In Memoriam

Time progresses. So does their relationship. Without them realizing it, days bleed into one another, between secret meetings and hushed kisses.

There are times when they meet up under the pretense of training with each other, even though it’s a stupid excuse. They never are paired up on teams together, but no one questions it. Nonetheless, other than hanging out, they do train. They train and train until she’s all worn out and breathing heavily, while he doesn’t have a hair out of place. He keeps his composure at all times, managing to look as if he wasn’t even fighting in the first place. As much as she’s proud of him, it ignites a fire inside her. She’s angry. It’s astonishing how he’s able to keep her attacks at arm’s length and not get injured, but rather pose a threat to her. Ino wishes she was more like him.

Sai doesn’t go easy on her, either. Years of strict Root training have molded him into a ruthless assassin, one created to never show mercy to his enemies. Empathy could be his biggest enemy, showing  leniency could cause his downfall. Yet despite his cruel, rigorous training, he ignores his habits and makes sure to never really harm her, just tire her out. His hits are precise and calculated, he knows exactly what he’s doing and how much damage he can cause, yet he’s gentle with her. Making sure she’s put in difficulty, urging her to use her abilities against him, but never to put her in actual danger.

Their training usually comes to an end when she can’t go on any longer. Sai notices long before she does. It’s been a while since it has come to his attention that she has a bad habit of pushing her limits, of tiring herself until she can barely move anymore. It shows desperation, a feeling Sai doesn't recognize very well, having rarely been desperate for anything. Anything other than seeing his brother alive again. But he sees it firsthand on her, sees how much she struggles and falls down, only to get up almost immediately, driven by her desperation to get better. It stirs foreign winds inside him, it makes him feel the empathy he has been always forbidden of. An undisclosed urge to help her overcomes him, to be right by her side when she falls down. He’d give her his own abilities if he could, but he can’t. All he’s able to do is watch silently and attack again, hoping she's determined and angry enough to respond to him just as fiercely. 

“That’s enough,” he usually stops abruptly and with that their training is over. Nothing Ino says after can convince him to keep going. Sai appears to know her limits better than she does, and yet he never allows her to reach them, though he doesn’t understand why. 

When they’re done, they usually sit next to each other, with her leaning either against a tree or on his shoulder for support. By that time the sun is usually setting, and the golden hue of the sun gives her a whole new glow. She still looks so ethereal to him, despite being tired, dirty, and sometimes bloody. Her hair has become a ‘messy nest’ as she calls it and he likes to make it messier by running his hand through it. It strangely feels like silk on his hands, like fine material he wants to touch over and over again. Sai’s rough hands have never been in contact with anything so velvety before. Despite her complaints about it, he continues anyway. She doesn’t really mind. 

Sometimes an “You did well” escapes past his lips a while after they’ve sat down. It leaves her wondering if she really did well or if he’s just bluffing to make her feel better. Sai used to be an assassin, he has a thing for twisting not only guts, but also the truth. Being forced to keep so many things hidden during his whole life, lying comes easily to him. It has become his second nature, making her suspect he does it unconsciously, not even realizing he’s doing it. Ino studies his face eagerly, looks for clues. Anything, any hint that might lead her to a sincere answer and when his fake smile doesn’t appear like it always does, she knows he’s serious. He means it.

On other occasions, he likes to sit and paint after training. Ino sits right next to him again, watching him intently and trying to figure out what he’s painting. She can never tell. The figures he sketches are always so abstract, so hard to decipher and if she asks about them, he doesn’t give her an answer. Although Ino doesn’t need his answers to fathom the fact that his paintings represent him fully. 

The colors on his drawings are missing, just like they are missing on him. 

Sai paints with jet black ink on crisp white paper, he wears shadowy black clothes on his pale white skin. His hair and eyes match sublimely with each other. They’re both black, a darker and gloomier shade of black than the ones on the paints he uses. His eyes are endless voids, making her get lost in them, and making him see the world in black and white. Sai is his own paintings. He’s an enigma to her. He’s abstract. So are his artworks.

He’s a mystery she loves to solve.

Though she hasn’t fully solved him yet. She will one day. If he lets her.

(He won’t.)

The way her attention is aimed at him doesn’t escape his sharp eyes. He never fails to notice her gazing at him. Ino is curious, her eyes take in everything he swiftly does. Eager to find out something, she strikes up conversations, asks questions. Questions about him, about his paintings. Questions he can never answer. 

