It was odd to see them seated side by side, thighs touching, backs braced against the only standing wall of the former library. The former enemies still, in the midst of total devastation and destruction.

"It's over." It was not a question but she answered anyway.

She nodded. One long sorrow filled nod of remembrance: of the pain, the loss, the friends that were gone...forever.

"I love you."

She nodded again, a small lump forming in the back of her throat but her eyes were trained forwards.

"I love you too." She confessed; their secret bursting through her blood tainted lips.

"It doesn't matter does it?"

This time she shook her head slowly, painfully, her hand finding his in the darkness.

"So what?" He asked, his voice wavering, "We just pretend like the last year was nothing? Like we are both not irrevocably changed?"

She nodded again, each bob of her head tearing at his very soul.

"The world needs us to be who we are meant to be, not who we could be." One glance into her deep mocha orbs told him it was true. "They can't handle the loss of everything they've ever known to be true. We can't do that. They need us to be who they think we are. It's the right thing to do. The only thing we can do."

"It's not fair." He raked a hand through his dull blond locks harshly. "IT'S NOT FAIR!" He screamed and pounded the wall, tears making tracks down his dirty face. She didn't react to his outburst, simply gathering his swelling knuckles in her calloused hands and kissing them gently.

"I know..." She shrugged, her shoulders slumping heavily on their return downwards. "But life isn't fair."

They sat, holding hands in the silence, mourning the loss of each other in the same way the fallen were mourned by their friends and family. And when the sky turned pink and the sun rose, they parted.