CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

[SIZE="5"]The Legend[/SIZE]

An Untold-Romance, The Story of Zutara.


Prologue

“It comes hard to explain about the romance between two people who were on an extreme level very different, and yet the same in so many ways.”—Jenny


She thought she may never forgive him. She thought for sure there was no way on earth to forgive someone like him, a person who had chased them around so much, and had tried to kill them on numerous occasions. Her hate for him had built up over the months, and finally... she had taken it out on him. She had blamed him for something she knew wasn't his fault, but she couldn't help it. She felt like everything bad that had happened to them was his fault. She knew better... and on the trip they had taken... and at the beginning of that mess... she had felt an inner twist of emotions. Such as when he saved her from being crushed, he was of course on top of her, and she had lashed out at him for saving her. But truthfully, inside she had felt a small twist in her gut; she wasn't sure what it was. Some people called it butterflies, she called it confusion.
Then they had gone on their mission, he had stood up for her... threatened the men, gotten mad for her. And he didn't try to stop her from taking out her rage, perhaps it was wrong of her, but she was grateful that unlike Aang, he didn't try to stop her. He supported her and even when he knew what Aang had said was right, he supported her at the end of it. While she had been blood bending, he had just looked shocked, but hadn't asked wildly; "Stop! What are you doing to that man!!" he had just let her do it. Also when they had finally found the real man who had murdered her mother... he hadn't tried to stop her from killing him. Which she hadn't, but she was sure it was because he knew she had to make her own choices. He didn't treat her like she couldn't think for herself, not that anyone else did, but sometimes she felt like they were restraining her.
She was feeling conflicted, she knew how Aang felt for her, but…She was feeling something else now. And she was afraid yet happy about it at the same time. She had never felt like this before... not even when she had been around Jet. Something new, inexperienced, she was looking forward and at the same time a little scared to know of where it would take her. Of course, she had never been one to back down from a challenge. And this feeling was certainly a challenge; she would follow the path, and see where it would lead. Be it to heartbreak or to a dead-end, she didn't know, and at the moment... she wasn't sure if she cared.
She was of course still upset over her mother having been murdered, and the fact that she hadn't been able to kill the man. Even though she knew what she had done was right... she felt it all tugging at her insides...


~*~*~*~*~*~*~





“Dreams they come and go, but thoughts like love will always grow.” –Special Girl, Chicago



The sound of padding feet and flames licking the walls alerted the prince of fire that someone was lighting the lamps in the hall for the night, he glanced down the hall as he stood outside his bedroom door, he had been debating something with himself and now he couldn’t seem to find an answer to his questions. The Prince jumped when the servant came around the corner, “Ah, Good Evening Prince Zuko.” The servant said bowing, his expression unchanging. Zuko nodded with a twitch before opening his door and stepping into the room, he breathed a sigh of relief, for what reason he wasn’t sure, but he just knew he needed it.
Turning to look at his room Zuko loosened his shirt, making it more comfortable, his golden eyes scanned the red room and his mouth went into an uninvited frown. He carefully pulled the stick that was poked in a hole in his golden flame shaped crown and pulled the hair dress off and let his hair fall. Zuko closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. His room was huge, definitely a lot bigger than the captain’s cabin he had back on his tiny ship. The room was covered in red things, including the walls, brilliant bright reds, dark reds and even some golden red, silky curtains waved down from the top of the window and swayed around the bottom of the doors that opened to the balcony like a cloak hiding a precious secret. Zuko sighed and threw his outer coat onto the bed; he strolled over his bed and flopped onto the squishy comfort of the princely bed, covered in red silky sheets and blanket, with a red canopy. He glanced around the room, all this glory, all these colors… this was nothing. He had been living away from these things for so long that he really didn’t enjoy seeing the plastered colors.
Zuko glanced around the room in a slight disgust, all of this was wrong, very wrong, they had all the pleasures in the world, but those poor people who lived out on the street who were tortured by the insignia of the fire nation, and ran away in fear of his people. A stinging pain jolted through his head, and Zuko bent his head into his hand and winced, he was gaining a headache from all the things that had happened and that would happen. A flash of blue made him look up; sitting on his dresser, his eyebrows narrowed as he stood up and walked over to it. Sitting as if it had appeared by magic was a necklace; he recognized it as the water tribe peasant’s necklace, what was her name again? Zuko shrugged it off and reached out to pick up the necklace, but it faded before his eyes. ‘What the…’
Taken-aback by the image that had just disappeared as suddenly as it had come made Zuko back away slowly from his dresser and decide it might be best to get some rest, Zuko silently pleaded with whatever power there might be that he wasn’t losing his mind. So with an unsteady heart he lifted the blanket and sheet, and slid under them slipping into the warm comfort of home, hoping to have a goodnights rest.
As dreams almost always are, you cannot control them, they move and flow without your permission, and you must follow the tide, such is what happened to Zuko as he slept.
The sound of the sea crashing against the icebergs filled his senses as he followed the path the avatar had left to the little village, he was already in his armor when they landed on the ice, he walked down the plank, kicking a peasant along the way and stopped in front of the group of villagers. His golden eyes that flickered like fire, scanning them, his line of vision paused on a village girl who stood next to an older woman, she seemed to be afraid, her eyes shivered with fear and her face showed small signs of wanting to run. Her beautiful blue eyes shimmered and her thick hair twisted into two loops and went back into a braid. He had to admire for a moment that someone this pretty was actually in an ice-hole like this, he reached out toward her and touched her hair, running his gloved finger down her face and stopped at her chin.

