This is the final letter, and it's waaay different than the others, please don't kill me over the change . . . or the fact that this is the end of the story . . . I thank everyone who has followed it and reviewed it.

KUDOS TO YOU ALL!

Disclaimer: It should be obvious as to why I don't own .Hack . . .

On to:

My Pride on the Line

By: The Not so GeniusVampire

Final Chapter: From One Heart to Another

There he laid a beautifully tragic figure. Due to a lack of light his skin had become deathly pale. Honey colored hair paled with his skin and fell sweat-dampened over his tired brow, cheeks, and neck. Eyes that were usually bright amber were dulled with sickness; however, they were far from lifeless. In fact, his mouth was turned upwards as though being deathly pale was the last thing on his mind. One of these more important things was the brunet boy hovering over him.

The boy's cool hand touched his forehead while the other hand moved to his own. It was the third time in the same hour he had done this. The man chuckled. "Ryou . . . I am fine now, honestly."

"Kaoru . . . your temperature skyrocketed again . . ." Ryou brushed his soft bangs aside, his eyes gleaming with worry. ". . . It's scary 'cause it happens when you seem to be improving. . ."

Kaoru pulled himself into a sitting position. "This will pass . . ." He kissed the violet-eyed teen's forehead behind closed shutters. "There is no way I would leave you and Kite alone."

"Kite . . . he's worrying me too . . . he didn't look so good the last time I saw him . . . When I told him about you he all but fainted. On top of that he can't leave The World. . ."

"The two of you will get sick if you keep worrying like this. My condition will not worsen, and I refuse to die." He pulled Ryou into his tightening chest relishing the feel of the teen's cooler skin. "Ryou, I want you to do something for the three of us."

". . . What is it?"

"I want you to stop worrying about me and focus on Kite a little more. . ." He looked concerned. "You made a promise to him and it would be a travesty to break it over me. . . And I can tell you want to at least see him." His eyes shifted out the window. 'And so do I . . .'

Bewildered Ryou thought. 'How did he . . .? . . . Be it real life or online, it always feels like Kaoru can read my mind. . .' A single sweatdrop crawled down his cheek as he said "But it's impossible to leave your side I can't even leave when the doctor arrives."

Kaoru sighed. "You're doing it again . . . Let's do this: take my laptop and sit right here." He propped himself further up.

Ryou took the violet-skinned laptop and settled into Kaoru's lap. 'I hope he's all right. . .' He thought as he logged into The World.

*** Two Hours Later ***

With his chin nestled in his left hand, Kaoru inquired "What happened? You logged out rather quickly."

"Give me some credit I was there for a couple of hours. . ." He lowered his voice to a secretive whisper. "He was sleeping . . . I didn't think it was a good idea to wake him up so. . ."

"You watched him. . ." The amber-eyed man chuckled inwardly.

". . . Well, yeah, but I did leave him something . . . I think he'll like it." His voice trailed. "I hope he does . . ." The longer the young man spoke, the sadder his visage became.

"Ryou?" Kaoru's soothing voice echoed through Ryou's ears. "Was something wrong with him?"

Violet eyes darted all over the room. "I'm not sure . . . I don't think he knew I was there, but . . . he reacted like he did . . . although you never know with Kite . . . Then . . ." Ryou trailed off again and stood up. He walked over to the window and opened it. Kaoru flinched slightly as the light filtered in, at the same time his eyes seemed to have brightened. All of a sudden, Ryou jumped lightly back onto the bed, some of the sheets billowed around his legs and tangled them together. He leaned into Kaoru's lips saying. "Then I eased his sleeping pain." He gave a trace smile.

"That was rather poetic of you, Ryou, but what exactly did you do and weren't you even the least bit afraid of being seen?"

The brunet raised an eyebrow. ". . . To be honest . . . no . . . I didn't feel anything negative, and I wasn't thinking about anyone or anything else but Kite at the moment."

Kaoru simply smiled.

--- The World ---

Azure Kite sneezed out of his half sleep, '. . . That was odd . . . maybe someone is thinking of me . . .maybe not . . .' He rubbed his eyes with an odd feeling in his fingertips, in fact his face felt as though someone had touched it. That of course did not make sense, after all Azure Kite was not a sound sleeper; the slightest, breath, the lightest . . . touch near him would wake him in an instant. However, not only did he not feel anyone touch him, but he could still feel the lingering effects of it. It now felt . . . familiar . . . comforting. He brushed his cheek with that hand in an attempt to take the full feeling into his stitched body. As the final remnants of it faded his head felt much heavier and as he slowly lowered it his hat slipped off. He almost put it on without any real thought until he noticed something lining the inside.

