by Madd Mythe Maven
Disclaimer: Blah blah ain't mine etc.
Author's Notes: WAIT!! STOP!! Go read 'The Why, What, When and How'. Read it? All right, then I guess you can read this; it occurs... let's say shortly after the series. I really didn't put a specific time on it.
Super Thank-You Section: Nightingale - gets credit as the first person to send me feedback on 'The Why, What, Where, and How'. Thanx so much!! KiddRaifeartaig - Told me to write a sequel!! Here it is!! Batchylde - who reminded me that I always cave into what fans want! Nymph - who begged me to write a sequel. Kuni - Asked very politely for a sequel. Booky Babe - Well, it's finished now!
Did you write me and I didn't say your name? Gomen! You can e-mail me and yell at me if you like!
~*~*~*~
"What did you say?" Trowa demanded, surprising Duo enough that he stopped talking for a moment. He raised his eyebrow at the usually taciturn pilot.
"Just that the warden at the prison they were keeping a friend of mine was..." he began.
"I heard that much. I mean the name of the girl you left there." He responded sharply, and by now all the pilots in the room were staring at him in surprise.
"Midii. Midii Une, I think it was." Duo informed him. "Why?"
Trowa leaned back in his chair and his gaze became once more impassive. "Nothing." He said simply, looking away disinterestedly. "I thought I might've known her, but it's unlikely."
Quatre cocked an eyebrow. "You thought you might've known her? How?" he asked.
"It's not important." He dismissed the question.
"Well anyway, as I was saying, now that OZ is no more Hilde's been buggin' me to find out if that prison was ever closed down. It was a small place, and she's afraid it was overlooked." Duo continued. "Do you guys think it's worth looking into?"
Wufei scoffed. "Hardly. There are more important things to be done, like disarmament."
"I'd have to agree." Heero replied. "You should've know that, Duo."
Duo just sighed. "Man, you guys are no fun!" He said as he flopped back in his chair. "A little peace and suddenly no one's up for any fighting!"
Trowa just frowned. Midii Une... it couldn't be.
*~*~*
"They say the war is over."
Midii looked up sharply, blonde hair swirling around her useless left eye. "Nani?" She exclaimed to the brunette in the cell next to hers. The other girl looked quietly to her elder.
"I heard one of the guards say that OZ is being dismantled." She responded. She would've been beautiful if not for the scar across her mouth that caused her lip to look as if it were a constant snarl. "They say that a huge space fortress was destroyed by one of those mobile suits called 'Gundams'."
Midii blinked, thinking hard about the information. "Rumors." She said decisively, retreating to the back corner of her cell and curling up on the floor. "If OZ is being dismantled, then why are we still here?"
The brunette thought about that. "Well they might've just overlooked us for a little while, Midii. I'm sure there are more important places they have to take care of first, then they'll come for us."
"No one's coming for us." Midii replied, but immediately regretted it when she heard Yoko, the youngest prisoner since Mena was... had disappeared, sniffling. Yoko was only fourteen, but looked not a day over twelve, with wide brown eyes and raven-black hair. She had the cell across the corridor from Midii. "Yoko, stop. I didn't mean that. I wasn't thinking." She said gently.
"No, Midii, you're right. My whole family is dead. Who cares about me anymore?" Yoko replied. "But I'm afraid of that man. That man won't ever let us go, even if OZ is destroyed."
"That lecher! If we ever get out I'll slice his balls off." A redhead somewhere a ways down the corridor exclaimed. Midii only sighed in response. Revenge was such an easy word to say, but when it came to actually being able to carry out such desires...
Well, they were all more or less helpless.
"Good morning girls." Well, speak of the devil. The warden came striding down the halls in his usual self-satisfied manner. "What were you speaking about, hmm?"
The entire block became ominously quiet. The warden loved to punish prisoners for saying things he didn't agree with, they all knew that. The fucking sadist just liked to hurt prisoners period. And he had been in a particularly foul mood the past week.
'Maybe it's true.' Midii thought to herself. 'Maybe that's why he's so mad.'
"Miss Une? Maybe you'd like to tell me what was being discussed?" He said, coming to a stop outside Midii's cell. She knew that all he could see was the tips of her toes peeking out of the shadows but his gaze still made her skin crawl. "I'd love to know what you ladies found so interesting, Miss Une."
