Chapter Three: Falter
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein
By midnight, the fever Yagari had fought to prevent earlier that evening had set in. 24 hours of inattention had allowed infection to root itself in Zero's chest in spite of his supernatural immune system, burning through him like wildfire. After sleepless hours filled with half formed horrors of flames and despair, Oblivious to his vunerability, he slept, giving way to his usual dreams of what never was and never will be.
...
Zero... she mused with every labouring breath as she followed her nose as quickly as she dared through the dense forest. Probably hurt himself fighting... sighed one voice with wavering hope. Maybe he did it to himself... breathed another, filled with guilt.
Not long after she set out, she stopped for a drink at a nearby stream and noticed an ache building in her feet. Amused by the mundane needs brought on by moving with a purpose, she took time to breath deep of the forest air, savouring how alive it smelt, before leaving her pinching, pretty slippers under a nearby bush and continueing onwards.
Trees thinned out as she reached the outskirts of a well hidden clearing. Nestled within their thorny embrace was the brambles' treasure, a basic but extremely functional cabin, the source of the scent that was so Zero. She wanted...needed... to get closer.
With all the dignity and stealth of an elephant in tap shoes, Yuuki crept forwards and stumbled over a woodcutters axe into the handle of the well, sending the bucket reeling. Down it tumbled, clattering on every surface on its drawn out decent, before coming to rest with a resounding splash. Wincing (she was found out for sure...) she peered past the well into the ground floor window framed by not quite pulled-to curtains. After a minute of no movement within the house, she abandoned the deer-caught-in-headlights pose and moved in further with far less caution. If he was here, he'd be outside by now... must have just missed him she thought wistfully... But she was certain he had been there... recently too.
She jumped lightly up onto the windowsill and slid inside, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the sudden change in brightness. As the details of the room slowly bloomed into her vision, the wind was knocked out of her by the sight she least expected.
Zero...
...
Slowly, she drank in the sight of him... long slender legs encased in dark jeans lay askew on a pallet, tangled in hastily thrown aside blankets. Her eyes roamed up his naturally toned stomach, and with a painful twist in her chest, to a bandage near his left shoulder, dark with old blood. Creeping closer, she shakingly pulled the bandage aside to reveal shiny pink new skin, still raw, but healed. Breathing a sigh of relief she let the wrapping slide back into place as she leaned over him. He sighed in his sleep... his hot breath on her face making her conciously aware of how close to him she now was.
He looks softer when he sleeps... she thought running a delicate hand through hair so silver it almost glowed in the halflight.
"Yuuki..."
She jumped as Zero whispered in his slumber turning his head slightly into her touch. Does he know im here...? she thought, butterflies in her stomach.
"Yuuki...be safe... "
He was worried about her..? puzzled she hoped for more tidbits of information.
"Dont..."
"Dont what?" she half whispered back involuntarily.
"Dont... leave me!"
He grabbed her wrist with a sudden force that shocked her, breathing hard, she realised he was still asleep, clamping her free hand over her mouth in an effort to not make any more sound. She stood there for long minutes, unable and unwilling to remove her hand from his. Noticing his fevered brow she glanced around in search of water, and spotted a basin and cloth clear across the room. She gently pryed away from his grasp...
"Please...!"
The desperation in his voice made the breath catch in her throat, but she was determined. With a flash of de ja vu, she reassured him.
"Zero... I will come back"
He loosened his grip just enough for her to pull away. She lightly ran across the room, seized her targets, and fast as she dared without spilling any, made her way back. Wringing out the sodden cloth she murmered about silly men who dont look after themsleves and smoothed it over his painstricken face. He relaxed slightly under her touch, Now you look like good old Zero again... she smirked with the thought. But nothings how it used to be... her face fell with the thought, It cant be... Im different now... we're different... she put the basin aside and placed her hands on his cheeks, To check if his fever has improved, she told herself.
Her eyes were drawn to his lips, drawn tight by dehydration. So expressive... every little flicker of emotion that drenched his eyes was mirrored in barely desernable movements in the left corner of his mouth. She knew them all, hate, despair, greed... even the rare hidden smile. She knew him. The proximity to those expressive lips drew her memory to every admiring, insulting, terrified, frustrated time they had whispered her name. Yuuki... No one, not even kaname could draw the same shiver from her with a single word. She had always put it down to the strength of emotion behind his comments...
She was shaking the box of puzzle pieces that was her existance, spreading them out flat in a way that lent speed to her ability to connect them together. She had already gathered several random groups of interlocking sections since her memories began to return. Succeeding only in a few faces, some emotions, a location or two... Nothing truely relevant to the big picture. They could only float around in the complete border, unsure of their proper place. She needed to fill in the gaps, extend them till they met in a way that revealed the truth, in short she needed to sort by colour.
Surely a puzzle was as simple as sky, trees, earth. Blue, Green and Brown. Green would be in the middle. Complimented by both Blue or Brown. But Blue and Brown clashed horribly. Green... Trees, needed both air and earth didnt they? Trees continually reached for the sky, they exchanged mutual love, but never physically touched really... Trees loved the Sky, and the Sky loved the Trees in its own way. They both knew the Trees needed the Sky to live, there was no grudge between them for it. But it was lacking passion.
But when you think about it... the Trees couldn't reach for the Sky if it wasnt for deep roots within the Earth. Anchoring them, balancing them, nourishing them with physical sustinance. The Trees took from the earth, but gave back the energy sweetly... covering the Earth with deadfall and leaves, protecting it, nourishing it. Without the Trees, the earth would sour, barren and unable of supporting life. Without Earth... Trees would desicate, wither, fall over... die. There would be no trees. When the Sky was overcast, unseen to the Trees and the Earth, the Trees still had enough light to live. The Earth drank greedily from the overcast Sky, but in the end, it was all for the Trees, everything was. The Earth gave completely to the Trees, all the while thinking it was greedy, taking advantage of the trees dependancy, when truly, the Trees felt greedy, demanding life from the Earth. The roots ran deep...