AN: Thank you "Hatfield" - (Anonymous) for your review. I wasn't planning on posting another chapter tonight, but for the hell of it, I will.

Also, sorry that part of that last chapter was italicized… my computer must have spazzed out .

This is part 2 of Chapter 3. Which is now in Kouta's POV.

Thanks.

Kouta:

My lips were against hers, as had been haunting my dreams. Thoughts of Yuka left me, and pure desire and sorrow filled me like an ache that never fades. My lips yearned against hers, but she had turned to stone in my arms, losing her balance even. This was not the strong and murderous Lucy I had known, nor was this the innocent and seemingly impulsive Nyuu. This was the girl I had known on those summers not so long ago.

This was Kaede.

I felt her press against my chest, but chose to ignore it, my feverish urges becoming more and more overwhelming. I feel tears rolling down my face, and she seems to pause for a moment, as do I.

But then, she is out of my arms.

"NO!" She roars, and I mask the hurt I feel in response to that, with numbness.

"Why? Why did you wait so long?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper. She says nothing, not meeting my gaze with her eyes. "Why? Why did you do this Kaede. To you. To me. ….. To us." I murmur, my voice raising in volume. Still she says nothing, but I hear a low sigh escape her lips. I place my hands on her shoulders, "LOOK AT ME!" I yell, my voice reverberating a crossed the trees. Slowly, her head tilted upward and her eyes met mine. The red in her eyes… haunting, intense… yet incapacitating all the same, they drew me in, like that first day we met.

"I shouldn't have stayed." She murmured, her eyes holding contact with mine for a long moment, before breaking away. The words she said… so evenly and without emotion… were like a slap in the face. I recoiled, my ego slightly wounded. But moreso than that… my hopes shattered.

"Kaede, do you know how long… How damned long… I dreamed, and hoped, and WISHED! For just a GLIMPSE of you? AND YOU WERE ALIVE THE WHOLE TIME!" I see her flinch at my words, and I immediately wish I could take them back, because when she looks at me there is pain in her eyes that is otherworldly.

"I know exactly how long, Kohta." She whispers, and I notice a single tear rolling down her cheek. I slowly extend my hand, and when she doesn't make an attempt to move or slap my hand away, I brush away the tear.

"You're not Lucy anymore. There's no reason to stay hidden." I murmur, coming to an understanding of her motives. She shook her head, slowly and with an agonized and slightly crazed look pulsing in her eyes.

"I don't know who I am anymore. You killed who I was." She murmured, her voice a low monotone. Emotionless. I looked at her, pleading with my eyes for her to be the Kaede I knew and had grown to love. Or even Nyuu…

But not this pained and tortured girl, who was only the ghost of who I knew she was. That, somehow, hurt even worse than if she was dead.