Chapter Text
The first time Miles had been shown Phoenix’s knack for art was when they were in fourth grade together, best friends, and working as partners on their classwork. They both finished their science worksheets rather quickly, they were both pretty bright kids, and had time to kill before the bell for lunch.
As Miles began to take his latest novel out of his desk, he saw his friend scribbling away in his notebook. What was he doing, finishing up last-minute homework? He craned his neck to see around the boy’s arm, and found he was doodling the Signal Samurai trio. It was rather well done, at least by elementary-school standards.
“I didn’t know you could draw!” He leaned in and whispered, setting the forgotten book back down in his desk. Miles himself couldn’t draw better than stick-figures, so he was impressed.
“Heh, yeah—Guess I kinda learned from my mom.” Phoenix’s smile widened as he glanced over at his friend for a moment, then looked back down at his work in progress. He grabbed a chunky pink eraser from his pencil case and started erasing Signal Red’s face, he didn’t like how it was turning out, then tried again.
“You draw really good.” Miles had scooted his chair closer to Phoenix’s desk. “Maybe you could teach me sometime.”
“Yeah! That’d be really fun!” He dug through his pencil case and found his red, blue, and yellow colored pencils and started scribbling in color on the characters. He could basically draw the Signal trio from memory, he drew them so often.
They both looked up in unison as the bell sounded for lunch, and their fellow students started getting up and out of their seats. Phoenix and Miles walked down the hall together, sitting at one of the lesser-populated tables and offering to share their meals with each other. Miles was starting to dig into his friend’s bag of goldfish crackers when a paper was shoved in his face.
“Do you wanna keep it? Since you like it so much,” Phoenix had his usual wide, kind grin plastered on his face, holding out the art for him. Miles nodded and took it, neatly folding it and putting it in his pocket. A few folds wouldn’t ruin the masterpiece, at least in Miles’ opinion.
“Thank you.” He said as he offered half of his sandwich to the other boy, who declined with a wave of his hand. “I think it’d be cool if you drew us as the Signal Trio sometime! You know, you, me, and Larry.” He could feel a soft smile on his face, Phoenix was really his only peer who could make him smile so readily.
As the spiky-haired boy replied with a “Heck yeah!”, the third part of their trio plopped down at their table and wrapped an arm around Miles’ shoulders. “Did I hear my name, Edgey?” He snickered, swiping the half of his sandwich he had offered to Phoenix.
“Miles, show him my art!!” Phoenix was practically glowing, holding onto the table to contain his excitement. With a sigh and shoving Larry’s arm off him, he reached into his pocket and unfolded the paper, that smile still playing at his lips.
The second time was after his father had already left this world. He was packing up all his possessions, getting ready to move to another continent when everything he loved was still back here.
The adoption agent—Mr. von Karma had been too busy to help the boy pack—took him to the post office to check the P.O. box one last time and change it to a new address, a box set up specifically for him. It was mostly just random magazine subscriptions his father had never even asked for, or obvious scams. But there was one envelope sitting at the top of the pile that caught the boy’s interest.
It had a child’s print on the outside, with a sticker holding it closed. He had an idea of who sent this. He tried his best to not rip the Samurai sticker as he opened the envelope, but it ripped regardless, and he pulled out a lined sheet of paper. Mostly likely taken out of a class notebook, considering it still had the spiral fringe on the side.
Dear Miles,
I really hope this gets to you. I don’t know if your in germany yet or not, so I don’t know how long to wait for a reply, but I’ll wait for forever if I gotta. I hope I can visit you someday over there. We could go see the I-fell tower or leaning tower of pizza! But I don’t know if those are in germany.
I’m gonna cry a lot when I don’t see you at school after break. Cuz you not being there means that this is real and your really really far away and I won’t get to see you for a long time. Promise you won’t forget about me? You pinky-promised! Please write back so I know we’re still friends. I hope you miss me like I miss you. I’m still gonna keep my signal blue keychain on my backpack by the way, cuz it reminds me of you.
I’m gonna miss you so so so much,
Phoenix
P.S. When you do reply, I really hope you haven’t forgoten english, cuz I can’t read german.
It might not have been poetry, but Phoenix did seem to have a way with words. He was able to put his feelings directly on the page. The dried tear droplets added to that effect. It was like Phoenix was right in front of him, talking to him, instead of just a slip of paper.
The third time was in that same envelope, as he pulled out a folded sheet of printer paper. It was the idea Miles have voiced to him, of their trio as the Signal Samurai. He had done it in colored pencils, and had written their names above each of their heads. The words ‘Signal Samurai Forever!’ were written beneath the piece.
For a moment, Miles had forgotten about all the pain that had plagued his life as of late. His father’s death, the man offering to adopt him and move him across the world, his dog getting sick. He just thought about his friends, and how much he loved them. But then he remembered the reality of his situation, as the adoption agent walked with him back to her car. He was going to fly away in a few days, and he still couldn’t accept it.
The day before his flight, he managed to visit with the people he would be leaving behind. Raymond, his father’s coworker, gave him a big hug and told him to be strong. Even his silly demeanor didn’t manage to break Miles’ downtrodden expression and perpetual frown.
