Chapter Text
The first time Freminet had received a letter, it had been from a boy he didn’t know.
He was young, quite an awkward age indeed. He sat on sand, the water rippling in and out, just a little out of reach. Sometimes, he thought that it might touch his toes, but it never did.
He sat there mesmerized by the water for several long hours, unaware of the time passing by. Once he had finally been released from his trance, he realized there was a presence next to him.
A boy, one that seemed around his age.
His brown hair shone gold in the sunset as he gently hummed to himself while doodling in the sand. He was sitting much closer to the water and periodically his random doodles would get washed out by the small, incoming waves.
Freminet’s mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to get some semblance of a sentence out to no avail. He curled up his small legs and wrapped his arms around them, hugging his knees.
“You know,” the boy next to him suddenly said, “If you want the waves to reach you, you can move closer.” He eyed him with bright eyes and an innocent look. Smiling from ear to ear.
Freminet’s ears flushed a light pink.
“If you want to doodle, then you can move farther away too.” He said quickly, hasty to defend himself.
“I want the waves to wash away my drawings.” The brown-haired boy said, smiling deeper.
“Why?” He furrowed his brows, confused at this response.
“When the waves wash my drawing, it means I can just draw something new.” The boy backed up, only slightly in front of Freminet now and began to draw again.
Freminet strained his head a little, peeking over the boy’s shoulder. The boy was clumsily drawing something, though Freminet couldn’t tell what it was.
Though the boy was not very skilled, Freminet continued watching intently. As he continued to add details, Freminet could tell he was trying to draw a person’s face, but was executing it very poorly.
The boy looked up, seemingly finished with his drawing, and abruptly whipped his head in Freminet’s direction. Their eyes met, and the boy very obviously had not expected Freminet to already be looking his way.
He flinched a bit, but regained his composure and grinned. He had grinned so wide that Freminet felt like he could’ve counted his teeth.
“What is it?” Freminet said, pointing to the drawings.
“You can’t tell?” The boy looked shocked, his eyes as wide as saucers.
“No.”
The boy pouted his lips. His brows furrowing slightly, he whispered indignantly, “It’s you.”
“That’s… Me? He pointed to himself, speechless.
The boy nodded.
“Why’d you back up, then? I thought you liked the waves washing away the drawings?”
“I didn’t want this one to go away.”
“Oh.” Freminet felt something new. He couldn’t quite place it, but the feeling settled in his chest. It felt warm.
The boy’s face flushed a deep red. He suddenly stood, his hands in fists next to his sides. “I gotta go!” He yelled. Then he was running in the opposite direction from Freminet.
“Wait…” Freminet reached a hand toward the boy's back, but he was already much too far.
He stared at the poorly drawn picture in the sand. The place where that feeling was now felt cold.
˚ ༘༉‧₊˚.ꕥ*ೃ༄
The next day, Freminet returned. The drawing remained. He sat directly next to it, staring at the messy lines depicting his features instead of the shore he usually looked at. He wondered if the boy would ever come again.
He waited. The sun peered over the horizon, shining a gold light across the beach.
Freminet’s fingers hovered over the lines, tracing them in the air.
“H-Hey…”
Freminet turned. It was the boy.
His eyes were red and he sniffled, “I’m sorry for running away.” Freminet stood, striding over.
“That’s okay.” He was used to it. He was aware that he was not a very entertaining child and held no animosity towards the boy. It’s not as if he’d never had another child run away from him.
“I was just… embarrassed.” He said, covering his mouth with his hand. His eyes darted back and forth at something invisible behind Freminet.
“It’s okay, I’m not angry.” The edges of Freminet’s mouth tilted up just a smidge.
“Really?!” The boy abruptly made eye contact with him. Determining that Freminet had told the truth, he suddenly wore a huge dopey grin.
A few moments passed in silence. Freminet felt quite comfortable, but he knew that others found silence troublesome. Looking unsure of what to say next, the boy had his hands held behind his back. He fidgeted and squirmed in place while rocking back and forth. Freminet thought that he looked quite uncomfortable. He didn’t want the boy to leave.
After debating it for a moment, Freminet decided he would break the silence. But just when he went to open his mouth, a piece of paper was thrust in front of him. The boy held it in both hands. Startled, Freminets mouth stayed hanging open.
Finally he mustered the courage to ask, “What is this?”
“A-A letter.” The boy’s whole body was flushed all the way down to the fingertips gripping the letter.
“For who?”
He looked up at Freminet, pouting a bit, “You.”
“Huh? Why?” Freminet had never encountered anything like this before. He was not confident about what he should do or say.
“I don’t live here.”
“Okay???” Freminet’s confusion was building by the minute.
