Another Kajiura-verse entry, since I feel like I've spent too much time in the light and fluffy aspects of their relationship.

Disclaimer: The lyrics for Kagayaku Sora no Shijima Ni Wa come from Amanda Lee.

Enjoy the story.

Prompt: T is for to (the beginning)

"When all your tears overflow, chilling and so cold, time will be singing its last sweet song. You've sought the light, and in it, you have become strong. You've shown the darkness you can fight..."

The quiet and melancholic melody pierced through the deafening silence that filled the halls of the stone castle walls, echoing slightly and sounding almost entirely too ethereal. Gaito looked up from the book he was attempting to read, his wandering mind simply unable to concentrate enough to focus onto the minute writing that was scrawled into the yellowing parchment pages of the thick, canvas-bound tome. His fingers stopped at the edge of flipping a new page and he lifted his crimson gaze from the ink. "Lucia," he murmured in quiet realisation.

Closing the book gently, he set the canvas-bound journal beside him on the deep red velvet of the long seat and pushed himself off to his feet, intent on searching for the wandering mermaid and finding her. Making his way out of his chambers, he followed the quiet song she was singing, letting it serve as a beacon for him to follow. His footsteps were light as he traversed the halls of his castle, long familiar with the maze-like layout of the large building, leaving no sign that he was present or had been in his path to find the blonde.

With her song as an auditory guide, it wasn't long before he found her, aimlessly wandering around the empty corridors that led to the library, where he had no doubt that she had just been before she started singing to herself. The silver-haired Panthalassan rested against the wall of the hallway, listening sombrely to the melancholic song she was singing, knowing that she was just around the corner yet unable to bring himself to turn the corner and talk with her. He sighed soundlessly, leaning his head back against the cold stone — seeing her like she was hurt too much.

His hands tightened into fists as he grit his teeth, his jaw tightening. This was all his fault. If he had just got a firmer grip on his temper... if he hadn't taken off Lucia's glove when she stepped in to talk him down... no, if he hadn't fallen for her in the first place, this would all have never happened. Everything would have been different; she would have been with his brother, he would have been dead, but above all, she would have been happy. The thought struck him only moments before he could slam a fist into the stone wall in frustration at his inability to help her.

This was all his fault.

Gaito stared over at his hand, realising that his fist was trembling ever-so-slightly. Gods, was he really so affected by this that he was shaking? In frustration, he ran his hand through his hair roughly, messing up the silver hair, drawing in deep breaths through clenched teeth to try and calm himself down, though it wasn't to any measure of success. He couldn't believe how thoroughly she had broken down his walls — she had affected him so much that he had lost control of himself when it came to her. He barely suppressed his groan of frustration, leaning against the wall and slumping as he sank down to the ground, defeated.

"Gaito...?" Lucia's soft voice drew him out of his reverie, the blonde mermaid peering around the corner almost timidly as she gazed over at him. Her slender fingers were braced gingerly around the corner as she glanced at him, her usually bright blue eyes deep and sorrowful and her blonde hair let down to cascade freely down her shoulders and back in gentle waves of gold. Slowly, she pulled herself around the corner and made her way up to him, taking one of his hands in her own. "What's wrong?" Her voice was soft and gentle, soothing even when she wasn't singing. Gently, she squeezed his hand with hers. "Gaito?" she repeated again.

Snapping himself back to reality, the Panthalassan glanced away, raking his free hand through his hair with a huff, the tension in his body melting away rapidly as she moved even closer to him, so close that he could feel the heat of her body in the cold waters that surrounded them. "No, no, I'm fine," he replied shortly, reaching out to snag her around the waist, pulling her close to him. "I was just... looking for you," he finally chose to say, burying his nose into her soft blonde hair. "I heard you singing," he breathed softly to her, a hand tangling in her hair. "It... may have distracted me. I decided it would be a better idea to find you." He sighed softly as he pulled her flush against him, revelling in the feeling of her form against him, a tangible reminder of what he was still fighting for.

Gaito paused, debating with himself as he remained seated on the floor with his back to the wall, Lucia in his arms. "You know," he continued softly, "it really hurts to see you like this. I hate it when you're so torn up. Lucia, tell me, is there anything I can do to help you?" A wry smile crossed his face. "I can't promise you a miracle, not in this twisted future we have, but..." He pursed his lips together into a grim frown. "I'd like to try, anyway." His lips ghosted over the crown of her head in a light kiss. "No matter how big the feat, I'll try, for the sake of a world where you don't have to cry." His arms wrapped around her and tightened in an embrace.

