A/N: I'm going to place my author's note here, because I don't want to ruin the atmosphere at the end! This is my first time writing a fiction like this, so I can't guarantee anything. I wanted to post this right away too, so I don't have Wookie's input on this fic either -laughs-. Okay, so this fic isn't really meant to be romance, but because of my love of KaZe there is quite a few hints...but anyways, on with the warnings. This was based on a song by Kokia called: Daiji na Mono Wa Mabuta No Ura. I highly suggest listening to that song as you read this or right before to get into the mood. The english translation is also very beautiful, though I looked at one specific translation so I'm not sure if it's the same translation that everyone uses. I hope you all enjoy.

Warning: Character Deaths, War themes, a few curse words- if any. There aren't much.

Edited: Some of you have disabled your PM...so I couldn't reply with an explanation...I'm sorry that it was so confusing! It was meant to be, but I didn't want you guys to remain confused in the end so I added some more things to the ending. Thank you for choosing to read this fiction!

Zero hung over a lifeboat, staring at the sea with no interest. Occasionally, there were small curious fish that came up to the surface to his fingers, but after a few days, even this had gotten old. The bodies around them were beginning to rot, and it stunk. There were several carcasses that bobbed up and down in the water, and a few had suddenly disappeared with a splash of water and a flash of a shark tail fin, but this no longer caught Zero off guard.

A missile from an enemy ship had destroyed their ship, and it had sunk in flames, though it was much more horrifying than what the movies had portrayed. Zero let out a small sigh as he thought about how nothing could accurately portray that moment of chaos. The silverette hadn't seen his friend's bodies anywhere, and by now, he had given up trying to get a small glance at the faces of dead bodies bobbing past them. There was just so many that even words could not describe the number.

He blinked slowly, licking his chapped lips once he noticed that his fingers had accidentally snagged dog tags. He idly turned them over in his hands, searching for the name. Zero read it over and over again, but he couldn't recognize the name at all. He wondered where the man that owned these tags worked on the ship, and after a few moments, let the tags drop into the salt water. They sank to the bottom slowly. He watched as the gleam of the tags disappeared, and soon there was no sign of it being on the surface.

Zero didn't even blink as the lifeboat rocked back and forth due to his companion moving around behind him. The silverette only turned slightly when he noticed that the boat became lighter, and stared at the man with questioning eyes.

The man turned and looked at Zero before sighing, "He died. It's just us now."

"Great," Zero huffed sarcastically, adjusting his legs to a more comfortable position. The man next to him was someone he absolutely detested, but after a few days out at sea, stranded with the brunette, he had found him to be rather civil. He wasn't as bad as he once thought. His name was Kaname Kuran, and the guy was his superior, but that didn't stop Zero from spitting in his face and calling him a jackass, which he was, by the way.

"What are you doing?" Zero glared when Kaname suddenly pulled him away from the edge of the lifeboat.

The brunette met him with an equal glare and wrapped his arms around the younger male tightly, "Don't hang over the edge; there are sharks."

Kaname could have sworn that Zero had mumbled that he wouldn't mind getting eaten alive by sharks now, though he didn't say anything about it. He was feeling the same way. The sun had absolutely no pity, and a dip in the water sounded nice, even if dead bodies and hundreds of sharks currently littered the ocean.

"Can you let go of me now?" Zero asked softly, his tone dripping in complaint, "It's really hot."

"Only if you promise not to hang your hands over the edge of the boat."

"Worried Lieutenant General Kuran?" The lilac-eyed male spat in mock respect, though his expression softened a little bit when the brunette gave him a serious look. "Fine."

Kaname finally let him go, and watched the younger male warily from the corner of his eyes. Once he was certain that Zero was going to listen to his order of not leaning over the lifeboat, he turned to look at the horizon. It looked so far away.

xox

Evening came slowly, and Zero sighed when he realized that another day had gone by that resulted in them not being rescued. He wondered if they were even looking for survivors. He wondered if he'd die out here from dehydration or hypothermia, or even heat stroke. He looked down at his pale, shaking hands before blowing hot air on them, rubbing them together. His eyes slowly found their way to the brunette sitting across of him. The Lieutenant General hadn't taken his eyes off of the horizon line for a while now, and the silverette wondered what Kaname was expecting to see out here.

He highly doubted that they'd be bumping into land soon.

Zero wanted to say something to start a conversation; the silence was absolutely deafening; but he didn't know what to say. What could he say in a situation like this? They had been out here for two, or maybe three whole days already.