Slowly, Midii rose to her feet. "We were merely discussing what we would do once we were free, sir." She replied softly. "After all, now that OZ is being dissolved it is only a matter of time until you are apprehended and executed for your war crimes and we are released."
The other girls hissed in shock. Midii was soft-spoken, but the one thing they had come to realize was that she feared nothing, least of all a lecherous warden. Still, this was going a bit far. She seemed almost as if she were consciously provoking him; she of all people knew what he would do if a prisoner angered him. The entire block watched in shock as he scowled at the seventeen-year-old blonde. "Miss Une, I do believe that you need to be reminded of who is in control here."
"If you think simply because all I've seen this past year is these gray walls that I'll fear your influence, you are mistaken." She replied softly. "Kill me if you wish. Perhaps it will make you feel powerful. But I will say what I wish, you can't take that away from me."
Midii had never been so confrontational before.
The warden slammed the door open and grabbed Midii by the arm, sending her stumbling out of the cell. Before she could regain her balance he shoved her to the ground and slammed the toe of his military boot into her abdomen. The pain choked her and she could only gasp. On the second kick, though, a tortured scream tore from her lips. As she tried to curl up in a ball, protecting her stomach, he kicked her a third time, and a steam of blood saliva shot from her mouth. She whimpered slightly as he grabbed her by the back of the collar and threw her back into the cell.
"Let that be a lesson to you. You will not address me in such a condescending manner." He said, and with a military turn he left the cellblock.
"Midii!" Yoko cried.
"Midii no baka! What were you thinking?" The brunette demanded.
The blonde curled up into a ball but the door to her cell, unable at the moment to move into the recesses of the shadows where she was more comfortable. She knew what she was thinking. She had said it to someone who offered her escape not that long ago.
"Please, do not ask me to leave. I do not wish to. This is my retribution and I will bear it."
The thought of returning to a world that didn't need her was more painful than anything the warden could do to her.
*~*~*
'This security is ridiculous.' Trowa thought to himself as he snipped a few wires in the alarm box. If he had been captured at such a prison, it would've been child's play to get out. But then again, Duo had said that this was an adolescent girl's prison; orphans of traitors and cadets who'd made 'treasonous' mistakes. The idea of incarcerating such people in this facility for extended periods was simply repugnant to him.
"Well, you did the preliminary work, so let's go on in!"
Trowa spun around quickly to see Duo standing behind him in typically black priest garb. He had a gift for stealth; Trowa had not even heard him approach. The pilot of 03 regarded him almost indifferently.
"What are you doing here, Duo?" He asked coolly.
"Well you see, I made a promise to Hilde that I'd see that fucker get what he deserves. And I always keep my promises. Besides..." he smiled, "I had a feeling that you'd be coming here and I couldn't let you go in on your own."
Trowa frowned. Perhaps the Deathscythe pilot was more perceptive than he had given him credit for. "Just stay out of my way." He said simply.
Duo grinned madly in response, and followed as Trowa flipped over the gate.
*~*~*
"The cells are that way." Duo said, pointing. "This is where we split up. I'm heading for the barracks." He added, indicating an adjoining hallway. Trowa merely nodded slightly and moved towards the doorway Duo had indicated. "Oh, and Trowa, one more thing... Go get her!" And with that, Shinigami was gone.
Trowa's frown deepened. What had he meant by that? But he put the thoughts from his mind. He pressed his back against the wall of the corridor leading to the cellblock as he heard two guards talking. He had brought a gun, of course, but he preferred not to use it. It would be too loud and besides, death did not come that easy to him anymore. He rounded the corner and downed each of the soldiers with a quick kick to the throat.
"That was entirely too easy..." he murmured, not fully aware that he had spoken aloud. He pulled the uniform belts from their loops and used them to bind the two guards' wrists, before heading into the cellblock.
If he was not disgusted before, he was now. The cells were about 5' by 8', with a single slim cot and toilet in each, and nothing else but a girl under the age of eighteen. They all seemed ridiculously skinny, curled up on the cots in some cases, but more commonly in one of the back corners of the cell, where they would be hidden by the shadows of poor lighting. They wore uniform gray outfits that were thin and in most cases ripped and dirty. The cots had no blankets, and the hall was rather cold.
'This is insane. Even if Midii is here, how would I know her? It's been years...' Trowa thought to himself. But at that moment he saw a petite blonde girl curled up near the door of one of the cells.
Call it intuition. Call it a sixth sense. Call it what you will, but he knew.
