.
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He was- Oh God he couldn't
Please! NO! Please!
Oh God. Please no…
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North
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"Noin."
He came to a dead halt, his dark hair still swishing behind him, carried by a continuing momentum.
Shit. If he could only sink into the floor…
"You can stop avoiding me you know. We- I never blamed you."
She was always truthful. She wouldn't speak for others falsely which made her statement all the more honest.
He relaxed into himself slightly, turning to face her. "Your fiancé's right to blame me. There was no reason it couldn't have gone differently."
She sent him a piercing look. Did he…? The years without her first husband, her friendship to him… Yes. She supposed it all could have gone differently.
"Access has never lost anything he's loved before. They felt like his children too. It's what I love most about him."
Noin gave her a sad sheepish grin. "I loved them too Finn."
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There was a brash knock on the door followed by its immediate opening.
Miyako was never one to waste time.
"Dad, Minazuki has agreed to testify against the other members."
He gave her a predatory grin which she returned.
Life wasn't going to take anything else away from her.
She was going to save herself.
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Nagoya-san looked over the Kusakabe file once more. His brow furrowed in a familiar spread.
He was too quick to release her last time. The whole situation had wrenched them, and Chiaki's injuries had shaded his judgment. But at the time he had agreed with Finn's assumptions that the girl would recover more fully at home.
Even after she had jumped Minazuki, attacked him with fists and words that sounded strange to them even in her hysteria…
Well, he had been too busy looking after Chiaki to listen to the boy.
He supposed Yamato hadn't truly meant to hurt her more. But a head injury only compounded the whole problem, gave her an outlet to fall more deeply into her dementia… until they couldn't help but notice.
Chiaki had stopped speaking to him of it once she was admitted to the psych ward.
But he was well aware of the parts she had assigned them.
The blame in particular.
.
.
It felt like every scar she had suffered that still hadn't saved him was rupturing again.
It felt like a thousand light bulbs had blinded her but the fact was, she was really seeing.
And it hurt.
"Breathe! Marron, please!"
Chiaki at her side, helping her again-
No not her, he was bleeding too much- go to him!
But Chiaki was here. With her.
Two paths in the road diverge
It was stupid of them to have taken that alley with the Demons after her brother. They were hurt and Chiaki had come too late for him.
the roads diverge
He wouldn't let her go to him. She remembered that.
two paths
two paths
He was dead before the ambulance came.
Zen had bleed to death in an alley.
When it should have been her.
And I chose the one less traveled by
Her breath caught up with her. Chiaki still had her back.
Hadn't he always?
And he saw her- oh god what she did to herself, let herself believe. What she blamed him for-
And I chose
Oh what little grace she had in her…
She straightened her back, looking him level in his sea blue eyes.
…She would set this right.
"Please don't leave me."
And he knew.
"Never."
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"For they could not love you, but still your love was true...And when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night...You took your life as lovers often do... But I could have told you, Vincent...This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you…" Don Mclean
[el fin]
[author note]: Zen is an interesting character, he and Marron had a very brother sister thing going for them. Argue a lot but in the end, they take care of each other damn the consequences. So choosing between Chiaki and Zen, well damn straight she's going to choose Zen, and I think she expects everyone she loves to do likewise, also damn the consequences. In both the anime and in this fic, Chiaki's choice regarding Zen lead to some interesting situations. The fact that Chiaki doesn't, that she couldn't choose Zen, well it leads to North doesn't it?
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