Hotter. Hotter. Hotter. Hotter.

She twisted the knob until it could turn no more. Until the jets of heated water cascading down scalded her skin. The water splashing to the blue tile floor under her feet darkened with dissolving dirt.

At any other time, she never could have tolerated showering with water this hot. But now it somehow wasn't hot enough. She scrubbed roughly at her skin, reddened from the heat. Even as the dirt from the shrine washed off her body, she still felt unclean, as if an unseen layer of grime clung to her.

And inside...

She probed at herself with her fingers. As she pulled her hand away a pink filament of liquid stretched from her fingertips-and then it was gone, dissolving away into the sluicing water.

She cleaned herself methodically, scouring herself out with two fingers. When the only thing left was clear running water, she went back to scrubbing at her skin. Face. Shoulders. Breasts. Back. Thighs.

Something curious had happened to her state of mind. Her thoughts came slowly, piecemeal like thread unwinding from a spool.

'Shouldn't I feel disgusted? Horrified?'

But she felt nothing like that. If anything, she just felt... numb.

'Ah... I'm in shock. That's normal, isn't it? It's normal for people to go into shock when they're...'

The spool of her thoughts curled up tightly on itself for a moment, then grudgingly wound back out a single word.

'Raped.'

'Yes, that's the word for what happened. Rape.'

'I was raped by Haruto.'

'But... it wasn't Haruto, was it?'

For a moment, Haruto's face swam before her eyes, his boyishly handsome features contorted in pain and need, red eyes blazing, bracketed by glowing slashes.

'It was the curse. Not Haruto. The curse of the Kamitsuki. Our curse.'

To her surprise, that thought sank with a small and unexpected sweetness into the core of her being.

'Our curse. Our bond. Those two may be pilots, but this bond is ours and ours alone.'

It was enough. She was as clean as she was going to get. Under the redness, her skin was flawless as it had been since her transformation, save for the mark on her left leg. The cuts and bruises left by Haruto were gone, faded even before she'd gotten all the way down the shrine stairs.

'Like it never happened, right?'

A bitter half-smile curved Saki's lips as she turned off the water. If only it were so simple.

He lay in the darkness of his bunk, disgust and horror eating a hole in his gut.

When he had come down from the shrine with his torn shirt tied around his waist, the auditorium was still ablaze with light. Someone had put on music, and the faint tones of Rukino-san's cheery singing wafting from the building had sent a stab of guilt twisting through him. He'd crept back to the dorm in shame, grateful for the darkness and the fact that everyone else in the module, including L-Elf, seemed to be occuped with the post-election celebration.

He'd tried to walk Rukino-san back to campus, but she'd flinched away from him, telling him in a quiet voice that she would be fine on her own. And just like that she was gone. He'd been too dazed with shock to follow her immediately, and by the time he'd collected himself she'd vanished in the night. And what could he do after that? Chase her down? Force her to accept his escort? As if he hadn't already...

Ever since he'd gotten out of Valvrave for the second time, he'd known that he and Shoko could never be together. But he had never understood so clearly before just how twisted and inhuman he had become. It would be better for her and for everyone if he WAS revealed and locked away.

In the dark, his mind spun through wild fancies. He imagined Rukino-san going to Nanami-sensei, telling everyone what he had done. He imagined them denouncing him, throwing him in a jail cell to rot. He imagined Shoko turning her back on him. And it would be no more than he deserved, monster that he was. How could he have done that to Rukino-san? Why hadn't he stopped himself?

He squeezed his eyes shut in misery. He could never remember wholly what happened during the fits, but bits and pieces would come to him afterward. He saw again the terror in Rukino-san's eyes as she struggled under him, felt her nails digging into his wrists as she tried to get him to stop. Even as a human, she'd fought beside him. Risked her life to help him recover his body and Valvrave from the Dorssians. And he had repaid her kindness with that...

And yet he knew deep down that Rukino-san would never tell a soul. From the time he spent piloting with her, he had learned she was rash and mercurial, but doggedly loyal. No, she wouldn't talk. She would carry it around inside her, no matter what it did to her. If he never said a word then neither would she, just like Shoko. She would go on piloting Valvrave with a smile, just like it never happened.

He owed Rukino-san more than to just let her suffer in silence. But when he thought about giving himself up and confessing his crime, bleak despair welled up in him. He could deal with, even welcome public denouncement and imprisonment, but the prospect of Shoko looking at him in revulsion was too much to bear.

There was no way he could do it.

'I'm such a coward...'

He was a monster; a monster that deserved to be punished. And yet he didn't have the courage to face his punishment?

'I have to make things right...'

No, even as he thought it, he knew that was wrong. There was nothing he could do that would ever make it right.