Jolting up Zuko’s breath came out hard, as sweat poured down his face. In comparison to some of his scary dreams he would rather have those nightmares a hundred times instead of having a strange dream like that. Zuko rubbed his face and ran a hand through his hair, then with a shiver he lay his head back down on the pillow case and closed his eyes to sleep.
When Zuko arose the next morning, he felt well rested; he hadn’t had another dream like the previous one. But having that dream made him think of something he hadn’t thought about since it had happened… the day he was captured and thrown into the prison with the water tribe girl; Katara. He clothed himself, because it was to early for the servants to be there, and then walked over to the mirror, he looked at his reflection and stared at the scar he found so hideous, and remembered the numb feeling of soft skin touching his face. That soft wonderful skin, he closed his eyes to the remembrance of the feeling and took a deep breath, the air smelled like jasmine, not like how the water girl had smelled. Zuko shook his head breaking his trance and looked in the mirror once more.
Zuko stole out of his room and quickly walked down the stairs, he turned a corner and stopped abruptly, there at the end of the hall was his younger sister, Azula. Normally she wouldn’t be awake at this hour, or at least he didn’t think she would be… after all the sun wasn’t even up yet. Zuko took a step back and quickly went back down the hall he came, he took a different route to the garden, and squatted down at the pond, his mind raced with thoughts of the past, memories he had only dare to dream about, he was to afraid of dreaming about her otherwise. He closed his eyes to the image of his mother and soaked in the clear memory of her face, he wondered how exactly his mother had fallen for his father, how could someone so sweet love someone so…evil. Zuko’s hand curled into a fist as he felt rage twist through him. The truth was becoming hard to handle, he had done something terribly wrong, he had taken a different path, and now… he was deeply regretting it.
A splash in the pond made him look up; sitting by the waters edge was a turtle duck. He tried not to smile, but his mouth twitched with the urge, he pulled out a small bag of bread, he pulled out a small handful of bread crumbs carefully and lifted his hand to throw the bread, but the turtle-duck winced and ducked away from him, dodging backwards and pulling his head into his shell. Zuko blinked rapidly, confused as to why the duck would be afraid, and then he remembered the day he had hit the baby turtle-duck with the rock. Perhaps this was the same baby turtle-duck that he had hit, and the baby who was now and adult, had remembered that.
Zuko sighed and lowered his hand; he tossed the bread into the water gently and waited. Slowly the turtle-duck came out of hiding and swam hesitatingly toward Zuko, he paused briefly, his black eye watching the prince before dipping his head and eating the bread, one eye still on the prince of fire. Zuko smiled a small satisfied smile, and felt something warm tingle inside of him, it was an odd feeling that had only happened to him when he had been happy with his Uncle. So, what was causing it now? Zuko glanced at the turtle-duck and then around the garden, perhaps it was just a feeling of doing something right for once.
Right, something right, not what he had done recently, he had done something terrible to people who had trusted him. He hurt them and let them down, his Uncle being one of them, and… Katara being the other, it hurt just as much to think that he hurt the girl who had hated him, and then forgiven him, when she realized they had something in common, as betraying his Uncle did. But he wasn’t really sure why.
Zuko sighed and then stood up; it was no good to think of those things, it would only give him a headache, an unnecessary thing right now, especially with all the stuff he had to take care of. He looked at the turtle-duck one more time before turning to go inside, he was startled by his younger sister.
“Ugly things turtle-ducks…I prefer a good lion-bird myself.” She smirked and crossed her arms, “what are you doing out here so early Zu-zu? Surely someone who has been sailing on a metal rig would want to sleep longer in a cozy bed.” Azula waved a hand as she spoke, she tried to mold her face into one of innocence, but the cruel nature of hers poured out through her eyes, giving away any innocent mask. Zuko didn’t even respond, instead he walked around his sister. “Aw, what’s wrong Zuko? Not enjoying this life as much as the bum one you left behind?” Azula smirked evilly, Zuko paused for a moment and then continued into the palace, there was something seriously wrong with his sister, he wasn’t sure what, but he had a few theories.
Closing the door to the garden he sighed, he wasn’t going to get any kind of rest around here, especially not with his sister running around making a terror of herself. Zuko leaned against the red wall, and closed his eyes, the image of the girl he had betrayed flared into his head, burning him like an inner fire that could never be put out. He let her image flicker in his conscious, he didn’t know why he didn’t just slam the doors on the other life, but he couldn’t do it, he really couldn’t bring himself to slam his mind against images of her.
Zuko growled frustrated with himself, and walked down the hall, fire smoldering from his fists. Servants dodged around him, or coward in fear of his rage. Ruling the kingdom with an iron fist didn’t seem to be all that his father did, he scared the courage right out of the servants too. Zuko gritted his teeth; he didn’t want to be like his father that was the one thing he didn’t ever want. He took a deep breath and the flames stopped, he nodded curtly to a servant who walked by. It was the least he could do for scaring the day lights out of the other few servants who had seen him. Today had just begun and he was already feeling lousy, and that was never a good sign.

