Disclaimer: If I owned Taz and Up, I would die. But since I'm still alive, you can assume that I don't. Oh, and I don't own February either.

A/N: Omg. You don't understand how nervous I am about uploading this…*hyperventilating* I WANT IT TO BE PERFECT! AND I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS! ARGH! I'M SO NERVOUS. Please be kind.

Song of the chapter: A thousand years, Christina Perri-
"Heart beats fast, colours and promises.
How to be brave, how can I love when I'm afraid, to fall?
But watching you stand alone, all of my doubt, suddenly goes away somehow."

Up sat up in the hospital bed, the small, white, ever so slightly crumpled paper crane twiddling between his index fingers. He stared at it, wondering where she was. He hadn't seen her since he woke up, which was almost a day ago. He'd awoke just as she was leaving the room, and she hadn't come back since. Pryce had told him the news, of course, and Up wished he was fit to go find her himself, to go comfort her- like a good best friend should do. If he could even be counted as a best friend anymore. His heart sunk slightly.

He dropped the paper crane on the bed sheets, pushing it slightly with his little finger, making it tumble off his knee and do a somersault onto the lower part of the bed. Up sighed and lay back, wondering where Pryce was. He was bored, and being left alone wasn't the best thing for him. It only led to thinking too much…

A thousand.

Her voice sounded in his head. He'd heard her of course, just before she dropped the crane beside him. It had been the first thing he saw as he woke up, followed by the sight of her petite figure rushing towards the door, short hair wavering slightly as she ran. He'd been messing with the crane ever since, wanting to know what she wished for, wondering if it had anything to do with him. Up sighed- what an idiot he was being. It was him that would have wished for her, not the other way around.

"Hey Up," a voice said pleasantly. Up glanced to the left, his eyes lighting up slightly, and glad of an escape from the boredom- or more precisely, his thoughts. "Want to go for a walk?"

Up agreed immediately, jumping up from the bed with an air of agility that he didn't realise he had anymore.

Taz sat on the stone slab, just like they always did in the old days. She looked out across the lake, her toes dipped casually in the freezing water. She watched the ripples for a second, not wanting to break through their calm, then she swished her feet slightly, sending the water flying into the air and watching the droplets glitter in the light of the setting sun as they fell back into the lake and create yet more ripples. She smiled softly. Beautiful.
Up looked at her as they walked along the path, he'd noticed her immediately. She was sat, wearing nothing more than her usual white tank top, and a pair of black canvas shorts. Her boots lay in a pile some way behind her. She was staring at the lake, a smile on her lips and a glint in her eye. Her skin was made to look a bronze gold colour in the sunlight. She may has well have been glowing. Beautiful.

"Hey," Up called quietly. She turned, looking up at him, her eyes suddenly becoming bigger. She blinked slowly. He looked so different, but so the same.

"Hey," she replied, her voice sounding quieter than she had intended it to. She swallowed.

Up looked at Emilia, who was stood beside him. She murmured something to him, and he murmured something back, nodding his head slightly. Emilia patted his arm before continuing to walk up the path and him beginning to make his way down the hill towards her.

Taz looked back to the lake, listening for him as he approached her from behind, but not wanting to make eye contact yet. He settled down on the rock beside her and sighed loudly, shaking his boots of his feet and flinging them backwards to join hers. He looked back to make sure his boots hadn't hit some unfortunate person in the face before dunking his feet in the water and sending water up to splash Taz's legs as he lay back and stared at the sky.
Taz stared at him.

"How are you?" Up asked, not looking away from the sky. The question was perfectly innocent, but Taz knew what he was getting at.

"I'm fine," she replied, just as innocently.

"Are you not upset about..."

"Well, of course I am," Taz said, rolling her eyes and leaning back onto her hands, her head facing the sky. "He was one of my best friends..."

Up glanced at her. "Was he your best friend?" he questioned.

"No."

"Is Emilia?"

"No."

"Who, then?"

"You," Taz said, without a seconds hesitation. "It's always been you," she added, seeing Up's half surprised expression.

"I just thought...after..." He looked away, swallowing slightly.

Taz looked away. "I'm sorry."

Up looked at her incredulously. "I don't get it," he decided, shaking his head and sitting up slightly. He studied her face, the smooth skin that looked so delicate under the light, the brown eyes that looked so dark they were almost black, but in a rich way, like swirling dark chocolate. Those eyes slowly flickered to him, digging their way into his soul just like they always did, in a way that none others could.

"What's not to understand?" Taz asked, her voice quiet.

"Why you think you need to say sorry," Up explained. His eyebrows furrowed.

