Chapter Text
The vivid orange sun peeks over the horizon, painting the sky and clouds above and the sea below in beautiful sunrise hues. And flying beside me, with his hand in mine, with a smile just as warm and vivid, is…
"Laaand hooo!" Caleb shouts above the wind roaring in our ears.
On the distant horizon but rapidly drawing closer is a lush tropical island, floating on the sea like a fluffy, verdant cloud. Our dream destination. We've finally made it…
Slowly, our bodies incline downward, and the wind weakens just enough that we can hear each other without having to yell. Caleb puts his hand in front of his mouth, makes a 'pssht!' noise, and puts on his best 'airline captain' voice:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now beginning our descent to Cloudia Island; please hold onto the pilot until we've come to a complete stop, and thank you for flying with Apple Airlines~."
We lose altitude at a brisk but safe velocity, until our feet touch the sandy beach. Looking up at Caleb, he looks none the worse for wear for flying us all the way here; panting from the exertion and a little windswept, but otherwise fine. He lets out a little 'phew,' and bonelessly sinks down to the ground. And by the pure coincidence of his forgetting to let go of my hand, he drags me down along with him. We both end up gracelessly landing on our backsides, but only one of us is openly amused by it.
Something between a breathless laugh and a sigh of relief escapes Caleb's grinning mouth, and he lies the rest of the way down on the sand.
I lightly poke his cheek, and tease, "We finally reached the magical island of adventure we've always dreamed of seeing, and the first thing you want to do is lie down for a nap?"
"Haaah, haha… One, I did most of the work getting us here. And two, it's not like the island's goin' anywhere, Little Miss Impatient." He sits back up and leans in closer to me, his playful tone changes to something almost sly. "And three, the actual first thing I wanted to do on Cloudia Island was…"
Before I had realized it, his arm had slipped around my waist, and he pulls me up against him. My breath stills as his other hand cups my cheek, and he touches his lips to my forehead.
"… That."
Lost for words, all I can do is smile and melt into his embrace, hiding my face in the crook of his neck. For so long, this has been my most secret, most unattainable wish: to run away with him, and never be separated again…
No Wanderers that demanded the existence of Deepspace Hunters or the Deepspace Aviation Administration. And no societal obligations that forced the time we got to spend together to shrink and lessen. As much as I treasure the moments we get to steal during our holidays and vacations and video calls, they aren't nearly enough. Why should we have to steal time at all?
Under his breath, Caleb asks, "Was that alright?"
"Mm-hmm…" I loosely wrap my arms around his chest, and my legs around his trunk.
"Good." He rubs my back with one hand, and gingerly lifts my chin with the other. I meet his gaze; eye contact isn't overwhelming when it's with him.
His eyes…
They're warm, soulful, a captivating violet hue with just a touch of sunset pink. No gemstone found on Earth could ever compare to them; his eyes are more like… setting sunlight and shadows playing together on a cloud. And when he smiles, I can see enough glimmering stars brimming within them to make the Milky Way quake with jealousy…
And when he looks back into my eyes, he seems to see something that he finds just as stunning, just as captivating. He cradles my face in his hands, and slowly tilts my head back down. He leans in, I close my eyes, and he lays a kiss on my eyelid.
He's so warm, he is warmth itself, he is the Sun, he is my home. He nuzzles our foreheads together, lovingly cradles my nape, slowly strokes between my shoulder blades. And I think that this must be how a blooming flower feels as it basks in the sweet embrace of sunlight…
… But what other flower has the chance to return the Sun's kisses?
With that thought, I lean in and sneak my own kiss, on the right-hand corner of his mouth. The same spot where I'd kissed him at his graduation ceremony—after he'd said, in no uncertain terms, that he never wanted to be without me… I remember that in that moment, I was so relieved and overjoyed that I hadn't been looking where my mouth was aiming. But this time, it's slow, and intentional…
And this time, it's Caleb who's leaning against my touch. Feeling just a little bit bold, I plant another kiss on his nose, and draw out the sweet, wonderful sound of his laugh. How did I ever stand going days or weeks or even months without hearing it?
The boy in my arms right now, he's the same boy who saw me getting uncomfortable and overstimulated at his basketball games, and then proceeded to save up his allowance for months so he could buy me noise-cancelling headphones for my birthday. The same Caleb who always took the time to learn how to take care of me, protect me, understand me… When other people leave, (like Zayne…) Caleb always comes back. But I know that both he and I would prefer it if he never needed to leave in the first place. And now, we won't have to be separated for the rest of time…
The Sun speeds up like a timelapsed video, the sky and clouds above our heads turning from sunrise to midday to sunset to sunrise again, as it soars above and dips toward the horizon, but never dissapears beneath it. Gravity has created a colorful, kaleidoscopic polar day for our perfect neverland, our paradise…
Caleb and I, still moving in real time, still hold each other. We look into each others gazes again, and find that we don't need to say anything. Maybe we've wanted this from the start, ever since that first day we found each other in that abandoned shelter, under that old asiatic apple tree…
We close our eyes, lean in, and right as our lips are about to touch…
Rahela opened her eyes to a dim, gray hospital room.
And right in front of her, an ownerless sterling silver necklace sat on a small table.
All at once, she was forced to remember everything.
Caleb's evol flinging her backward the instant before the blast. Regaining consciousness just long enough to see her lifelong home burning. The ringing in her ears. Waking up in this hospital room. Hearing fragments of the doctors' muffled conversations nearby, catching words like, 'total body disruption,' and 'nothing left to bury.'
