Kohta:

I felt her lips against mine, and this time she was responding to the kiss. One of her hands lightly stroked the side of my face in a way that made me shudder. I felt a tear falling down my cheek, I had missed her so much…

"Please… Don't leave me again." I murmur, my eyes pleading with hers to stay. She closed her eyes for a moment, and I could see the debate upon her face.

"Yuka." It only took that one word for everything around me to crash down. I had agreed to marry Yuka, and I had internally regretted it since. But I knew that I would never be happy without Kaede, so I thought it best for at least one of us to be happy. She had wanted children, but I had always refused… I couldn't picture fathering anyone. Not when.. Not…

I felt more tears following these ones. Out of anger. Out of pain. Out of sadness.

"She doesn't matter. Not to me. Not anymore." I murmur, my voice rough. Kaede only shook her head slowly.

"This won't work, Kohta. I'm not… good enough." I could hear her voice break on that last word, and now it was she who had tears flowing freely down her face.

"It has to. Tell me what I need to do. I need you in my life Kaede." I plead, my hands were shaking as I held her closer to me. I couldn't bear to let her go. After all these years of thinking she was dead. Having nightmares every night, reliving her last breaths. .. Out last fight before she died.

"No. Kohta. I don't… I don't WANT this to work out…" She murmured, her voice wavering in a way that I knew her words were a lie.

"Yuka isn't home for another week. Minimum. At least… at least give me until then?" I murmur, grasping for any time with her. Anything.

"That's… fine. I will stay here. With you. But only until she returns. Then I leave, and you can be happy once more with her."

I bite my lip to keep from arguing. I wouldn't ever be happy with Yuka. Not now that I knew the taste of her lips once more, not now that I knew the sound of her voice saying my name, not now that I had seen her. Alive.

God had I missed her, I needed her, I wanted her.

"Kohta?" She murmurs, her eyes piercing through me with such a pain that I wanted to hold her, forever until I could make that pain end. What horrible things had this girl gone through before Yuka and I found her that one day. That first day. On the beach. Back when she was Nyuu… "Kohta?" She insists, and I tilt my head slightly, indicating for her to continue. "I'm afraid."

Kaede was afraid? Of what?

Images flashed through my mind. Her killing mercilessly. Cold hard steel-like eyes. Piercing through me.

Then, a clueless girl, without a care in the world. Only able to utter a single word for the longest time, Nyuu.

But Kaede… the girl I had met as a kid. During those warm summer months, made bearable by her presence. There was always a fear within her. A pain. An anger. But I never found out why.

I only ever knew that I cared for her. That she was my best friend.

And now I hoped for more than that. I needed more than that.

I was in love with the girl with the horns. Murderer or not. Human or not.

"Why are you afraid?" I could feel my voice shaking with anger, anything that could make a girl… this innocent… this perfect… this seemingly upset, deserved beyond Hell in my mind.

"I-I don't want to be taken back." She murmured, her eyes seeing something I wasn't. Memories most likely. She had thrashed all night long in her sleep, crying out every few hours, waking me up.

"Go back where…?" I whisper, knowing that telling me would cause her pain, but in the long run might alleviate it in the future.

"The place…where… I was taken. They killed her. Because of me. They died. I killed them." She whispers, trembling. "They.. They promised. But she died anyway. She was… my only friend. And she died, because of me. I just… I just wanted somewhere to live. I wanted to fit in… I wanted.. I wanted…" She bursts into tears, trembling and shaking with fear and anger and sadness beyond with which I knew what to do.

"Shh…" I murmur, holding her tightly in my arms. "It's ok… No one is taking you away from me." I murmur, and as I spoke the words, I realized I was making a promise to myself. I couldn't lose her again. No matter the cost.

And the people who had made this once strong girl, this once innocent… this once youthful girl, be in this much pain… I would kill them.

I mentally recoiled in surprise. I was hardly a murderer, but I couldn't bring myself to take back that last thought. Because, surely they deserved death. They deserved to die.

I couldn't imagine how sick you would have to be, to destroy a person so fully that this is the result. I lean over, and kiss her partially shattered "horns" and hear her choke out another sob.

I never wanted to let her go, but sometimes fate decides things for you.