He licked his chapped lips, wiping the sweat from his brow as the last ribbons of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon line. He watched as the sky turned completely black and the stars started to appear, one by one. He had never seen so many stars in his life, and was for once grateful that he was in a situation like this, or else he would have never seen such a beautiful sight. Before this all happened, he never really cared to look up at the sky.

Finally, after hours of silence, Zero opened his mouth, his voice slightly raspy, "I never thought that the sun setting…was horrendous until now."

Kaname turned his head towards Zero, and blinked slowly, thinking about the silverette's statement carefully, no matter how random it was. "I agree," he said finally.

Zero continued looking at the night sky and the silence went on. He didn't know how long it was since their last exchange of words, but time hardly mattered anymore, "If stars had the ability, do you think they'd be laughing at us or crying for us?"

"Kuran?" Zero looked towards Kaname in confusion, wondering why he hadn't answered. He scooted closer to him once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, realizing that the brunette's eyes were closed. His heart thumped anxiously, "Are you dead?" He whispered, hoping that he wasn't.

Kaname's eyes opened tiredly, giving Zero a look.

The silverette glared and pouted, "I was just making sure, sorry I ruined your beauty sleep." He gasped in surprise when Kaname pulled him down and looked at the brunette in confusion, lilac eyes demanding an explanation.

"It's cold."

Zero's eyes widened as he saw that Kaname's breath was actually visible; he didn't realize that it was that cold. "Yeah, it is isn't it…"

xox

Kaname dipped a piece of fabric that he had ripped from his uniform into the ocean water, soaking it before he pulled it back up, squeezing the excess out. Zero had gotten a fever that night, and they both suspected it was because they hadn't ingested any liquids since their ship was bombed, which was about four days ago. The lilac-eyed male was terribly dehydrated.

The brunette made his way over to where he had laid Zero down, moving the coat that he had put over Zero's head away so that he could wipe Zero down with the wet fabric. The silverette was almost completely out of it. His face was flushed and although his eyes were open, they were half lidded, and glazed over.

He stripped Zero's clothes off, wiping down his overheating body, and wished that a rescue team would hurry up and find them, preferably now.

"Kuran," Zero mumbled, slurring his words.

Kaname paused his movements, "Yes?"

"It's hot…"

"Yes, I know it is, but try to bear with it," Kaname told him as he leaned over to dip the cloth into the water again, repeating the process.

"It hurts…"

The brunette ran the cloth down Zero's abdomen, and the silverette shivered automatically, "Where?" He asked.

"My throat…and chest…" Zero swallowed his saliva before straining out, "I'm so thirsty."

"I am too, but you can't drink the ocean water." The brunette told him sternly, continuing to wipe Zero down. They both fell into silence, and once Kaname had finished, he put his coat over Zero's head again, almost like a veil, and laid him down next to him.

"Kuran…"

"Yes?"

"Am I going to die?" Zero asked dazedly, subconsciously clutching the fabric of the coat as if it were a lifeline.

"You're not," was Kaname's immediate reply. It came out of his mouth so fast that the brunette's cheeks tinged a bit red in embarrassment, "Don't think about that."

Zero's answer was silence.

xox

As the day went on, even if it was in the late afternoon, Zero had gone ridiculously cold. He had gotten so cold that even Kaname's body heat did nothing to help him warm up. The brunette stripped himself of his jacket and shirt, rendering himself shirtless, trying to not disturb the silverette sleeping on his lap. Kaname sighed and looked all around them. The ocean was eerily still. The bodies were gone, there were no more sharks; there was absolutely nothing. The sky was empty; there were no clouds, and there were no birds. Now, Kaname wished that they could still see the dead bodies, because at least there would be something.

It felt like they were the only ones alive on the earth, and the last. It was an incredibly lonely feeling.

Kaname sighed again, dipping his cloth into the water, but instead of squeezing the excess out back into the ocean, he poured it over Zero's head. The brunette watched as the water ran down silver locks of hair, falling gently down onto the male's flushed face.

Lilac eyes slowly fluttered open, and he turned his head, tilting it slightly so he could look up at the brunette's face. "Kuran?"

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"Yeah," Zero mumbled tiredly, "But that's okay."

Zero started pushing himself up, and once Kaname processed what the silverette was trying to do, he put his hands at the curve of Zero's back, helping him sit up. His hands led Zero to lean against him for support, but just before Zero's head touched his shoulder, Zero suddenly bolted up.

"What?" Kaname exclaimed in surprise, holding both ends of the lifeboat to steady himself.

"Do you see that?" Zero asked, almost excitedly.

The brunette looked in the direction Zero was looking in, but he saw nothing. There was just empty water for miles and miles on. "No, I don't see anything."

