The Ghost of You

The rain refused to stop.

It fell from the sky like a torrent of needles, prickling her skin with their icy touch. She had gone numb to the pain, feeling only the emptiness that had filled her. Her once lively waves fell around her shoulders in limp clumps, weighed down by the rain that poured down on them. The ground beneath her feet was soggy, pooling with water as the storm refused to let up; the puddle was already ankle deep. Her dress clung to her, making movement difficult; but it wasn't like she needed to move. She had been standing in the same place for hours, completely oblivious to the lightning and thunder that echoed around her.

At her feet, Pantherlily stood with a solemn expression, staring at the marker as if it were an illusion created by the rain. His paws shook violently and swallowing seemed hard. His small heart ached as his eyes traced the engravings, carved with such a sickening precision. The glossy marbled surface stared back, streaked with rain as if it was crying as well; as if it knew what its purpose was. Hesitantly, the Exceed glanced up at her. She didn't look like she was crying, but it was impossible to tell with the steady streams of water running down her face.

She tore her eyes away from the marker reluctantly and met his; he tried to comfort her silently, but he knew he wasn't enough - no one other than him would be.

He looked over her face; a large scar obscured her forehead, hidden by the bangs she let fall – she hadn't worn a headband since that day. Her hazel eyes were lacking their usual brightness, dulled by the loss. She hardly spoke, and when she did her voice cracked and broke in a way that could break even the strongest of hearts, yet she had not allowed herself to cry.

"I can't believe he's gone." She whispered, her small fists clenching.

Lily grunted in reply. What could he say? It'll be alright? It was painfully obvious that it wasn't going to be alright. She looked as if the stilts holding up her world had crumbled and it had come crashing down on top of her.

It's only for the moment, he thought.

She was a strong girl, she would had to have been to capture his heart, and the Exceed had no doubt that she'd eventually find her smile again – but even if she did, there would always feel like a part of it was missing. She would always feel like there was a part missing.

Because there was.

He was never coming home.

A sigh tore itself from her lips as she clutched the headband tightly. It was the one she had given him the second to last day of the tournament, and three days before they had lost to fate. Her stomach lurched suddenly and she collapsed with a splash.

The images flashed through her mind: buildings collapsing, dragons flying through the air, and blood. Never in her life had she seen so much blood, on the walls, on the ground, pooling behind lifeless bodies.

Her stomach turned again and she began to shiver.

His face suddenly filled her mind, bloodied and beaten, his hair clumped together in the pool of blood that slowly suffused the area around him. His was pale, and sweat soaked, and his cold crimson orbs filled with an emotion she never thought he'd show.

Fear.

The tears began to well up.

His shaky hand as he reached out to touch her one last time had felt like flames against the soft skin of her cheek. He had hardly been able to breathe as he muttered his last words to her, the soft smile that spread across his lips trembling. It was the first, and the last, real smile she had seen on his face.

He apologized for what he had done to her in the past. He'd admitted that it still haunted him to that day and that he still, after all that time, could not believe she had forgiven him – given him a second chance. Everything he had been too stubborn to confess before had been up in the air before her and she could only gape like a fish out of water as the words registered in her mind.

Then he had thrown the final three words at her, effectively shattering her heart. He'd died with a smile, his eyes locked with hers as their color slowly dulled.

She wished he'd never said them.

Or at least said them sooner.

Now she'd spend the rest of her life wondering what could have happened if he hadn't left - where they'd stand at this moment if she had chosen to act sooner. The most horrid part of it all was she might have been able to save him, if she had been in her right mind - but fear and absolute horror had pushed all reason from her. Even if she was in her right mind, the wound had been grievous and the chances of him surviving had been one to a hundred from the start.

She felt a small spot of warmth on her thigh. Raising her head, she found Pantherlily looking up at her with sympathetic eyes. "Maybe we should head back, you're going to catch a cold out here."

The bluenette nodded and shakily climbed to her feet. There wasn't a thing she could do now. The world didn't stop for the death of one person; the sun kept rising, the weather kept changing, and the people and things around her continued on as if nothing happened, because one person is nothing but a small particle in the grand scheme of things.

While his life had ended, hers would continue on and all she could do was make the best of it.

But that didn't mean she would forget him.

Author's Note: You guys can kill me now.