It seemed like the boy realized that Freminet wasn’t understanding, “I wrote it because I don’t live here. I’m just visiting. And I met you the other day, but I didn’t want to not meet you again. I wanted to talk to you more, but I got embarrassed and ran away. I thought we had more time here, but my dad told me yesterday that we have to leave tonight. And I thought if we sent each other letters we could talk more you know and you seemed really nice and-”
“Oh.” Freminet got it. He’d only ever passed along letters, never receiving one himself, so he hadn’t expected this. Slowly, he imagined writing to this boy. Knowing that there was someone out there that wanted to talk to him even if they were miles apart.
That warm and comforting feeling settled in his chest once again as he took the envelope from the boy's hands. He smiled in earnest, not revealing his teeth, but a sweet smile nonetheless.
“Thank you.”
The brunette froze. His hands were still positioned as if they were holding the letter. Freminet hadn’t thought the boy could blush anymore, but the light pink hue changed to a much deeper red. Without warning, he turned on his heels and bolted.
Freminet was reminded of their first meeting and a light, airy laugh escaped his throat. The boy stopped in his tracks and unexpectedly turned around, staring straight at Freminet. It was only until Freminet finished laughing that the boy turned tail and ran once again.
Freminet stared at the boy's afterimage, only after a long while did he switch his focus to the letter pressed between his fingers.
˚ ༘༉‧₊˚.ꕥ*ೃ༄
When Freminet arrived home, the first thing he did was open the letter.
Scribbly, semi-awkward writing lays across the page. Some letters are cut short or left slightly unfinished, supposedly by the eagerness of the author. Several doodles are scattered between and around the text, mostly indiscernible, but one of which seemed to vaguely resemble the drawing of Freminet he had done in the sand.
Hello!! My name is Gaming! I hope you already know that though… I met you at the beach the other day! I wanted to ask your name, but I ended up forgetting… I wanted to talk with you more, but my dad told me all of a sudden yesterday that we were leaving soon and… Anyway! I should’ve told you all this by now. I hope I asked for your name too! I wish I could include your name in this letter, but hopefully me in the future will be able to. I’m not sure what to write anymore… Okay, I’m gonna ask you questions to get to know you better! Don’t worry I’ll also answer! Okay okay! What’s your favorite color? I really like red and green, but you seem like you’d like blue. Your eyes are a really pretty blue… Maybe I like blue too!! What are things you like to do?? I like drawing, but I know I’m not very good at it… Oh! I also like dancing!! Where I’m from we have a type of dance called lion dance, where multiple people dress up as a lion and dance. It’s really cool to watch. I hope someday you can see it!! One day, I hope we can visit each other often, when we’re older! I really wanna see you again…
A small twinkle appeared in Freminet’s eyes, a smile sitting across his face. The letter was much like its sender, unstructured and energetic. He traced his fingers across the words and drawings, pausing as he got to one he could vaguely recognize as himself.
He gazed at the letter for several minutes before finally reaching to get his own piece of parchment and beginning to write. He kept the letter next to him on his right and the ink on his left, careful to make sure no ink was spilled on his precious first ever letter.
He wrote with practiced ease, his handwriting neat and tidy with small flourishes here and there.
Dear Gaming,
Hello. I’m Freminet, the boy that you met at the beach. First, I wanted to say thank you for your letter. I was quite surprised to have received it, but happy nonetheless. Now that you know my name and I know yours we can include them in our letters. You, of course, did not end up telling me your name. I found out through your letter. Such a lovely name by the way. I hope in the future you will continue to write me letters, if I’m not too much of a bore. I wonder what about me made you decide to want to get closer though… We didn’t talk much and even if we had, I know I’m not a very interesting person, so I’m just a bit curious.
As for your questions, my favorite color is indeed blue. But not the color of my eyes. A deeper, richer color. A blue like the sea. Red suits you. You seem very fiery. Maybe, I like red as well. I enjoy making things. Trinkets, really. I’m trying to make a little moving penguin at the moment. Penguins are my favorite animals, you see. Your drawings really aren’t that bad, if you keep at it you could improve. I would really like it if you could keep adding doodles in your future letters. I find them cute. A lion dance sounds spectacularly beautiful, I wonder if in the future I could go see you perform. I would love that.
I also would like to visit you in the future and speak with you again, face to face. I hope we can become good friends.
Sincerely, Freminet
Freminet thought for a moment, then put his pen to paper and drew a little doodle. He was quite embarrassed of it, but how could he encourage Gaming to do something he himself could not?
He drew a penguin, referencing the contents of his letter. Each stroke of the pen was labored and shaky, but eventually a slightly obscure image of a penguin emerged. When he had finished, he labeled the drawing ‘penguin’ and added an arrow pointing to the messy drawing. He hoped Gaming would at least find it amusing.
He found a blue envelope and carefully placed his letter inside. The next day, he delivered it to the post office and it was sent on its way.