I wondered... will he ever remember us one day?

I always saw glimpses of him, missing him. Yet I knew our promise will be fulfilled soon.

Hopefully before light overwhelms all and casts the shadow known as darkness.

May our hearts be our guiding key.

My day tends to start with a dream… a piece of memory that I, Rias Gremory, would never be able to discard.

It showed me our happy days together: training, camping, playing, and more with Master S̸͉͌͠ȏ̶̗̱̠̳͕̒r̶̡̺̃͐̕a̴͍͊̽̑͘̕ and him. We would talk about mundane topics or even just spend a silent evening together before going home.

Days became weeks and weeks became months. Our time was so precious that at times we wanted to yell out to the world that we were best friends, that our secret relationship was genuine.

But Master S̸͉͌͠ȏ̶̗̱̠̳͕̒r̶̡̺̃͐̕a̴͍͊̽̑͘̕ had advice us to be careful with our actions, and we took it to our hearts. Now… I'm not sure if his advice was the best for us.

I couldn't blame him as we were merely choosing what was best for us.

Flashes of memories would go by, until the end where I was forced to witness it once more.

His young, small, body tainted in his own red liquid. Each droplet hit the ground as he stood his ground to fight the darkness. His heart was long lost, yet he held on for the sake of me; A weakling.

Yet a heart will yearn, thus it takes anything; it takes in darkness.

There was no light in the end, only despair, grief, loss. We lost it all there and there was no return for him. We took him back to light but the cost was far too great.

So the yellow eyes stared at me as I stared back.

Until I woke up, without any fanfare like the past few years. I allowed my naked body to move from the bedroom to the bathroom to take a wake up shower.

The cold water touched my body and got me awake for the day. When I was cleaned and ready to leave my room, I would look at the reflection of myself, one sentence would always remind me of our brightest time together.

"May your heart be your guiding key."

With that, I left the room to have a hearty breakfast prepared by my family's cook. Today it seems that I was the only one in the dining room as everyone left for work. I would not blame them for their absence; The Phenex family have been quite an annoyance for us as of late.

Once all of it was done, I was ready for the day of school. The teleportation circle was ready and I just had to inject a small amount of my magic to transfer myself to Kuoh High.

In a matter of millisecond, I landed far enough from the school to not cast suspicion. Any form of supernatural was kept under the rugs so I had the responsibility to keep the secret side of the world in place.

"Good morning President." I turned to my side with a smile, seeing Akeno appearing in my vision. "I hope you had a good rest?" She asked me the same question everyday, out of habit might I add.

I wouldn't blame her. She was there for me and I was there for her back then.

I nodded as an answer before we began chatting about our plans for the day. We had our work as part of the supernatural residents and also club members of the Occult Research Club. We would continue our work in finding out the myth of a mysterious, yellow bead eye creature that was sighted around the town.

I had a hunch of what it was, and I'm sure Akeno too but we remained avoidant of that answer; We wished we were wrong in our hunch.

"Oh right, I want to tell you that today Koneko will be absent."

Koneko being absent? That's a rare occurrence. "What happened to her?"

Akeno glanced around, ensuring that no one was eavesdropping on us despite our admirers everywhere. "She ate too many sweets and got sick." She whispered into my ear before snickered lightly.

I could only sigh in exasperation. "We really have to control how much she has to eat. Which one is it this time?"

"Coke."

… "How did she even get it imported?"

My only reply was a shrug before she gave me a question. "Are you still contemplating on talking to him?"

I didn't hesitate in nodding, giving her the same answer as before. Now was not the right time; The only right time was when those things were back. But I wish it would not come to that. He gave enough to us, now he should lay his weapon to rest.

Akeno sighed, clearly still tired of the same reply as before. "You need to do it soon, Rias, or you will miss your chance forever."

"It's not that simple."

"Maybe, but you shouldn't continue like this. You're clearly running out of time already."

I wish I could retort that, but she was right. I am running out of time before the inevitable bad ending would come to pass. It was just a matter of which one will come first; Loss of freedom or the wave of darkness.

The classes had ended for today and it was time for students to work on their extracurricular activities, meaning my club members and I have to do our duties once more.

Once I had assigned all of them their work, they began to leave for their jobs. Today's load was rather stacked, mostly due to Koneko's absence and the required reassignment for some of her work.

That meant that I was the only one left in the room to finish my own workload. It was a fairly easy task, researching on our current project and doing some paperwork.

An hour had passed and I finished all of it, leaving me to feel… bored. For the first time in months I felt there was nothing to do and I didn't know what to do. I spent so much time with all the assignments that I forgot what it felt like to have nothing to do.

It's… scary. The fact there was nothing to do was now making me think so many things. How was he doing these days aside from the usual shenanigans? Did he keep up his training despite not remembering it?

Will he remember me even if I told him of our promise?

"I need fresh air…" Mumbled to myself, I made my way to the window and looked at the forestry around the old school building. The sight always gave me a sense of calm and freedom, like Gaia was giving me a comfort that I seek.

I heard some sound at the ground and looked down there.

I think I forgot to breathe as our eyes met. He was looking at me and… I think there was a light blush on his cheek. He seemed to say something that I couldn't hear and his friends answered him.

I couldn't take it any longer and went back into the club room. I… can't… not today.

"I'm sorry." No one replied to me as my heart ached.

The way home was uneventful, even more so since I left the club room earlier than usual today.

My excuse was that I wasn't feeling well and… in a way it was true. Yet I felt bad lying to everyone just to go home as soon as possible. There was not how a leader should be, and Master S̸͉͌͠ȏ̶̗̱̠̳͕̒r̶̡̺̃͐̕a̴͍͊̽̑͘̕ wouldn't approve this.

Maybe. He might even have approved it because of how he worked.

As I continued my way, I saw him again, on the bridge with a moody expression. He looked… troubled, slumped on the rail even.

I wanted to approach him… but I shouldn't. I wasn't ready for it today.

That was my plan until a pool of darkness formed behind him. He seemed to sense it too since he turned to it immediately, fear was clear on his face.

No… not now! Not again! We're not ready for those things to come back!

Without hesitation, I ran to him while the Heartless attacked as it manifested itself.

"Look out!" I pushed him down and avoided the attack.

We turned to the Heartless and I could hear him whisper to himself what we felt at the moment.

"Oh shit."

Thanks for reading the chapter! This is my first Kingdom Heart so any help would be appreciated. Hopefully we can walk this journey together to the end.

Thanks for reading the chapter! This is my first Kingdom Heart story so any help like constructive criticism would be appreciated. Hopefully we can walk this journey together to the end.

And also thank my beta for some ideas and checking my work.

Note: This is also available in AO3.