A Month Of Kaider

Twenty Nine: Everyone Fights

A/N: Warning: some violence.

Cinder breathes.

Breath is such a fickle thing, sometimes filling you with the cool ability to function but sometimes leaving you so sequestered that you forget it even exists at all.

Most people don't pay attention to their breathing, taking it for granted, but it's hard not to notice when it's being slowly lured away from you.

But Cinder is paying attention because she wants to evict the ghost of liquid filling her mouth and taking over the territory of air.

So Cinder breathes.

For a long time, she doesn't question how she can breathe, she just shuts her eyes and lets herself take in the air she'd been so desperate for not so long ago.

Eventually, she realises that she can't spend so long focusing on her breath and simply ignore the fact that she's breathing in the first place.

"I'm breathing," she breathes.

"I know."

She blinks, trying to understand why she recognises the voice.

"Cinder?"

Now she knows why she'd recognised the voice. Even when barely aware of her surroundings, how can she not recognise the voice she'd come to lean on?

She doesn't respond, unsure of whether or not her vocal chords will let her form a proper sentence that makes any kind of sense, instead opting to throw herself forwards so she can wrap her arms around the boy in front of her.

He yelps, barely managing not to topple over and fall.

"I'm still breathing," she repeats.

"I thought we'd already established that."

Despite the fact that she can practically still feel the water surging though her lungs, she laughs.

She pulls away so that she can see him, keeping both her hands on the back of his head and watching the flecks of gold sparkle like newly formed stars in his warm copper eyes.

"Hey," he murmurs.

She's never been so glad to hear someone talking; she can't help but appreciate the english language and the way it can act as a comfort in flawless way the letters flow and how soothing it is to hear when someone's talking in a hushed whisper to try and make you smile.

"Kai..."

In answer, he kisses her nose softly.

She giggles, then gasps, "What happened?"

"You almost died." Kai looks away from her as he says it, as if wanting to hide his pain from her.

She gently pushes his head back so that he's facing her again. "I love you."

"I love you," Kai echoes back.

But it's more than an echo. Where an echo is hollow, empty, merely a mindless repetition, Kai's words are full of meaning care, and, despite being identical to hers, the individual affection that he feels towards her.

"What happened?"

"You've already asked me that."

"I don't understand, you were getting married..." Cinder trails off as she sees Kai wince.

She doesn't get a chance to ask him anything because a woman comes in and says something to Kai in a language she doesn't understand. He replies and the two of them start a conversation, glancing at her every now and then before the woman nods, apparently satisfied.