Disclaimer: Don't own Gantz, just the fic. Don't sue, mmkay?

A/N: Written for Neko Youkai04.

Carbon Copy

She doesn't go home with him one night, says she's found somewhere else to stay, that she doesn't want to be a bother to him anymore. Before he can protest, she puts a finger to his lips.

"You'll see me again. I promise."

And just like that, she leaves him.

They meet again two days later after school hours. It strikes him as odd to see her in a uniform all her own, book bag slung over one shoulder, a textbook and a binder tucked under one arm. Maybe, he thinks, she's picking up where she left off, starting over. Maybe her leaving him was for the better, after all.

When he speaks to her, her responses are short and cold and seem practiced.

He tells her to take care and that he'll see her around then walks away, assuming she's either in a mood or having a bad day.

The next time they meet, a week later, she goes home with him, and it's strange and uncomfortable because he knows she can't stay this time, and when she leaves there's a good chance she may not come back. There's something wrong and he can't put his finger on it, but he knows it's big and it's ugly and it could very well mean this is the last time he'll ever see her outside of the game.

They sit in silence and tea that has chilled, things they have never done before. He doesn't like this, not one bit.

"Where have you been?" he asks, breaking the tension.

She doesn't answer, only looks to the floor.

He goes to bed early and falls asleep to the sound of his apartment door slamming shut.

"Do you love me, Kurono?" she asks the one time he has her pinned to the wall with one hand on either side of her head, steel-gray eyes narrowed on her as he demands answers to the questions that have kept him awake at night over the last few weeks: where she's been and who she's with and why she suddenly seems different and, possibly the most important, why she keeps coming back when it's clearly obvious she doesn't want to.

Her question catches him off guard and his glare vanishes in a heartbeat, replaced by wide-eyed confusion and surprise. In a manner that's beyond boyish, one that is uniquely Kurono Kei, he pushes off the wall and throws his hands up in the air, snapping at her.

"What the fuck does that that have to do with any of this?"

She doesn't tell him she's thought it over, read between the lines, but she does tell him something that makes his jaw go slack.

"Because I think I could love you back."

In the game, she throws herself at him and says she's missed him. He puts an arm around her slowly, unsure – because he was certain he'd just been with her mere hours ago.

He puts his mind at ease by telling himself that it's a girl thing, and it makes him grin a little to think she suddenly can't go make it through a day without missing him.

And yet, even with such thoughts in mind, it's hard to grin and bear it when she's protecting Kato like her life depends on it.

"What was up with that?" he asks the day after, a scowl on his face as they walk to his apartment.

"What was up with what?" she asks, and either she's good at playing dumb or she really has no idea what he's talking about because the look on her face is pure confusion.

"Last night, you were all over me and then left me for Kato."

And there's a buzzing in his brain, an oddly pleasant tickle that no doubt comes before the explosion. It's a warning to keep his mouth shut, to not say another word because this girl doesn't know about the game.

He assumes it's Gantz fucking with him – it has to be, after all – and sighs, deciding not to talk about it anymore, just in case he triggers the bomb inside his head.

"Nevermind. Just never-fucking-mind."

"It's been three months," she says, taking his hand in hers with a coy, almost bold smile on her lips.

"Huh?" He cocks an eyebrow, watching her playing her fingers through his, threading them together.

She giggles, pushing him down onto the floor and straddling him. "I think I'm ready now, Kei-chan."

That night, they fuck each other raw.

He scoops her into his arms after the mission is over, presses his lips to hers and is completely dumbstruck when she gasps and pulls away, covering her mouth with a gloved hand.

"I've done worse, you know," he says with a raised eyebrow, head canted to the side.

She squirms in his grasp, looking off to the side. "You have," she says, as though she has to remind herself of this.

"What's the matter with you?" he asks, letting her go.

"Nothing, Kurono," she says softly, and he follows her sideways glance.

Kato.

He glares at her, hard and near-hateful. "You haven't called me Kurono in weeks."

"Do you love me?" he asks a few days later, desperate for answers because he's tired of this game she's playing.

"Of course I do," she says, looking away from the small television and up to his face as he kneads her sore shoulders.

"Sometimes," he continues, boldly deciding to open up for once, "I don't think you do."

She takes his hands in hers, brings them from her shoulders to her breasts after she's turned around to kneel between his legs. Her hands are on his thighs, dangerously close to the growing bulge between them.

"I'll prove it to you."

"I thought I'd lost you," he says, holstering his X-Gun and bringing her near-mangled body into his arms. Her legs are broken, so are her ribs, and he's sure there's something inside bleeding, but it's nothing Gantz can't repair if she can hold on long enough for the transfer to start.

"N-never," and she coughs up some blood and bile.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," he admits, brushing her blood-soaked hair out of her eyes before he leans down to kiss her.

She turns her head slowly, allowing him to only catch the corner of her mouth. She remains silent as he pulls back, her gaze anywhere but on him.

"Do you think Kato is okay?" she rasps.

And the idea of suddenly dropping her where she lies and leaving her for dead doesn't sound so bad.

He doesn't, but his grip on her loosens dramatically.

"I'm sure he's fuckin' peachy."

"Do you love me?"

This question has become routine and he can tell she's growing tired of it. And that's just great because he's tired of having to ask it.

"I do," she says. The answer is short and sweet, but it's enough for now.

"For how long?"

This makes her gape in shock, but she soon recovers and presses her lips to the bare flesh of his chest, kissing his fluttering pulse.

"Forever," she whispers as she kisses every other beat.

He knows he should be happy, because that is exactly what he wants, but forever just doesn't seem very long anymore.

The world feels like it's suddenly spinning too fast and his heart drops like a rock to the pit of his stomach when he sees her on the street one day, her arms wrapped around Kato's shoulders as she hoists herself up to press her smiling lips to his.

"You don't love me," he states quietly, pointing to the door. "Get the fuck out."

She leaves with tears in her eyes, and he has to wonder if he's done the right thing.

In the game, he doesn't bother anymore. She's not in it for him, she's in it for Kato, so he lets her play it for him and he saves no one but himself.

"What did you do to him?"

"Me? You should be asking yourself that."

"Aren't I?"

And Kishimoto Kei glares at herself, at the strange copy that approached her months ago and pleaded with her to give a boy the chance he wanted, the chance she refused to give, because she'd fallen for another and she couldn't stand to be untrue to her heart.

"We're driving him mad," says the original. "I don't know what you're caught up in, but every time he sees you, he's different when he comes back to me."

The copy looks down at the concrete, all shame and guilt and things the original could never bring herself to show again. "He'll be alright," she says, so confident and sure that they can make this work.

The original isn't quite so sure, but she goes back to his apartment that night and asks for forgiveness, complete with tears and false guilt of crimes she hasn't committed.

He buys it and takes her to bed.

"Do you love me?" he asks after the deed has been done many times over and they're both sweaty and sated and sticky.

"Yes," she whispers, breathless.

He just can't bring himself to smile.

After a mission, he holds onto her tightly, pressing her head to his chest. She is tense and rigid, and the frantic pounding of his heart is little comfort.

"Kei," he says softly, and it's strange to hear her call her by her first name. "Can I ask you something?"

She nods, thinking, no.

"Do you love me?"

His heart beats rapidly, anxiously, and then she swears it comes to a dead stop when she answers him.

"Not today."

He doesn't say "I love you" anymore, not unless she says it first.

-End