Suna curled around Kumo's limp body, a bitter pang rattling through her own. She never thought she'd need to put him to sleep, but it was for his own good. If she'd come any later, something far worse than a nap would've awaited Kumo. Fortunately, his sandman came prepared.

Once they were far from the gravestone, she set him down in a grass field, flat on his back. She then seeped beneath his clothes and filled his unseen cracks and cuts with her sand. After he was relatively back to normal, Suna sighed. That was close.

Behind them, the sun spread its light over the town. When it reached Suna, it shot right through her minus the occasional rays beaming of her particles. With her companion 'asleep', the sand cloud took a moment to regain her composure. At the moment her mind resembled a bowl of ice cream melted by the summer sun. Too many thoughts would've stirred in her head if she had one.

But that wasn't important right now. She placed her focus on Kumo instead. The bruises from his fall were still noticeable, although Suna did her best to cover them up. Her particles nestled between the cracks and cuts he'd gotten during his nightly adventures. This boy, if only he wouldn't get himself into so much trouble. After she finished, she rose back in the air to watch the moon sink. By the time the sun peeked past the horizon, Kumo was already awakening.

He scratched his head, sitting up. "What... What happened? Where's Yuu?"

Now fully awake, Kumo scrambled to get his surroundings. "We aren't in the forest..." he trailed off, then a rage started boiling in him while he stared at the sunrise. "That's right, you put me to sleep! Why would you―"

"Kumo," she warned, voice sharp as a dagger. "Even if I have to disappear, I swore I'd protect you as 'Suna'. I did what I had to."

At that, he stiffened. His arms dropped to his sides as he narrowed his eyes. "Wait, disappear? That's impossible. What do you mean?"

He answered his own question when he looked at her. The once overwhelming clump of floating sand was reduced to something barely larger than a cotton candy puff. "Why're you like that?"

Suna remained silent.

Kumo balled his fists until his knuckles faded to milk-white. He gave a huff and crossed his arms. "You've been keeping too many secrets. Don't you trust me? We're friends―you said so yourself!"

Rather than quench Kumo's unending thirst for knowledge, his sandman uttered the one thing he never wanted to hear. "I don't have much time left."

His confident facade faltered. Words struggled to escape his lips. "W-What? But―"

"I went to Lady Tsuki," Suna interrupted before he could start shooting a barrage of questions at her, "to get more sand. Normally the Lady would've given it to me, but it seems I've reached my limit." As if on cue, another sand clump dropped to the ground.

He shook his head, glancing downcast. "Bu-But we can get you more, can't we? At the park, there's lots of sand!" His face lit up like a lightbulb switched on for the first time, with a brilliance similar to the sun twinkling in his eyes. Enthusiastic about his clever plan, he pointed to the hill ahead of them. "It's over there, remember?"

"We are not merely sand, but sand blessed by Lady Tsuki's lacrimental essence. It's a rare substance; she'd rather not give it away unnecessarily." Suna held him back from sprinting off.

Kumo, catching the dull acceptance and hopelessness in her voice, fell to his knees. His throat was drier than a desert at the news. "We've only spent twenty years together―how can you leave so quickly? All the other sandmen lasted with their baku for many more decades, even centuries. So, why..."

What else he wanted to say remained lodged in his throat, substituted by a series of sniffles and silent cries. Despite the baku's inability to shed tears, the sorrow swirling at the pit of his stomach made it impossible to hold back his bitterness. So he sat on his bum, legs pressed to his chest, and wailed between quivering lips while Suna crumbled at a snail's pace.

"Suna," Kumo called after composting himself, "what have you been doing with your sand?"

It took her a moment to respond. "Healing you ever since you fell that night. Forgive me, I should've―"

He tugged on grass, ripping blades from their roots. "But that wasn't your fault! Ren was just being an idiot scumbag. If anything, I should've been more careful like you said."

"It's okay. But, I have one request, selfish as it may be."

He nodded after a congested sniff. "Go on."

The rising sun bounced off her disintegrating body. "When I fade, I want you to place my remains in an hourglass."

A muffled hiccup gurgled out from him in place of an answer.

"I want to stay with you for as long as I can, even if we cannot communicate," she continued, "and reminding you of how precious time is would be the perfect way to do so."

Without looking at her, Kumo muttered, "But, you're dying because of me."

In the blink of his reddened eyes, Suna scooped him up and wrapped herself around him. "I am fading because of my own choices, not yours. Do not believe otherwise."

The baku swiped his hand under his nose. "I-I'm sorry, Susu. I lied to you," he confessed once she put him down. "In the forest, I... I saw Yuu again. He was about to tell me why before you put me to sleep."

"I already knew that. You didn't think I would leave you completely, did you?" She chuckled at the idea. "When you told my body to go back, I left some of myself on you. Although I couldn't see what you did, I heard you speak with the ghost."

Kumo snapped his head to her, jaw clenched. "Then why didn't you―"

"Out of all the baku I've partnered with thus far, you've been my favorite." Her laugh reminded him of bells chiming one after another. Her voice lowered to an utter afterwards. "I wanted... I wanted to protect you."

At that, Kumo held his breath. "From what?" he questioned, a concoction of anticipation and fear stirring in his gut.

Another pile of sand returned to the earth. "You're going to have to figure that out on your own. Trust me, love, I may have been harsh, but my intentions were for the best. Now take out your bottle; I am starting to fade."

Kumo snapped his bottle's checkered keychain from his belt with shaking hands. "You're finally going to the big sandcastle in the sky, huh?" he tried to joke, but it was ruined by the crack in his voice.

"Indeed."

Silence walked between them, dancing around until Kumo killed it. "I'm going to make it now. Is there anything you want on it?"

"No―I like it simple, you know that. Preferrably gold, to match the color of your wonderful eyes."

He offered a smile while passing his bottle between his hands. "How fashionable of you. I haven't done this in awhile, so it might take a bit."

Suna said nothing as he cupped the bottle and expanded its size to that of a jar. He then squeezed it, using the side of his hands to mold the object. For hours, he sat in the grass, completely engulfed in his job. He wanted Suna's grave to be perfect, just like her. "Y'know," he started, keeping his eyes on the bottle-turned-hourglass, "I'm glad I met you."

Kumo had no idea how much those words made his sandman's body rattle with bliss. That was the one thing she wished to hear, especially when she kept so many secrets from her partner. Secrets that would, quite literally, be taken to the grave. Yet she remained quiet as the baku's hands glowed from heat.

He held the cooled hourglass up, staring at the setting sun through it. "I think it's finished! Isn't that great, Su..." he kept the last syllable a mystery, turning his attention to Suna, whose body had dropped to the ground. "Looks like time's up already."

Before the wind could steal her away, he gathered her sand and poured it into her makeshift-coffin. "Farewell, old friend," he whispered as day switched to night, "I'll miss you."