So to fix his anger he went to his bedroom and sat on the floor, breathing in deeply and then out. The fire inside of him boiled down to a simmer and he felt calmer. Zuko sighed and flopped onto his back staring up at the ceiling, his thoughts were plagued by her face. He closed his eyes to her face, only to see it even more vividly behind his lids, the look on her face when he had betrayed her, when he had broken that tiny little bond he had developed between them. The bitter bite of regret dug into his gut; somehow, it bothered him a great deal that he had done such a thing to her. He wondered just what the feeling was that had grown inside of her when he had betrayed her, did it feel anything like what he felt? No, probably much worse… she had trusted him. Zuko slammed his fist on the hard ground. He had everything he had ever wanted, yet he still felt like an empty vessel drifting on a sea of remorse, depression and anger.
Zuko opened his eyes and stared at his arm that was lifted over his face, he lifted his hand so that he could see all his fingers, he gripped his hand into a fist and smacked his forehead with it, he really wasn’t getting anywhere by thinking about his mistakes, he needed to stop looking back and look forward, he was the prince of the fire nation again, somehow that didn’t comfort him and his gut twisted more as he thought about how unsatisfied he was…even if he did have a girlfriend, his heart was still empty and broken. Zuko sat up abruptly as the doors to his bedroom opened.
“I knocked.”
The even voice of his girlfriend said as she stepped into the room, she looked the same as ever, same outfit, and same hair. Zuko forced a smile, “Hey Mai.”
“Why are you on the floor?” she asked arching a black brow, “not that I care, I just think it’s strange.”
Zuko shrugged, “I… was in the mood.” He noted her expression and got up quickly, “but I am out of the mood now.” He smiled at her and she smiled back, walking to him and wrapping her arms around his waist. “You really are something else you know that?” she leaned in to kiss him and for a moment Zuko hesitated. Mai arched a brow, but before she could ask what was wrong, Zuko kissed her gently and rubbed her arms. “Sorry, I’m just tired.” He explained, trying to cover up his mistake. ‘Great, another mistake to add to the pile of mistakes.’ He thought bitterly.
“Hey, what’s up?” Mai asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. Zuko looked at her and shrugged, “nothing.’ He smiled and wrapped an arm around her thin waist, “How about we go get some food?” Mai asked, trying to coax him into doing what she wanted. Zuko nodded, “yeah, I haven’t eaten yet. What do you want?” he walked toward the door with Mai by his side, “I don’t know, but I’ll think of something.” They both left the room and went to the dining hall, Zuko suppressing his inner emotions as they went.