(He never tells her what he’s drawing.)

Other than training together, they meet up with the others quite often as well.

If he’s not with her, he’s either with Naruto or Sakura. Both of them try to get him to socialize as much as possible and of course, socializing means meeting up with the other teams, especially team 10. Ino’s team 10. She comes, undoubtedly, and drags Shikamaru and Chouji with her as well. Sai has heard lots of stories about how they used to always hang out together, the six of them. That was until Sasuke had run off and Naruto had left to train. Yet now that Naruto has come back and Sai has been replacing Sasuke on their team, the group’s all back together. 

Sai joins and so does Ino, they keep up their appearances. They don’t touch, nor do they sit close to each other, nor do they act more familiar than two simple acquaintances. Ino acts like she always has, she still tries to flirt with him. It earns her scoldings from Sakura and laughter from Chouji and Naruto. And meaningful stares from Sai. He gives her the fondest looks he can muster. He’s aware, knows she means whatever word she’s saying to him in front of them.

And then… there’s Shikamaru.

Born just one day apart, he and Ino have a close bond, maybe closer than the one Ino and Sakura have. They’ve grown up together, becoming best friends in the process and earning the ability to understand each other better than anyone else can. Sometimes without even talking. Sai has seen them sharing looks plenty of times to realize that their relationship differentiates drastically from the ones Ino has with other people. 

As much as she complains about him and his personality and how goddamn lazy he is , Sai knows better. Just like him and Ino, Shikamaru and her are also closer than they appear to be. 

While his attention is fully on Ino when she’s flirting with him, his observant nature doesn’t miss the way Shikamaru stares at him intensively, as if he’s trying to pick him apart. It’s a look he has received many times before; distrust. Shikamaru doesn’t trust him. At all. And he refuses to hide it. 

Even though it’s no use. Sai ignores it, like he ignores everything else in his life. He looks at her only, gives everyone else the fake smile he has been practicing for months and hopes no one questions anything. To keep up appearances, like Ino wants to, he even still refers to her as Beautiful , like he first did when he saw her. He saves her name to whisper it when there’s only the two of them around. Despite his expression being as stoic as ever, she knows he means it now. Yet she keeps it to herself, not letting it slip that they’re closer. Not letting it slip that she’s deeply affectionate when it comes to him.

Shikamaru doesn’t need her to let anything slip for him to understand that there’s something more going on between them. Something undisclosed, personal; something that he could’ve easily found out if he wasn’t so lazy.

Sai doesn’t mind even if Shikamaru finds out. However, he endures the fact that Ino minds. 

She wants it hidden for a reason. 

What that reason is, Sai doesn’t quite understand. It’s something about keeping appearances, something about her not being ready, something about her parents finding out she’s with him, something, there’s always some things. Sai doesn’t mind. He goes along with anything. 

Anything, just to preserve that otherworldly connection he experiences with her. Anything, just to not wreck and destroy the first and maybe last affectionate relationship he has ever had with another human. A human so caring and giving. So understanding. With him, out of all people.

That’s why he never complains. 

He knows he’s lucky to be even given that much. That’s why he treasures her. Sai knows he can never make her feel the way she makes him feel. And that’s alright. Sai doesn’t mind. He never does. 

Despite all that, there’s still some uncertainty in his head about what they are. They’re not officially dating, that’s for sure. According to a book he read, in order to be considered as ‘dating’ , one of them, usually the male, has to ask the other out. He has never done that and she for sure won’t do it either. Yet Sai can tell they’re way more than friends. Friends don’t make excuses to meet up in secret and kiss. Friends don’t sleep in each other’s arms. Friends don’t comfort each other that tenderly, that lovingly, with soft kisses and whispered reassurances. 

Friends don’t do what they do. 

They’re not friends, they’re not dating. 

There’s so much depth going on between them, yet they’ve never spoken about it. 

Driven by curiosity and the answers she might give, Sai asks. Yet instead he’s met with deafening silence. She doesn’t meet his eyes. Ino looks at the ground, at the sky, around her, anywhere but at him. Not being able to read her expression at all, Sai doesn’t know what to assume. 

“Beautiful weather, isn’t it?” she says after a while, a smile on her face that doesn’t meet her eyes. 