Her arms slowly moved to wrap around his neck, returning his embrace. Lucia sighed softly as she rested her head on his shoulder, all movement going slack as she allowed him to carry most of her weight. "Thank you, Gaito... but..." She paused, diverting her blue gaze elsewhere for a brief moment before she pushed away slightly, just enough to keep looking up at him without leaving his embrace. A faint smile curled her lips — a smile that, had they never been entangled in this mess, would have never been there — and she murmured, "You can't help me with this one. It's my problem to face, but I'm praying that all will go well. Have some faith in me, and I promise I'll pull through it soon enough."

The Panthalassan scoffed a little, though not in an unkind, condescending manner. He pulled her back into his arms and tightly held her to him. Threading his fingers through the golden tresses, he slowly began to stroke her hair in a soothing motion. "No matter how you scream, those prayers of yours don't reach anywhere, my light. They vanish into a sky that houses no gods." Wryly, he chuckled. "And it's stained red with all the blood I've shed. There's no mercy in this world, Lucia," he uttered softly, shaking his head. "No mercy." He pulled back slightly, cupping her chin and looking into her blue eyes that were so dark, so miserable—

"I know." It was but a quiet whisper from his beloved, but she didn't break down into tears, nor did she say anything else as she rested her head against his chest, wordlessly humming the rest of the song he had interrupted, her voice soft but unwavering. She was singing again, but not for her. This was for his benefit, and it hurt him to realise it.

He'd make it all alright. He would, even if it killed him.

Lucia broke the surface of the sea, her long blonde hair pulled up into a single side ponytail instead of her customary twin pigtails, looking up to see the full moon casting silvery-white rays of light down onto the endless spread of deep blue sea she could see on all directions around her. A bright blue gaze rested squarely on the moon, the stars that were scattered across the velvet night sky twinkling dimly the closer they were to the brightest source of light in the sky. The water's surface rippled around her as small waves began to roll in from the deep ocean towards the shore.

The blonde exhaled slowly as she swam towards the shore, where the lights of Pearl Piari could be seen through the darkness of the night and the faint fog that had rolled over the surface of the ocean. She pressed her lips together into a grim line as she stared at the building in the distance, where she could more or less guess that Hippo had brought the other princesses and Kaito to after Gaito had finally calmed down again — there was no other place that all of them could escape to that Gaito wouldn't be able to find them at. The building that stood on the distant shore was a mocking reminder of the beginning — how all of this started in the first place.

After what had transpired days ago, there was no way that she could bring herself to return to the princesses, nor was there a possibility that she could bring herself to leave Gaito after what they had gone through to stay together. If she did leave, the princesses would either accuse her of being a traitor, or consider that she had been mind controlled somehow by him, and the latter was most certainly not the truth. While she had been living a double life of sorts for the past six months, this could no longer be the case — she could only choose one to go back to in the end. It was a painful choice for her, a conflict that tore at her heart and her mind, but in the end, Lucia knew that she had an answer for where her place truly was, and it wasn't with them anymore.

Her mind made up, Lucia shook her head and turned to swim back to Gaito's stone castle, her heart set on staying with him through whatever might come in the future. She could see the smouldering guilt in his crimson eyes whenever she met his gaze — which had become rare since it happened — and the realisation that she was the cause of that deep-seated guilt in him sent a pang of hurt through her. Her own inability to get past the scene as her friends denied her relationship was the cause, she clearly understood, but she could still not bring herself to face the situation. Guilt flooded her mind at the thought of being the cause of his pain.

A hand suddenly snagged her by the wrist and Lucia gasped, crying out in surprise when she was pulled back into a tight embrace. She turned around partially just in time for lips to be pressed firmly to hers. The silver hair in her line of sight made her relax substantially and she melted into his arms, pulling him close to reciprocate the kiss. Her blue eyes fluttered shut as she relished in his firm arms, comforted by the familiarity of his hold. "I love you, Gaito," she murmured into the kiss, pressing up against him with a quiet hum of contentment. "I want to be with you, always. I want to stay with you." She opened her eyes partially, looking up at him. "Promise me we'll always be together?" she asked softly as she pulled back.