Taz leaned her forehead on her hand, regretting opening her mouth before she even said anything. "Because everything dat ever happened, every bad thing dat ever came to be, it was all my-"

"But-"

"No, Up. Don't interrupt. This is how we ended up in dat mess last time," Taz said, firmly, but with a slight pleading tone to her voice. "I don't want to go through dat again," she said, definitely pleading. She opened her mouth, looking like she was going to add something. He gave her a questioning look. She shook her head. "Everything dat's happened," she said, looking down. "Cal and Krayonder dying, jou getting hurt so many times. It was all my fault. If I hadn't have been so stupid, so soft, none of it would have happened." She stared at the stone.

"You're not soft," Up said. Taz scowled at him and he closed his mouth again. He continued to watch her.

"If I didn't care about anyone," she continued. "If I was just a heartless wretch dat everyone hated and dat no one wanted to be around, no one of it would have ever happened. If I hadn't had a lapse of judgement and called jour name, making jou turn round and get caught off guard, jou wouldn't have been hurt.

"Same with Cal, if I hadn't have cared about jou, if I hadn't…kissed, jou…I would have been near the front with him, and I wouldn't have been far enough away to miss my aim on dat robot." Taz's voice cracked slightly, and she sniffled, breathing in hard. She spoke slowly. "If I didn't care about jou, jou wouldn't have been hurt, and then we wouldn't have had to save jou, and then Krayonder would have never died." She paused, looking choked for a second before she let out a quiet, tearless, sob. "Jou see? It's all my fault." Taz punched the stone with the side of her fist.

She lifted her feet out of the water, turning away from Up and curling her feet into her chest, her head falling onto her arms.

"Can I talk now?" Up asked. Taz looked halfway over her shoulder, just enough so she could see half of his head a few centimetres behind her, his blue eyes sparkling in the light. She nodded minisculely.

Up took her hand in his lightly, turning her round to face him, his face inches away from hers. She was about to look away, but he lifted his other hand and laid it lightly on her face so she could do nothing but look at him. The look in his eyes calmed her, and she relaxed slightly.

"Now listen to me, Taz," he said. She nodded slightly. "I don't care." There was a pause, and Taz raised her eyebrows at him. "I'm not going to argue and say that it wasn't your fault, because I know full well there's no point in trying, you're too decided. So instead, I'm telling you I don't care.

"I don't care how many people you hurt, or how many you kill, and I'm pretty damn sure that they don't care either. And according to you, you've hurt me more than once, so I can be proof of that." Up paused, his mouth open, like he was unsure how far he could stretch this speech of compliments. "You're amazing, Taz, and in my opinion, knowing you, being important to you, and having you…care…about me…is worth any pain in the world."

They were silent again, for longer this time. The world appeared to slow down. They were so close together, that anything behind Up looked blurry and unfocused to Taz's eyes.

"That was soppy," she commented, a little smirk on her lips.

Up smiled, but argued. "No, Taz." He was still staring at her. He wouldn't break eye contact, and he wouldn't allow her to either. So they stayed for a second, staring at each others eyes, watching the way the colours blending together so perfectly, so beautifully, and wondering why it was that they had kept this pleasure from themselves for so long. "It's the truth," he finally murmured.

And then he was kissing her.

He didn't even know how it happened, and he wasn't even sure that he cared. Her lips pressed harder against him and her hand clenched into his hair. Nope. He definitely didn't care.

Up pulled Taz closer, unable to control the emotions that were burning inside him, giving him new ideas, new plans, new feelings every second and not exactly telling him which ones he should act on, and he had no time to concentrate because he was too busy being distracted by Taz, and the way it felt with her lips pressed against his. She responded immediately as he pulled her towards him, unfolding her feet from under her and leaning towards him, her legs pressed up against his in a manner that set every nerve in his body on fire.

His fingers drifted up slowly, making their way into her tangled hair as they kissed, their passion undeniable to either of them. Taz could barely comprehend what was going on. There were flashes of thoughts running through her head, probably warnings, about what she was getting herself into again. But every time Up's presence pushed them right out of her head, like he was reassuring her, taking all the pain and worry and panic away and leaving nothing but him, and her, and smashed together noses and lips.

They pulled away slightly, their arms still around each other, faces still millimetres away from each other. They were both breathing, both trying to catch their breath.

"But what if I end up hurting jou again?" Taz asked, her breath tickling Up's chin and neck.

He sighed slightly, his fingers running softly from where they were locked into Taz's hair, down past her ear, down her jaw line, until they rested on her neck. Her breathing had suddenly become deeper, and he could feel her heart pounding beneath her skin. The feeling was oddly beautiful to Up, her rhythm, the rhythm of everything that made her...her. It was the same as his, and the same as everyone else's. But it was hers. And hers alone.