A smile like his own. 

He nods in response, but can’t help the crawling feeling that tugs at his stomach.

(Just like he doesn’t answer her questions, she doesn’t answer his.)

And then war ensues.

There’s no more time for Sai to wonder whether they’re more than just friends or not, there’s no more time to worry about their friends finding out. Instead, they have to worry about living to see another day. They have to worry about living to see each other another day. 

It happens all of a sudden, without any kind of warning. One day the Konoha teams are hanging out with each other like they always have and the next, war is shoving them right on the battlefield. There’s orders being yelled left and right and everyone is separated into different divisions, in order to prepare for war. Countries have come together to fight their common enemy, alliances have been made, armies have been united, their solidified forces have joined. 

Sai and Ino are the only ones that have separated. 

They don’t get to say goodbyes or any last words, they just go their own ways. She’s ordered to stay with her own team, with people she knows and trusts, in a whole different division, while Sai is teamed up with people he has never seen before in his life. He feels out of place, like he always does when he’s without her. 

Her.

His mind appears to be stuck on her. 

For the first time ever, whenever he thinks about her, his stomach is tied into knots. It twists anxiously, and Sai has a feeling it doesn’t have much to do with the war that’s about to rage on but it has lots to do with the girl that’s now out of his sight. Now’s a time when he can’t stop the war when he feels like she has reached her limits. He can’t force the enemy to be gentle with her. 

He can’t be by her side.

Sai is powerless, he’s unable to do anything to help her. All he can do is keep fighting whoever comes his way. 

If up in the sky, there’s a god, Sai doesn’t believe in him. He never has. Everything he has gone through during his life has proven to him that no merciful and divine power would allow that to happen. So if such deity existed, Sai was convinced he was a cruel and brutal one, taking pleasure in others’ sufferings and never doing anything to ease their pain.  

Yet now war has spread like a contagious disease, overcoming him in the process. His beliefs and thoughts are clouded, he doesn’t care much about either of them. All that he’s concerned about is her. Her safety. 

So he prays. He prays and prays silently in his head, his lack of faith long forgotten. He begs and repeats the same mantra over and over again, his prayers being sent to an unknown god. Ignoring that fact, he tries to remind the god that he has taken everything from him. His family, his childhood, his brother, his innocence, his emotions, his personality as a whole. He can’t take her from him as well, it would send him over the edge. She’s the one that binds him to himself.

Sai prays. He hopes she’s safe. 

War causes endless conflicts. It holds whoever it can get in its inescapable clutches, sprouting blood, guts and terror. War causes people to lose their mind and then their life. War causes the dead to come back to life. 

War causes Sai to see his brother one more time.

It happens in the blink of an eye; he and his team are fighting reincarnated Akatsuki members. The same ones that were supposed to be long dead, maybe dumped in a ditch, maybe buried six feet under. Their bodies rotten, with nothing left of their skin or muscles, nothing but their bones left. Nothing of the people they used to be, but just bitter memories. They were supposed to be gone. 

Yet they’re not. The men in front of him are alive and intact, full of flesh and blood, with no missing limbs. From what his team understood, they’ve been brought back to life against their will by some forbidden jutsu, in order to fight them. The ninja who summoned them is still unknown to them, though he doesn’t matter much at the moment. They have no choice but to attack whoever is on the enemy’s side, against their will or not. 

Sai does exactly that, not taking into consideration that the enemy might have an ace up their sleeve just for him as well. 

Ever since his brother passed away, Sai has wished to see his brother one more time for countless of days and nights. His wishes were quiet, silent, he was aware none of them would ever come true, but a small part of him still wished. Still hoped he would get to see Shin again. Not in his dreams or the nightmares he often had. In person. In flesh and blood. He had wished to have his brother brought back to life. 

It’s exactly during their critical battle with the revived Akatsuki members that his wish is granted. The god, that Sai doesn’t believe in, proves once again he’s a cruel, sinister man. One that’s out  to get Sai, to make his life as miserable as possible. 

“Brother…” 

Shin is standing right in front of him. 

Alive. 

Summoned by the enemy. 

“Run away, little brother. Our bodies are indestructible. You can’t win.”

These are the first words Shin tells him as he emerges from depths of rocks, summoned out of thin air. Though it has been a while since Sai has last seen him, he recognizes his brother immediately. How could he forget? Not when his brother’s face has been imprinted in his mind ever since the day he left. He hasn’t changed at all. Not like he had a chance to change. He has been dead. He was supposed to be dead . 