'But I can atone for what I did. Even if I can't turn myself in, I can still atone to Rukino-san.'

Yes. His mind seized on the idea. The guilt churning in his gut didn't vanish, but a measure of calm settled over him. Yes. Even a monster could seek atonement.

Haruto rose. Crossing the room to his desk, he picked up his cell and opened up Wired.

Saki got two text messages while she was sleeping.

She read them on her way to the girls' showers. The first one was from Haruto, asking her to meet him in front of the clock on Chokiba road at 10:00.

So that Haruto wants to apologize, does he? How inconsiderate, asking to meet at ten. What if I hadn't been able to sleep?

Truth be told, she'd surprised herself by falling asleep immediately after getting into bed. If she'd dreamed, she didn't remember them, and she woke up feeling refreshed. The weird stilted thinking patterns of last night were gone, and the disgust and horror she'd expected to feel later never materialized. Instead she felt a vague optimism bubbling up at the sight of Haruto's text. Here was a chance!

The second text was from Shoko-san.

Minister of Public Relations, huh? She'd take that.

But a photo shoot for all the ministers, also scheduled for 10:00? If it were any other time, she'd be leaping at the spotlight. Today, however...

Sorry, Shoko-san. I'll be with Haruto at ten, so you'll just have to do without me!

Saki sang happily under her breath as she changed into her uniform back in her dorm room. Her shower had ended up being unexpectedly long, a good fifty minutes, even though she'd gone in intending to make it quick. Maybe she'd gotten extra sweaty or something while sleeping last night.

"Aaaaah, kimi to tomo ni, hmm~hmm~hm~hmmm..."

'And maybe a little makeup... nothing too fancy.'

She dabbed a little mascara onto her lashes.

'Just to set them off...'

And a little lip gloss.

'Done!'

Saki gave herself an experimental smile in the mirror. A good makeup job was subtle, hard to notice yet still effective, and from the delicate pink of her lips and the definition of her lashes against her eyes, she knew she had accomplished exactly that.

Pleased with a job well done, she stepped to the entryway and reached for her tan boots, the ones that went with her school uniform. They were lying against the wall, right where she'd kicked them off when she'd come in last night. She really should have taken better-

The dirt was cold under her bare feet. Slipping on one boot, she raised her head to look for the other. When had she lost her boots? Somehow they'd come off when Haruto-

Saki pulled her hand back. The skin between her shoulder blades was chilly with sweat. Her stomach rolled in her belly, slow and queasy. For a moment she thought she might retch.

Then the moment was over, and she was still in a half-crouch, reaching for her boots.

'Get a hold of yourself, girl!' She thought angrily at herself. 'They're just a pair of boots!'

And yet she didn't want to wear them anymore. At all.

Well, the solution to that was simple, wasn't it? Scowling, Saki pulled her backup pair of boots out of the closet.

'Pink goes with the ribbon and the skirt, so it's not like a fashion crime or anything.'

Satisfied with her color coordination, Saki slipped out the door.

Haruto shuffled his feet as he climbed down the overpass stairs. He hadn't slept a wink all night, going over what he was going to say to Rukino-san in his head.

'I say I'm sorry for what I did, then I propose to her, tell her I want to atone. That I'll take responsibility. Yeah. Like that.'

A part of him realized he was getting close to their meeting spot, and he looked up from his feet right up into the bosom of the bikini-clad model on a Sunrise Water billboard plastered across a nearby building.

The sight of all that exposed flesh brought back the image of Rukino-san as he'd last seen her, forlornly draped in his jacket, pale skin glowing in the moonlight. Remorse knifed through him, and as he took a step, his foot skidded out from under him. He tipped backwards, landed on his rear, rebounded somehow, and went sprawling down the last dozen or so steps to the sidewalk.

"Haruto!"

Haruto looked up at the sound of running footsteps and a feminine voice calling his name. Right in front of his face were a pair of very pink calf-high boots, attached to the slender legs of a scowling Rukino-san.

"Good grief, Haruto. You're so clumsy. Are you okay? Wait, of course you are. Healing factor."

"I'm fine." Haruto checked himself over. His clothes were a little rumpled, and there was a scrape on the heel of his right hand where he'd landed on it. But even as he noticed it, the gouged skin smoothed out until there was no trace of the injury.

Rukino-san put her hands on her hips. "You're late!"

He was? Had he screwed up again? Haruto looked at the clock across the street. 9:45. "Sorry... Didn't I say ten?"

"You made me wait, so it's the same as being late, isn't it?" Rukino-san huffed.

'Ahhh... she's angry. Of course she would be...'

"I'm sorry..."

"I guess I forgive you."

She certainly didn't look like she had forgiven him. Her arms were still crossed and she was still scowling. Hurriedly, he launched into his prepared speech.

