I wish I could slow time and make my last day with Aka last a little bit longer, but sadly, I was no time wizard, and holding on would probably make things worse.

As I helped Aka gather a few things that she left in Aoi's apartment, I noticed something.

It was a picture of me. One I don't remember Aka taking of me. I was sitting in my usual spot. I was looking directly at the camera, smirking lightly with a soft look in my eyes. I was resting my cheek against my fist and I held my coffee in the other.

"That's one of my favorite pictures I ever took. I took it just before I started talking to you. I know it was weird to take and keep a picture of you with out asking, but... It's such a good picture of you. The best picture I've ever taken." Aka said softly when she noticed I was looking at it. I noticed she was blushing lightly.

"It is a good picture." I said as I handed it back to her. She nodded and took the picture from me. I watched from the corner of my eye as she carefully slid it in to the protected pocket of her bag. I smiled softly and went back to helping her gather her things.

As we gathered, I noticed she had things that were reminders of Aoi, Ace, Luffy, Aisuru and any of her other friends to go with the pictures of them.

Except me.

All she had was a picture. No item that would make her think of me. There had to be something I could-

"Alright, that's everything." Aka sighed.

"Alright. Let's get going. Want to get dinner before heading back?" I asked. She nodded.

"Panda Express?" She asked.

"Sure." I said. She smiled. We left Aoi's apartment. Aka stopped in the hall and stared at the door next to Aoi's. I recognized the numbers on the door as her old apartment.

"Aka-ya?" I asked.

"It's hard to believe. I lived in that apartment for four years, dreaming about this day. Now it's here and I can't even believe that I'll never be back here again." Aka said. I grabbed her hand. She looked me in the eyes.

"Are you nervous?" I asked. She shook her head slowly.

"Scared would be more like it." She said. I held our intertwined hands between the two of us.

"You will be able to achieve your dreams, Aka-ya. I know it." I encouraged. She smiled at me.

"You always know what to say." She said. After that, we went to dinner at Panda Express, then back to my apartment.

"This is it. Tomorrow I leave." She sighed. Then I remembered that I needed to give her an item to remember me by.

Then it hit me. The perfect item to give her. The item that would make her think of me. I stood up and headed in to my bedroom.

"Huh? Law? What is it?" She asked, following me.

I opened the drawer to my night stand and carefully dug through it.

"I know it's in here." I thought. Finally, I found the item I was looking for.

"Law?" Aka asked from my door way. I turned and faced her, keeping my hands behind my back.

"Close your eyes." I said. She blinked for a second.

"Okay." She said and closed her eyes. As tempted as I was to steal a kiss, I didn't. I walked over to her and gently settled the item I grabbed from my night stand around her neck.

"Open." I said. She opened her eyes and looked down.

"Oh my god! Law, it's beautiful!" She said, holding the necklace in her hand.

It was a jade crystal with wire around it.

"I love it." She said. I smiled.

"Just a little something to remember me by. That necklace is very special. I think it's only fitting it goes to someone as special as you." I said. She smile at me warmly.

I didn't tell her that the necklace was made by my little sister, Lami, before cancer took her life when she was 13.

"Hm? Who's this?" Aka asked, pointing at a picture in a frame on my nightstand. I looked at the picture. It was of me and Lami just before she died.

"That's me and my little sister, Lami, when we were younger." I said, picking up the picture and sitting on my bed while stairing at it. Aka sat next to me.

"Your sister?" She asked. I nodded.

"She was only two years younger than me. Our parents died when we were young, so it was just me and her on our own. She was my whole world." I sighed.

"... What happened?" Aka asked softly. I sighed sadly.

"She died. Cancer took her life when she was thirteen. Not long after this picture was taken." I said. I looked over the picture in my hand. I was giving Lami a piggy back ride and she clung tightly to my shoulders. I think that was the last time I felt joy before meeting Aka.

I felt Aka grab my free hand and rested her head on my shoulder.

"It looks like she adored you." She said. I smiled softly.

"She argued with me a lot, but she did look up to me. I was her older brother, after all." I said.

"Law.. When you met my dad... Had Lami already..?" Aka asked carefully. I nodded.

"For about a year." I said. Aka squeezed my hand.

"That must have been hard." She said. I nodded.

"It was, but that's what motivated me more to become a surgeon. I wanted to help people so that no one else would have to lose their sister or brother or parents the way I lost my sister." I said. I felt Aka shift her head to where she could look up at me and still rest her head on my shoulder.

I set the picture down on the night stand.

"Anyways, now's not the time to dig in to painful past." I said. Aka stood with me.

"Law." She said. I looked down at her. She pushed herself up in her toes, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me.

I leaned in to the kiss, resting my hands on her hips. My heart beat violently against my rib cage, trying to escape my body and go to Aka, where it belonged.

"Thank you, Law. For this whole past year." She said. I smiled.

"I should be thanking you." I murmured lowly.

"What was that?" She asked. I shook my head.

"It's nothing." I said.

She went back to the couch to sleep and I took a shower, trying to wash away my heartache. After my shower, I walked through the living room. Aka was out cold on the couch. I knelt down beside her. She was a heavy sleeper, that's for sure.

I gently stroked her soft cheek. Her lips twitch into a small smile as I did. I carefully dragged my thumb across her lips and they twitched forward, as if trying to kiss my thumb. I leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

I rose from my position and went back to my room and tried to sleep.