The whole day Zuko had been playing up his emotions, he pretended to be happy around Mai, he pretended to be indifferent around Azula, and around anyone else he pretended he didn’t see them. Doing that for the whole day was a real strain on his body, so when he reached his bedroom, he felt the impacts of it slam into him full force. He instantly fell onto his bed without changing and pulled the sheets over him, covering his body and head. Leaving his mind unguarded to the ever threatening thoughts of Katara that tried to spill out, this time they succeeded, rather heavily too, they threw themselves at Zuko like a ton of bricks, slamming his consciousness and making his dreams flit from one scene to another, the things that happened in the dreams were much different than how they had happened in real life.
Zuko actually got close to Katara, touching her face, running his fingers through her hair, he wasn’t sure how that would really feel, but he could imagine. Zuko felt his sleep-lacking body twitch as he dreamed of the time when Katara had run into his arms, unwillingly when the pirates had been chasing her. He remembered how it felt to hold her arms and pull her close, in the dream he stared a long time into those beautiful blue eyes that pierced through him like ice. There were no words to describe how he felt when he looked into them. He didn’t even like her, at least that’s how it was the last time he had checked, so he was completely lost as to why he was dreaming about her.
He tried to pull away from the dreams, but they tugged him down like an anchor, keeping him enclosed in the things that had taken place. Zuko finally gave in and sank deeper into the dreams.
A scene from when he found her necklace flipped into his dreams, he remembered picking it up, feeling the sweet silk material slip in his fingers, and the beautifully carved pendant, he lifted the necklace to his nose and gave it a gentle sniff, it smelled of wild flowers and the sea, somehow that appealed to him in his dream, a lot more than Mai’s expensive stuffy smelling perfume.
He smiled at the scent; it was definitely something to remember. Then as the rest of the dreams had been, it flipped away and another came to him, only this one was about Katara, Aang and his Uncle. Katara had just been about to heal his scar, or attempt too when Aang had busted into the cave through the wall. Katara had rushed to him and embraced him; Zuko felt something run through his veins, anger. He was angry that Aang had come and done that, his Uncle stopped him from attacking Aang, but it didn’t stop the rage he felt toward the younger boy who seemed to hold Katara’s attention. Zuko saw her glance back at him as she left, as if wanting to run back and drag him with her and because of that one last look Zuko felt his heart flip and throb. Why hadn’t he grabbed her? Why hadn’t he stopped her? Asked her to take him with her? Why… because, he had felt something deep inside of him telling him to stay. Wouldn’t be the first time his gut had been wrong.
When the sun struck his face Zuko opened his eyes, he was lying on his back, and he sighed, closing his eyes, trying to understand what he had experienced last night. Maybe he was just losing his mind, Zuko nodded, yep that was it, he was losing his mind. He stood up and threw the bed together, he looked down realizing he had slept in his day clothes, he sighed annoyed and went to get changed. When Zuko exited his bedroom a servant stood there waiting for orders, he simply told the servant to be ready for when his girlfriend came over. The servant nodded and left.
Sighing with relief Zuko strolled down the hallway, feeling much better about his dreams, or nightmares he had last night, now that he knew he was just losing his mind it would all be okay. Zuko ordered the guards to open the palace doors, and when they did a crowd of fan girls screamed, he ordered them to shut the doors. Zuko sighed, there was no way he would make it out alive if he went out there looking like this, an idea sprang into his head and he quickly returned to the palace, he ignored his sister when she called to him and went to his bedroom.
He pulled out a set of black things, he touched them delicately, “Never thought I’d be using these again.”
“Using what again?”
He knew that tone anywhere, Zuko shut the box and turned sharply on his sister, “what are you doing?” he asked glaring at her. Azula shrugged, “well you ignored me when I called to you so I decided to come in and see what was wrong.”
“Nothings wrong now leave.” Zuko growled pointing at the door. Azula arched a brow, “so touchy today brother, what’s wrong? Palace life not living up to your expectations?” she walked toward him slowly.
“I said leave.” Zuko said, his voice shaking.
“Hm, to listen would mean being obedient, so no.” she smirked.
Zuko’s fists instantly erupted in flames, Azula stopped smirking and stepped back, “alright, calm down, I’m leaving, good grief so sensitive.” She shut the door. Zuko waited ten minutes before opening the trunk and pulling out his outfit, he changed and pulled on the black cloak. He went out the window and snuck out over the palace walls, he grinned, it was fun to have a bit of his adventure back. Zuko walked into the town, no one even recognized their prince as he strolled around in black, and no one seemed to care either.
It was interesting to see the world he had never been allowed to see before, all the merchants, all the people running around and buying. Zuko wondered for a moment, if Katara enjoyed doing this, walking around, seeing all the different people selling different things. Just as quickly as the thought had come he shut it out; he wasn’t going to think about her or his dreams today. Instead he busied himself by looking at the items that the merchants sold, some of them were interesting and others definite rip offs. He smiled at something he saw, a fire flower carved into a necklace. It was definitely done by a master craftsman. As he admired it, the shopkeeper came over.
“What do you think of that hm?” he asked smiling.
“It’s… pretty.”
“Yes, yes it is, and it’s perfect for a girlfriend.” The shop keep smiled almost knowingly at Zuko, making Zuko fidget. “R-really? You think so huh?”
“Sure! It’s wonderful, why any girl would be happy to have something so beautiful.” The man exclaimed.
“Hmm, Okay, I’ll take it.” Zuko dropped the coins into the man’s hand and took the necklace; he would give it to Mai sometime. That would be romantic.
Zuko finally went back to the palace when the sun was starting to set, he had lost himself in the wonder of the town, and had lost track of time. Zuko slipped into the palace and into his bedroom, and just as he breathed a sigh, he heard Mai’s irritated voice.