"Rukino-san, I called you because..." He trailed off as she abruptly turned around and walked off. "Rukino-san?"

"Do you really want to talk in the street?" She threw back at him.

There wasn't anything he could do but follow.

'I guess she knows where she's going...'

Saki had no idea where they were going.

Walking away from Haruto like that seemed like the right thing to do at the time. She had to keep him off-balance. Otherwise...

'I won't let you apologize so quickly.'

But now an uncomfortable silence had grown up between them, her leading and him following. Without a destination in mind, she felt more like she was running away from Haruto than anything else. It chafed at her. Here she had time alone with him, and yet...

Behind her, Haruto mumbled, "Uhm, Rukino-san..."

Saki was torn between relief at him breaking the silence, and frustration at his hesitant tone. He was probably trying to apologize again.

"No. We'll talk once we reach a good spot."

But where was a good spot? A patch of blue by a storefront caught her eye.

"Look, there! That blue one!"

"That? But it's a bar..."

He was such a stick in the mud! Her voice came out shriller than she intended. "It's fine, isn't it?! We're ministers now, we can just change the law!"

Saki swept into the bar and plunked herself down in a chair in front of the counter. As Haruto came in behind her, she turned and gave him a commanding look. "Let's have two milk teas."

"Two...?" Haruto looked confused for a second. "Yes, right away!" He stripped off his jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and began to poke and prod manfully at the tea dispenser behind the bar counter.

It took him a while to get the hang of it, but Haruto finally managed to figure out the machine and produce two cups of milk tea. He set one down before Saki, and then took his own and slid into a chair on the other side of the counter.

Now that Saki had a moment to watch him, she realized he wasn't looking too good. His boyishly cute face was haggard and there were faint black shadows under his eyes. Hadn't slept since last night, most likely.

'Ah... Haruto. You've been taking this hard, haven't you? Even for something that wasn't your fault?'

She was wrong to treat him so harshly, she realized. Thinking back, she understood now that she had been angry at him; a misplaced anger, because it was easier to focus it on him than at something nebulous like a curse or their circumstances. But what would her anger accomplish? He was no doubt already punishing himself in his own heart more than anything she was willing to do.

'He's just as much of a victim in this as I am. More so. I chose that curse, knowing full well what it was, after all.'

"Haruto, over here." Saki patted the seat next to her.

"Oh... okay." He hesitantly moved over to the adjacent seat. Was he nervous about being near her?

She took a sip of her milk tea. The hot sweet liquid settled into her tummy and warmed her nicely. "Mmmm... nice tea, Haruto."

"Thanks." He glanced down at his own cup, then back up at her. "About what happened..."

"Drink your tea, Haruto. It's best when it's hot," Saki chided him gently.

"Ah. Right."

"It's good, isn't it?"

"Yes."

They sat drinking their milk teas in silence for a moment.

It was nice. She'd never spent this kind of time alone with Haruto before. It was always Dorssian Navy this or Kamitsuki attack that. Even the time they'd spent working on the Sakimori promo video was filled with shop talk. Never time to just sit and enjoy themselves.

In fact, now that she thought about it, it was the first time she'd been alone with a boy doing pleasantly nothing. Too young before she became a star. Too busy getting famous after. And all of the boys at Sakimori were twits, too entranced with her former status to be of interest to her. Until Haruto, of course.

'A date, then? My first real date with a boy?'

How messed up was her life, that it took being raped for her to get a date with a boy she liked? A boy who probably was already in love with someone else?

'I'll take it though. Yes. Even if it's for one day, and I have to give him back to Shoko-san tomorrow. I'll always have this.'

'I should enjoy it while it lasts.'

"Haruto."

Haruto snapped to attention. "Yes?"

Saki smiled at him. "After you finish your tea, let's get something to eat."

Rukino-san's demeanor had changed completely since leaving the bar. The surly and grumpy side of her from earlier was gone, replaced by quips and laughter as she dragged him all around the town.

She was so hard to understand. So tempestuous. The anger from before he got; what girl wouldn't be angry after what he did to her? But this happiness? In any event he'd realized she didn't want to talk about what had happened, and so he kept his mouth shut on his proposal after her third rebuke.

But as Haruto followed in her wake, something strange and wonderful was happening to him. The ball of guilt and remorse in his belly slowly smoothed out, his conscience eased by her smiles.

He couldn't wholly shake the idea that she was just pretending to be happy, and he hoped if she was pretending, it wasn't for his sake. But she didn't seem to be faking... although it was so hard to tell with her.

The atmosphere had changed completely as well, to something almost like... a date? Not that he would know. He'd only been on one in his life, back in middle school with that girl whose name he couldn't recall at the moment. And that had been really awkward.

