Well… It's five months late, but I finally got this done. There were all kind of obstacles in the way, which I won't go over (some are things you guys probably know, and perhaps a few that you don't) but I've finally managed to complete it (and, all things considered, I'm relatively pleased with the results). I feel like it should've been longer, considering how much time it took… But it's finished and seems at, the very least, semi-acceptable, so I'm not going to complain (yet). XD And, of course, there's a note that should be here for a certain someone…

To Kasumi: Oh my God, this is so late, I'm so sorry!! ;.; I… didn't mean for this to be so late. But… I did finally manage to get it up. I know it isn't terribly long, and it may not completely be what you wanted… But I hope that you enjoy it anyway. :)

One Last Note: A big and heartfelt thanks to Inita, without whom I would not have come up with this idea (even if she may have not precisely known that she gave it to me). :D

Jiro snarls and kicks the wall.

That... woman...!

Who does she think she is, talking down to him like that? If they didn't need her help so badly...

"You don't have much in the way of self-control, do you?"

"Do you?! Do you?!"

He whirls, facing her and glaring venomously. "That's not really any of your business."

Delphinium only laughs. "Not very polite either, I see."

"I see! I see!"

"Quiet!" Jiro isn't even sure if he's directing that at Delphinium or Deathroy. Either would do. "Stop treating me like a child!"

"You are a child, aren't you-?"

"No." He cuts her off sharply. Deathroy seems more put out than Delphinium does, and Jiro would be amused if he weren't so riled up. "Not anymore."

She smirks, lifting a hand towards her mouth. "I see."

"And stop laughing at me." Having been cut off twice, Deathroy is scowling at him now. Considering that the parroting little devil was Nene's "pet", Jiro takes a great amount of satisfaction from it. "Not everything is a joke for your amusement."

Delphinium only grins wider. "I'll keep it in mind." She gives Deathroy a pointed look; Jiro doesn't know what it means. "Any other rules you have for me?"

And then he thinks he might know what that look meant, because Deathroy doesn't say anything, just folds his thin little arms and stares off into the distance with narrowed eyes.

I suppose he's Delphinium's pet now.

He doesn't quite know what to make of it, but he'll have to roll with the punches here. You have to stay on your toes with Delphinium, or else she'll swallow you whole. "As a matter of fact, I do." Do not show weakness. Do not show hesitation. You want to be her equal? Prove you have what it takes. "If I ever find you near Shu, Kluke, Marumaro or Bouquet, I'll kill you myself." Zola is gone... So I have to protect them now. Even from those that claim to be allies, I have to keep them safe. She lets out a bark of laughter, but he waits, making no noise, allowing no change of expression. Finally, she regards him with seriousness; he resists the urge to sigh in relief and says instead, "Are we clear?"

"Very." She smiles at him; it isn't a sneer this time, and he feels a jolt of surprise when he realizes that the curve of her lips might even hold a bit of respect. "You've got a lot of guts, talking to me that way. I must admit, I'm quite impressed. There are men twice, even three times your age, who haven't had such courage." She tosses her hair over her shoulder before taking a step forward. At first, Jiro thinks she's coming towards him, but he realizes that Delphinium is walking past him, continuing down the hall. Then she continues, "You're not half bad, boy. But you have a long way to go."

"Long way to go!"

Jiro doesn't turn around, but smirks at the empty ship hallway ahead of him. It appears that he has been challenged. I will become stronger. I will become better, Delphinium, until you can no longer ignore me. Until there is no one else worth paying attention to but me.

Her breath is warm as it ghosts over his ear. "Jiro... Jiro, leave me."

His own breathing is pretty hard, actually, now that he thinks of it. "No."

"Idiot boy," she snaps at him, though her voice is far weaker than usual. "You want to get yourself killed?"

Jiro ignores her, hoisting her arm further across his shoulders. He relents a bit when she winces. Though he would have thought the opposite several months ago, the objective now is not to hurt her. It's the opposite, if anything.

He hears a crash in the distance, followed immediately by a sound that he recognizes as a roar. Blue Dragon. For God's sake, Shu, hurry up already! I can't keep this up forever!

As if in response to his thoughts, pain spikes through his side, leaving him gasping. His side feels (very slightly) damp, and he knows that if he looked - which he won't - there would be a thin stream of red.

Still, he isn't as bad off as Delphinium.

He can still bring out Minotauros, at least. And his leg isn't broken (or sprained, or whatever-that-injury-is).

But the Grand Kingdom loyalists have taken Deathroy captive. And even with her artificial Shadow... Without Jiro or someone else protecting her, wounded as she is, Delphinium stands no chance.

"Stop. You're killing yourself like this," her pleas have taken on a note of desperation, though he can't think at the moment why she would be so insistent; everything he knows about Delphinium implies that her top priority - and, possibly, her only priority - is her own survival. So why is she so concerned about his? "Jiro, please."

"No." He trudges onward, hoping fervently that they happen upon some kind of shelter from the battlefield soon. "And stop asking me to leave you behind. Besides, it's not like you care if I die."

Much to his surprise, Delphinium lets out a chuckle that is shockingly bitter. And her voice, when it comes, is expectedly mocking... But, unlike normally, there's a hint of sadness in it. "Whatever you say, Jiro dear."

What's that supposed to mean? Jiro can't figure this out right now, though - not when Delphinium is severely injured and his own wound is slowing him down. He has trouble figuring out her motives when he has all of his faculties intact. Not to mention that they're chances seem to be pretty dim right now... What he'd give for Kluke or Xi to be here; both of them have a knack for making any situation, however dire, seem like it will turn out okay. Honestly, Jiro suspects that he has the opposite effect on people.