“Where were you today?”
Zuko spun around and saw her sitting on his bed, “Oh, I went out.” He shrugged and took off the black cloak. “In black?” she said pointing. Zuko winced, “yeah, well I… it was fun.” He said changing the subject; Mai arched a brow, “fun? How could running around in a town of peasants be fun?” she asked staring at Zuko, feeling uneasy Zuko shrugged, “well, I… I bought you something.” He pulled out a box, and held it out to her. Mai took the box and eyed it before opening it rather carelessly; she threw the lid down and pulled out the necklace. She didn’t say anything for a long time, which made Zuko fidget, until he finally asked; “Well? Do you like it?”
Mai looked up at him, “what do I need with this? It wouldn’t even match my clothes.” She set it down on the nightstand; Zuko felt like someone had dropped a rock into his stomach, “Fine, I just thought you might like it.” He said his eyes narrowing as he spoke. Mai shrugged, “don’t get me wrong, it’s really pretty, it’s just not my thing.” She waved a hand and turned to leave the room, “why don’t we go have dinner now?” she smiled and Zuko nodded, “yeah, just let me get changed real quick.” Mai nodded and left the room closing the door behind her, Zuko changed back into his prince clothes and fixed his hair, and then he walked out of the room, glancing back at the abandoned necklace.

Dinner had been a nightmare, he hadn’t been hungry and when he didn’t eat Mai had bugged him about it to almost no end, he decided he really needed to get to his room before he snapped at her. After she had finished eating and said goodbye, Zuko rushed to his room and closed the door, he couldn’t stand the annoyed feeling that was building up inside of him. She had rejected a perfectly good gift and then expected him to be happy about it. Zuko kicked his nightstand, making the box fall off and land on the floor, the necklace spilled onto the floor. Zuko looked down at the delicate silver string that held the pendant before picking it up, he stared at the fire flower carved into it, and then he turned to the balcony, opened the doors and with all the anger and rage he could muster, he threw the necklace as far as he could, shouting with aggravation.
He slammed the balcony doors shut and stomped to his bed where he sat down hard on the edge making the bed creak in protest. Zuko crossed his arms and fumed, it was bad enough that she was always so critical about everything, but to reject him like that, it really hurt. He winced when he realized that this must be how his Uncle had felt every time he had hurt him. Zuko flopped back onto his bed and stared up at the red canopy, “what’s wrong with me?” he asked to his bedroom. He was definitely losing his mind, because now he was talking to his room. ‘All I wanted to do was pull us together, I was really hoping that necklace would help us get closer, I mean…it would be our little thing, when she wore the necklace I would smile at her and she would know what I was smiling about. It would be an understanding that we would only know about, and whenever we were around anyone else, they wouldn’t get it…So, what did I do wrong? She didn’t even… consider wearing it.’
Zuko placed an arm over his head and sighed.
“Wake up dum-dum.” Azula said from the doorway, making Zuko sit up.
“What do you want?” Zuko asked.
“Were going to the beach in a few weeks, just a heads up,” Azula said waving a hand casually.
“The beach?” Zuko said staring at her in disbelief, “why?”
“I don’t know it was father’s idea,” Azula said crossing her arms, “anyone, just be ready when the time comes.” She turned and left the room, closing the doors behind her. Zuko flopped backward onto the bed again and groaned loudly, he felt like a child with everyone treating him like this, even his Father seemed to think it was necessary to send him away, and he had to wonder why. Zuko sat up frustrated with all the happenings of today, he changed into more comfortable clothes and wandered from his room, heading to the gardens.