Really, really awkward.

'An idol like Rukino-san is probably an old pro at dating.'

Since that was the case, he was glad she was running the show.

"Ahhh..." Rukino-san had stopped in front of a fountain in the middle of an intersection. She peered down the street in all four directions, and then turned towards him with a huge smile, her eyes sparkling.

"I've always wanted to do this!" She laughed. Taking off her boots and socks, Rukino-san stepped into the fountain's shallow pool. The fountain was one of those affairs with a spinning curtain of water that rotated around the pool's circumference, and as the moving screen of water approached her, Rukino-san began to spin and dance, staying just in front of the advancing water.

Haruto watched her, his mouth agape. Droplets of water gleamed in Rukino-san's dark hair as it swirled and rippled in time with her movements, framing her exuberent face. Her slender body moved with supple grace as she whirled through the water, her bare ankles cutting smooth wakes through the liquid in the pool. She was so beautiful that his heart contracted and seemed to skip a beat.

Was this the idol that everyone else saw? Although he had never really been interested in her music videos or shows before, he was filled with a sudden urge to go and buy every bit of her work he could get his hands on. But before he could think too much about that, Rukino-san shouted at him from the far side of the fountain.

"Haruto! Lose your shoes! Lose your shoes!"

'Ah, she wants me to...'

Haruto stepped out of his shoes and socks just in time before Rukino-san swept back around the fountain, laughing happily and pulling him into the pool with an outstretched hand. He hadn't taken two steps in the shallow water when he realized two things:

One: The bottom of the pool was ALOT slipperier than it looked. Two: Rukino-san must have been cheating somehow, because there was no way a normal person could do that spinning dance number with this kind of footing.

For the second time in a day, Haruto's foot skidded out from under him, and down he went on his butt in the water, kicking up a splash that drenched him from the waist down. Rukino-san stopped in her tracks to laugh at him, but a moment later the moving curtain of water from the fountain swept over her, and she let out a loud and dismayed "KYAAA!" as she jumped out of the pool.

The two grinned at each other, somewhat soggy. This time, Rukino-san helped Haruto to his feet.

Saki hadn't planned it, but seeing the pharmacy made her realize there was something she had to do.

As she came to a halt, Haruto nearly walked into her from behind.

"Wah! Rukino-san! I'm sor-

"It's fine. Haruto, I need to stop in here for a moment. Could you..." She scanned the street for some errand she could distract him with. "Oh! Haruto, look! There's a crepe cart over there!"

And indeed there was. On the other side of the street there sat a common crepe cart, the kind that cooked crepes on an electric griddle with a filling to order. This one looked in good condition, untouched by the fighting that had damaged so many buildings in the heart of the city.

"Do you think you could get it running and make some crepes for us, Haruto?"

"I could, but... what is it you need to get in there, Rukino-san? I could help you carry-"

So it was going to be like that, was it? Not that she didn't appreciate him offering to help, but she did not want him coming into the pharmacy with her.

"Thanks, Haruto, but it's just... a little thing, you know..."

"It's alright, even if it's little, I want to help-"

'You're too nice for your own good, Haruto.' She turned her face slightly away from him, and gave him her best shy look from under her eyelashes. "It's... you know... for feminine hygiene... don't make me say it, Haruto-kun..." She flicked her gaze to him, then to the ground as if embarrassed.

Saki had to hold back a laugh as Haruto's face turned bright red. 'Oh, Haruto. I can't help teasing you. You're just too cute!'

"Yes, well, I'll-I'll go get those crepes done!"

And before she could even blink, Haruto was halfway across the street.

'You're such an innocent boy, aren't you, Haruto?'

It was his most endearing quality, really. Saki found herself smiling ruefully. One moment he could be standing up to the teeth of the Dorssian Navy, and the next, he was a blushing boy, embarrassed at the thought of a girl doing personal shopping.

'But there's no time to dwell on that now, is there?'

Her smile fading, Saki walked through the pharmacy door.

Inside, she quickly strode across the dusty floor, her footfalls echoing in the deserted building. The feminine hygiene aisle lay to her left, filled with rows of tampons, pads, and other such products, but she walked past it. The truth was, her dorm room was well-stocked with such things, and if she needed more she'd simply stop by the school infirmary.

No, she was here for something else entirely.

Making her way to the back of the store, she stopped before a shelf of pills. She swept her gaze across them carefully, then picked up a package.

'So that's what 'morning after' pills look like... just your everyday normal medicinal tablets.'

There was no way she could risk a pregnancy. Not with the war on. Not with hundreds of her fellow students depending on her to fight in peak condition. And if she did get pregnant, how could she justify bringing her unborn baby out with her to the battlefield?

