It was a realm of pure white that she stepped into, and she surveyed her surroundings with an ardent curiosity, as doing so was her nature. To her dismay, she found nothing of great interest, as it was simply nothing, nothing, nothing, and nothing as far as the eye could see in every direction. She frowned. The situation wasn't as bad as it could be, but she wasn't sure how long she'd be here, and being in a world full of nothing didn't really sound appealing.
"Hey. You." From behind her, seemingly out of nowhere, a rough, deep voice spoke. She turned around and looked at the man inquiringly, and recognized him almost immediately, though she had never met him personally.
"Ah, hello. You're… "Bro," aren't you?" she asked pleasantly. "Pleased to meet you." Her somehow blue and cream colored hair fell over her shoulders as she inclined her head slightly. At this, he grinned, and flicked his bright orange sunglasses over his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, same here. You're his woman, right?" It was a rhetorical question, honestly. He already knew that much. She responded anyway with a smile.
"Come on, sit down. Let's talk a bit." He had already gotten down onto a log which hadn't been there before. Her eyes widened at this new discovery before following suit and sitting down.
"How was he, last you saw him?"
"He was smiling, even then."
"He won, right?"
"Of course."
"But you're still…" She shook her head, somewhat regretfully.
"It couldn't be helped. We both knew it would happen."
"Is that so," he said, a sympathetic look crossing his face before he looked more serious.
"Hey, I got another question for you. How was he… back then?" Without him even specifying, she understood what he meant.
"Sad. Very sad. He was just digging and digging… and then we were all captured, and the one to save me was him." She smiled fondly, the memory of her hands under his filling her mind and allowing her to live, if only for a moment, in the past. For the first time, she looked towards the man besides her.
"Were you not able to see that part?" He scowled.
"Gimme a break, not much time had passed and it's a complicated business, and I'm not good with complicated crap." She giggled before remembering.
"He once told me a story, you know."
"Yeah?"
"It was about when he was trapped in a cave in, and all he could do was dig… just dig, and dig, and he felt like it was hopeless and he would die like his mother and father… when he heard the voice of his Bro, and it encouraged him to keep going." She sighed. "He believed that it was his Bro that saved his life that day, even when I had to go."
"…he really said that? That's..." Before he finished, she put a finger to her lips before continuing.
"But you know, Yoko told me a different story. In what she told me, the Bro was trapped, and he felt hopeless – before he saw his little brother's back simply digging and digging… and that led him to cheer on in an attempt to do anything." She stared at him with her overly shiny eyes. "It's amazing, isn't it? You two really did… do depend on each other."
He looked at her in surprise before nodding with a grin. There was a silence, not awkward or contemplative, but simply necessary.
"…I wish I could've stayed longer," she whispered regretfully. "I wonder exactly how he's doing now…" Suddenly, she felt a warm hand on her head that mussed her hair and reassured her. Her eyes widened in surprise at this gesture, and it occurred to her that she had never felt this before.
"It's okay, Nia. You did well."
And with that one phrase, she felt truly, for the very first time, the feeling of true "family"; and with the passing of that one instant, from one pet on the head, she felt like she wanted to cry. She didn't, though. There was really no reason to.
"Anyway, how wouldja like to leave this place? Unless you wanna spend eternity in… well… nothing." At this, he got up from the log, and she clearly saw a door right in front of her. "Those bastards – Kittan and the rest – will definitely be happy to see you…"
"Ahh, Kittan-san! I'd almost forgotten he was here too!" She smiled brightly again before looking at the door. "So it was you who were making it happen after all…"
"Of course! Who the hell do you think I am?!" She replied, without even skipping a beat.
"You're Bro!" He simply grinned back.
"Let's go!"
And so they did.
End
The idea came from A) Kamina petting Nia's hair because it seems cute to me, and B) If Simon is Kamina's little brother, then Nia is Kamina's little sister.