Zuko stood in front of the pond and watched the moon glint off the water, he had a sudden flash back of two fish weaving in and out of each other in a pond much like the one he stood in front of, that had been in the North pole, he remembered the fish, and he remembered that he had fought Katara there. Zuko shook himself from the flash-back and reached out toward the water, he wasn’t sure why, but his fingers touched the top of the water where the moon reflected, he felt something touch his hand, he quickly yanked it back, startled.
Carefully and slowly, he reached back toward the water and dipped his hand in, he flinched when he felt something touch his finger, but the thing didn’t move so, he reach deeper and gripped what ever it was and pulled it up. Zuko opened his hand and looked down at the thing he had captured. It was the necklace, almost unrecognizable as the same brilliant beauty he had earlier; it was covered in mud and some sort of green grass. He rinsed it off in the pond, making sure to get every piece of mud off, until it was a bit cleaner, it was almost the same as it had been earlier that day.
He sighed and pulled the necklace out so it stretched over his arm and hand. “Look at you, just a bit of soil and you have already lost some of your brilliance.” Zuko said, he looked up at the moon and then back at the necklace, he put the pendant into the moonlight and glinted it, Zuko wondered if any necklace had ever looked so beautiful before, even when it was dirty.
A thought struck Zuko, this necklace was a lot like him, even though it had been disregarded and dirtied, someone had found it and pulled it out of the mud pit it had been stuck in. Someone had saved it; he fingered the necklace and wondered what it would’ve been like if he had let someone save him, would things be different, or would he still be the way he was right now. Zuko closed his eyes and thought about his Uncle, so many times his uncle had tried his hardest to save him from falling, but he had never let his Uncle help him, instead he had ridiculed him. Zuko opened his eyes and looked at the necklace; he wouldn’t let anything happen to this necklace, not now, not ever. He closed his hand around the pendant and stood up; he walked back inside and held the necklace tight so it wouldn’t slip from his grip.
Zuko went back into his room and sat on the edge of his bed, he placed the necklace down on the nightstand gently, making sure it was settled nicely, then he pulled back the blankets and slid under, he turned on his side so he could see the necklace, he stared at it for a long time, wondering what he would use to clean it with, and how he would clean it off. It needed to be done with well so it wouldn’t stain the silver chain. Zuko nodded absently when he decided he would have to find some special cleaner for it. He would have to find a wooden box or something pretty to match it. Or maybe a plain box so no one would think about stealing it, no a pretty wooden box with markings carved all on it, yes, it was perfect. Zuko smiled as he stared at the necklace, it deserved to be treated like this, with kindness.
For a moment Zuko thought about his mother, wondering if she would like this necklace and if she would cherish it because it was something from him, he wondered if she would be proud of him for picking such a pretty item. Zuko felt tears burn his eyes, what would his mother say about the choices he had made, would she be proud of him? Or be ashamed that her son had chosen to take a path that conflicted his heart.
Several tears fell down his pale skin, and he closed his eyes, cutting off the flow of tears, Zuko didn’t want to think about what his mother would say, or how she would say it. So instead he re-focused on his necklace, Zuko reached out gently and fingered the pendant, he left his hand up there to cover the pendant, “goodnight…” he whispered, before closing his eyes to the sleep that had been forcing his eyelids shut.