She quickly looked over the instructions on the package, ripped it open, and dry-swallowed one of the pills. She was about to walk away with her prize when she had second thoughts. Grabbing a bag from a nearby rack, she filled it with packages of contraceptives. It never hurt to be prepared.

Haruto had managed to get the griddle going by the time Rukino-san emerged from the pharmacy.

The good news: the griddle was linked to the module's main power system through a port in the ground, and all he had to do was flip a switch to turn it on.

The other good news: there were a dozen plastic bags of crepe mix in the crepe cart. And they were the instant, just add water variety too!

Yet more good news: there was a mixing bowl handy, and with some water from a tap in the cart he'd managed to make a good-sized batch of batter.

The bad news: the 'fresh' fruit toppings on the cart had been sitting around since the war started and had long since gone to mold and slime.

The good news that made up for the bad news: there were bottles of syrups of all flavors, candy toppings, and dehydrated 'marshmallows,' all chock full of preservatives and ready to last into the next decade, if necessary.

The bad news that may have made all the previous good news irrelevant: Haruto had no idea how to make a crepe.

He ladled a good-sized dollop of batter onto the heated griddle, where it immediately began to sizzle and spread out.

Rukino-san set down the plastic bag she was holding behind the cart and came over to watch. "Haruto, you know how to make crepes?"

Haruto grimaced. "Not... quite. But I can make pancakes. How hard could it be to make a crepe?" 'Shoko probably knows how to make crepes. I'll have to get her to teach me sometime.'

"Hmm," said Rukino-san.

Bubbles were starting to form around the edges of the sizzling batter.

'Let's see. If it was a pancake, it would be time to flip. But this is not a pancake. So I have to spread it out. Spatula.'

Haruto scraped away the top of the crepe with a spatula, pushing the raw batter to the sides. Immediately he could see that he had done something wrong. The batter on the bottom of the crepe was already cooked, so by the time the newly formed edges were done, the bottom of the middle would be blackened.

"Hmm," said Rukino-san again.

'Okay, the edges aren't raw enough to flip, but I need to flip or else the bottom will burn. So if I cut out the middle bit...'

Haruto used his spatula to cut around the cooked central part of the crepe. He lifted it clear of the outer ring and flipped it over. The thusly revealed underside looked... well, rather like a pancake.

"That's a donut." Rukino-san pointed out.

"Donuts are round."

"That's round."

"Round like... a disk. With depth. This is flat." Haruto resolved to look up what a flattened cylinder thing was called.

"Donuts have a hole in em."

"Lots of things have holes in em."

"Mmph." Rukino-san said.

Having silenced Rukino-san with his impeccable logic, Haruto turned his attention back to the crepes.

'That middle bit looks about done. So... let's get it out.'

Haruto dribbled some strawberry-flavored syrup onto the middle section of the crepe, then slid his spatula under it and moved it to a waiting platter.

'And now the outside part needs flipping.'

This operation went a little less successfully. As Haruto lifted the ring of half-cooked dough onto his spatula, it tore under its own weight and slid back onto the griddle in a tangled mess.

"You broke it." Rukino-san said.

"It's lots of little crepes." Haruto started slicing the ring apart into more managable chunks with the edge of his spatula.

"I like big crepes."

"Well, these little ones are for me." Haruto scooped the bits of cooked dough onto the platter.

"Suit yourself."

The griddle cleared, Haruto dipped his ladle back into the bowl of batter, when Rukino-san extended a slender hand towards him.

"I want a turn."

"Eh? You can make crepes, Rukino-san?"

"Better than you."

Shrugging, Haruto handed over bowl and ladle, and prepared to see himself get shown up by Rukino-san yet again.

As it turned out shortly thereafter, Rukino-san was no better than him at making crepes.

Haruto peered at the twisted... thing on the griddle. "Is that a lemon?"

Rukino-san waved her hand at him impatiently. "It's a bat. It's abstract, okay?"

As the batter in the mixing bowl got lower and lower, a tower of cooked dough pieces rose up in the platter. But not one of them could rightfully be called a crepe. They were strange asymmetrical shapes, many with torn edges. Some approximated a circle, while others were clumped tangles of dough that couldn't even lie flat.

And of course, none of them was close to thin enough for a crepe.

Haruto was transferring his latest failure from griddle to platter when Rukino-san started to laugh. He had to admit she made an enchanting sight, her beautiful face shining with mirth. A smudge of white batter on one round cheek gave her an innocent, childlike look, as if she were a little girl helping out in the kitchen.

"Oh... look at us, Haruto..." She giggled. "We can pilot giant robots and hold our own against the best and bravest of the Dorssian military... and we can't figure out how to make a crepe?"

