A/N: Okay, typing this, getting some sleepytime tea, relaxing, and going to bed… sounds like a good evening :) Also it's my birthday tomorrow! Yay! It's also a monday… boo… s'pose that's the definition of you win some, you lose some…

Disclaimer: I own me? Like myself? Yeah?

Bottomless Sea

Katherine was not at all surprised that Nero had overpowered her, she had been struggling to keep up with Maria and after watching the devil hunter rip her apart as though it were a rather violent walk in the park… She was not surprised in the slightest that he'd taken her down like it were child's play. She had been surprised that he had not been able to come down from the blood high, especially since it was his first dose of the Old Blood, giving it to him may not have been the best idea she'd ever had… However there'd been little time to consider in the midst of the action. She had also been startled at how much he wanted to draw it out, to make it painful… he'd clearly delighted in watching her suffer. She saw just before her vision faded that the bloodlust was fading from his eyes, there was some humanity back there again…

The Hunter did not enjoy trying to talk the partial devil down from the panic that he'd worked himself into when she'd returned, words were never her strong suit, even before she'd begun to steep herself in the ideas of the Healing Church and Mensis, though the latter was one that she'd heard only some mention of but they did have interesting ideas of the Great Ones. She shook her head but knelt down to light the lantern before her, he hadn't seemed satisfied with her answers but she didn't know all of them either, if she did, they wouldn't be in this mess to begin with…

-Devil's Hunt-

The pair of them had stayed in the dream for some time, Nero trying to come to grips with what she had forced upon him. She'd given him the space that she assumed that he wanted, however after several hours that she'd spent reading one of the many books that decorated the workshop out in the garden, far from the regular inhabitants of the Dream, Nero came to find her.

"I'm not mad at you y'know." he said, he wasn't looking at her, the slightest of pinkish color dusting his pale cheeks.

"I presumed that you were not keen to speak with the one who forced an undesirable fate upon you." she said to him, picking up the leaf she'd been using as a bookmark and folding it into the tome.

"I… I mean I'm not happy with it but I know how hard it can be to make snap decisions in a fight, Savior knows I've made a few shitty ones…" he grumbled "But I know that you did the best you could with what you knew and what you had… also… I'm sorry." he said, still not looking in her eyes. She raised a singular brow at him

"Why?" she asked softly. His gaze finally snapped to hers, his own expression baffled.

"What do you mean why? I tore you to pieces, I came to with… with…" he paused for a deep breath "with your heart in my hand." he finished. Katherine stood, brushing the dust and dirt from her coat.

"I know, I saw just before I passed. However you have already attempted to apologize and I have already told you that while being in the throes of blood drunkeness does not entirely excuse one from their actions, I do understand how difficult it can be to… not enjoy it. To revel in the bloodshed and pain and fear of your opponents, no matter whom they may be, is a difficult instinct to ignore. I have experienced what you have, been in your shoes so to speak, I do not blame you so long as you are able to come back to yourself. And of course, it is not the first time that you have taken my life." she smirked at him, enjoying the moment in which he paused, trying to remember when he had previously done so.

"Oh… right…" he grumbled, swiping at his nose. It was a decidedly cute action, Katherine thought before collecting up her things and starting back toward the workshop.

"Do you feel comfortable continuing into the Nightmare?" she asked him "I can make a trip alone if you do not feel as though you are ready to go back into the fight…" the devil hunter's expression hardened when she said this, clearly he did not like backing down from a challenge and Katherine wasn't sure if challenging him now when she knew first hand that the bloodlust would be a struggle but there was no calling back her words now that they'd left her mouth.

"Let's go. You picked up something that will let us continue past where… Maria was?" he stumbled over the Lady's name briefly and Katherine wondered if he was avoiding the brutality of the memory or trying not to enjoy it too much. She gathered her hunting gear back up, pulling the mask once more over her nose and mouth, some protection from the taste and smell of the blood was better than none after all and knelt by the headstone once more. Nero placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and they warped back to the large, battle ruined library.

They appeared inside it once more and Nero very pointedly didn't look at the body off to the side as Katherine worked the mechanism to get the clockface to open. They stepped out into a cloudy day, the ocean stretching to one side, a hamlet to the other. Nero looked out at it, glancing once back at the way they came.

"A bottomless sea…" he mumbled

"What?"

"Reminds me of a story I heard as a kid, that the sky was a bottomless sea that the dead sailed upon." he explained, Katherine looked out at the sea herself.

"Fitting."

A/N: I actually did read a story in a collection once where a grandmother was talking about leaving home to go sail the skies in a ship like the sea and dropped like a note in a bottle or something for the narrator, wish I could remember where I'd found it…

Till next time,

-Winged Element