But he’s not. 

Shin is in front of him, telling Sai once again to run away, just like he told him to not show his feelings. Other than showing him the warmth of a family he never had, Shin also taught him to ignore, to block it all off, to not feel, and now he’s telling him to run away . To abandon everyone and save himself instead. 

However, he has spent enough time with Ino to know that running away solves nothing. She has shown him, taught him that accepting his feelings and letting himself feel them was the best way to deal with his problems. So once again, he takes her advice and chooses to stay, instead of withdrawing and fleeing from the battlefield. 

As honorable as his decision is, staying means blood. 

Staying means fighting. 

Staying means death. 

And just because fate is ironic like that and history likes to repeat itself in wicked ways, Sai and Shin have to fight till death once again. Maybe till Sai’s death this time. Even though he has wished for it countless of times; even though his opportunity is right there, this time Sai doesn’t wish to die. Death is no longer that appealing to him, not when he has something to live for, someone to go back to. Someone who might be waiting for him when all of this is over. Someone he can go to for the comfort he’ll need when the war ends. 

Against his will, Shin attacks. 

Sai fights back. 

There’s no other choice for both of them. History repeats itself one more time. 

Though he’s attacking, he knows he’s holding back, the same way he does with Ino. Despite knowing Shin’s revived body is indestructible and this might just be a losing fight, the wish to hurt his brother or cause any harm to him is missing. Instead, he wants to drag this on as much as possible, before someone’s death approaches again. He would hope someone would fight Shin instead of him. He’s scared, he’s a coward, not wanting to be the reason Shin passes away one more time. Sticking to the defense, he dodges any hits or jutsus that are thrown his way, choosing to only fling the occasional kunai his way. Sai knows he can’t go on forever like that though, he can’t stick to being passive in fear of hurting his brother. 

As he moves away swiftly to dodge four kunais thrown his way, Sai doesn’t notice the notebook falling out of his pocket. It’s a small thing, one that Sai doesn’t even use anymore but he keeps it on him at all times anyway. Maybe it’s out of nostalgia, maybe it’s just to preserve whatever little memories he has with his brother.

The notebook lands open, conveniently, on the page Sai has never shown anyone, not even Shin. Not because he didn’t want to, but rather because he couldn’t. Shin’s life was cut short before he could even get the chance to finish his drawing. He finished it and his brother wasn’t there to see his silly artwork completed.

Yet the two small figures holding hands don’t escape Shin’s sharp gaze. 

“So you finished it,” he smiles, eyeing it from afar, “I finally got to see the picture I longed for…”

And Sai’s heart hurts. 

It hurts more than it did when his brother died, more than it did when he mourned him. Sai wishes Shin had kicked him in the guts instead, anything just to not hear those words. While Sai has been wishing for grand, unlikely things, Shin had simply wished to see his brother’s drawing. There’s pure happiness in his brother’s voice, his soul still as kind as ever. 

But fate doesn’t let his brother enjoy his short-lived happiness either. 

And slowly, his face starts to fall apart piece by piece. So does his body. So does Sai’s heart. Shin is, once again, dying. He knows it too.

“It’s as though… your drawing has freed my soul from his bindings,” he says, noticing his time to go is approaching.. 

Though the reincarnation jutsu is meant to last forever, to make the dead unkillable, there’s apparently some fatal flaws to it. Shin is not indestructible. He’s dying again. 

“I miss you,” Sai mouths slowly, half because he knows his voice will be shaking and half because he doesn’t want anyone else to hear. 

Shin hears it anyway. He gives Sai one of his brightest smiles, as bright as a dying, falling apart person can manage to smile. 

“You’ve found some real friends,” are his last words to him this second time, contrasting drastically to his previous ones. Shin continues, “Sai, these comrades who call you by your name… cherish them. Cherish her.”

Her.

Shin has been looking over him. He has seen. He’s seen her. 

As his final words are said, Sai sits in shock, unable to do anything but stand and watch his brother die. Again. Shin falls apart piece by piece like a broken doll, turning to ash and dust, returning to the earth where he belongs.

And so, Sai loses his brother for a second time. 