He met up with his two friends in the world when visiting Phoenix’s house. Their last play-date. Phoenix’s mom River set out cookies and juice for the boys, trying to keep a happy face on for them. He wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to Phoenix’s other mom Rain, she was still at work. It felt unfortunate that he couldn’t say goodbye to her too, the Wrights were like a home away from home. He was having to give up both his homes, he realized.
The three of them sat together on the couch, not touching the food. Larry took a sip of his juice box. There was a silence over the whole house, everyone too scared and pained to break it.
Larry was the first one to talk, patting Miles on the shoulder. “I’m really sorry, Edgey.” He leaned in for a hug, that was the first time the Butz had ever hugged him. He was usually all back-slaps and noogies.
Miles just gave a small grunt and half-heartedly returned his hug. He did hurt that he was having to leave Larry, but his heart felt black and lifeless at this point. As he leaned out of the hug, he could see that Larry’s eyes were watery, though he was trying his best to hide it.
“I’m gonna… go to the bathroom. Be back in a sec.” Larry got up and walked upstairs, and the room became quiet once again.
Until it wasn’t. It started with him wiping his face with his sleeve, then sniffles, until Phoenix was all-out crying. He flung onto Miles, sobbing into his shoulder. Phoenix was always a sensitive boy; it was a wonder he hadn’t been wailing from the beginning.
“Don’t go! Please don’t go, I’m gonna miss you so much—Miles please stay! You can live here with us! I can… We can share a bed and mom can drive us to school and—Please just don’t go…” His thoughts were punctuated by sobs and sniffles, clinging to his best friend. His mothers had tried all they could to take the poor boy in, but the adoption fees were too much.
Miles could feel his heart slowly come back to life, the pain of parting hurting his heart and the sound of Phoenix’s cries hurting him even more. He hugged his friend as tight as he could. He could feel his own cheeks get damp, and his breath start to hitch. He thought he had run out of tears weeks ago, but apparently not.
“I- I can’t, Phoenix… I’m sorry. I wish I could, I really do, I wanna stay back here so bad—” The living room was filled with the sounds of their pain, how they wished this wasn’t real. Miles took in a shaky breath, trying to gain even a tiny bit of composure. “I—I got your letter, by the way… I promise I’ll write you back.”
Phoenix looked up from his place in his shoulder, wiping at his nose, his face blotchy and swollen. “You did?” His voiced was quiet and raspy from crying. That voice hurt Miles’ heart even more, he’d much rather hear his usual happy tone.
Miles wiped his friend’s cheek with a thumb. “Yeah,” he gave a small chuckle, or perhaps that was another strained sob. “It was like you were there with me, talking to me. It was nice.”
Phoenix’s face finally regained some semblance of his common smile. “Really? I’m glad you liked it—I’ll write as much as I can.” He wiped the other boy’s cheek as Miles had done for him. His hand felt so nice touching his face, why was this being taken from him?
“And I’ll check the P.O. box every day.” He placed his hand on top of Phoenix’s, still holding it against his cheek. “And… And one day I’ll come back, and we’ll be together forever.” He squeezed his hand, trying to give his most genuine smile. That just made Phoenix’s tears start streaming again.
He didn’t know what he was thinking, but he knew he needed to do it. He leaned into their hug again, and pushed his lips to his friend’s, eyes shut tight. It was a clumsy kiss, needy, inexperienced and full of emotion.
Phoenix leaned back from the kiss, wiping at his own eyes, when Miles gave him his own kiss, absolute desperation in the contact. He pulled back again, looking away from the boy.
Phoenix reached for the other’s hand and held it. “… Together forever?” He had a small, saddened smile on his face. His crush on his friend had finally been revealed to be reciprocated, but by this time tomorrow he would be a world away.
“Together forever.” He squeezed the boy’s hand, looking back up at him. His reddened eyes full of tears, his smile brimming with pain. He would give anything to not go on that flight.
They laughed and cried, trying to get their eyes to stop leaking before their friend came back downstairs. Maybe he really didn’t have to go to the bathroom, and simply knew the two of them needed some time alone.
He finally came down, sitting back onto the couch. As he noticed both the boys with such red faces and shiny cheeks, he picked up the tissue box from the coffee table. “Kleenex?”
After they had cleaned themselves up somewhat, and a pile of used tissues was growing on the table, Larry dug in his pocket until he found his yellow keychain. “We always have these! We’re best friends forever, right?” He was always the person to lighten up the mood. It usually managed to work, as it did this time.
Miles dug in his pocket, while Phoenix went to get his off of his backpack. The three keychains sat in their hands as they looked down at them, sad smiles still on their faces.
“Best friends forever!” They finally felt good enough to eat some of the now-cold cookies sitting before them, trying to distract themselves with cartoons. A distraction from the truth of the matter, that in the middle of the night Miles would be boarding a plane out of the country. But right now, all they had to focus on was the bright costumes of the Samurai and the flashy fighting moves on the screen.