"There's a boat!" Zero exclaimed, looking at Kaname, incredulous. It was so obviously there! How could he not see it! Zero pointed, "See? Just there!"

"Kiryu, calm yourself, there's nothing." Kaname told him, holding onto Zero's wrist so that the silverette wouldn't accidentally fall into the water. "You're hallucinating."

"I'm not hallucinating!" Zero snapped insistently, "It's right there! There's a boat! It looks like a fishing boat. There're people Kuran!"

Kaname tightened his grip on Zero's wrist, raising his voice to meet the young Colonel's tone, "Kiryu Zero, you are hallucinating!"

"HEY!" Zero screamed out to the boat he was seeing, trying to catch the attention of the people on the deck, "HELP US! WE'RE OVER HERE!"

"Colonel listen to me!" Kaname hissed, but Zero ignored him as if he weren't there, continuing to try and catch the boat's attention. He continued screaming for a few more minutes before his voice finally gave way, as well as his body. His fever spiked, and he collapsed. Kaname barely managed to catch him before he hit the bottom of the boat.

The brunette looked in the direction Zero was screaming at, staring at it, almost hoping that the boat would appear before his eyes as well; it would at least give him a little hope.

xox

It was evening again, and there was still no signs of them being rescued. Zero had had several more hallucinations as the sun crept closer to the horizon line, and Kaname had some as well. Zero's temperature wouldn't go down, but the silverette would still complain that he was freezing. They were sitting at the end of the boat, Zero sitting between Kaname's legs, head resting on the brunette's shoulders. They were both exhausted, mentally and physically.

"We're never going to make it home are we?" Zero asked rhetorically. His hope had diminished to almost nothing after the events of the day. He had had so many hallucinations, so many false hopes.

Kaname stayed silent, merely watching their breath condensate before disappearing.

"We're going to die out here- alone. No one will know we're dead until they find us rotting-"

The brunette placed his hand on Zero's head, interrupting him, and combed his fingers through the now greasy locks, "Don't say any more."

The silverette didn't, burying his face in the crook of his superior's neck, crying himself silently to sleep.

xox

The next day, Kaname had woken up with a splitting headache, a bloody nose, and blurry vision. He was freezing, though he knew that his temperature was actually spiking off the charts. He groaned and coughed, wiping away the blood from his nose, and forced himself to check on his one and only shipmate.

His vision swam, and he felt like his brain was doing gymnastics in his skull. He bit down a pained groan and forced his eyes open, shaking Zero, "Kiryu, how are you today?"

Zero didn't respond, and the brunette panicked, his heart beating faster and faster. He reached for the silverette's wrist, searching for a pulse. "Kiryu, wake up, please wake up; don't leave me here alone." Kaname whispered desperately.

He put his free hand near Zero's nose and mouth, and set his ear against Zero's chest, trying to hear a heartbeat. He relaxed when he felt Zero breathe on his fingers, and smiled when he heard a faint heart beat. The fact that it was faint worried him a little, but he was more than grateful that it was still beating.

Kaname grabbed the cloth that he had placed on the side, repeating the process of dipping it into the water and wiping the male down. He poured the excess water over Zero's hair, becoming slightly anxious when the male hadn't woken up like he would before.

Still, he didn't try to force the younger male awake. He was ghostly pale despite being underneath the scorching sun for days; he had dark circles under his eyes too, and he was terribly malnourished. Kaname was too, but his condition still wasn't as bad as Zero's was. The brunette tried to not make any unnecessary movements, figuring that Zero needed a lot of rest.

Kaname sighed as a cool breeze brushed past his skin. He looked up at the sky; the clouds were covering most of the blue; it was overcast. Kaname was grateful; it wasn't beautiful, but at least the shadows of the clouds kept them cool. He didn't know when he did, but he dozed off to the gentle rocking of the boat and the caress of the cool breeze. Kaname had woken up when the sun was a little more than halfway across the sky.

He drowsily and lazily opened his eyes, his head throbbing in pain. "Ugh," he groaned and shifted so that he was in a better position. His eyes widened when he realized that the weight of Zero's body wasn't on him anymore, and jolted up quickly, ignoring the protest of his body. "Ki-"

Kaname relaxed somewhat when he saw Zero lying at the other end of the boat, his head resting on the side of the lifeboat. His eyes were half open, glazed over so much that it almost looked like he was blind, and his breathing was very shallow. Kaname crawled over to the male, flinching when he felt Zero's feet. They were so cold. He brushed Zero's bangs away from his eyes.

"Kiryu? Can you hear me?"

Zero nodded weakly and blinked slowly, but his mouth didn't make any attempts to speak.

