For You
When Zero opened his eyes, the familiar rainbow halo greeted his sight. His usually stoic face twisted in confusion as he glanced down, finding the evanescent form of Cyber Elf X resting on top of him, head on his chest and holding him close. Yet Zero registered no weight, no warmth…
"X," Zero muttered, and the Cyber Elf started, jerking himself up.
"Y-you're awake…" X mumbled, consciously straightening his helmet. "Sorry… I…"
"So even Cyber Elves feel fatigue?" Zero asked curiously. X smiled nervously, his shimmering hands dropping from his helmet.
"No," X replied, "but we can be overwhelmed by emotion."
"Emotion?" Zero pushed himself up out of the pod, staring at X when the Cyber Elf vanished and re-materialized at the side. "What emotion is overwhelming you?"
"I am mourning," X replied sincerely, "for all this fighting. This… this nonsensical war that should have never started."
Zero never felt much sympathy for people, not even Ciel, yet something familiar tugged at him when X looked down so forlornly. This was something between them that had happened before. "You can't blame yourself."
X chuckled, but it was a cold, emotionless sound. To Zero, something about it made him feel chilly. "I know, Z."
'Z'. X never shortened his name in all the time since he'd woken up, and although he would have snapped at anyone else… Zero liked it when X did it. It was familiar, it was right.
Before he knew what he was doing, impulse and body-remembrance made Zero reach out and gently grasp X's hand. Although the hand seemed solid-feeling, his fingers wrapped around something, Zero did not feel the expectant warmth.
Still, he gripped the Cyber Elf's hand, and when X looked at him with those wide, shining eyes… Zero smiled.
"I don't remember you… or anything…" Zero glanced away, the smile gone as quickly as it had come, "but it feels right to say this… if you need anything, to say anything… if you need me, X, I will do whatever I can for you."
"For me?"
The way he said it was incredibly cute, and Zero looked at him again.
"For you." Words tumbled out of his mouth, words he's said before, years ago. It made Zero mentally gasp at the torrent of memories and feelings. "Only you, X."
Shimmering, almost invisible tears came to X's beautiful eyes, and it took all of Zero's willpower to stop his body's almost instinctive impulse to kiss them away. X sat on the pod near Zero and slowly embraced him.
"I miss you, Zero," X whispered.
Zero awkwardly put his arms around the Cyber Elf, almost whining when still he felt no warm body, no comforting weight. "I'm right here…"
"I miss us." X closed his eyes, and Zero tightened his hold.
"We're right here," Zero affirmed. X looked up at him, opening his eyes. "And we're not going to get pulled apart again. I know I'm forgetting something, something important… but I'll remember. For you."
"For me…" X sighed, but he finally smiled.