Her laughter was infectious, and Haruto had to laugh as well. "I guess being a crepe chef is where the real men go. We should tell L-Elf to quit his day job." He showed the empty bowl of batter to Rukino-san. "I guess we're done here?"

Still laughing, the two teens settled on a nearby bench to eat their misshapen creations.

"Ugh... no more..." Saki groaned as she slid another forkful of crepe between her lips.

Beside her, Haruto let out a belch. "I'm done for..."

Saki eyed the platter between them. The heaping tower of crepes was down to a mere three. Problem was, her stomach was full as it would go. "Yeah... I think I'm done. For real now."

Haruto put his fork down on his plate with great finality. "Same here." He thumped his chest to get his last mouthful down the pipes. It seemed to have worked for Shoko during their eating contest.

Saki was eyeing the crepe platter again. "You know." She said slowly. "We shouldn't waste food these days. Once what's in the module is gone, we can't get any more until the Moon."

Haruto sighed. "Okay, so let's bag em and eat em later."

"No no," Saki shook her head. "You have to eat street crepes hot off the griddle. If you don't they won't be crisp anymore and it'll be a terrible waste!"

"They weren't crisp to begin with! Look, they're basically a pancake..."

"If they came from a crepe cart, they're a crepe! Anyways, you eat them, Haruto!"

"Whaaaat?" Haruto objected. "Why me?"

"An idol has to watch her figure." Saki tossed her head haughtily.

"But you already ate like ten, Rukino-san!. Come on, a few more won't hurt."

"Ten is where this idol draws the line."

"I don't follow your reasoning."

Saki flopped back on the bench, dramatically pointing up towards the dome of the module with one hand. "GO FORTH, YOUNG HARUTO!" She cried in a booming voice. "THIS SHALL BE TRAINING FOR YOUR NEXT EATING CONTEST! OR WILL YOU LET YOUR HAM N' EGG BREAKFAST BE SLICED IN TWAIN?"

"That doesn't even make- Fine, fine, I'll eat em." Haruto reluctantly picked up his fork again. He conjured up the mental image of Shoko, broom in hand. 'Tell me I have no drive, will you?' He rolled up two of the crepes into a ball of dough, jabbed it with his fork, and jammed it into his mouth.

Saki found herself smiling fondly as she watched Haruto eat. His face was bright red and bits of crepe sprayed out between his teeth as he chewed vigoriously. In no way could he be considered handsome at the moment, or even cute. In fact his eating was downright gross. But somehow she couldn't look away.

'Ah, what the heck, right?'

She slid the last crepe from the platter onto her plate.

Haruto swallowed his mouthful and seemed surprised to see her slowly munching the last crepe. "I thought I was supposed to eat those."

"I changed my mind."

"Mmm-hmm."

Saki finished off the crepe, then stretched languidly. The 'daylight' of the module had mostly dried her soggy clothes, and now that her belly had gone from empty to overly full, she wanted nothing more than to rest. "Haruto, I wanna lie down. Gimmie your shoulder, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she scootched up next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

She felt his body tense underneath her, and then relax. Gradually, gradually, his breathing slowed, and his body slumped.

'So he's nodded off. Good, he needs the rest.'

Saki closed her eyes, but couldn't go to sleep. After a few moments, she sat up and looked at the dozing Haruto.

Even sleep, it seemed, couldn't ease Haruto's cares. His brow was furrowed ever so slightly, and he looked so young and fragile that it made her heart ache. To think that the safety of an entire country of people rested on his shoulders. Seeing him like this, she never would have guessed he was her upperclassman.

There was so much she wanted to tell him. How he wasn't the monster that he seemed to think he was. No one short of a genuine saint could have reacted so unselfishly to her joyriding in his body for her own personal gains. That he was himself, Haruto. separate from the things that the curse made him do.

That she felt the same pain he did. The same loneliness.

That together they could both be whole.

But whenever she tried to open her mouth and tried to put those feelings into words, they just caught in her throat.

The really ironic thing was that she had spoken those words before. Hundreds of thousands of people had heard her say them, but those words had not been meant for them. And now to the one person whom she wanted the most desperately to tell them to, she remain tongue-tied.

'That's so pathetic, I could just laugh.'

But there was a solution, wasn't there? If she couldn't say those words, she could just let... herself say them.

'But will he understand?'

Even if he didn't, at least she had to try.

She'd let him sleep a little more first, though.

"Say, Haruto..."

"Wha?" Haruto blinked awake. At some point he must have dozed off. "How long was I asleep?"

Rukino-san checked her phone. "It's 15:22."