But his heart leaps when he spots a small rock shelf. It's close to the ground, but it will undoubtedly be enough to shield himself and Delphinium. Jiro picks up the pace, disregarding Delphinium's gasp with only a slight tinge of guilt; there's a safe spot ahead, and they must get to it, so that means nothing else matters right now.

Still. He feels compelled to say something. "Hang on. I found a place for us to hide."

She snorts. "Stubborn boy..."

They arrive at the "shelter" with ease. It's a little more difficult to help Delphinium lay on the ground - Jiro is stronger, but she's taller - but between the two of them, they eventually manage it. Almost instantly, she stretches out her injured leg with an exhalation of relief. He thinks, with a slight pang, that hurrying the way they did must have multiplied the pain in her limb.

Letting out a weary sigh, Jiro starts to step backwards - and looses his footing on some gravel. He wobbles precariously for a moment, trying to regain his balance, and as he starts to fall forward Delphinium (is that concern in her eyes?) reaches up to steady him-

Their lips brush.

Gasping, his head jerks backwards. "I'm- I- Sorry." He grabs his mouth, the calluses from two years worth of sword training increasing the tingling of his lips. His chest constricts as he tries to figure out just what, exactly, he is feeling at the moment.

But his emotions are so tangled right now that he doesn't have any hope of making any sense of them.

He looks to Delphinium, perhaps thinking that some insight to her feelings will help him figure out his own. But it only makes everything more confusing.

Her expression is both stunned and sad.

That combination alone is baffling enough, but trying to understand why she's feeling either makes the whole situation that much worse.

How did we end up like this?

That has seemed to be the primary question of his life for the past two years or so.

The answer still remains out of reach, however.

Huffing in irritation, Jiro throws himself to the ground beside her, shoving his back against the rock wall and letting his legs lay out in front of him like Delphinium is doing. She stiffens beside him for a few seconds, but then seems to relax against him. Hesitant to see the same expression on her face or a new one, Jiro refuses to look at her, glaring at his boots like all of his problems are their fault.

Delphinium lets out a soft laugh. "Well... If nothing else, at least I can say I did that once."

Jiro goes rigid. "Did what once?"

"Oh, is that how you're going to play this?" The humor in her voice is only a cover for the razor edge underneath, and is that... hurt that he hears from her? How is that possible? What does it mean? "You're just going to pretend that nothing happened. Is that it?"

"Nothing happened." He hates repeating what she said, but-

"Fine. Have it your way, Jiro." She sighs, sounding tired, and Jiro chances a look at her from the corner of his eye; she's staring outside, twirling a lavender lock of hair around her finger over and over again. "You know, most boys your age would be ecstatic to be kissed by a pretty older woman-"

"You're even more foolish than I thought if you think I'm like most boys." He says stiffly, though he can't help the blush he can feel staining his cheeks crimson. That- that isn't true. He did not kiss Delphinium. They have a shaky alliance at best. They're more each other's rivals than he and Shu ever were. Though they've come closer to the title since Rudolf's defeat, they couldn't even really be called friends. Kissing is a hazy and far off proposition in their relationship right now. "I don't even really consider myself a child anymore. Don't tell me you didn't take the hint after everything we've been through."

"Let me ask you something." She speaks like he never even said anything, and Jiro knows that he isn't imagining the anger tinting her voice. "Are you more upset that you lost your first kiss to an accident, or are you just peeved because your first kiss was me?"

The blood drains out of his face at an alarming rate.

Jiro realizes now what he'd taken to be her anger was actually Delphinium being offended. To make matters even more complicated, it almost sounds like she... wanted to kiss him...

Feelings swirl in his chest like a storm. He can't figure himself out. He can't figure Delphinium out.

So he falls back on what he's started to do since a certain former rival steered him in the right direction - he stops thinking and acts.

He moves quickly, too quickly, so that he won't have the chance to have any second thoughts or to see anything in Delphinium's eyes to make him lose his resolve. He whirls, grabs both of her shoulders, and pressing both of them against the rock wall, shoves his mouth hard against hers.

Where before there had only been a slight shiver through him at the accidental contact, now this purposeful act sends heat swirling through his stomach. Jiro doesn't deepen the kiss - because, frankly, he's never done this before and while he has the basic idea, trying it seems like one taken risk too many at the moment - but he does press his lips more firmly against Delphinium's. It's... a surprise, really. He hadn't thought their mouths would have fit together so well.

He pulls back, panting like he's been underwater, heart racing like he's been running up a steep hill. Delphinium is staring at him, flushed, with something akin to wonder. In the quiet aftermath, Jiro thinks he might hear Minotauros chuckling at him, but writes it off as a trick of the wind.

And even as the exhilaration of the moment starts to wear off, Jiro realizes that he doesn't regret a thing.

"Before," he catches his breath, "wasn't a kiss. That... was a kiss." He whirls around, returning almost exactly to his former position, though he's more at a diagonal now. "Now shut up and lay down. You aren't going to heal up if you stay awake the whole time."

With his back to her, Jiro doesn't see Delphinium lay down, nor the secret smile that is only between her and the wall of brownish gray stone.

Scene 1: Somewhere around Episode 46 or 47, while the Shu-tachi and Delphinium are aboard Rogi's ship, but before the Descendants enter the Darkness. Scene 2: About a month or so Post-Tenkai. Was a potential scene in Every Rose Has Its Thorns, but the idea wasn't solidified enough (until now) to make the final cut in that plot.

I'm sorry, Kasumi; I know Jiro x Delphinium wasn't on your list, but I hadn't remembered to check until I'd already begun writing this. It is a Jiro pairing, though… So hopefully you liked it? Maybe? *sweatdrops*