He wasn't going to make it. He watched as the demon turned slowly to face Yoichi after evading Gekkōin's arrow. He watched as Yoichi's eyes grew wide as dinner plates with terror. He watched as Yoichi stumbled back and fell as his ankle gave out. He watched helplessly as Yoichi scrambled back on his hands away from the demon.

With each action, he thudded closer and closer, feet soundless against the floor, stumbling over debris, but never losing his footing. It was only enough to make him slow down, he had to get there in time.

Eight paces away and the demon rose its wing, high above his head. Five and Yoichi closed his eyes. Three and Yoichi inhaled, holding his breath, anticipating what was to come. One, and the wing began its slow descent, but he was there.

Kiseki-Ō was raised too late, and his arms fell useless to his sides as he stood there, a large and very serious wound had appeared stretching from shoulder to hip. He coughed and felt a small dribble of blood drip from his mouth. His body gave up on trying to stand and he fell onto his back, the pain finally hitting him.

It was hot, a burning, searing pain. His body instantly broke out in a sheen of sweat as a response to the new sensation. He saw a flash of green light shoot across his field of vision and knew that it was one of Gekkōin's arrows.

Yoichi's silhouette came across his vision, and he could feel his jacket being pulled off of him, followed by his shirt. His head was lifted up slightly, quickly and efficiently and his bundled jacked placed below it. His breath was coming in quick, short breaths now.

He coughed again, blood splattering down his chin, jerking his head forward. He could feel the life oozing out of him, what was searing hot only a few moments ago was now chillingly cold and his body was clammy with sweat. There was a pressure on his chest, where the life was seeping out of him, some futile attempt to stop it he suspected.

Then Yoichi appeared above him, not just his silhouette, but actual facial features, his eyes wide with tears. Kimizuki could feel the patter of them falling on his cheek. But Kimizuki would make sure he didn't cry anymore.

Even though it pained him and Yoichi could undoubtedly see it on his face, he reached up his arm to dry his tears. He had never felt Yoichi's face before and was surprised to find it soft. With this action, however, Yoichi's eyes got even wider and tears sprung from his eyes even more quickly.

He was saying something now, but Kimizuki couldn't hear it, he only watched the melodic movement of his lips and concentrated on deciphering the words that they formed. He could see his name along with words such as "Please", "Stay with me", and "Stay awake".

The discovery brought a smile to his lips and he swallowed thickly, there was no way that he was going to live through this, not even if Kiseki-Ō wanted to throw any of his power into the mix, which seemed doubtful, even with his life on the line. His hand was still on Yoichi's face, but with his blood rapidly exiting his body, it started to fall, before it fell to his side again, Yoichi caught it and enveloped it in both his hands.

His hands were very warm, they were soft but still calloused in all of the places where you would expect an archer to have them. Guren had said one time that you could tell the map of a person's life from his hands, but he found that to be inaccurate in this situation. Yoichi's hands were soft, like someone who had never worked hard in his life, but that wasn't true, he had worked just as hard as everyone else, harder even. And everyone loved him for it.

But his hands were also slick with blood, both of theirs combined he suspected, cuts from the rocks still flowing albeit less rapidly than the giant tear in Kimizuki's chest. Kimizuki didn't care, he never wanted to die, but he supposed if it were to happen and he could choose it, he would choose a death not unlike this one, with Yoichi by his side and not another care in the world.

He smiled one more time and Yoichi laid his head down on his chest, it was painful, but if this was going to be his last moment with Yoichi, he didn't care. Yoichi was saying something, he could feel the vibrations in his chest and he could feel the shudders of him crying.

Slowly, Kimizuki prodded him up and made him look at him, Kimizuki wanted the last thing he saw to be the brunet's face. Then he realized it was his last chance to say something he had always wanted to say.

He beckoned Yoichi down and as Yoichi came further down, Kimizuki used his last reserves of strength to push himself up and gingerly kissed his lips, it was nothing special, but it was the last thing he could offer and it was his most prized possession. He had given his life for him, and he wanted Yoichi to know that it wasn't a gift given freely.

He hoped his vocal chords worked the same as he couldn't hear himself, but he spoke his final words to the crying brunet above his face, looking torn between utter anguish and complete confusion. After his words had been spoken, he gave the last of his life in one last gift. He made sure he was smiling as the world dissolved around him.

"Keep smiling, I love you."

Yoichi ran to Kimizuki's fallen body. Thoughts like This can't be happening and What was he thinking? shot through his mind. I was ready to die. I had accepted the fact that I was going to die. Why did he have to get in the way?

For the first moments he was angry, angry at his sudden turn of fate. Angry at Kimizuki for getting in the way. Angry at Mika for trying to kill them all. Angry at Yuu for dying and leaving him here in this mess. But mostly angry at himself for giving up so easily, if he had fought just a little bit longer than maybe he wouldn't have put Kimizuki in this position. Maybe if he had just come out from under the bed he would have gotten killed and none of this would have happened and Kimizuki would still be okay.

But all of his anger fell away at the sight of the diagonal wound across his chest. There was a dark stain that was spreading from the cut fabric on his jacket. Yoichi instantly knew it was bad. Not just bad, lethal, fatal, mortal, and deadly all of those words described it, but he didn't want to believe any of them. There was a slim to none chance that he would live through the hour, and living through the minute wasn't looking much better.

Quickly, Yoichi stripped Kimizuki to the waist, bundling his jacket beneath his head gently, and using the shirt to stop the bleeding. As soon as the white material touched the open wound, red sprung up, painting the shirt permanently. He pressed the shirt and willed the blood to stop seeping from the cut.

He could hear himself saying things, but wasn't conscious of saying them, they were just words that were falling out. "Kimizuki, don't die on me, please. Please don't die. You need to stay with me right now, okay? Just stay awake and everything will be alright, you just need to stay awake. Please, Kimizuki."

Three seconds passed and the shirt just became red beneath his fingers. It was then that he truly realized that nothing could be done. It was also this moment that he realized he was crying, he looked at Kimizuki through blurred vision and a spasm of pain flashed across his face and he raised one of his hands to wipe the tears from Yoichi's eyes. It seemed Kimizuki had come to the same conclusion.

Yoichi needed to stop crying, for Kimizuki's sake, it wouldn't do for his last moments to be comforting a crying teen. But his tears wouldn't stop coming, and slowly, Kimizuki's hand began to fall, but before it could hit the ground, Yoichi caught it in both of his.

Sometimes he was amazed at how much bigger Kimizuki's hand was, it was much more structured and muscled than both of his. His fingers and the bottom of his palm were calloused and hard from where he held Kiseki-Ō. Slowly, he gently laid his head down on Kimizuki's chest and cried. He didn't care who saw.

Yoichi could hear Kimizuki's strong heartbeat getting fainter and fainter, and coming slower and slower. His time was running out. He felt Kimizuki's gentle urging and raised his head slowly, looking at the pink eyes that he had looked up to for his time in the Shinoa Squad.

Yoichi's face wasn't that far away from Kimizuki's, he wanted to be close enough to hear anything that he said. He was completely unprepared when Kimizuki raised his head up and placed his lips on Yoichi's. It was a completely new concept to him, and he wasted the second that their lips were together being confounded as to why that he didn't react. And by then it was too late, and Kimizuki fell away, smiling one last time, just for Yoichi.

With the smile still on his face, he breathed his last breath and said the words that would be etched on Yoichi's heart for the rest of his life.

"Keep smiling, I love you."