The sight of Rukino-san looking down at her phone couldn't have woken Haruto up any faster than if he'd had cold water thrown in his face. Somehow while having fun with her, he'd completely forgotten why he'd asked her to meet him in the first place. He shot to his feet, causing Rukino-san to flinch back with a choked gasp.

"Rukino-san! I want to-" Haruto was cut off suddenly by Rukino-san's index finger, pressed lightly against his lips.

'Her finger is so soft...'

"This will be the last one. So please..." Rukino-san whispered.

Her purple eyes brimmed with determination and some emotion he couldn't identify.

What could he do but nod?

"Thank you, Haruto."

Rukino-san led him to a movie theater. Traditional end to a date, he supposed. After stuffing themselves on pancakes, neither of them was in much of a mood for snacks, so Haruto sat down in a seat while she went up to fiddle around in the projection booth.

After a while, the screen came to life and started showing a line-up of studio logos. Rukino-san came down the aisle and plopped into the seat next to him. "Good thing I could plug my cell into the projector system. I had to pirate this off the internet."

"Rukino-san, that's illegal!"

"Hmph! If anyone is entitled to watching this movie for free, it should be me!"

"But you can't just-"

"Shhhh! It's starting!"

The screen was showing the intro credits now. A girl in a blue sailor uniform was putting together a box lunch as light instrumental music played. The camera focused on the girl's delicate hands as they deftly chopped up vegetables, tossed them in a pan with rice, and finally packed the cooked food into a plastic box.

And then the camera panned to show the girl's face. Haruto couldn't help but do a double take.

'Rukino-san?'

A younger Rukino-san beamed happily at him from the screen. He snuck a surreptitious glance at the Rukino-san sitting beside him. She was watching the screen, a wistful look on her face.

'She wants to reminisce about the old days?'

He couldn't blame her. The Rukino-san on the screen... what, she must have been thirteen or so? She looked so cheery as she went about her business. He remembered once again her blank gaze from the night before, after what he'd done.

'I was the one who took that away from her,' he thought remorsefully.

Taking a cue from Rukino-san, he watched in silence.

After about an hour, Haruto was thinking he didn't like this movie very much.

'If Rukino-san wants to watch this, then I should watch it with her. But I swear if we do this again, I'm not letting her pick the movie.'

No matter how he sliced it, Rukino-san's movie wasn't very good. For one thing, it was a romantic drama. Hardly the kind of thing he was interested in. Then too, the plot was too cliche for his taste. It was your standard girl meets boy, girl pines for boy, girl gets boy kind of affair.

And while it took him a while to get to it, Haruto had to admit something.

The young Rukino-san simply wasn't a very good actress. While she certainly was very cute and photogenic with her big eyes, round cheeks, and gleaming smile, there was something just a little off about how she delivered her lines. It was clear that she was just reciting from a script.

Not that he'd ever tell her that, of course.

She'd gotten alot better since whenever she made this movie though. Judging from the lies she'd told him about her family, she'd grown leaps and bounds as an actress. Or at least, Haruto thought, if those had been lies. It was hard to tell when Rukino-san had actually been lying or telling the truth.

'Agh, why does she have to be so complicated? Why can't she be more direct, like Shoko?'

First she was spurning him. And then she was kissing him. And then she was crying in front of him. And then she was hijacking his body.

After he'd attacked her, when she had every right to be angry at him, to hate him and resent him, she instead treated him with warmth and genuinely seemed to want to spend time with him. Why? What did she want from him?

'Oh, it looks like the confession scene is coming up.'

On the screen, the younger Rukino-san was standing in a grove of cherry trees, their petals wafting across the shot by the hundreds. Haruto liked cherry blossoms as much as the next JIORan, but this was just a little gratuituous, wasn't it?

"I've always been alone."

It took Haruto a moment to process that it was the Rukino-san sitting by his side that spoke those words.

"Family? Friends? No one chose me."

Her words came detachedly, almost tonelessly. As if she were talking about someone else.

"But you have been chosen. You're a popular idol! You even starred in movies!" Haruto objected.

Rukino-san didn't seem to hear him. Her lovely face was still and blank as she stared at the screen. "I wanted to be chosen. By just one person. If my loneliness became our loneliness, that would've been enough for me."

"Rukino-san, do you mean..." Haruto was at a loss. What should he say?

"I've always been alone."

'Huh?'

With a feeling of deja vu, Haruto swung back to look at the movie screen. There, the younger Rukino-san was making her confession.

"Family? Friends? No one chose me."

Gone was the stilted and wooden line reading from before. Her voice had been completely transformed; the delicate tones were full of sadness. Loneliness. Longing.

"I wanted to be chosen. By just one person."