It was a red and black little thing with a red-eyed, white-haired Grunty on the front. 'Is this from . . . Haseo . . .?' He flipped it over to see the young rogue's name scratched across its surface. Slowly, the knight opened it as if his fingers could barely move.

His eyes skimmed the first line and he laughed lightly.

Hey Kite,

I told you that I'd stop by sooner than before, and I did, but . . . you were asleep. I tried to wake you up but you wouldn't, your loss I suppose, just kidding . . . seriously I'M KIDDING. Next time I'll e-mail you . . . or give you a big wet Willy bet that would wake you up.

On a serious note I am just now replying to your letter, I know I should have done this a good month ago, but I did not know how to reply. It's just sometimes I have a hard time handling my own emotions, so sometimes I don't know how to respond to the emotions of others. Like when Endrance first laid out his red carpet of emotions out to me for the first time. At first I found it strange after all I was responsible for reminding him of reality and how much he lost within it. All he told me was he that before I –saved- him all he could see was the darkness in reality . . . and that I brought him back into the light . . .

Confused as I was my heart did a few back flips that day.

The same thing happened when you e-mailed me . . . to be honest I was a little scared of you. All I did was make your life difficult I even Data Drained you! And for a while I thought that the only reason I had your member address was because Aura gave it to me . . . You acted tense, yet unassuming around me, like you really weren't sure of what to think . . . the both of us were on pins and needles.

The same day we formed an actual party, went to some random place, didn't pay attention to our surroundings, and even then tried to look everywhere else but at the person we were standing next to. That was how the day 'progressed', we couldn't seem to agree on . . . I believe it was a forest area and we couldn't agree on which direction to go in. at first we went with my suggestion, but yours turned out to be right. I remembered saying something that suggested you were right because you were a program . . .That resulted in a overheated argument and a fight where you almost knocked my block off with your bare hands . . . Then you left me behind . . . Surprisingly, you didn't leave the area; only jumped ahead to the statue. You looked upset, and I felt like a complete moron. When you heard me coming you jumped up . . .

. . . And . . . tripped . . .

I laughed. It slipped, I swear it did! After all, your feet hardly ever touched the ground so how did you trip and what in the world did you trip on? I was laughing at the irony . . . At the last minute I realized who I was laughing at and the trouble my mouth had already gotten me into. To my surprise, you were laughing too. You were scratching your cheek and laughing. When you stopped you told me that what I said hurt but I was entitled to my opinion; I could tell you wanted to add something, but to ask seemed like too much. Then you sighed; the sound of your voice doing something other than growling seemed strange, but not necessarily bad.

The issue was not brought up ever again and we tried again. I have to admit, the second time around felt a little better and for some reason easier than the first. The more I hung around you the more I began to see it, of course you laughed, joked around, and communicated more, and it did not feel as though you were forcing yourself. Kite, you have childishness about you. It's like you've found a way to be both innocent and sane despite the chaos, inequality, and injustice around you. That has to be the only way you forgive and forget so easily, either that or you have better ways to spend time with others aside from being angry at them . . . I just don't know even now there's no way I could be as trusting with people as you are. Then again, you have the ability to tell those with truly harmful intentions from those with a shred of decency in them.

I also found that you cannot stand to be alone; I asked about it once, and you acted as though you had no idea of what I was talking about, but . . . it is written across your face, most of the time I could see this look of limitless despair in your eyes. It was times like those that made me not want to leave you alone for a second.

Today seemed to be the breaking point. While you were sleeping, you were curled up tightly, as though to protect yourself from the rest of the world, or to protect yourself from your undeniable feelings. In addition, your eyes were shut tight, your bottom lip looked chewed up, and your hands jittered and twitched as though you were going to burst. I just wanted to pick you up and carry you to a place where pain were only a fleeting memory then it would not even be that. But you were asleep, and if you do not want to wake up you attack the closest disturbance . . . actually, you'll do that in your sleep too. Seriously, you were put to sleep once in a battle, and even though your feet were flat on the ground you nailed the first thing that came near you . . . it was a little scary to be honest.

However, when I touched your shoulders, you did not even move, you even stopped shaking. When I tried to actually shake you awake though, you would not budge, I wonder if you knew I was there on a subconscious level . . . When I pulled you into my lap your lip twitched the way it does when you are amused. To be honest, I stole some of that time to type this . . . You had to have known my attention was partially split for when I looked back . . .

