DISCLAIMER: I only own Riko.

Riko breathed deeply and pulled her fingers through her wet black bangs. She crawled carefully out of the bush and stood up, looking around through the rain, that was now coming down heavily. The ground was just one big mud lake. She ran through it, the ground slopping under her feet, and when she reached Gaara, she threw herself to her knees. She slipped her left arm under his head and rested it on his left shoulder.

"Gaara," she muttered to him. His body was cold, partly from the rain and partly from the fact that he was dying.

His father. His father had done this to him, had finally reached his own, sick goal- to kill his son because he had become a 'failed experiment.'

"Gaara, please," Riko said. Her voice had been reduced to a whisper to mask her tears. "Please don't."

Gaara blinked and willed his eyes to open again. "I'll try not to," he said. She wondered if he even knew what she was talking about, and he was just trying to comfort her.

"Why?" the girl asked. "God, Gaara you didn't have to do this! You shouldn't even be here!"

"I would never forgive myself….." his voice faded off for a moment before he regained it. "If this was you. If you died, if my father killed you because of me…..I wouldn't be able to….forgive myself." His voice was constantly fading off as his voice ceased to work so much.

Riko let out a long, shuddering sigh. The rain mixed with her tears and streamed off her face onto his. She took her right hand and placed it gently on Gaara's chest, just below his throat. How could she reply to that? Her lips were placed tightly together and had formed a smile of sorrow at the corners. She moved her hand from his chest to his forehead, where Riko pushed his wet hair to the side.

"I'm sorry, Gaara."

Gaara looked up at her. "You never did anything to me but love me, so that I could push you away."

"You should not have to go through this. Any of this. Your father shouldn't have done this to you. He shouldn't blame you for something he's done. I'm sorry that you're going to die like this. I'm sorry he's done this to you."

Gaara clutched his chest as his heart started to beat harder. It was pounding so hard that it was hurting. Riko's face was quickly shadowing over. He felt like he was swimming through a sea of blackness, and a monster was dragging him down.

"Riko," he choked. "It's fading, all of it, going dark, god the nothingness, it's coming back! It's coming back, Riko!"

The girl scanned over him desperately with her eyes, trying to figure out what was going on with him; what did he mean the nothingness was coming back?

"And Yashamaru, he hates me because of my birth, and my father wants me gone, my siblings could never understand, I am alone, this demon loving only himself-!"

He's remembering his life, thought Riko, finally understanding. This is it. Say it all, or say nothing.

"Gaara!" exclaimed Riko, crying still harder, bending down to his face. "I will never let you die, I will always remember you and keep you alive with me! Gaara!"

Say it all or say nothing.

"I love you, Gaara."

She watched as his eyes took an expression she had never seen before: Peace and happiness within the deepest reaches of his soul.

Riko had said it all.

She lowered her head, her tears slowly stopping with realization, and kissed Gaara gently on the cheek.

"I love you."

She moved his head and carefully put it on the wet ground and stood up. The rain was stopping. It was only drizzling at that point. Riko didn't know what was going to happen to his body, but she knew what had happened to his soul.

Riko turned and walked briskly back to Konoha village.