Disclaimer: I own neither Chrono
Crusade nor Ryan Cabrera’s song On the Way Down. style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>(Which, in all honesty,
fits Rosette and Chrono so well that it doesn’t
need a fic to go with it. (class=GramE>sweatdrop))

Author’s Note: Yeaaaaa—song class=SpellE>fic! With the slightest touch of citrus.
Fun-ness. XD Enjoy!

X

Promise

X

(Written by: Artemis, Goddess of
the Night)

X

He could remember darkness. Darkness.
. . and that was all. After those thick stone doors slammed shut, blocking out
every pinprick of light, all that had remained was a cold, lonely
blackness—devoid of everything but horror and fear and loathing and
sadness.

No matter. . . that had been what
he had wanted. What he had longed for.

So he slid slowly down the side of the rough granite coffin,
savoring the stinging bite of the rock against his back; then curled his arms
around his legs and closed his eyes.

He surrendered to that darkness.

Sick and tired of this world

There’s no more
air

Trippinstyle='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>’ over myself

Goinstyle='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>’ nowhere

Suffocating

No direction

And I took a dive

Yet the darkness would not take him.
It would not consume and devour his soul, as he had prayed it would—it
spat him back out again, pathetic and tired, at the feet of the light. class=GramE>Suddenly, unexpectedly, spontaneously; his hand darting out to
shade his useless eyes.

Then. . . then. . .

There she stood. Like a dream, braids cupping her smooth
face, eyes as bright and blue as the visions of the crystalline lakes he kept
locked in his memory. She smiled at him, so bright, so cheerful, class=GramE>so innocent.

And then. . . and then. . .

In that moment, she blessed him with the most precious of
gifts. Wrapped tenderly in a sheet of bright, crinkly paper, just like the
pieces of candy she presented; she gave him the will to live.

. . . He took the hand she offered him.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> 

And on the way down

I saw you

And you saved me

From myself

And I won’t
forget

The way you loved me

On the way down

I almost fell right
through

But I held onto you

The tomb doors slammed shut for the second time that class=GramE>day. . . but without him behind them.

That was the second thing he remembered, his second
recollection regarding his rebirth . . . light. Bright,
blinding, white light assaulting his eyes so mercilessly that his hold on the
girl’s hand tightened in mild fright. She simply laughed, easing
him gently into the glory of day— reminding him without words what living
was about. 

I’ve been
wondering why

It’s only me

Have you always been class=GramE>inside

Waiting to breathe?

It’s all right

Sunlight

On my face

I wake up and yeah,
I’m alive

He loved her. Of all of his ‘new’ memories, style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>that he recalled the clearest. style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>How much he loved her—loved her
laugh, her growl, her smile, her glare, her yells, her whispers, her fits, her
sighs. The way she slept so placidly on her side, the way she seemed to bounce
when she walked, the way she bit her tongue out when she was concentrating.

She was his everything. His reason for
waking, his reason for breathing, his reason for smiling, his reason for
staying out in the light. For that light reminded him of class=GramE>her. . . that light which invaded the darkness and took him
from his self-sought misery.

She was the light. . .

‘Cause on the
way down

I saw you

And you saved me

From myself

And I won’t
forget

The way you loved me

On the way down

I almost fell right
through

But I held onto you

. . . And he was her shadow.

A very potent blackness he was, too, for she very quickly
succumbed to it—despite his begging and pleading and attempts to ignore
her longing stares. She loved him in return, though he tried to warn her
against it.

Though, of course, in the end, her love only made him love her all the more. It
gave him another reason to try. Another reason to dream.
Another excuse to exist without Magdalene.

I was so afraid

Of going under

But now

The weight of the
world

Feels like nothing,
no, nothing

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> 

So, one warm summer night, when the fireflies sparkled as
beautifully as the stars, he surrendered to her desires.
. . to his own. He kissed her and held her and petted her and loved class=GramE>her. . . savoring her sweet gasps, her cries of ‘more,
more!’. The world disappeared. . . nothing
existed but them, their bodies, their hearts, their words, their feelings.

He loved her. She loved him. And together they fell deeper
and deeper into the flames of need, light and darkness intertwining.

Down, down, down

You’re all I
wanted

Down, down, down

You’re all I
needed

Down, down, down

You’re all I
wanted

You’re all I
needed

. . . Later they laid abreast, bedtime stories forgotten,
her small body shuddering happily as little jolts of pleasure rippled beneath
her skin; his head buried in the nape of her neck. Long grasses tickled their
bare limbs, lightening bugs illuminating the navy-colored gloom like green and
yellow candles.

“Chronoclass=GramE>. . .” she whispered after a while, propping herself
up on her elbows— loose golden hair spilling around her; a blanket of
silk. He glanced up, still cuddled close to her bosom. “I love you. .
.”

And I won’t
forget the way you loved me

A smile. Eyes half lidded, he
reached out his arms, looping them around her neck; bringing her to his chest.
“I know.” To emphasize this, he nipped and blew upon her ear, chuckling
when she squirmed and laughed. But his face grew suddenly serious; gazes of
fire and water locking. “. . . Never leave me.” style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>

All that I wanted

All that I needed

She giggled, pressing her lips lightly to his nipples,
tongue darting out to play. He moaned. “Never ever.
.” she then breathlessly replied, eyelashes tickling his flesh.
Crossing her left arm over her right, she rested her chin on the center of the
X, beam widening in a way that only a child’s could. “We’ll
explore together; you and me and Joshua. And we’ll discover new animals
and people and the astral lines—and write all about them in a book. Then,
when we’re tired of that, we’ll all live together in a house by the
sea. Or maybe Joshua will get married . . . But no matter what, we’ll always
have each other. Forever.”

On the way down

I saw you

And you saved me

From myself

And I won’t
forget

The way you loved me

On the way down

I almost fell right
through

But I held onto you

His embrace around her petite waist tightened, hair rustling
when his head tilted. “Promise. . .?” he
pressed, voice cracking slightly.

Rubbing their noses together playfully before catching his
mouth in a lingering kiss, she nodded. “Promise.”

Down, down, down

But I held onto you

Down, down, down

But I held onto you

And it was a promise that she kept.
. . up until the very end.