Kaname swallowed, knowing that Zero was never going to make it, though he didn't want to admit it. "How are you feeling?"

The silverette slid his left hand out towards Kaname, slowly, almost without life. He let out a soft exhale, fanning out his fingers, trying to make the brunette understand that he wanted to hold his hand. Kaname did, and grabbed Zero's hand in a firm, strong, comforting grip.

Zero gave Kaname a weak, small smile as the Lieutenant general rubbed his thumb comfortingly over the back of his hand. He tugged on Kaname's hand, and the older male scooted closer to him. Zero raised his right hand, placing it over Kaname's heart, and the brunette stared at the silverette in confusion, biting his lips.

"Kiryu…"

The lilac-eyed male slowly lowered his right hand before looking up at the sky, watching as the sun sank lower and lower, for the last time. He imprinted every color into his mind, every shape that each cloud had, and the stars that were beginning to appear one-by-one. He loosened his grip on Kaname's hand, smiling a little bit when the brunette tightened his.

"I..'ink…" Zero mumbled softly, his voice slightly raspy, "'m…goin...to…leep…e…rly…t'day…"

Kaname held Zero's hand tighter, brushing Zero's hair away with his free hand before tracing pale, soft cheeks, "Don't go to sleep; you can't sleep yet, please."

"'m tired…" Zero said, and Kaname was far too upset to be amused by the tiny whine that he let out.

"Kiryu, stay awake, please stay awake," Kaname desperately told Zero as lilac eyes slowly disappeared under eyelids, "You can make it, and they'll come rescue us soon- so please!" Don't die!

"Wa..ke…m…up…w…en…'ey…do…" Zero mumbled before his eyes closed completely, and before long his breathing evened out, and eventually stopped altogether.

"No! Zero," Kaname shook the male, and soon, he had realized all of his regrets; they hit him full force, and it hurt. He wished that he and Zero had gotten along better, and that maybe he should have accepted the pocky sticks that his cousin, Shiki, had offered him just minutes before the missile hit their ship. He wished that he had carried a knife with him that night, so that maybe he could have fished for him and Zero, and the rest of the people that were on the lifeboat with them before, but didn't make it past two days. He thought that just maybe he could have saved more lives and that maybe Zero would have still been living, breathing, cursing at him with fiery eyes.

Tears that Kaname had never shed since he entered the army started falling, and they fell onto Zero's face like raindrops, dotting his skin, leaving small trails of water. "Zero, Zero, please- wake up," Kaname muttered through his tears, even though he knew that the silverette would never wake up and show him his lilac eyes ever again.

He wrapped his arms around the smaller frame, rocking him back and forth like a mother with her baby; he continued rocking Zero's body until he fell asleep, tears still falling even afterwards.

xox

It had been six days, or seven days, Kaname had lost count already. He was in immense pain, his body was boiling; he felt like he had been put in a cooking pot. He couldn't move, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't see anything; all he could see was a strange mix of orange, blue, red, and black. The colors were smudged and it made him dizzy, which didn't help his throbbing headache. The brunette wanted to throw up too, but nothing would come out. His arms were still wrapped around Zero's body, and he wished that he could see the silverette. He hoped that the previous night had all been a dream, and that Zero was still alive. But his hopes were crushed when he couldn't feel his soft breath that used to caress his arm, and the strong pulse of his heartbeat.

Kaname blinked as his vision slowly started to return, narrowing his eyes at the albatross that had flown right above them. Could that mean that land was near, or was this bird immigrating?

Kaname decided that he didn't care anymore, he could be imagining the bird for all he knew- hallucinating. His body yelled at him, pain flaring in his spine, arms, and legs, everywhere. His brain and heart throbbed, shouting at him that he needed rest. He forced himself to stay awake though; he wanted to look at the sky longer, just a little longer.

Suddenly, three familiar faces appeared in his line of vision. He smiled and tilted his head in greeting, forgetting where he was, and everything that happened over the past week.

'Are you ready?' The pale lips on the person's face twitched upwards in a smile, lilac eyes glistening in the light.

"Ready for what?"

'A party; we're all going.'

"All?"

'Everyone.'

Kaname blinked as more familiar faces appeared in his line of vision, huddling around him in a circle, and his smile grew wider. "Yeah, I'm ready."

The brunette inhaled and exhaled for the last time, taking the hand held out to him, letting himself be pulled up. There was a ship behind him, and a girl with long brunette hair and big brunette eyes crying out to him, but he couldn't hear any of them. He was already gone, along with the souls of several hundred of his shipmates, and Zero.

xox

Written by Cookie