"You just don't get it, do you?" he asked, a tiny smirk on his face. Taz frowned, her eyebrows furrowing. His fingers travelled again, smoothing the line her frown had created on her forehead softly. His eyes drifted back to hers. "You just don't get it," he repeated. "Think about it, if you didn't care, Jacon would have probably died under Aaron's punches back in the Academy, I would have probably died if the Ambassador didn't answer that question, I would've died again, and your dad would have died, and Dev, and Pryce, and Rosi would've died."

Taz stared at him, her eyes softer then they usually were, a lighter, chocolatier colour that he only usually saw when she laughed. Up stroked her cheek. "When you cared, people died, and people got hurt, but if you hadn't cared, there would have been so many more people dead right now, Ta-"

She interrupted him with a kiss. A long, lingering kiss, that shocked Up slightly, until he relaxed into it and rested his hand on her neck again. Her lips moved against his ever so slightly, her hands tangled into his hair in complicated twists that he doubted she would be able to untangle her fingers from. She pulled away again, the tip of her nose resting on his, her upper arms resting on his shoulders and her hands still in his hair.

He stared at her, nearly going cross-eyed attempting to make his eyes focus. He realised she was smirking at him and he scowled at her slightly, his eyes darkening ever so slightly. Her eyes just shone, the swirling darkness bringing Up into her and melting him, leaving him nothing but a puddle of mush, completely under her spell.

"Taz-" She shushed him, her hand unlocking from his hair quicker than a flash, her finger over his lips. He blinked slowly.

"My turn again," she said. It wasn't a question, but Up nodded anyway. She smiled softly, and it reminded him of the last time he saw her smile like that, it seemed like so long ago. It seemed like even longer since they'd been this close; close enough to touch if one of them moved even half a centimetre. Up wanted to make up for that lost time, but Taz's eyes stopped him. She brought her face even closer to his, their breaths mingling. She kissed him once again, soft and sweet.

"Te amo," she whispered, a millimetre away from his lips.

Up couldn't contain the vicious, aggressive and slightly desperate kiss that followed, lasting only a few seconds, but making up for a million. Up pulled away, staring at her again, the grin that had spread across his lips during the kiss still present.

"Te amo...too?" Up murmured in response, a tiny smirk on his lips.

Taz chuckled; her eyes had lit up, shining with a bronze golden glow. Her lips pressed against his again, her whole body beginning to press itself up to Up, the need to be close to him overwhelming. Up pulled her closer, speeding up the process so she was straddling him within seconds, their chests pressed together, their lips locked, the bodies entangled.

Taz could feel nothing but Up's lips on hers, his hands on her back pulling her in. She locked her arms around his neck, pulling him towards her as he pulled her towards him. Neither person was satisfied with the closeness until Up's back hit the stone and Taz was lay on top of his chest, her lips still locked forcefully onto his.

"Hey, Taz?" Up mumbled softly, his lips becoming stationary, half a millimetre away from Taz's.

"What?" Taz asked, obviously irritated. Up chuckled- only Taz would find this situation annoying.

"When you finished your one thousand, what did you wish for?" As he spoke his lips brushed against hers.

There was a silence, and Taz pulled back a little bit more, her arms against the stone to stop her from hurting herself. She frowned down at him for a second.

Up raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What?"

"I…" she trailed off, her brow furrowing even deeper. "I forgot."

Up burst into uncontrollable chuckles, his eyes closing and his head shaking slightly. "You forgot to make the wish that you made a thousand paper cranes to get?" He barked with laughter slightly, and then had to immediately grab Taz's waist so she didn't end up rolling off his chest.

"Shut up," Taz said, scowling down at him. "I was a little pre-occupied."

He smirked. "Well…why don't you make one now?" he asked, smiling softly.

Taz's eyes grew bigger and her scowl faded into a look of content. "No," she said softly.

"Why not?" Up questioned, frowning. "I thought that was the point of the whole thing? And now you just don't want to do it?"

"What's the point?" Taz asked, a smirk on her lips gradually growing wider and wider as Up's frown deepened. "I've got everything I wanted to wish for…"

There was a second then, where Up was still frowning, and Taz was still smirking. Taz tilted her head, waiting for Up to catch on. He just continued to frown and look highly confused.

Taz giggled loudly, her head falling forwards and her eyes squeezing shut. She looked at Up and shook her head, the smile on her face so beautiful that it took Up's breath away. "Jou, jou tonto!" she giggled, grabbing Up's shoulders so she didn't fall.