The on-screen Rukino-san was speaking from her soul. It was as if her voice was filled to brimming with all of the emotion that should have been in the voice of the Rukino-san in the theater. Haruto looked back at the girl in the seat beside him. Her face was turned toward him, and in her violet gaze was a pain and yearning so deep it cut into his heart.

"If my loneliness became our loneliness, that would've been enough for me."

Abruptly, Rukino-san broke eye contact with him. Laughing, she swept to her feet. "I'm amazing, huh? I did this movie two years ago, but I still remember my lines! I was quite the talented actress, If I dare say so myself!" She suddenly spun away from him, hiding her face behind her hair.

"You're wrong!" Haruto flung himself to his feet. Rukino-san's back flinched, and she turned back to face him.

"Rukino-san, you're not alone anymore." Haruto's prepared speech flashed through his head. He considered his words, the carefully selected phrases he'd thought of through the night... and then threw them out.

He understood now what she wanted from him. It had always been so simple. He was a fool to have not understood.

"You're wrong!"

Saki shuddered at the raw emotion in Haruto's words. For a brief moment, she thought about dissembling again. Of making a joke about how she was a good actress, and how dare he imply otherwise. But as she turned to deliver the quip, the look on his face froze her words in her throat.

Haruto's face was fixed stonily, his eyebrows furrowed, his mouth taut. He had the same look from when he was confronting Renbokoji before the Valvraves. His stubborn look.

So here it was then, the apology. It could be delayed no more. She struggled to frame a response for the words she knew were coming. Should she accept it, even though what happened wasn't actually his fault? Would that help? Or should she refuse to accept it, and tell him the truth, that she didn't hold him responsible? Which would better grant him the absolution he was looking for?

"Rukino-san, you're not alone anymore." In the theater walkway, Haruto sank to one knee before her.

'Wait, what?'

"I choose you. Will you marry me?"

His words quite literally knocked the breath out of her.

Saki's lungs emptied in a wordless exhale as a flurry of emotions she didn't quite understand why she should feel rushed through her. Grief, remorse, guilt. And then on their heels came happiness. A bright simple joy that rushed to her head and left her giddy. For a moment she thought she would swoon.

Between them, unheard, the soundtrack of the movie swelled to a cresendo. Haruto was still staring at her, determination shining in his blue eyes.

"Haruto. I..." Saki heard herself say. "Yes."

They stared at each other for a long moment, each unsure what to say. Saki was the first to unfreeze, and was taking a step towards Haruto when-

BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

'Oh, not now, NOT NOW!'

"Damn it, you fucking Dorssians!" She screamed in frustration as Haruto jumped to his feet.

"Enemy forces detected! All personnel to battle stations at once!" Kitagawa-san's voice, slightly panicky, boomed out over the PA system.

Saki reached out and grabbed onto Haruto's hand, their fingers interlacing as they began to run for the fire exit in the back of the theater. "Just like those Dorssians. No respect for other peoples' personal time," she grumbled.

"Nope. No respect at all." Haruto agreed.

Chapter 1 End

A/N: First, I gotta thank xchrispx for beta reading and letting me bounce ideas off him.

And also I gotta thank him for endorsing my fic (before it was even written, no less!) in hiso wn Haruto x Saki fic, The Gift of a Curse, which is an awesome fic and you should totally go check it out (if you haven't already). You can find it at s/9513217/

I think there's two reasons why I'm doing this fic.

First, while a story about a tragic hero who dies in the final battle (and you know he's gonna.) while he sows the seeds for a great empire and a tragic heroine who carries on upholding their promise to each other centuries later has a great bittersweet taste to it, it can't satisfy my appetite for a happy ending.

Second, I want to... let's say, 'fix' a number of elements I regard as problematic in the 2nd season of the show. What I heard, and this is totally unsubstantiated, is that the series originally got slated for 2 seasons, but the writers assumed they would get a 3rd season, and planned their plot around having 36 episodes. But because the series was not all that popular (for whatever reason) they never got their 3rd season and had to cut down alot of what they wanted to do. And that's why there's so much weirdness in season 2.

So this fic will be about Haruto and Saki (like it says on the tin), and will also introduce a new plotline in place of season 2, eventually going forward into new territory beyond that. And I am planning on it having a happy ending.

But as the beginning of the chapter indicated, this will get DARK. So fair warning. I'm hoping to not cross the line into actual angst, though.

One last thing: none of the flashforwards seen in Season 1 are considered as canonical in this fic. Nothing seen in Season 2 past the time skip in episode 1 is necessarily canonical either. For all we know, Marie could just be a normal girl, Lord Satomi can wind up dead, and Papa Tokishima is lying on a beach somewhere sipping a fruity beverage and combing oil into his fabulous mustache.

Hope you enjoyed reading and here's to seeing you in the next chapter!

Updates on story progress can be found in my profile!