Just like during that night with Ino, Sai feels his eyes water once again. The need to cry is strong, yet he can’t allow the tears to spill, can’t allow himself to grieve again. He’s in the battlefield. He has to forget his brother and move on to the next enemy. To fight his own selfish emotions. War leaves him no time to sit and honor the dead, gives him no time to remember him.

Yet he feels strangely comforted. This unexpected and somehow unwanted meeting with the dead has given him the closure he needed a while ago. He knows his brother is watching over him. 

Sai feels lighter. 

As soon as the war is over, no – as soon as he sees her again – he’s going to cherish her, like his brother wanted him to. He’s going to talk, going to tell her about their meeting and Shin’s words. And how he has seen them, he knows and approves of her.  How he wants Sai to be with her.

And how she was right. About Shin, about death, about everything.

Now he sees it firsthand, that even though Shin’s physical form is gone, Sai knows he’s still alive. Watching over him. He’ll keep living for as long as Sai is alive as well. 

He wonders if Ino’s alive as well. She has to be. Unlike ever before, he has lots to tell her.

As he finds out later, Ino is alive. So was her sensei. Only this time, on the enemy’s side, just like his brother. Though no one wanted to, they had to fight their own deceased teacher. From what Sai hears, it was a problem for all of them, especially for Chouji. Even though nothing was said about her, he knows Ino must’ve experienced it hard too. But this is war and war leaves no room for kindness. War holds no empathy. It forces you to fight whoever’s on the enemy’s side, without taking into consideration who it is. 

But team 10 fights. They fight like a team now more than ever, protecting each other’s back and combining their individual jutsus. They flow so well together, leaving no room for mistakes. Temporary victory is theirs. Their enemy is defeated and their teacher is once again, dead. Thanks to their teamwork, their Ino-Shika-Cho formation is complete. It has reached its peak. Asuma had said so himself. 

Team 10 wins. Though Sai can only imagine, this was not the reunion team 10 would’ve wanted.

He prays she’s okay. Asuma will be remembered. He’ll comfort her later.

War subdues. Night falls. 

As the enemy temporarily retreats, they all gather once again to check the current conditions of each other. He catches a glimpse of her long blonde hair at the campsites they’ve created in order to rest and regain their energies back. She’s with her teammates and ninjas he doesn’t recognize. And she’s alive. Tired and sleepless, but definitely alive. He wants to run to her, to tell her everything he has gone through during the day, to hold her in his arms. Unlike never before, Sai misses her embrace. 

Yet he doesn’t dare come close to her. Not only because she’s with people who would definitely question their close approximation, but also because they still have to keep surveillance. War has not yet ended and their guard shouldn’t be lowered at any time. There’s no time for holding her. There’s no time to be with her. 

He suffices with stealing a glimpse from her exhausted face. Ino however, doesn't. 

“Wait for the signal and I’ll meet you after dark.” 

That’s what he reads on the tiny piece of paper she slips into his back pocket when she’s passing by him. She had caught him staring at her from a distance, her eyes widening before disappearing inside her team’s tent. Coming out merely a few seconds, she approaches hastily, making sure no one sees her. His face lights up when she’s close enough, but she doesn’t utter a word, slipping the paper into his pocket and leaving in the other direction.

It’s written in hurried but somehow still feminine handwriting, one that he knows belongs to her. So he waits. 

The signal comes right after most torches are turned off as the tired shinobis retreat to their tents. Some of the medical ninjas are still up, tending to wounds of the injured ones, but Sai pays them no attention. He’s going to meet his anchor, the one who links him with his emotions, the one he has been waiting for this whole time. 

Finding a secluded woody area, he sits and waits. And prays. Prays enemy won’t attack now that he has the chance to meet her. Prays she finds him soon. 

“Sai!” 

And soon she comes. 

He gets up immediately, his face hopeful once again as she runs into his arms. She looks more worn out than he has ever seen her, but she still is as beautiful as ever. Her arms wrap tightly around him. His lips meet hers in an instant, his are rough and hers are reddened from excessive biting, but they still fit against each other so well. They kiss like they haven’t seen each other for days, her hands running up to his hair, though the war has made them feel like they haven’t seen each other in months. 

Parting slowly, she rests her forehead against his. 

“Ino...” She raises her eyes up to look at him, lips slightly open and eyes glassy. Her eyes shine brighter than any of the stars he can see tonight.