There were tears streaming down your face . . . warping it. My heart stopped and I wished there was more I could do than wipe them away, like actually be there when you need me to be instead of watching you fight it off on your own only to have it come back even worse. And I will be I swear to you I will actually make it in time for once, you deserve it more than anyone. I care about you and above all:

I Love You,

Ryou Misaki; Haseo

P.S.: I'll be back in a few minutes and if this letter was of any help please smile; even I think your smiles are cute.

Azure Kite fell backwards and breathed as though he had run an insurmountable distance. 'Haseo.' He thought. 'I never knew he watched me so closely . . . even when I told him I liked him he seemed to be in another world. . . In fact I thought he was ignoring me; suppose not.' His cheeks turned a faint reddish violet. 'What does he mean by cute? I didn't think he could see my mouth let alone know what my face looks like when I smile . . .'

All of a sudden he felt two arms wrap around his neck. "I can't believe you Kite," Haseo chided softly. "For the first time in your life you stayed in the same place." Nuzzling close he noticed a rather blank look on the AI's face. "What's wrong?"

Azure Kite shook only his head, but the rest of his body seemed to follow.

Haseo whirled him around and looked deeply into his jaded eyes. "You can't wave me off anymore like that, remember? In your letter you told me you trusted me completely, so can you trust me enough to help?"

". . ."

He massaged Azure Kite's slender arms. "C'mon you can tell me. . ."

". . ." Azure Kite sighed then pursed his lips and sighed. All at once his thoughts spilled from his mouth, a mouth that supposedly could not form words. "This World . . . when I first opened my eyes to it, it seemed so vast . . . possibly endless. . . It seemed impossible to protect even though I was not necessarily alone, it seemed impossible . . . Now it's just mildly difficult, and yet . . ." He paused. "When I first tried it seemed easier that I thought at least. I didn't have to talk to anyone in fact; as long as I did my part no had to know I even existed. . . Things changed when I met you though; it was the first time I saw such close interaction between players; well at least it was the first time I found myself intruding on such a connection. It left an impression on me, one so deep that I began to observe the people I swore to protect. I saw close and distant relationships, happiness, sadness, pain, joy, sorrow . . . and love." Slowly he shut his eyes. "The more I surveyed the people, the smaller this World itself became . . . I know that makes little sense, but that's how I felt. I guess in a way your own personal world seems to shrink when you're the only one in it . . . It's dark, lonely, and depressing, and in the end you just wish it were gone . . ."

"You mean you wish you yourself were gone, don't you?"

Azure Kite nodded wordlessly. "I did . . . especially when I found out what people thought of programs like me . . . The feeling dissipated when I actually talked eye to eye with you, even began to like you ways I never thought possible, but . . ."

"But, what?" Haseo insisted.

"But when my feelings for you were merely a crush, I found out what happened to those who stepped outside of the bounds of 'liking'. I also got a glimpse at who could be what . . ."

"I'm not sure I understand . . ."

"I'm a program, so I'm not allowed to have feelings to begin with, so to speak, but Endrance is allowed to love who or whatever he pleases, because the entire World will love him back in some way . . . Something like that . . ."

"Something like that, huh? When you put it that way, the World is just another place to profile you . . . It's like you can't escape it, even though the World is meant to be an escape to begin with."

"It isn't for me . . . I was 'born' here and my life will end here as well."

With a pained look in his eyes, Haseo mumbled. "Please don't sound so morbid . . ."

"Why not? It's only a fact."

"Kite in case you've forgotten this is the first time, I've ever heard you speak, not only that but for the first time ever I don't have to guess what's on your mind you can tell me freely. I was just kinda hoping you'd be thinking something a little more cheerful."

"I do think positively sometimes, but this whole 'you should fall in love only with this type of person or gender' mentality bothers me . . . It's about the only thing on my mind right now. If you'd like I can be my usual quiet self again."

"No, by all means keep talking, like I said it's nice to hear you speak your mind as opposed to just assuming what you're thinking about." The young rogue's voice softened with each word.

Azure Kite smiled in a secretive manner. "You always seemed to know anyway . . ." the bridge of his nose turned a faint red.

"I suppose I know you pretty well then, don't I?" He kissed the bridge of Azure Kite's burning nose. Then with a little bit of difficulty, he hoisted the AI into his arms; suddenly his 'load' disappeared.

