy, not until I met Seto… but some nights I'd sing along… just to hope that I could mean it someday," she said, telling the unconscious and much less imposing Seto Kaiba what she'd never even told her guardian. "It was always funny, to me, singing those lyrics… ones that I never could relate to. Sometimes, well, a lot of the time, I wished that someone would think those things about me… but it never happened… no matter how much I wanted it, and sang it."

The sleeping Kaiba obviously didn't say anything, although his eyes did flicker open for just a second.

"And then, I couldn't seem to stand love songs anymore… I threw that CD in the case and now it's the only one that's gathered dust. I still remember every word… every note… that's what music does to me, you know."

Suddenly, she wanted to tell him how she felt, how sometimes in her pleasant dreams his arm was around her. She looked deep in her memory for the right song. Nothing seemed to fit perfectly, and she made a mental note to try her hand at songwriting, then picked one that was close enough.

"Is… this a dream? If it is… please don't wake me from this high… I'd become, comfortably numb, until you opened up my eyes, to what it's like, when everything;s right. Oh, I can't believe… You found me, when no one else was looking. How did you know just where I would be? Yeah, you broke through, all of my confusion, the ups and the downs and you still didn't leave. I guess that you saw what nobody could see; you found me." She stopped it there; the constant sound was waking him up. Quickly looking away, so he wouldn't see the single tear on her cheek, she heard him sit up.

"What time is it?"

"H-how would I know?"

The fairy from before stuck her head in and smiled. "You're awake now. Shall I bring your breakfast in?"

He shrugged and Karmina nodded, so the fairy rushed off and reappeared with two trays. "I hope you like eggs and biscuits, because that's what we made."

"Thank you," Karmina said, but Kaiba, used to this sort of thing, just nodded and started buttering a biscuit.

They ate in silence, both of them not sure how to approach the other. "Umm… the toast is… toasty," Karmina noted dumbly.

"You don't still have a fever, do you?"

"Not that I k-know of."

"No pink bunnies in the room?"

She smiled, vaguely remembering telling him to stop and help the bunnies, who'd been snared in a hunter's trap, which was also pink. "Not even one."

He made a weird face and it took her a minute to realize that he'd just smiled. "You… smiled!" she said, staring in disbelief at the CEO.

"Just don't tell anyone."

"Who would I tell? Only y-you and Wingweaver know I'm alive."

For once, it's her who dims the mood. "Just making sure. Wouldn't want my employees to think they could get some slack."

She shook her head, knowing that in a sad way, this was almost true. They finished their breakfast in the silence that seemed to come to them whenever either was thinking about telling the other that they felt something more than friendship.

End note: Not sure that this one is as much of a cliffie. I hope it was all right… I had terrible writer's block when I wrote the first bit… nothing was coming out right. Review!