Disclaimer: I do not own Aldnoah/Zero!

Oneshot: Utter Fools (In Love)

'All that's left of us is the memories of the past and the wishes of the future. Let Justice be done. Though Heavens Fall. Peace is merely at the expense of another's suffering.'

- Self Made Quote.

"Empress Asseylum, are you sure you want to do this?"

Merely smiling at her worried companion, the blond-haired lady allowed her hands to reach forward and brush the hair out of her companion's eyes.

"Drop the formalities Inaho, I'll be fine. More than anyone else, you know that Slaine will never hurt me even if he had the chance to."

The black-haired man's face remained an impassive mask, moving away slightly from her touch. "I'm afraid not Empress Asseylum. According to Code of Conduct of United Earth, addressing one of a higher status correctly is necessary."

Asseylum frowned, glancing back at Eddelrittuo who just shrugged at Inaho's cold attitude. She brushed off the indifference in his voice before smoothing out her skirt and nodding at Inaho.

Inaho then murmured words into the earpiece that he wore, speaking in such a low frequency that the Empress could hardly make out the words. When he gave her the signal that everything was clear, she took a deep breath and fiddled slightly with her hair once more before she pushed the metal door open.

Seeing him nearly made her burst out crying.

There he sat, his frame seemingly more frail than usual and his shade of platinum blonde hair seemed to have lost its light due to it being covered in dirt. His green eyes still looked as brilliant as ever despite the horrid lighting, one that made her remember the happier moments they shared. Her eyes scrutinized him, noticing that beneath his green garb that hung loosely on him, she could still make out the edges of scars that marred his body, an eternal reminder of the cruel treatment that he had received on Vers.

"You look well." She begun lightly as she walked towards the seat in front of her and sitting down as gracefully as she could.

Slaine gazed at her in disinterest, before looking at the wall. "I could have been better… Or dead."

Asseylum forced a smile upon her face. "It's a good thing you're not dead, Slaine. It'd have been terrible if I had lost my first friend, the one who thought me of the beauties of Earth."

His head moved abruptly, his eyes piercing into hers. "In all due respect, Empress Asseylum, was it truly necessary for you to visit a traitor of Vers? Does your husband, Count Klancain know of your visit? It'd be horrible if rumors of you allying with a traitor should stir."

"No rumors of such will come, Slaine." She came out more strongly than she liked. "My husband does know of this visit and he did not mind at all. Can I not visit a friend?"

"Is this—"He gestured wildly at his surroundings as his shackles flayed around the place before he pointed to himself—"Not enough to send you fleeing in horror? That I am paying for my mistakes and treachery? Do you intend to come here to humiliate me further and dehumanize me?"

"That was never my intention, you know that." She whispered hoarsely.

"Then what good will come out of your visit, Empress? It insults my being to be sympathized by you." He said coldly.

Unable to help herself, she slammed against the table and stood up. "Slaine Troyards! I came because I missed your company as a friend that would tell me of the world he resided in, the passionate one who would look at me earnestly and look beyond my title when it was usually a suffocating thing. What happened to you?"

His lips curled into a cruel sneer. "Experience and Time did, Empress. Having being discriminated for the place I reigned from, knowing that no matter how high my ranking would be, I would be mocked for being a Terran. It formed me as a person from all the hatred that was constantly around me for being better privileged and not having known hardships."

Asseylum could only look at him mutely before she plopped back into her chair, her tough façade gone after the words he had uttered.

"Had I not tried to save you?"

"On the contrary, you destroyed me." He leaned in, speaking in a lower tone. "Your kindness deluded me that there were truly people who could understand me, when you were the exception out of too many. I was led towards false hope as I followed you, like a blind man dazzled by sunlight for the first time."

By then, she could barely hold back her tears that threatened to spill from the wells of her eyes.

"When I first saw you, crashing down into my pool, I thought you were my savior from all that I had ever known of Terrans. You've heard the words—spoilt, hateful, a waste of space, unappreciative. You'd have thought I saved you when I gave you air, but it was you who blessed me with the gift of knowledge and made me who I was today."

She shook her head slightly and blinked back her tears, smiling once more and looked at him with her honest jade green eyes. "You taught me the endless expanse of the sea and your awe for the inventions that we had long surpassed, the various animals and plants that you loved and made me feel like a normal person for once instead of all the restraining binds of duties I had after the passing of my father."

"I cannot express how truly grateful I was for all you had done for me, that actions and words seem to fail me when I try to convey the intensity of gratitude I feel towards you. The current Empress Asseylum Vers Allusia would not be what she was and might be blindly waging war like the predecessors before her in hopes for a way out for Ver's impending doom."

The words she had hoped that would bring back the Slaine Troyards she knew fell on deaf ears.

