A little more than friends

Description: Kuro never knew how much his smile meant to him, until he couldn't see it anymore. He had no idea what true guilt felt like until then, Mahiru hadn't been the same. He was pushing himself too far. Was it really all his fault? Could he do something to help his partner?

No words left his lips as he stared with a horrified expression, blood covered his pale hands. He wanted to scream but no sound came out, only a small helpless plea, "...M-Mahiru..." his eve and partner, the reason he was able to overcome his regret and the reason he wakes up almost looking forward to the day lay in front of him. Not on a carpeted floor or couch but on the cold hard ground with a large red sword impaled through his heart. Mahiru used all the energy left in his body to give Kuro one last smile, his face was bloodied and bruised yet he was able to smile at Kuro even if it was weak. Kuro could only watch as the life left his eyes and his body fell limp.

"MAHIRU!"

Kuro jolted awake, sweat rolling down his face. It was another nightmare. His eyes were drawn to Mahiru's door opening with a tired and confused Mahiru exiting. He looked at Kuro with a worried expression and slowly walked over, he must have heard Kuro screaming. He knew why Mahiru was going so slow and steady and he hated it, he hated himself for it.

Seeing the bruises lining Mahiru's legs and arms made the memories of the fight flood back to him, Tsubaki was practically throwing him around like a doll and Kuro could only watch in horror, he was powerless. He had never felt so weak and useless, the one thing that mattered to him more than sleep and ramen was screaming as he was thrown against the wall over and over and he couldn't do anything. Mahiru was his eve, so wasn't he meant to protect him? Why couldn't he complete the simplest task of protecting his own partner. The worst part was, Mahiru acted like he was fine.

Kuro was shaken from his thoughts when Mahiru sat next to him

"Hey Kuro.... Are you okay?" Kuro said nothing, there was nothing to say. It was obvious.

"It was those nightmares again wasn't it..."

Silence, Mahiru didn't need to ask, he knew it was. Kuro never talked about what happened in them, Mahiru could only guess it was something terrible, horrible enough to shake Kuro up this much. Mahiru had never seen him so anxious and scared. Mahiru gave Kuro a small pat on the head, it was a small gesture but it made him feel a whole lot better. Mahiru was still there, he was still alive and breathing. It was only a dream.

Mahiru told him everything was going to be okay and went back to his room, to be fair it was 3am in the morning. Kuro couldn't sleep again that night, he just turned on his ds and with the sound on mute and played until morning when Mahiru came out of his room. Mahiru yawned and walked over to open the curtains, it was clear he didn't have very much energy.

He closed them then turned around only to trip over his own feet, Kuro was in his cat form due to the light, he was lying over the back of the couch and looked over at him with worry. Mahiru got straight back up on his feet and headed for the kitchen dragging his feet.

"I'm fine. What would you like for breakfast Kuro?"

Mahiru asked with a blank expression, Kuro felt a pang in his heart as he thought about it. Mahiru hadn't smiled once since the fight, he wasn't himself. He was clearly lacking energy and was very weak but his personality had dimmed as well, Mahiru grabbed some toast from the bench but dropped them almost instantly. His hands fumbled around as he picked up the bread again in a strange way, Kuro couldn't watch anymore.

He trotted over to the curtains and bit onto them closing them stopping the light from entering, in his human form he externally sighed knowing what he was going to do would create a whole lot of bothersome effort.