He had the door open in a heartbeat. He did not overlook the blood on the floor but he could see her breathing. He slowly crouched by her side and brushed her hair from her face. He could see the slight trickle of blood over her lips but it was not fresh.
She stirred slightly at his touch, then suddenly her eyes shot open and she sat up off the floor. "No! Don't!" She gasped before doubling over in pain, protecting her bruised midsection.
For the longest time they sat that way, her back to him, breathing harshly, bent over, and finally he whispered, "What has happened to you, Midii?"
Her spine stiffened as he spoke. That voice... she knew that voice. It was a voice she would never forget, soft and almost sad, but a voice she implicitly trusted. She turned to him, almost unconsciously turning to her right rather than her left to hide the terrible scar. She was almost surprised at how vulnerable she sounded when she heard herself say his name.
"Nanashi...?" she whispered.
"So you do remember me." He said emotionlessly.
"You remember me." She stated in disbelief. "Don't you hate me? I betrayed you."
He stood and offered her a hand, but she merely looked away. "Answer me. Why are you here?" She stayed doubled over, her hair covering her face. For the first time in a year she was ashamed of her appearance. For the first time in a year, she lamented the fact that she was not the lovely girl she used to be. "Please tell me. Why did you come here, Nanashi?"
He looked down at her, eyebrows raised, and from this particular angle she had a rare view of both his eyes. They were green, like her own, but his were darker, deeper, and held far more secrets. "I came because you are here." He said simply.
"Why does that matter?" She demanded. "I was certain that you despised me."
"No." he said. "You tried to save your family. I cannot hold that against you."
"They died. They were all killed in an Alliance raid while I was gone. I didn't save them at all..." Midii replied. She blinked away tears, wiping them from her right eye. "It isn't fair... they were all I cared about. I betrayed people who protected me, I betrayed myself to the Alliance... and they were dead all along. Do you know how that feels?"
"To have no family? To be alone? Of course." He replied. "That does not explain why you are curled up on the floor crying now."
"If you've come to rescue me, I want you to leave. Take the others, but leave me." She said quietly.
There was no reaction apparent in his voice. "Why?"
She blinked at the lack of emotion, then turned her face up towards him, her hair falling away from her eyes, revealing the hideous scar across her face. "I've changed so much, Nanashi. I can't go back as if I haven't."
He knelt in front of her; as she tried to once more hide her scar her turned her face so that her eyes met his. "I don't know who I am. But I don't hide because I'm afraid to find out." He said. "And it's as simple as the fact that I will not allow you or anyone else to be left in a place like this." Without waiting for a response he lifted her to her feet and supported her weight against him. "I'm taking you out of here, Midii."
She paused for a moment, clinging to the fabric of his shirt, then buried her face against his chest as she began to cry in earnest. "All right." She whispered, clutching him like a drowned man. "But the other girls..."
He paused thoughtfully. "There is nothing to be done right now."
"But..."
"They'll be taken care of. But I cannot take them right now." He placed a hand under her chin and lifted her face so that her eyes once more met his. "Do you trust me?"
She swallowed. What was she thinking? She had known this boy for a month, and that was years ago. True, they had been friends... friends? Was that the right word? No, she had to admit that she had been in love with him, at least as much as an eleven-year-old could be. But she was seventeen now, and not as naïve as she had once been. She was not a child anymore. So why did she trust him?
Because he could've killed her back then, and he didn't?
Because he had come back for her?
Or was it because, stupid and childish as it was, she was still in love with him? Even though, despite it all, she knew he couldn't or wouldn't feel the same way?
"Yes. I trust you." She said, his eyes still burning into hers. "Let's go."
*~*~*
"Morning, sunshine!"
The warden was shocked awake when Duo threw him from his bed and his head collided with the nearby wall. The older man let out a surprised expletive as he flipped over to get a good look at his attacker. He did not expect the grinning Shinigami who stood over him, barrel of a gun leveled at him.
"W-who are you? What do you want?" he demanded. Duo crouched to his eye level, still grinning broadly.
"How do you do? Name's Duo Maxwell." He said, never taking the gun off him.
He paled. "T-the Gundam pilot?"
"Hey! That's right! I figured you'd remember me. After all, you killed a thirteen-year-old to get that name." He responded. "So here's the deal. Give me a good reason not to shoot you right now and I'll consider letting you live."
"Wha-what?"