"Always," Gaito promised in a low, yet firm voice, his crimson eyes soft as he gazed down at the mermaid in his arms. "I won't leave you alone." He held her bright blue gaze for a while — his crimson eyes dark with solemnity and deep-seated concern for her — before he offered her a faint, rare smile that she only saw once in a blue moon, kissing her forehead gently before he took both her hands in his own, giving them a light squeeze. "Thank you," he murmured, "for not going back to them." He brought one of her hands up, kissing her knuckles gently in a display of affection.

The pink mermaid closed her eyes softly. "Everyone wants to be saved, Gaito," she murmured with a heavy note of sombreness in her voice. "No one wants to be left alone. Everyone's crying out for someone to stay with them, so much so that their hearts bleed. It'll bring the sky down at some point when everything falls apart." She shook her head. "I... I need to get past all of this. This isn't going to be a problem any more, I promise. I'm not going to let my own selfishness tear us apart." She gazed up at him, resting her head against his chest. "I promise," she uttered again, letting her eyes flutter shut

He kissed her forehead again, holding her close to him. "I'll be with you every single step of the way," he murmured in her ear in a firm, unyielding promise, his voice low. "That endless search for happiness, just for the two of us together. I'll fight the entire world just to stay with you, even if freezing flames burn at me, even if there's nothing more for us in the future, even if I have to give my life and sell my soul to do so." He opened his eyes, crimson gaze sweeping down to look at her gently. "As long as it rewards me with your smile, anything is worth it, Lucia. Absolutely anything."

Lucia felt the tears sting her eyes as she shook her head, burying her face into his shoulder. "I don't need all that," she said softly. "I just want you to be with me and for me to be with you. Always." She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him close as she finally looked up at him, watery blue eyes fixated on him, studying his sharp, angular features through her partially teared-up eyes. She closed her eyes as he moved his hand to wipe the tears away. "Never leave me, Gaito," she murmured, opening her eyes to look up at him again, a pleading note in her voice.

His arms tightened in their embrace, and Gaito leaned his head down, pressing their foreheads together so that their eye contact could remain firmly unbroken. Crimson red met sky blue. "I'll never be apart from you. I promise," he murmured huskily to her, his red gaze locked with hers. A faint smile pulled at the corner of his lips — a slightly morose, sombre smile, but a smile nonetheless — and he cupped her chin, tipping her head up as he moved to kiss her gently. "I'll always be with you." He pressed their lips together, his arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her close.

The blonde returned the kiss with forceful passion, her hands snaking up to tangle in his hair as she took the initiative. She'd work past this, Lucia swore. It was for his sake.

"Gaito?"

The Panthalassan glanced up at her as he entered the bedchambers they shared, seeing her sitting by the window. "Yes, my light?" he asked, finally abandoning the fur-lined coat he wore and setting it aside before he joined her at the window, glancing out across the ocean surface to see what she was looking at. "What is it?" He gently laid a hand on her shoulder as he looked out across the ocean, seeing the lights of the buildings on the shore. Gaito briefly frowned — she was looking at the hotel again, wasn't she? His jaw tightened a little — it always hurt her to look at it, so he always did wonder why she did so.

"They're going to come back." Lucia was uncharacteristically serious as she spoke, glancing out across the sea at Pearl Piari. Her blue eyes were narrowed slightly, but her furrowed brow gave away her unease at the statement. "They're going to come back and fight you again because they think — they think they know — that I'm being controlled by you. They think you're forcing me to stay with you." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "They're going to come back in an attempt to save me, Gaito. They want to defeat you for good and I can't let that happen." Her voice had grown steadily more desperate, but now she was frightened.

Her fingers were digging into the skirt fabric of her dress as the mermaid — in her idol form, though not really, as she had changed out of the short, frilled dress and into a long, flowing gown — stood up, turning away from the window with a disgruntled look on her face. "I'm not going to go back, Gaito. They want to summon Aqua Regina to cast her light across the seven seas again, and that's a wonderful thing, but I don't want a writhing, dying dream to be the rest of my life." She shook her head, her pigtailed hair cascading to the floor. "I just want to forget all this and let this world vanish — let the world scarred by the darkness sink back into the depths where it emerged from."

Gaito pursed his lips together as he guided her towards the bed, sitting her down and taking both her hands in his own, meeting her gaze with his. "They seek to erase the negativity in this world," he chose his words cautiously, aware that it sounded distant and rather formal. "They want to make it so everything they perceive as 'bad' is gone, but they don't realise that the world functions off of balance. What is happiness when there is no sorrow to contrast against it? What is safety without danger to make it feel thusly?" he questioned rhetorically. "They want something, but their reasoning is flawed." He shook his head. "Then we fight against it, Lucia, love. We tear their stand apart with our bare hands — we tear them down to zero."

