"Joshua..."

"Hmmm?"

"I love you very much, okay?"

The boy, pauses, looking down at the little girl uncertainly.

"Hmmm? What about Daniel?"

She pouted, thinking about the question before grinning up at the young boy.

"I love him like a brother...but I love you!"

The dark-haired boy laughed.

"Really?"

"Really really," she whispered, kissing me on the cheek.

The so-called 'Daniel' had been watching the other children, his blue eyes widened in horror and angry tears streaming down his face.

'Why was she choosing Joshua?' he asked himself, walking away from them, his heart bleeding.

She wasn't Joshua's to take...

She was his girl.

She was his true love.

She was his Airi.

*****

Daniel died.

He had died and had never been able to tell her how much he had loved her. He hadn't been able to make her happy. As he felt himself slipping away from Joshua and Airi, his eyes met the other boy's, both of them slipping unconcious and he reached out to the friend he had hurt. To the two friends he could trust.

"She's yours now, Josh...look after her..." he whispered, blood flowing from his wounds, his heart beat slowing. "Love her the way I couldn't love her."

And his friend had grabbed his hand, one arm still protecting the little girl filled with their love, and he nodded.

"I will do everything in my power to love her." Joshua replied, holding Daniel's hands tight. "You were the brother I never had, Daniel..." Tears streamed down his face as he closed his eyes in pain. "I'm sorry..."

"Idiot..." Daniel whispered as he slipped under the darkness, accepting his fate and letting go.

Daniel died.

But he died knowing that he had been loved by his best friends.

He died with love.