"Too bad." With a swift backhand, Duo slammed the butt of the pistol into the side of the warden's face, sending him sprawling to the floor. "Question two - do you like torturing and raping little girls? Does it make you feel like a big man?"
"D-don't..."
"Don't what?" Duo demanded, glaring in disgust at the man clutched his wounded cheek. "You're brave enough around helpless teenage girls, why are you such a coward with a gun pointed at you?" he cocked the pistol, and snorted at the man cowered in fear. He sent him slamming against the dresser with a swift kick to the ribs. "I should kill you. You deserve it. But if I killed you that'd make me as bad as you, now wouldn't it?" He turned to leave.
He simply wasn't expecting it when the man behind him pulled a gun from one of the dresser drawers and fired, sending a bullet flying through Duo's side. By ingrained reflex Duo spun around and fired back. His aim was better than the warden's - the bullet entered his opponent's forehead, killing him instantly. For a moment the only sound in the room was that of Duo's rasping breathing.
"Couldn't leave well enough alone, eh?" He asked the corpse, with a laugh that quickly became a grimace as he pressed his hand to his side and stumbled out of the room.
*~*~*
Midii looked up to Trowa when she heard the gunshots, but he offered none. He simply paused in the hall and frowned. He quickly glanced both ways to assure himself that the sound had not alerted any guards - besides the ones that were tied up behind them - and then motioned to her that it was safe to continue. The main entrance was not a good option for escape - it was only accessible through the warden's well-monitored office. There was, however, a second exit past the guards' quarters. That was where they were heading now.
Midii pulled on his arm suddenly, pointing silently to the ground. Trowa stooped and touched one finger to the substance.
Blood.
At that exact moment, a figure lurched towards them from the shadows. Without a moment of hesitation, Trowa had his gun drawn and squared on the approaching figure.
"Trowa! It's only me." Duo exclaimed weakly, stepping into the light so that they could see his face. He had his gun held loosely in his right hand; his left was pressed against a bloody wound in the right side of his abdomen. Midii's eyebrows shot up.
"I remember you..." she murmured.
He gave her something somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "I know a little German girl who will be overjoyed to see you." He said. Then, to Trowa, "Sorry 'bout the commotion, it couldn't be helped. We'd better hurry on out of here."
Trowa nodded. "Will you be all right?"
"What, this? It'll take more than this to take Shinigami down!" He responded. "Now come on... we'll go to my place, it's a good place to hide."
Trowa thought about that for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
*~*~*
Hilde was watching TV when she heard the door open. She frowned. She had assumed that when the war was over, Duo would stop coming home at all hours of the night... or at least tell her where he was going. He had done neither of those things tonight, and if she was a little bit stronger or a little less in love with the guy, or possibly both, she would've been yelling at him right now. As it was, she stared straight ahead at the TV as if she hadn't even heard him enter.
"Hey Hilde, you'll never guess who's here." Duo called, sounding tired. She turned as if she had just noticed his presence. With him were Trowa and a skinny blonde girl.
"What? Who..."
Wait... a skinny blonde girl... with clear green eyes... and a long jagged scar running down the left side of her face?
Hilde jumped from the couch with something like a squeal and embraced the other tightly, only barely managing to squeak out the name 'Midii' around her surprise. The blonde blinked, then gently returned the embrace.
"Hilde. It is good that you are well." She said warmly as she released the German girl.
Hilde smiled broadly, tears shining in her eyes. "It is good that you are well." She said, nodding a light acknowledgement to Trowa before turning to the boy who stood aside a pace. "Duo, you went back! You..." She suddenly recognized his sagging stance and the red liquid that flowed over his fingers where he clutched his side. All other thoughts, including but not limited to her reunion with Midii, slipped from her mind. "Duo! You're hurt!"
He winced as she pulled his blood-covered hand away from the wound. "It's not bad." He assured her.
Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Go sit down, Duo." He said simply.
"I'll get the first aid kit." Hilde said after she helped Duo to lower himself onto the couch.
Duo blinked in remembrance. "Oh yeah... hey Midii?" he called, and she raised an eyebrow. "The warden... he's dead." He breathed.
She paused, uncertain of how to respond to that news. So... that bastard was finally gone. At least she no longer had to worry about how the other girls would fare until the prison was shut down. Still... it somehow felt wrong for her to take so much joy in the death of another human being...
But could he really be called a human being?