He pulled her body close to his, wrapping an arm around her waist as he directed her gaze towards the window, where the silvery-white rays of moonlight were falling through the window to project their light onto the floor of the room. "They may want to stop me in my tracks, but I'll— we'll — ensure that they fall into ruin right at the beginning of their quest to 'bring you back'." He leaned in, gently kissing her brow. "Don't ever let your fears stop you from doing what you want, Lucia. I want you to stay with me, and you want to stay with me. We'll fight for that — we'll fight tooth and nail for it."

Lucia nodded quietly, leaning her head against his shoulder. "We will," she said, her voice soft as she stared out the window, her eyes narrowing slightly as determination burned in her bright blue irises. "Hey... Gaito?" she asked softly, her gaze shifting to look up at him with a small smile pulling at her lips. When he glanced down at her, meeting her gaze, she continued, "I've always admired that side of you, love. That side of you that looks at everything without clouding it over with emotion, that treats everything with objectivity." She smiled faintly. "That's something I could never do myself."

He reached down, cupping her chin in his hands. "You're someone to admire yourself," he murmured gently. "Willing to brave all of this for me... that's something I feel deserves the utmost respect, Lucia. My light, my love, you're willing to risk everything you once had for something new and something you believe in." A faint smile pulled at his lips to match hers. "My plans... our plans now, I would say, reach far, Lucia. They reach far into the darkness of uncharted territories, some of which we likely won't ever see ourselves. Would you still stand with me, then?"

She took his hand in hers, closing her eyes. "I'll always stand with you, Gaito," she murmured. "Always. Every single day I spend with you is one I value and hold close to my heart. Our story is its own song, with a tragic melody yet a poignant climax." Gently, she squeezed his hands in hers and smiled softly up at him, her blue eyes gentle as she held his crimson gaze. "I'll stand with you until the very end, even if we go down a dark road, or even if we betray the world that has turned its back on us. I won't leave you alone," she vowed. "I'll stay with you until the very end."

He looked at her, pulling her close to him. "Then let's not have to wait until the end," he murmured. "Our time is ticking shorter and shorter, love. Let's enjoy our life, and when they come for us, we will show them the truth. We'll go back to the very beginning, and start anew, but this time, I will have you standing with me — we'll have each other every step of the way." He closed the distance between them, kissing her passionately and heatedly before pulling back, staring her deeply in the eye. "Let's go to the beginning once more."

Lucia held his crimson gaze as she nodded, echoing his words to herself, wrapping her arms around his neck. "We'll go down to zero together, and make our way up again," she whispered, leaning in and pressing her lips to his.

To the beginning, together.

"Lucia, are you ready?" Gaito asked as he looked to his side, where she was standing beside his throne. He reached a hand to her and took her gloved hand in his — her left hand, where their engagement ring would have been if it hadn't been destroyed. He'd have to replace it at some point, but that wasn't important. What was important right now was ensuring she was alright with facing her old friends. If she wasn't, then he would do it himself and ensure that she didn't have anything to forever remember with fear.

The blonde princess nodded, looking down at their connected hands. She paused, easing her hand away, much to his confusion. The mermaid pulled off the glove and threw it away over her shoulder, and from her pocket, she produced a band — the band from the ruined engagement ring, though the jewel was gone — and took his hand again. In her other hand, she held her microphone. "They can destroy the ring, but it doesn't change the fact that we're together for all of this," she said, determined. "They can't separate us."

Gaito smiled at her determined expression, and he kissed the knuckles of her hand. "They won't be able to. We'll stand against them all the way, to the end and from there, to the beginning all over again." He felt the castle inform him that the princesses had breached the threshold of the building once more, and he saw Lucia physically stiffen. He glanced at her, holding her gaze.

"They're here," they said in unison.

The Panthalassan just smirked as he saw her step behind the throne, just out of sight, her long blonde hair out of her pigtails and into an elegant braid that would stay out of sight until just the right moment for maximum impact. He leaned back in his seat, crossing one leg over the other as he waited for the princesses and his brother to arrive once more. But this time, things were different. Things would be different.

He had Lucia now, and they stood together, from the end to the beginning.

They were together.

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