Haseo stood with his arms outstretched and shock in his eyes. He looked all around him before becoming aware of a shadow gathering around him, he chanced to look up. "E-Endrance?! What are you doing?!"

". . . Waiting to become well enough by your standards is much too long of a burden to bear. Besides, everything I truly need to recover is here in the World." Endrance purred, although there was a bit of a rasp to his voice. "Haseo, all I need is you . . ." he smiled warmly in the rogue's direction then he adjusted Azure Kite in his arms. ". . . And Kite. . ."

The jade eyed knight grabbed Endrance's neck in alarm. When he finally had a decent view of his feline like ruby eyes he relaxed. Shortly afterward he bristled. "Wait a second, you're not well enough even to play?!"

"I see you do have a voice that is quite fortunate." The alluring blade brandisher said in a rather airy tone.

Momentarily stopped, Azure Kite replied slowly. "Well . . . I could always speak I just never had the need to . . ."

Haseo tilted his head. "Seriously?"

"Yea . . . my voice went sour because I never used it, which is why I sound so strange now . . ." His eyes formed something between a smile and a smirk; then it turned into a wide-eyed grimace. ". . . En . . . you'll have to try harder than that to distract me. You're still sick."

"Are you worried you will contract what I have?"

"No! I'm worried about you!"

"Kite you sound as bad as Ryou." Endrance chided.

"Bad? He's right," Haseo frowned slightly. "You have to be careful, after all, you're waving off what most people are lucky to survive."

"Haseo . . . I'm not that careless . . ."

"We're just saying we'd go crazy if something happened to you, and includes if you get worse." Azure Kite said sternly. "And I know I want to be selfish . . ." He gently touched Endrance's pale cheek. "Like you, everything I have is here in this world; however, you also exist in the other world, so please take care of yourself when I can't . . . kay?" The knight's eyes had become glassy almost transparent.

A rather dreamy look graced the aqua haired man's ruby eyes. "Kite . . . this intense look of worry does not suit you . . ." he brushed Azure Kite's cheek lightly with the back of his hand. "How long have you been in this troubled state?"

"For far too long, but the real question is, now that you've seen my face, will you listen to my words?"

Slowly Endrance backed into a sitting position. "But of course, I would not want to worry you anymore . . ."

"You better not . . ." Azure Kite tugged at Endrance's hair absent- mindedly.

Haseo leaned back on Endrance's side, but his head rested partially on Azure Kite's lap. "And to think there used to be a time when we just wanted to rip each other's heads off." He said rather airily. "Now we care so much we're paranoid over each other." He laughed. "And now sitting around like this; allowing nothing else to interrupt our lives . . . If nothing else I ever say or do is right beyond this point then so be it; I'll know for a fact that this is one thing I'll never regret."

Still curling his finger around Endrance's hair, Azure Kite reached slightly and twined it around Haseo's. "I won't either . . ." he proceeded to wrap a stray lock of his own hair around the same finger. "Moments that were meant to be always happen."

"It is said that you know instantly who you meant to be with, be it in the form of attraction or intense hate, you simply know that this person or being will not leave your life gracefully –if at all. Nothing can keep you away from them either, temperament, likes, dislikes, gender . . . and even where they came from. All that matters is where you go with them. It is a bond that transcends beyond yourself . . ."

"Including your selfish pride."

.My Pride on the Line// End

A/N: Gee, this story has been a real roller coaster for me . . . And now that it's over . . . it's almost sad.

-There is one thing I would like to apologize for (aside from the chapter being so long) and that is Haseo's letter . . . for some reason it sounded more like a narrative. Even so I still liked it and it did not sound too impersonal, did it?

-And Azure Kite's speaking bit at the end I just thought that was precious! Speaking of which, there's one line: "But when my feelings for you were merely a crush, I found out what happened to those who stepped outside of the bounds of 'liking'. -I think I've hinted of prejudice in the beginning of the story, well this is what Azure Kite was mentioning. Being an observer he's probably seen some awful brutality spawned from prejudice. Just insert a scene after that line, it was meant to play with your mind.

-Oh yea and I believe Haseo shows surprise twice when Azure Kite mentions he could talk all along. There is a three month gap from when I typed those two parts so I forgot exactly what I put down. However, it could also be seen as Haseo being that floored by it.

Eheh time for the GeniusVampire to be quiet and hope her readership drops a line.

Sincerely yours,

The Not so GeniusVampire