"No one deserved it more." She murmured. "And I hope that there's a special little hell waiting for him."
"You still believe in that sort of thing?" Trowa asked impassively.
She tilted her head at him. "I didn't for a long time. But now I have to. My prayers have finally been answered."
*~*~*
Midii lingered in the doorway of the living room. The lights were out but she could see the faint, shadowed outline of her rescuer sitting on the couch. It occurred to her that she had never seen him asleep; even when she traveled with his mercenaries he was always awake when she went to sleep and awake when she got up. Did he not sleep at all, or just not when others would notice?
Baka. Of course he slept. But when?
"What it is, Midii?" he asked, and she snapped herself out of her reverie.
"Will Duo be all right?" She asked, simply because she knew he expected her to say something.
"He's tougher than he looks. He'll be fine." He replied. He followed her with his eyes as she came through the room to sit at his side on the couch.
"Trowa. Is that really your name?" she asked.
"You already know the answer to that question, Midii." He replied. "'Trowa' is just what I am called at the moment."
"Trowa will do, then. I don't think I really thanked you for rescuing me... thank you. I know I must've seemed ungrateful, but..."
"Don't worry about it." He said quickly. "You should get some sleep, Midii."
"I can't curl up in that nice, warm bed knowing that the girls are still locked up back at the prison." She replied. Hilde had vacated her own bed for Midii's sake, saying that she would sleep on the floor in Duo's room. "Trowa, you will make sure they're freed, ne?"
"Yes. Of course." He assured her. "Midii, it's over. The people who were holding you don't exist anymore. OZ is gone. There is peace."
"Peace... was that really what you wanted? 'Peace' sounds so foreign to me." She murmured. "All I really wanted was to have my own life..." almost unconsciously she ran her fingers over the pink scar across her cheek. "...a chance to make my own decisions, my own mistakes..."
"You have that freedom now." Trowa said.
She met his jade green eyes through the darkness. "All of the sudden I realize that there is something else I always wanted." She said softly. "It's ironic really, I know that honestly... it's the one thing I'll never be able to have. But a girl can dream, can't she?" She bowed her head slightly, so that a curtain of blonde hair fell over her eyes. "Trowa, am I... am I horribly ugly?" She asked uncertainly.
Though his dispassionate green eyes revealed no such thing, he was perplexed by the question. Why would she ask such a thing? Why did it matter? And besides... didn't she already know his answer? "Midii. It would take far more than a scar to make you hideous." He said coolly.
"You're lying." She replied firmly, her eyes still downcast.
"Why does it matter in the first place?"
"Because..." she faltered slightly. "Because... I always thought that if I were beautiful, it might make it easier for you to care about me... I suppose that's incredibly naïve..."
"Do you think I would've come after you if I didn't care?" He asked.
"That's not what I meant! Don't you know that?" she exclaimed. She shook her head, as if attempting to clear it. "I never forgot you. All I ever wanted was to make up for what I did - I betrayed you. This scar, it's my mark of honor. I was working with rebels infiltrating an Alliance base when I received it. It proves that I was willing to risk my own life for what is right. It proves that I changed. It never really tormented me that much because... everything that happened was simply retribution for what I did to you."
Trowa raised an eyebrow, uncertain of how to respond.
"And maybe, just maybe, once all my debt were repaid I could stand beside you again. This time as an ally, not a traitor." She whispered. "Aren't I naïve, Trowa? Naïve and stupid, imagining such things."
"Midii... I don't understand what you're saying."
"Of course not." She laughed. "I can't expect a nameless soldier to sympathize, but... that's just the way I am." She found his hand and squeezed it. "Thank you, Trowa. It's all right if I call you Trowa, isn't it? It's just nice that you finally have a name. I more or less owe you my life, so... arigato." She smiled almost sadly and stood. "I'll go to bed now. Kon bawa, Trowa."
He watched, perplexed, as the blonde girl returned to her room. His hand felt slightly warm where she had touched it, and he felt strangely lightheaded, like one might feel when to high up in the atmosphere. Almost as if there were not enough oxygen to sustain him. It was peculiar, but he filed it away to consider at a later date as he went to sleep.