A bone-deep chill began to set in, making Rahela's shivering, trembling body curl in on itself. The worst nightmare she'd ever experienced was now a reality. The Sun was gone, the whole world was freezing over and helplessly hurtling through the pitch-black void, and nobody wouldn't be coming over from the next room to wake her up this time.
Grandma Josephine, the woman who scooped her up out of desolate dust and gave her a home… and Caleb, her lifelong friend, her first love…
Zayne had told her over and over again not to blame herself. But he couldn't have known, he wasn’t there, he hadn't clearly seen everything she could and should have done to stop it.
That very day, she'd heard the news reports about explosions happening all over Linkon. She shouldn't have assumed Bloomshore would be safe because nothing had happened there yet, she shouldn't have given up her pursuit of the suspicious Evolver, she should have trusted Caleb to be able to help her…
How could she have let this happen? With bitter, obvious hindsight, she could see all the ways that she easily could have prevented this. If she'd just said something, literally anything, then…
Then… they would both still be…
On some level, she'd come to terms with the fact that the day that her grandmother left this world was going to come sooner rather than later. It shouldn't have happened like this, but she'd at least been a little bit emotionally prepared.
But, Caleb…
She'd known that his choice of career path, and his life at the DAA was a dangerous one. That had been the whole reason she'd given him the necklace and all but begged him to wear it at all times. Him continually choosing to wear it every single day had become a wordless promise to stay alive, to always come back to her.
She'd been so preoccupied with the countless threats in the sky, and his evol was so powerful that he could easily contend with almost any threat on the ground, human or Wanderer. She'd never once considered that dangers just around the corner could…
… could so easily, and so suddenly force her into a reality unfathomably worse than even her worst nightmares.
A reality that had cruelly ripped her Caleb, her hero, away from her…
She'd never feel the warmth of his embrace ever again, never feel him ruffling her hair again, never eat the food he'd make again, never talk with him again, never hear his laugh again, never look into his eyes again, no no no—
—his hands, his hair, his vocal cords, his eyes, his bones, his heart, his soul—
—all gone, all reduced to nothing, nothing but ash—
The whole world lurched, she rolled out of bed, hit the hard linoleum floor, desperately scrambled for the washroom, she was going to be sick—
Some time later, after heaving up all the contents in her stomach and then some, Rahela was roused from her exhausted, dazed state when one of the nurses, Yvonne, nudged her back to reality and helped her to her feet. She almost didn't recognize herself in the mirror; her face was red and swollen, stained with sweat and tears, but her expression had gone completely numb.
Rahela vaguely registered Yvonne helping back to her bed, and returning her phone to her; the nurse said it just needed sanitizing before she could use it in the hospital. And it seemed that, with her minor physical injuries mostly healed, Zayne was considering discharging her early.
"… Mm," a low hum of acceptance was all she could muster.
And all Yvonne could seem to muster was a weak nod, so the nurse left Rahela alone with her thoughts.
Some time later—she wasn't really paying attention to the clock, or anything—Rahela's phone buzzed on the table beside her. Glancing at the screen, she could make out the name on the notification:
… 'Rafayel.'
"… Nnngh…"
The eccentric painter who'd hired her to be his bodyguard, for… some reason. Something about a coral stone? It seemed so unimportant, now. In practice, it felt more like he was paying her copious sums of money every month, simply to be his… friend? Errand girl? Sounding board for his flights of fancy?
Over the course of the weeks before the explosion, she'd grown less and less annoyed by his antics, and gradually began to find them… Amusing? Endearing? She'd been able to crack a smile when he talked about things like tying paintbrushes to tree brances and letting the wind create a portrait, or watching crabs race on the beach and then dozing off before he could see the results…
But, now, the whole world felt unbearably empty. Colorless and meaningless…
… Still, she ought to at least read and respond to his message, if only so he wouldn't keep bothering her.
Opening her phone's messaging application, she read Rafayel's text:
'did you get the thing'
She raised an eyebrow in bewilderment, and typed her reply:
'Did you mail me something?'
Four more texts appeared in quick succession:
'?'
'asked a seagull to send you two white seashells why havent they arrived yet'
'…'
'hang on will check the reef over there seagull must have stashed em away'
… Rafayel had tried to conscript a seagull. To physically carry not one, but two seashells to—
Rahela pinched the bridge of her nose, her mind too exhausted to humor or 'yes-and' him this time.
But still, she shouldn't take her misery out on him. So she worded her response as calmly as possible while still letting him know how ridiculous the notion was:
'I don't think the hospital staff would let seagulls inside anyway, with or without mail.'
A minute later, and Rafayel texted back:
'fair enough'
'if u want something done right gotta do it urself'
He was unusually fixated on getting these seashells to her… Out of an odd curiosity, she typed:
'Are the white seashells supposed to be unique?'
Rafayel answered:
'nooope just some normie super clean seashells'
'dw im otw ill explain in person'
… With the text conversation apparently ended there, Rahela stared at the screen for a long moment. Somehow, this had been the most determined and focused she'd ever seen Rafayel be. What was he planning to accomplish by giving her a pair of featureless white seashells…?
But he would be along to explain soon enough, it seemed. And his explanation would probably be bewildering and silly…
… But, somehow, she felt just a little less numb and miserable than she had been a minute ago. That was… something, she supposed.