"Tenshi-kun, wake up. Please, Tenshi!"
Tenshi's eyes fluttered open to the heavenly sight of her love. "Hey there, beautiful," she greeted her drowsily.
Neko's cheeks began to redden. "Tenshi-kun, daijoubu ka?"
Tenshi's sleepy smile turned into a frown at Neko's use of an honorific. She sat up and tried to get her bearings. That's right, they were on a quest for Neko's memories. Her fianc�e didn't even remember that they were in love.
She put a hand to her head, which hurt� a lot. She must have hit it hard when she hit the mountainside. "I'm fine, Koneko. How about you?"
She didn't even know what was happening before Neko was suddenly squeezing her so tight she was going to need oxygen. "He said you gave up your life, and even after the kami abandoned your body, you still were out, and I thought you were going to die."
Tenshi decided she had missed a step. She had no idea who or what Neko was talking about. But it seemed they were safe, and her natural instinct was to set Neko's mind at ease first and find out what happened later. "Shh, it's okay."
"Please don't leave me again, Tenshi-kun."
Tenshi's heart cried out for her. She fought to find a response that wasn't romantic, but had difficulty. Finally, she settled on, "I'll always be here for you, Koneko."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Stop gawking at them," Mi-chan told Jasper hostilely, smacking him in the head. "If you're gonna do this, do it right. I don't want you accidentally unhealing me or something."
"Sorry," he said, concentrating on her arm again. He finished and turned to go.
"Hey!" She grabbed his wrist. "I just want you to know, I still hate you," she told him evenly. He nodded. He hadn't really expected that to change. But her next words did surprise him. "Demo�" she looked away, "thanks."
Between them, a red light began to glow. They both jumped back. But Mi-chan almost immediately reacted by reaching for it. As her hands touched it, the light turned into a blood red stone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Neko was so happy that everything had turned out okay so far. She clung onto Tenshi's arm as they went to see the reflecting pool, unwilling to let her go for fear that something would happen to her again.
Tenshi led her down to the pool, her goal before the mountain kami had made so much trouble. "It's so pretty," Neko said.
"Anything that's going to get you your memories back is beautiful to me," Tenshi said smiling.
Neko was going to say more, but she was interrupted by Mi-chan's voice. "Ne, Neko-chan! Tenshi-kun! We got it!"
They turned to look at Mi-chan, who was running to them, a red stone in her arms.
Only one more stone to go! Neko looked up at Tenshi. "We're almost there!" she said excitedly.
But Tenshi's excitement outshone hers. "That's great!" she exclaimed as she lifted Neko off the ground and spun around.
"Tenshi-kun!" Neko squealed.
"You're going to get your memories back!" Tenshi exclaimed. She put Neko down and hugged her almost as tightly as Neko had been hugging her a few minutes ago. "We're so close," she said happily.
Neko hugged her back, equally happy that their goal was near. Her heart was beating fast. She was a little scared, but mostly just excited. Tenshi's was beating fast too. Was she sharing Neko's feelings? Neko started to ask, but then thought better of it. She'd rather just let Tenshi hug her a while longer.
"Hey, what are we going to do now that we found the pool?" Jasper asked as he joined them.
Tenshi sighed and released Neko at the interruption. Neko looked back and forth between her friends. Mi-chan was glaring at Jasper for some reason.
Jasper noticed it too. "What?!" he asked indignantly. He looked to Neko who shrugged.
She had hoped that now Mi-chan and Jasper could get along. So much for that.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Since nobody knew what they were supposed to do now, and it was going to get dark soon, they decided to get some rest. Except none of them were really tired.
Tenshi hadn't left Neko's side since they arrived at the pool. As Mi-chan and Jasper busied themselves with other things, she stayed close to Neko.
Neko was staring into the reflecting pool. She bent down and studied her reflection. "When I have my memories back, will it seem less strange that I look just like Mi-chan?"
"Uh, I don't know," Tenshi told her truthfully. "I never asked you if you got used to it."
"Oh!" Neko jumped back, startled by something in the water, and then bent down again. "There are fish in here."
Tenshi looked into the pool. "Koi," she observed.
"Koi? That's such a funny name for a fish. It's like 'love.' Koi. Ko-i. Koishiteru," she played around with the name. It was so cute, Tenshi thought. It made her seem so innocent, almost like she was a little kid. Except, she was still so much the same as before too.
"Ne, Tenshi-kun?" As Neko stood up, Tenshi realized she'd been staring at her a bit. Luckily, Neko hadn't noticed. Embarrassed to almost be caught staring, Tenshi tried to avoid looking at her now. "Can I ask you something?" Tenshi stared at the pool, but Neko was still trying to get her attention. "Tenshi-kun?" As that wasn't working, she looked back at Neko's face.
"Hai, Koneko."
"I think Mi-chan really wanted Jian-wa-kun to come on this quest. Why didn't you want him to come?"
"Oh," that wasn't too difficult of a question. "He loves you a lot, Koneko, but he loves Mi-chan even more. I didn't want him to be forced into a decision between the two of you."
"Jasper-kun fought really hard to keep Mi-chan from dying. But� I think that Jasper-kun would help me over Mi-chan if the choice came up," Neko said thoughtfully. "I'm glad he had a reason to save her."
"Me too," Tenshi agreed.
"Do you like me better than Mi-chan then?"
She asked it so simply, as if it was inconceivable to her. Well, afterall, Tenshi mused, she had no idea what the extent of their relationship was, and Tenshi and Mi-chan did tend to get along pretty well most of the time. Certainly better than Mi-chan and Jasper. And since she had no other experiences�. "Koneko, your sister is great, but I'm here for you. You are the one I'm close to, not Mi-chan. I'm just friends with her because of you."
"Why?" she asked. She stepped closer, her eyes trained intently on Tenshi's face, as if searching for the answer there. "Why is it so important to you that I get my memories back? Jasper-kun's here out of some obligation he feels for me, and Mi-chan's here because she's my twin. Why are you here?"
"Because�." She put her hands on Neko's shoulders. "Because there is no one more important to me than you. Because I really would give my life to have you remember that. I-" She stopped. *Tenshi, Tenshi, Tenshi. You know better!*
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