*~*~*
She woke up with the faintest memory of a pleasant dream in the back of her mind, one completely unlike the nightmares that had tormented her for the longest time. She realized it was early, that she had slept only a few hours, but after a year in the prison she had discovered that her body didn't require as much sleep as it used to. A few hours was more then enough and she rose out of the bed, stretching her taught muscles as much as she could without pulling on the skin of he bruised midsection. It was strange… she paused and consciously searched her mind for some sort of long-hidden joy released by her sudden freedom, but found nothing. She had expected some sort of miraculous enlightenment when she finally reentered the world, but all she had found was that she was the same person in a new and alien existence. Which was the exact reason that she had feared her freedom in the first place.
She padded softly out of the room in stockinged feet, careful not to wake Duo or Hilde in the room next to hers. She wondered what their relationship was. When they had left, Midii couldn't help but smile at the tableau it left in her mind. Hilde reminded her of… herself. Although Duo bore no resemblance whatsoever to her own rescuer, she thought with an amicable smile.
She sauntered to the living room door and lingered there, outside of the range of moonlight. Was he asleep? Did he look as untouched and innocent when he was asleep as he had when she first met him?
She stepped through the doorway. Blinked once, then twice.
He was gone.
A harsh Russian expletive with almost no sufficiently foul Japanese synonym broke the forbidding silence. So that was the way he was? After all this time, sill the type to disappear? She cursed again, but this time only a soft 'kuso'.
Then it struck her. What time was it, like one o'clock? He couldn't have been gone that long. She slipped on her shoes at the door and snatched one of Hilde's jackets, before running out of the house, long blonde hair tossing wildly behind her in the wind.
*~*~*
Damn. L2 had changed. Really changed. It took Midii three whole hours of wandering in near darkness with only the light of a fake moon to guide her to realize that.
"I'm a idiot." She murmured. "Thinking I could find one man in a huge colony? Particularly when he obviously doesn't want to be found." She turned. "Now how the hell will I get back to Hilde's?" he eyes widened fractionally at her own language. She had certainly returned to her old personality fast? She smiled slightly, hoping that answer was yes. Maybe a year of incarceration hadn't had as dramatic an affect on her as she liked to believe.
"Hey! Kon'nichi wa, bishoujo!" A voice called as she turned in what she thought was the direction she had come. She paused fractionally. She supposed she should be frightened by such a proposition in a dark, deserted street, but after what had happened to her…
"You want it, pay for it." She called back, tossing her hair over the jagged scar. "Unfortunately, I'm not for sale."
"Now that just ain't polite!" The voice said, and Midii found herself still strangely unafraid.
"I guess I'm just an impolite girl." She said with a shrug, and she didn't even pause as she walked away.
Until she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Now that just pissed her off. She spun around. "Don't you dare TOUCH me!" She exclaimed, saying the words she'd always been too afraid to say to her captor. She was almost proud of herself until a hand closed around her throat and threw her against the wall. She was too shocked to react for a second, and then all she was aware of was rage.
But instead of a scream, she only let out a sob.
"L-let go of me!" she cried, wrapping her hands around his wrist. "Stop it! You're hurting me!"
"That's the idea!" he replied with a smirk. "Now maybe you'll like to play nice!"
He never got a chance to find out. A swift kick to the back of his head sent him reeling, and then he hit the ground. Gasping for are, Midii stumbled to her knees.
A pair of black boots leading to light blue jeans stood over her fallen assailant.
She squinted up at Trowa as he offered her a hand, taking it uncertainly. She wanted to ask how he found her, but somehow she got the feeling that he'd never lost her in the first place.
"Why were you trying to follow me?" He asked.
Trying, but failing. "Because you just left… you didn't say anything… I didn't know when I'd see you again…" she squeezed her eyes closed, and then brushed away all her uncertainty, all her uneasiness, and almost yelled, "…because you saved me and disappeared once before, and I'll be damned if I let you do it again!"
"If I hadn't been here, this man could've killed you." He said.
"Do you think that scares me? Of all the things I fear, death isn't very high up on the list!" She stomped right up to him, full of righteous anger. "But the one thing I do fear is being left behind, and that's all you seem to do, is leave me behind!"
He smiled, almost. "All I do is move. It's up to you to keep up."
She sighed, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "I try. You just move too fast for me. You always have. So stop being so philosophical on me, ne? And don't leave me behind again."
He smiled, a real smile. "All right."
She looped her arm through his. "Promise?"
"…I promise."
And with the faintest of smiles she let him lead her through the darkened streets of L2. One thing about her Nanashi - about Trowa - he would always keep a promise.
~FIN~