Important message: Shhh. This is a gift fic for Tenny (Ten-Faced). She doesn't know yet, but she will, once she gets the email. Until then, I implore all of you wonderful readers to keep your mouths shut and fingers bound. :x Well, that is, unless you are to type a review. You are welcome to do that~

Therefore, my important message taken care of, happy New Year's! (So groggy LOL, it's almost 12 a.m., the New Year, in the Pacific Coast)
I'm publishing this in China's time, when everybody on the Pacific coast is still a-sleeping. :) Enjoy~!

they both loved and hated each other, for the other was always their greatest weakness

Kaito's and Miku's relationship had begun the year before, on December 31st, a cold, cold winter night. Rather, it was the last few seconds of the year of 2011 before the clock would strike midnight and a new year would be thrust, shining and bright, onto the refreshed world.

They were twelve at the time, young, untainted. They had such things in common- family problems and deep feelings, to name a few. There were a plethora of other things that the Shion and Hatsune could compare with each other if only they were not so secretive, so guarded, so silent about their beliefs, so afraid to thaw the ice and feel. There were plenty of horror stories about how love could mess and scramble up a person, and they had heard them all.

But it was true love, and true love would only strike once in their lives.

each beat her heart thumped for him, a fiery tension rippled across her heart

Miku was strong-willed and stubborn, but flimsy as a mere ash tree's stick to the wind once someone uncovered her feelings, which was exactly what Kaito did. She didn't rebel against it, exactly; she wanted him, but from that moment on in the dreary, lost night of December 31st, she knew there was a fatal flaw in her shield. She didn't want that. In fact, she hated it with a loathing lodged deep in her heart.

Miku was not stupid. She knew she was falling for the blue-haired boy.

Yet, she also knew that her trip down toward the ultimate depths of love was anything but easy. And that was not something to like.

each time his glance fell on her, a tightening surfaced in his chest which he was never able to describe

Kaito was sensitive, in more ways than one. He knew when someone was hurt, but he himself hurted easily, more than he would have preferred. Kaito never argued with Miku; never questioned her quickhearted judgments; never scorned her blatant beliefs, but he knew she was not happy with the arrangements Love had set out for her. For either of them, in fact.

This so-called Love was a knife dripping with the salty tears, plump with despair and discarded wishes, pummeled toward the ground in the hours of bloodshed and sinful redemption. It did not exist to either of them, not quite. Only lust and infatuation appealed to them, and even then, neither Kaito nor Miku could bring their hearts to embrace those seemingly idyllic concepts, so dangerous yet masked.
And both constantly hurt themselves for not being able to understand.

"It would be okay, Miku," Kaito would whisper to Miku whenever she needed to be reminded of happiness, holding her. "It will be okay."

She never repeated those words to him. He didn't mind. He knew that someday she would change, but unfortunately that day would arrive too late for him in the time frame of his life.

For when he died, on the morning of the thirty-first of December in 2012, it was not okay. It would never be okay again.

she turned away from his body, the body that would never stir again

So this brings us back to New Year's Eve. Not even a scrap of snow sat on the ground, quite unlike the bitterly cold night last year. But the temperature, yes, was hardly even near warm.

This night was almost unreal to Miku. Her deceased lover- how could the world keep spinning like nothing has happened? How could everybody still smile and laugh and wait in anticipation for the strike of midnight? How could she love again? How could . . . ?

Miku was numb, shaking but not feeling the cold. Today- just today, the anniversary of their relationship- the candle of Kaito's life was snuffed out, so unceremoniously.

He had been such a good person. He comforted her when she did not comfort him. He was exactly the mirror opposite of her selfish soul.

How could this happen?

Miku's friend Luka came and gently placed her arm around Miku's trembling shoulders. Miku took a deep, gulping breath, the freezing air digging at her savagely, hotly. It would not relent and become softer or more tranquil.

"Ten seconds!" a man shouted into a megaphone. "Nine! . . . Eight! . . . Seven! Six . . ."

It's okay, Miku, Kaito's haunting words dug at her when he looked up at her in the hospital, smiling gently and brushing a lock of hair away from her face. It's okay.

"Five! . . . Four! . . . Three! . . . Two!"

Luka turned and smiled, conveying a message of comfort. A year before this, it had been Kaito like this- . . .

"One!"

what had come over her in that split second? she never did know

The fireworks burst forth with such a dazzling array of colors, decorating and lacing the night sky with their explosive beauty. Their zealous fire stole inside Miku, warming her up if but only slightly. She could feel again. But it hurt, such pain. She had tried to keep numb, bar the feelings from coming, but the fireworks had melted the ice. Her heart throbbed and seized upon itself. Miku gasped, and tears leapt to her eyes; stubbornly, she tried to push them away, but they would not relent this time. Subconsciously one of those tears gently wove its way down her cheek, and triggered more tears. Miku's slim shoulders shook with her chest-heaving sobs, her heart crying out. Luka gave her a squeeze.

Both girls then looked toward the color-spiced night sky. It seemed to take on a different view now, a different dimension. The beauty appealed to Miku, and-

What was that?

Miku blinked and looked again, suddenly aware of somebody's presence up there and yet down here at the same time.

Kai . . . to? Miku gulped again, and another torrent of tears rushed out, but now the feeling was mixed. Was she happy, him having deserved such a place in the sky? Or was she sad that she could not join him? Was she envious of him?
How could she ever fathom?

"Miku," Luka's concerned voice popped until her thoughts. "Miku, are you okay?"

Miku didn't pay attention to her. Running forward, heedless of the glares directed at her, Miku went to get a better look at the fireworks and the brightly illuminated heavens. She stared for a long moment, her gaze unwavering.

"Kaito!" Miku screamed. She did not care if they thought she was crazy. What did it matter? She had to see him one more time- just once more time . . .

"It will be okay, Miku," he seemed to whisper to her, his eyes mirrored in the stars. "It will be okay."

All of my stories nowadays have to involve a death... -_- And a lot of angst.

I hope you enjoyed the read anyway. Ten-Faced had written me a gift fic some time ago about a guardian angel, so I decided to repay the favor. I hope I did well. It was some time since I'd published a oneshot.

Thank you for reading/reviewing!

~Unyielding Wish