“Sai, oh my god. I was so worried. Are you alright?” 

He nods. “Ino, I.. I missed you so much. I thought something happened to you.”

His words seem to soften her expression even more. “You were worried about me?” 

“I was,” his hand comes up to caress her cheek, “I wanted to be with you, just in case anything happened–” 

“Shh,” she stops him, two of her fingers coming to rest on his lips, “Don’t worry about anything now. I’m here, you’re here. Alive. That’s what matters.” 

“Alive,” he whispers, her fingers still on his lips; he wants to kiss them; he wants to kiss her. So many times this day he has prayed that she would stay alive. And here she is, in flesh and blood, living and breathing, one of the lucky survivors, his prayers answered. Right in front of him. In his arms. She’s living. 

“Yes,” she whispers back, her fingers retreating. She presses her forehead against his again and closes her eyes. They rest, breathing slowly in each other’s embrace.

Then Sai remembers the day he has had, the blood he has seen being spilled. The dead coming back to life. 

His brother. 

“I met Shin,” he blurts out without thinking, suddenly feeling the need to tell her. Her eyes snap open as she pulls back. Worry fills pools of endless blue. 

“What-what happened? Did he come back because of the–” 

“Yeah,” he interrupts her softly, “the reanimation jutsu brought him back too.” 

“Oh, god. Asuma came back as well.” Her voice lowers.

Sai looks at her. “I heard. Do you wanna talk about it?” 

It’s a sentence that she says to him often when he has had a bad day. She tries to get him to talk and he hopes by doing it, she will talk about it as well. Maybe it will help her feel better. It helps Sai sometimes. 

Instead she laughs. 

It’s a small hearty laugh, one that lasts about three seconds, leaving Sai confused. That’s all, before he notices that she has brought her hands to her face, sobbing quietly. 

She’s crying.

Instinctively, he reaches for her arm. “Ino, what’s wrong?” 

She wipes her eyes quickly, avoiding meeting his own. “Nothing, I just… can’t believe you said that to me. I’m usually the one that asks you that and now you…you’re…”

And that makes him take a step back, making him think he has made a mistake, has crossed a line he shouldn’t have. His expression darkens sadly. 

“Was it wrong of me to ask that? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you." 

She immediately shakes her head disapprovingly, wiping her tears once again. “What? No, god, no. It wasn’t a mistake. I was just.. really touched because of you saying that. Using my own words against me huh,” she comes closer to him, her hand resting on his face, as his own settle on her waist.

“My sweet boy. You’re so unbelievably sweet.”

Despite knowing he’s not as kind as she makes him out to be, her words taste equally as sweet, as he feels the need to hide in her neck. His favorite spot. He breathes in her scent, feels her whole being. He loves to hear her breathe, to know that she’s alive.

“I’ll talk about it later, okay? And you can tell me about your encounter with Shin. I want to hear it all, if you wish to talk as well. Just later, when all of this is over. We’ll talk so much, Sai. I promise. We’ll have all the time in the world,” she reassures him softly and he believes her, because how could he not when she’s so comforting.

“Alright. Okay. I want to talk with you about it all,” he agrees, his grip on her tightening. He loves having her there. And then he remembers his prayers. 

“But… you have to promise me you’ll stay alive. We can’t talk about anything if you die.” 

“I’ll stay alive, Sai. And you will too. None of us is dying.”

“I never wanna lose you,” he mutters softly, making his biggest fear known. She rubs his back soothingly in response, like she always does.

“You won’t lose me, angel. I’ll be here, with you, after this is over.”

He kisses her neck softly as if to tell her he agrees with what she’s saying, igniting fire on her already warm skin. Her breath gets caught in her throat. 

“Sai, please. I should go back before anyone gets suspicious. I’ve been gone for a while.”  

“Of course, beautiful,” he gives her one last cheek kiss before pulling back to look at her. She shines, she’s the moon and the stars, she’s his guiding light.

“I’ll miss you,” she says, “please stay safe.” 

"Come back to me alive,” he responds back.

She pecks his lips one last time before walking away. Being separated from her has always been hard, especially now. Yet Sai feels content. She’s alive and well and she has made a promise to him. He’ll see her soon. Again. Alive.

In the meantime, he’ll keep praying. And hoping. She’s strong, she’ll be okay. 

(He, however, forgets to pray about himself.)