4A/N: Now that I'm sorting through my stuff, I find that I can publish it. Voila! A one-shot for an OTP.
The flight back to Okinawa was less than jubilant. Although Diva had finally been defeated, it was a bittersweet ending for all. As soon as Saya and the others had escaped the explosion of the Met, she had struggled to keep on her feet and Kai found himself carrying her the rest of the way.
Hooked up to another IV bag full of blood, Saya was nevertheless exhausted; not just from the fighting, but all of the grief that came with it. The only thing that kept her from crying the entire way back to Japan was Kai's attentive watch over her. Not only that, but she was so worn out, she didn't even have enough energy to cry.
For the duration of the non-stop flight, she seemed to be suspended in a weakened state. Scarcely moving and fed blood by a plastic cord, Saya was kept from complete isolation by the attentions of her brother. Since laying her down on the gurney, Kai hadn't left her side.
In the past day, she had done her best to appeal to his attempts at cheering her up. But night had fallen again just a few hours ago, and she was free to think in the silence.
"Haji!"
Struggling with his enemy chevalier, he took no time to search for parting words. "I will always love you. Nan-kuru-nai-sa," he smiled, flinching a little.
The rest was blurred as Amshel's chiropteran hand plunged through his abdomen, once again leaving him immobilized. And just a few seconds later, the rubble came crashing down.
The nightmare -no, the memory- ended, and Saya sprung upright, panting heavily as she cried, "Haji!"
Her brother jolted awake as well, searching in the darkness for her hand. "Saya, Saya. It's okay. He'll be back in no time."
"What if he didn't get out, Kai? How can I live with myself if I just left him for dead?"
The smallest hint of a smile made its way onto Kai's face as he remembered his brashness against the chevalier from the day before. "If I know anything about Haji, it's that he loves you more than anything. Hell, you're the only thing he has. He'll find you, Saya, I know it."
Kai squeezed his sister's hand encouragingly moments before she drifted back to sleep. Looking out the plane's windows, he wondered just how the mysterious cello player had gotten out, if at all.
The final battle with Diva seemed like lifetimes ago. As Julia had said, it was surprising that she had avoided drifting into her dormant period for so long. Yet there was something in her body, like an automatic switch, that was giving out.
While she could feel Kai's warmth against her skin, it was the most that she could detect from her surroundings. It was finally time...but at least, she'd been able to say goodbye to everyone, to see them off happily.
Well, not quite everyone.
"I will always love you."
Her eyes snapped open again, albeit lazily. Was it just her drowsy imagination? Or...
In the darkness of night and her mounting exhaustion, Saya saw a tall, thin silhouette, almost like a shadow, standing on the far side of the crypt. Could it be...?
Suddenly, what had been little more than a shadow before shifted between the trees, disappearing behind her line of vision. But even through her fatigued senses, she saw the moonlight glow upon the figure briefly.
I will watch over you forever, Saya. Even if you turn into something else, even if somehow we are separated from each other. I will find you and protect you, no matter what it takes. I will always be with you, Saya. So, for now, have a good sleep, Saya.
Kai's words faded into the black oblivion of a thirty-year rest as Saya's eyelids finally ceded to the inevitable.
I'll be waiting for you.
And she for him.
Even if morning was far, the night bespoke of a time ever-brighter.
.
.
.
"Saya?"
"Haji."
Even if dreams did not always come true, the light of the morning had finally come.