Sorry for making you wait so long minna! Okay, here is the last chapter to THIS story. I'm already working on chap 2 of the sequal! I really hope you like it. Please R/R!



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Jenrya POV:

I ran as fast as I could. Ruki really wasn't that heavy, but I also had a lack of food. Kaze was muttering something that sounded like an incantation. Tiff was just trying to keep up. My cheek smarted from were Ruki had hit me, but that didn't really matter right now. We had to get to safety.

"Over there!"

Kaze pointed to an almost hidden cave. We ran over and I preyed the thieves wouldn't see us.

They didn't. All the men ran past five minutes later, still shouting. Once they were gone I focused on Ruki.

Her cheeks were still stained with angry tear marks. I gently rubbed them away.

"Ruki-san, I'm sorry." I whispered. "I didn't mean to fight with you. I'm sorry if I hurt you."

Kaze was watching me, I could feel his eyes on my back. I didn't care. I enveloped the unconcious girl feeling like dirt. If I had been able to protect her none of this would have happened.

"Jenrya, she'll be okay," Kaze said queitly.

"She's just sprained her ankle or something," Tiff added.

I brushed strands of Ruki's lose auburn hair from her face. She looked so peaceful, so gentle. What was I saying? Once more I had to wonder, did I really like her?



~Flashback~

"Why do you even care?!" Ruki screamed at me.

I hesitated, unsure of what to say.

"Ruki. . ."

"Just go!"

I reached over to help her. The next thing I knew Ruki had slapped me.

"Just leave me alone! Stop pretending you care!" She broke down into sobs, and then passed out.

~End Flashback~



Why had I hesitated? All it got me was a good slap. But then maybe I had needed that. It was like a wake up call. I couldn't deny anymore that I felt something for Ruki. We had almost kissed once, and that had been all my idea.

"Jen-san, wait," Ruki mumbled.

I gazed down at her, seeing her eyes start to blink open.

"Ruki?" I asked softly.

Her violet eyes fluttered open. At first they looked confused, then warm, then sad.

"Are you okay?"

She didn't answer.

"How does your ankle feel?" I tried again.

Still no reply.

"Ruki? Please say [I] something [I]." (A/N: Hopefully that worked, if not, how do you get italics to show?)

And say something she did.

"Jenrya, I'm sorry."

At first I could swear I had heard wrong. But as I looked down at her I realized she was sincere.

"Me too Ruki."

Kaze interrupted us. "What are we going to do about the thieves?"

"I'm not killing them, they don't deserve to be killed. What they did was horrible and they should live with the guilt."

Ruki still seemed to be in a daze. She looked at Kaze, then Tiff, then back at me.

"Weren't we alone before?"

I couldn't help but laugh at her confused look. Gosh she looked so cute like that. Wait, did I say cute? Ah, what the heck. It was true.

"We were, about 2 days ago. Haven't you been paying attention?" I teased.

Ruki smiled at me, a true warm smile. I wanted to jump up and hug everyone in the cave.

"Hey Tiff, can you come look at this for a second?"

Kaze was halfway out the door. I looked up at him and Tiff.

"Good luck lovebirds. I think you can finally go home."

With that the two of them were gone.

Ruki reached up and turned my head to face hers. With all the strength she could, she pulled herself up and kissed me gently on the lips.

"I love you Jen-san."

I was stunned, but only momentarily. I tightened my hold on her and smiled.

"I love you too Ruki-san."

This time as I kissed her there was a bright light. When I opened my eyes again I could hear Takato yelling.

"Jenrya?! Ruki?! Answer me for crying out loud!!!"

I moaned.

"Takato?"

Ruki was also just sitting up. She looked just as confused as I did.

"You two freaked me out! Are you okay?!"

"My ankle doesn't hurt anymore!" Ruki exclaimed suddenly.

I blinked. I think we're fine Takato. . . Have we been out all this time?"

"Yah, all 7 minutes." Takato replied.

"7 minutes?" Ruki and I echoed.

We looked at each other. 7 minutes, but it had been weeks! Was all that had just happened to me a dream?

"Jenrya, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure Ruki. Excuse us Takato."

When Takato was out of hearing range Ruki turned to me.

"Kaze? Water guardians? Thieves?"

"Us?" I asked slyly.

She giggled. "And us."

"So it wasn't all some great yet horrible dream." I mused pulling her to me.

"Jen-san, cut it out. Gogglehead is watching."

She stopped whining when I kissed her.

"Think we still have our powers? Or did we just have the same dream?" I asked, breaking apart from her.

"I dunno." She paused and looked at me.

"What is it?"

"I meant what I said before, I really do love you Jen-san." Ruki said softly.

I smiled. "Good to know because I meant every word too. That, and I don't think I can take any more slaps."

My reward was a giggle. When I looked over at Takato, his jaw had dropped to the ground.

"Oh my, we've startled Takato!"

I slid my hand around Ruki's and walked back over to our stunned friend.

"Something wrong?"

"You guys hit your heads, didn't you? Not even ten minutes ago you hated each other's guts. . ."

"Get use to it Gogglehead," Ruki grinned at me. "Because we'll be together for a long time."

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Ta da! That's it! Okay, so good, bad, sucked? Please tell me, because endings are the hardest thing to write (for me). Thank you so much for reading this story, and I'll try to get the sequal - For All Time: Tests - out as soon as I can! Ja!