As I floated through my dreams, I thought I heard an angel's voice, guiding me away from the darkness and into the light.

I desperately wanted to waft in the darkness. At least the darkness held no pain.

The first indictor that I was not as quite dead as I had originally thought was the incessant beeping. The second was the pain.

The strong scent of cleaning products assaulted my nose. I fervently wished that I would drift back into the lulling peace of unconsciousness…but the minutes dragged on, and I was still in the purgatory of the living. Reluctantly, I opened my eyes, blinking against the bright light.

"Oh! You're awake!"

I whipped my head to the side, heart skipping a beat. The bright smile of a hospital nurse greeted me.

"You've had us worried! When they brought you here, you were just barely clinging to life…we didn't know if you would pull through!" She jotted a few things down on the clipboard in her arms. "I'll go tell the doctor the good news. Please don't strain yourself; I'll be right back."

I watched her exit the room, a hole growing in my chest. For a minute I had almost thought…

I closed my eyes, heaving a sigh. Of course this hell would have more in store for me.

"…thank goodness…oh, thank goodness…"

I turned my head around slowly, looking toward the other side of the room. I wasn't going to be fooled again・

I had to be dead. There is no way that I would be lucky enough to have this angel sitting next to me if I wasn't.

"But…how?"

The girl wiped her tears with a bandaged hand. "Rono was with me in the basement when the explosion happened. He threw up a Protect just in the nick of time to protect us from the explosion, but we ended up trapped under the burning house." She put her hands in her lap, fiddling with the edge of her shirt. "We were down there for a long time…Rono couldn't keep up the Protect forever, so I had to dig us out. They didn't expect anyone to survive that, so no one bothered looking…"

"Oh."

I couldn't think of anything to say.

I didn't know which emotion was stronger…my relief that she was still alive, or the crushing guilt that I had jumped to the conclusion that she was dead. The remorse that I hadn't even tried to search through the ruble; that I had left her there underneath that burning house.

I slowly reached up, covering my face with my hands. She was alive…and I had left her for dead. A sob wracked my body, my nails digging into my flesh. How could I be so selfish?

Her beautiful face fell, hesitantly touching my arm with a finger. "Ruby…"

"I'm sorry, Sapphire…I'm so sorry…" The tears flowed freely now; I was took weak to restrain them. "I should of looked…I should of waited…I'm so stupid!" I pounded my forehead with a fist. "I couldn't protect you from anything! I was only thinking of myself! I'm so stupid!"

She gently lifted my hands from my face, holding them in her own. "No…don't blame yourself. No one expected anyone to walk away from that."

"But, I—"

She placed a finger on my lips, silencing me. "I said don't blame yourself!" She looked at me for a moment, then sighed, hiding her face in my hands. "…I was worried, you know. They wouldn't let me out of the hospital to look for you." I could feel her warm tears on my hands. "No one knew were you were…you were always already gone when we though we had found you. And then, the night when they let me out of the hospital, we found you like that…" Her voice caught in her throat, unable to go on.

I stared at her, more guilt eating a hole in the pit of my stomach. "…Sapphire, I—"

"But, it hurts me even more to see you blaming yourself for everything." She looked back up at me, a brilliant smile shinning through her tears. "Can't you see that I'm just happy you're here with me now?"

"Sapphire…"

"I know you did what you thought you had to do…I probably would have done the same thing." She placed my hand on her cheek, stroking my fingers tenderly. "Can't we just forget about all that and be happy?"

I closed my mouth, the lines in my face smoothing out. I reached out both of my hands to cradle her face, bringing her ruby red lips to mine.

Ruby red…how fitting.

A/N: AH HA HA? You wouldn't expect this out of me, now would you? I can write more than just fluff! 8D

...No, actually I hated writing it. Well, that isn't it. I liked writing it, I just hated myself for writing it. It's so daaaaaark... D8 It's tainting my world filled with fluff and rainbows!

I debated killing Ruby in my head for a long time...I was about to do it, too. XD But, it just tore at me inside, so I had to bail myself out. XD I can't leave this story completely without hope. :3 I hoped you liked it! 8D