Whenever you look at me, not with a joker's facade... but that serious, REAL look in your eyes that convince me that what you tell me time and again is true...

I get so confused.

No, not just confused. Sad. Wistful. Hopeful wishes clashing with despair as I realize that what you want to give me -and what I want to return- is something that can never happen. Because of 'Destiny'.

I still wonder, why, how do you love me, and cherish me this much? It scares me in a way, noone has ever loved me like you do. And I don't know how to respond.

Everytime I try to say something... the words just stick in my throat. Words I have trouble expressing... I was never good at showing my emotions.

I am also scared that the prophecy will come true. That you will die for the woman you love. You say it's me. A part of me wishes it so, because I also ... love you.

But another part of me... I want to make you find another, one who will cherish you, like I do but unlike me, someone who would be capable of showing their love for you. You should have someone who will adore you, love you to no end and give you all you deserve.

I want to be that someone. But I can't.

I cry.

Sorata... I love you. Aishiteru. Always.

----------

"Sorata."

Sorata looked up from his uncharacteristic silence to see his Chosen One look at him with an unfamiliar emotion crossing her usually serious face. She looked no less serious, but that fleeting look of hesitation in her eyes made him pay even more attention than usual.

"Hai, Nee-chan?"

Arashi crossed the short distance that separated them and kneeled in front of where he was sitting. Sorata, surprised, just looked down to her slightly upturned face. He couldn't really say anything... there was nothing to say. He had only never been approached this way by her.

Arashi hesitated again, and then cast her eyes down to the floor. She took a deep breath.

"Sorata," Arashi started haltingly, "I'm only going to ask you once. Leave my side. Go and give your love to someone more worthier than I. I'm not worth half of your effort."

Sorata's eyes widened. He couldn't believe his ears.

"Wha..t?" What was wrong with his voice? It came out broken...

"Please... please. Don't make me say this twice. Leave me." Arashi didn't meet his eyes. If not for the absence of her normal crisp tone, and the slight trembling he almost did not catch, he wouldn't have doubted her word. Sorata could feel a turmoil of anger and despair rise.

"Why!? What reason do you give? After all this time, I am STILL nothing more than an annoying... BRAT?"

He got no answer. Only the sound of a wet tear hitting the floor made him realize that for the first time he'd met her, she was crying.

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her roughly. "Nee-chan... no, Arashi. Tell me what's wrong! What have I done wrong? Why do you want me cast away? Am I nothing to you? Was that flicker of gentlness you've given me nothing but a lie? TELL ME DAMMIT!"

"NO!" Arashi's tortured cry cut through the air. She was shaking, her body was wracked with sobs. Those sobs cut to Sorata's heart more painfully and sharply than any sword would have done.

"Watashi... watashi..." She lifted her huge eyes to his. They were proof enough that she... was anguished. Sorata could feel his own eyes fill with burning tears.

"I didn't know what to say... you were impossible to resist... making you hate...me seemed like the best way to keep you safe... I don't want... I don't want..."

She was cut off by a strangely warm sensation on her lips. Hot drops fell to her face, his tears mingling with her own. He was kissing her for all the tenderness anyone could give. All that there was. And he was never more surprised and thankful that she actually responded. She tensed and relaxed at the same time, her hands gripping at his shirt for all the emotions she had kept pent up until it had burst through, like a volcano. Her own warm lips and his caressed each other, ending up in a wild dance, tounges entwining and trying to follow the others passion.

She had never felt more liberated.

Arashi backed up a little bit, breaking the kiss with their foreheads touching. She looked squarely into his eyes and said what she had wanted to for a long time.

"Aishiteru. I love you."

She felt him smile. "Same to you."

The world didn't seem as dark as it was.

Owari.

~~~~~~~~~~~~