"Your gratitude?" He laughed coldly. "That cannot possibly soothe the pain that I have felt, the wounds that have torn open time and time again, nor can it bring back the people that I have slaughtered and used to rise to power. In fact, it'd be only right if you loathe me with the very core of your saintly being."

"But I cannot."

Slaine smiled sardonically. "Then that is a tragedy. You ought to forget about the memories of the old Slaine that you cling onto. He has been dead for quite a bit, especially in the year where you were in the tank, desperately trying to fight for your life."

The ruler could only give a bitter smile as a lone tear slid down her cheek. What use was power when you could hardly save a friend from their own degradation? It only left her helpless, knowing that she was one of the reasons that he was in the rut.

Just coming to the realization choked her, as if the air in the room had became impossibly thick with the truth. Using the strength that she could muster as she shakily stood up, trying to walk towards the door with as much dignity she could.

Before she opened the door, she looked back at her old friend once more. "When I asked Inaho to save you, I wished to free you from the chains of misery you placed upon yourself and find the happiness that had eluded. More than anyone else, you deserved the happiness that you had been deprived of after all the slandering. It saddens me that my efforts had been for naught."

Slaine gazed at her meaningfully. "I'd have been better off dead. It's quite hard to live with all the demons I am surrounded in."

She had no reply to that.

Steadily, she opened the door and shut it behind her firmly. When it locked with a click, she threw herself into Eddelrittuo's arms, sobbing profusely. "What have I done to him? How can I possibly right the wrongs?"

Her maid could only look at her Empress in sadness, unable to find the right words to say as she pat her back comfortingly. The most terrifying thing about her lady's statement was that she had watched the man change, although his love for her never did.

She had done absolutely nothing to stop him from his schemes, not even using her lady's name in attempt to deter him. Eddelrittuo was powerless, as Asseylum was right now.

Inaho, who silently approached just stood at the sidelines when he got close enough, watching his once love interest cry her heart out, unable to do anything. It was no longer his place to comfort her, for it was no longer the situation where she was under a guise and he could pretend that they were just normal people.

They would remain as the past, untarnished by the present with hours of picture perfect moments that he knew he would never forget.

He shook his head slightly to clear those thoughts away and gave a look to signal that they should take the empty interrogation room that was a few feet away to have some privacy. The brown-haired girl nodded, bringing her lady into the room to have her peace.

When they had finally disappeared from sight, Inaho slipped into the room to face his old nemesis.

The man who was playing a role he was not stared up at the ceiling with his body slumped onto his chair and from his position, he could make out the wet streaks down his face.

"Why did you lie to her? You still love her so why did you have to hurt her once more?"

Slaine's frame trembled as he let out a heart-breaking laugh. "I'd rather she despise me than have to visit my pitiful form again. Without my presence, she can then better serve her people."

"So it's a matter of pride?" Inaho raised his eyebrows, leaning against the door.

"No. What can I say? Love makes us irrational beings. I'd take on her sufferings any day and if I can free her from the chains that bind her to me, I'll do it gladly. It has been unrequited from the start." The blond man admitted.

Inaho assessed the man quietly. With or without his mechanical left eye, he knew his pretence that Asseylum would be happier without him was a lie.

He had witnessed the fall out between both of them in another room, watching in on their private conversation to see make sure nothing threatened the Empress's life, especially when the treaty between Vers and Earth was still hanging on a thin thread.

"But you knew she'd willing suffer just to talk to you again."

Slaine reached into his pocket and pulled out the pendant that he shared with the Empress and stared at it. "And I don't want her to."

"Selfish." Inaho noted.

"Don't say it like you won't do the same…." The prisoner muttered, pushing the accessory back into his pocket. Even if it was torture to know that she hated him, he wouldn't trade the blissfully happy moments with her.

Inaho agreed silently before tossing his handkerchief at him to wipe his tears. Slaine of course, caught it with ease and dried his tears before meeting eye to eye with him once more.

"For we are very much fools in love, willing to bet our hearts and lives on the line, even if it ends up being our own demise."

"To very much fools in love that can never get the person for she is bound by duty."

They stared each other for a few moments more, recognizing the emotions that were held in their individual depths.

Pain and acceptance.

They had to move on.

First and probably the last Aldnoah/Zero fanfiction I'll ever write. It only felt right that I paid tribute to such an excellent anime, no matter how infuriating at times.

I chose to end this horribly as it did in the anime, but this is essentially closure to me. They are both stupid idiots in love with a lady they can never have and risked everything for her and yet receiving nothing in return because she is the Empress and she is bound by duty. How they dealt with it: Indifference. For the sake of both parties and not hurt themselves more.

Well not really, but it will let it heal instead of constant bleeding.

This was what was to me. What do you think about it? Review about it.

P.S. Fanfiction is an arse towards words with dots connecting them.