Author's Note: Final chapter! XD It's shorter than I thought it would be, but everything's accounted for, so yeah. There's a slight Taiki/Nene scene (if you choose to see it that way of course, but that was not how I intended it to be) but nothing big at all. In fact, it's strictly platonic. So don't worry, there's still quite a bit of KiriNe. 8D

Chapter Three: "Meaning"

It was a little past dawn when Taiki re-entered the cave, his arms full of the picked herbs from the forest. "Nene, I'm back," He announced, but as soon as he entered, he stopped, blinking in surprise.

Nene was lying asleep next to Kiriha, curled up against his side, her fingers entwined with his. Her breathing was steady, and she looked peaceful. He smiled.

"What are you grinning at?"

He jumped slightly when he saw Kiriha sit up. "Oh, Kiriha. I thought you were still asleep..."

The blonde looked annoyed. "I've been awake for a while. I just didn't want to wake her," He jerked his head at Nene. "She was awake almost all night, after all."

"Yeah," Taiki nodded, as he watched his sleeping friend. "I can see why you wouldn't want to... she looks comfortable, and less exhausted."

Kiriha nodded, and slowly, started to entangle his fingers from Nene's grip and stood up, taking his own blanket and placing it over the girl as he got to his feet. He walked towards Taiki and promptly past him before he stopped and looked back. "You should get some rest, too, Taiki." He said softly.

"Er... yeah, I guess so," The boy said sheepishly as he yawned. He had just realized how tired he was. He frowned slightly at Kiriha. "Anyway, how are you feeling? Any better?"

The blonde shrugged. "It's not bad. But..." He flushed slightly, clearly embarrassed. "I suppose... I owe that to you guys... I mean..." He looked frustrated with himself as he struggled to find the words. "I just mean... thanks."

Surprised, Taiki just nodded slowly. "Y-yeah... no problem." He had no idea how to react to Kiriha, who was usually so prideful and impassive, getting so worked up about he and Nene helping him when he was sick. He wanted to say that they were friends, of course they'd help him when he needed it, but he felt at the moment, that would only embarrass the blonde-headed boy further, so Taiki bit his tongue.

A moment later, with nothing else left to say between them, Kiriha scowled and turned away as he began to head towards the entrance of the cave. "Get some sleep before you drop dead from tiredness, Taiki."

"Wait a second," Taiki told him. "Where are you going? Aren't you still too injured to be walking around at the moment...?"

Kiriha kept his back to him. "I'm going to sit out there for a little bit. Don't worry, I won't go far." He glanced over his shoulder at the goggle-headed boy. "Sleep a few hours. Once we all get our strength back, we should head over to the next country. I don't like to dawdle. We've been here too long already."

And then he was gone.

Taiki stared after him for a long moment before he sighed and grabbed the blanket and pillow at the opposite side of the cave and laid down. That guy... Taiki had a feeling he would never be able to completely figure him out. Grinning, he fell into a relaxed sleep.

Nene awoke slowly, blinking sleep from her eyes, and remembering the events of yesterday, rolled over to check on Kiriha. She was surprised to see he was no longer there. "K-Kiriha...kun...?"

"Nene?"

She sat up and found Taiki sitting next to her. "Taiki-kun... good morning."

He smiled brightly. "Good morning. Kiriha's just finishing getting our things collected. We'll be heading to the next country soon. Well," He laughed. "Actually, Kiriha at first was all annoyed because we've been here a long time and wanted to let us get a few hours of sleep before we took off for the next country, but when he came and woke me, he just couldn't seem to wake you. When he saw how content you looked, he just said to let you sleep another hour or so."

"What...?" But she trailed off as Kiriha entered the cave, looking more annoyed than usual, but as she stared over Taiki's shoulder at him, his gaze softened.

"Hey, Nene."

She blinked. "Good morning, Kiriha-kun. Are you feeling better?"

He looked slightly uncomfortable. "Yeah..." Abruptly, he turned his face away, scowling. "Anyway, now that you're up, we can get going. Honestly... girls and their beauty sleep."

"EH?" Nene went scarlet, and Taiki laughed outright.

"If it bothered you, Kiriha, why didn't you just wake her?" The brown-haired boy gave him a knowing grin. Nene caught it, looked back over at Kiriha, who flushed upon meeting her eyes, and giggled as Taiki started laughing again.

The blonde glared at them, an angry blush on his face, before he turned and stomped away muttering something about "idiots."

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, both children lost in their own thoughts, Taiki smiled and got to his feet. "Well, we'd better get going before Kiriha's blood vessels start blowing up." He held out a hand for Nene. "Or rather, he blows someone up."

Nene giggled again as she took Taiki's hand and they made their way outside. Kiriha, his arms crossed and bearing the tent bag on his back, tapped his foot impatiently as they came up to him.

"About time!" He snapped.

"Take it easy, blondie," Mervamon scolded him, which earned her a glare from the blue flare general.

"Shut up!"

"Kid, your big mouth is going to get you in a lot of trouble! "

"Are you threatening...?"

Taiki stepped in between the two furious hot-heads. "Okay, relax, guys. We're on our way to the next country, aren't we? It's time for another adventure. Let's just try and focus on what we've got to do next, all right?"

"Yeah," Mervamon's posture changed and she walked away.

"Fine," Kiriha drawled, turning his back as well when he felt someone place a tender hand on his shoulder. "What, Taiki?" He growled, only to find Nene's lavender orbs boring into his sapphire blue eyes. His eyes widened. "Nene..?"

She frowned. "Kiriha-kun, are you all right?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What? Of course I'm all right. The wound healed."

She shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I'm asking if you're all right..." Her hand left his shoulder and went lower and for a moment, Kiriha felt a shiver of... nervousness? Excitement?, surge through his bones as her hand came to rest on his heart. "... in here."

Kiriha glanced behind him, to see that Taiki was engrossed with conversation with Shoutmon, so he sighed as he faced the girl again. She hard heard his nightmares, he had told her about the things he tried to hide from the world, even himself. She knew, and understood, his struggle.

"I'm always going to keep fighting," He told her. "If I keep fighting, it won't ever beat me. None of it. No one. I will never let any of it beat me."

He placed a gloved hand over her own placed on his chest. His eyes narrowed. "I'm only going to continue to get stronger. One day... one day, I'll be at a place where no one, nothing, can bring me down. And then none of it will affect me anymore."

She smiled, but it was a sad sort of smile. "Kiriha-kun... there's only one thing that can truly heal you... that can allow you to keep the pain at bay and not have to fight it anymore... but it's not power."

She slowly removed her hand, and Kiriha stared at her in confusion and frustration.

"What else is there, Nene?"

She shook her head again as she turned around. "You once told me... that becoming strong would heal pain. But what does it mean to be strong? Is it really just having power and control and the strongest forces, because then no one can get to you? Look inside yourself, Kiriha-kun. Look everyday. And when you finally find the answer, you won't expect what it's going to be... but hopefully you'll learn to accept it, and become stronger from it."

He opened his mouth to retort, but no words were coming out. Nene smiled at him again and walked over to Mervamon, leaving Kiriha to stare after her.

Being strong did heal pain. He knew that for certain. But perhaps the meaning of what it meant to be strong – being surrounded only by the most powerful, destroying weakness, not showing emotion –- could be a very different idea than what he knew. Maybe there was something stronger than power that could obliterate the pain.

He thrived to be the strongest; and if there was something stronger than absolute power, then he would search for it, and seize it. He would take only the strongest path.