Guardians

Note: Here's the next chapter, everyone. Thank you very much for the reviews, and please continue to make my day by leaving them. Thank you, anonymous, for the suggestion of using Blind Sight, by Ryan Cabrera… I looked up the lyrics, and it does, indeed, fit very well, and might be used in a later chapter. Don't forget to review, everyone!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Is This The End?

Karmina was in a right state for the next day. She huffed about, sometimes casting unhappy glares at Seto, who was not relenting in his cold shoulder to her. But what he didn't know was that she cried that night with the knowledge that she was about to lose him. She didn't know that he wasn't very happy about going back home either.

The morning of their departure dawned bright and warm, but it did nothing to rise their spirits.

"Are you ready, you two?"

They both nodded dumbly.

"We'll send you off in an hour."

They both nodded dumbly again.

Karmina gave a little sigh, feeling even sadder than usual. She just didn't know if she could ever go back to before… she was different now. Being able to talk to someone, someone human, had subtly been changing her from the moment she first spoke the words "I'm sorry." to Seto Kaiba, that fateful day outside the orphanage. Suddenly, she remembered how they first met with a little smile. It made a sort of distorted sense that the first thing she'd ever said to him was that she was sorry.

Although he heard her thoughts, he didn't comment. He just listened, giving his own little smile and making sure she could neither see that, or hear his own thoughts. It seemed strange that she'd been apologizing for little things to him for the whole time he knew her, and now it was he who most needed to apologize. But he wasn't going to do that, not now and not ever. Things would be simpler without her.

And it seemed that there would be no turning back… they had both accepted that whatever they'd had was over.

For the time that remained, Karmina found herself composing a song of her very own, written on a loose scrap of paper. Somehow, she'd always thought that writing her own song would be the happiest moment of her life, but she felt hollow inside as she put her feelings into words.

Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba was trying to come up with a plausible reason for his absence from the company, and therefore did not even pay attention to the girl's thoughts as she wrote the lyrics of her heart.

It seemed that, although both of them had changed, they were settling already back into their lonely lives without even giving a struggle. Wingweaver and Blue Eyes noticed this with sinking hearts. All their efforts at pushing them towards happiness seemed to have fallen apart. Blue Eyes was all for intervening, but Wingweaver disagreed.

"Blue Eyes… they aren't children anymore. We have to let them lead their lives however they choose… besides, this will work itself out if it was meant to be."

"I thought this was going so well... what went wrong?"

"Ever heard that opposites attract? Well, it's true in some cases, but… Karmina and Kaiba have a lot in common, and their stubbornness is one of those things… it shouldn't be a surprise that they fight, not this early in the relationship… and besides, they still don't really understand how they feel. We need to step aside."

He sighed. "I don't know how long I can leave them to their own devices, but I will try, for now."

"That's good enough, I suppose. Now, it's time."

Blue Eyes nodded and they went to find their charges. It was time, at last, to send them back to their own realm.

They stood under what appeared to be the bottom of the same lake that Karmina and Kaiba had jumped into before.

"I'll send you up," Wingweaver told them as she started to glow and the two of them began to float towards the pool. "Goodbye," she said, and it was the last thing they heard before they found themselves back on the bridge.

Standing up and dusting himself off, Kaiba gave a last glance at Karmina, the girl who'd brightened his days for that short while, before turning to go back to his company and to his old life. She'd gotten so close to him, and he cared about her so much… and that was exactly why he could never look at her again.

As she watched him go, she knew that her life would never be the same. She could try, maybe, but she could never forget him. And she already felt guilty… he needed someone who understood, or at least who tried to understand… and now he had no one.

"Seto," she whispered after him. "I think I… I finally know… what it feels like… to be… in love… I think I am… and it hurts…"

But he didn't hear her, he couldn't. She didn't have the courage to tell him. Glancing sadly at the piece of paper clutched in her hand, she knew that she had to move on, and knew that she couldn't.

End note: I know that this is really short, but I need a chapter break, and the next update will be fast, since I have a pretty good idea of where I'm taking this, now. Review, please!