Up chuckled, his arms encircling her waist again. "Dead-God, I love you," he murmured, kissing her softly. He would have pulled away, if it weren't for Taz's arms locking around his neck and refusing to allow any distance between them. He grinned, wrapping his arms around her properly, until she near enough completely enveloped into him. Their mouths were working in overtime, their lips and tongues having a better workout than they'd had for almost five years. They were both still -grinning, their smiles wider than they had been for so long, their hearts beating faster than they ever had. It felt like heaven, served accompanied by several platefuls of bliss.

"Uh…guys?" Emilia said, a grin slowly spreading across her face.

She glanced behind her, the smile unwavering. Cat, Pryce, Jacon and February all gave her questioning looks from their separate seats around the room, but Emilia was in no condition to reply. She grin simply grew even wider, and she tilted her head slightly in the direction of the window.

Jacon was the first to get up and reach her. He pulled himself out of the chair, jogging across the room casually. He looked out of the window.

The casualness was no more.

His eyes widened dramatically, his jaw dropping into an ecstatic look of shock. He clapped loudly, then spun on the spot, sending a punch into the air in triumph. With his head still facing the ceiling, he began rapidly mouthing 'yes' and looking exceedingly pleased his himself.

"Finally," Pryce said, appearing behind them, his face lit up. "Took them long enough." He watched for a second, raising an eyebrow at the sight of Up burst into laughter and Taz nearly roll off into the lake. He shook his head, smirking. "Smooth, dude," he commented sarcastically.

Cat slapped his arm with the back of her hand, before looking back at her friend and brother with a tiny smile on her face, triumphant and all-knowing. Cat and Emilia made eye contact and simultaneously grinned.

February trotted up last, looking rather reluctant to get out of her seat. When she finally did, she was giving them all disapproving looks, clearly having an inner battle with laziness. She looked at each person in turn, and then slowly turned her head to look to the bottom of the hill.

The shriek that was uttered from her mouth could've set the world on fire.

"What the fuck was that?"

Up pulled away by a millimetre and quickly looked to the left, towards where the main Academy building stood. The noise faded away as quickly as it had come, leaving a frown quickly developing on Up's face.

"Oi jou," Taz murmured. She scowled at him from above, and took his chin with her finger and thumb, bringing his face back to hers. He smirked up at her, his eyes glittering in such a way that Taz was unable to keep the scowl up any longer. She kissed him softly. "Stop getting distracted while jou're meant to be fulfilling my wish."

Up's smirk grew. "I thought you didn't make a wish."

"I made it prematurely," Taz argued. Up laughed lightly, and a grin grew on Taz's face.

Up leaned up, putting his hand on the back of Taz's neck and bringing her in for another kiss. Taz sighed contently, her eyes staying closed when Up pulled away.

"So when did you make it?" Up whispered into her neck, the breath tickling Taz's skin and making her sigh again.

"Honestly?" she asked, tilted her face so they were looking at each other once more. Up smiled, his skin crinkling in the corners of his eyes. The sun was still setting and the red of the sky was reflected in his eyes, making a sort of rainbow of colours. Taz decided she was going to make him come outside at sunset more often.

He nodded once. "Honestly," he agreed.

Taz smiled and looked down, a tiny laugh escaping from her lips as she thought about how to the answer the question that she had yet to decide an answer for. Maybe now was the best time to decide though.

She smiled a little wider, her eyes flickering back to Up's with an extra tiny glint. "I think it around four hundred and seventy eight," she replied, smirking, challenging him to have forgotten.

He hadn't. Up grinned, the memory coming into his mind with a sense of fondness and triumph that he'd passed her challenge. He stroked one of her bangs back from her face, putting it behind her ear softly before stroking down her neck, not breaking eye contact even once. "And here I was, thinking you'd never make it at all…"

He leaned down and kissed her again; and Taz kissed him back. The world was silent; and it was just them. It was just Taz, and Up; and it was just memories, and paper cranes, and wishes.

A/N: Omg. I'm still hyperventilating. Okay. It's finished…*hides slightly* I hope you realise that you are completely within your rights to make me do this all again. I am writing this for you as well as me, and I don't know if this is good enough, so if it isn't, tell me.

Oh, and since this is, like, finished…I was wondering if any of you wanted the extra mission that goes between chapters 15 and 16, which I couldn't upload because it kind of turned into a story of it's own. It may take me a while to upload, because I have to go through it all and stuff, but…if you want it…basically Taz, Up and Cal go on a mission in a university in America where they're trying to find this kid whose working with the robots and stuff. So yeah…oh, and, this university makes the students wear a uniform. (Has anyone guessed that this was just my way of torturing Up with Taz in a short skirt? Because you're right:P)