Chapter Text
The Sun has gone out.
I heard about this at school. About how, without the Sun, the Earth would aimlessly drift into the darkest depths of space. Everything and everyone in the world would slowly freeze or starve to death. The thought was so terrifying that it got stuck in my head for the rest of the day. And now, it's really happening.
All the world is pitch black. I can't even see my hand in front of me as I reach out, trying to feel for something, someone, to hold onto. But the air is freezing, and I'm so cold that it hurts to breathe…
The world is ending, nobody can do anything about it, the only thing I can do is call out for the one person who can make everything just a little less scary…
"Caaaleeeb!"
My shout echoes back to me, but nobody answers. I stand up with wobbly legs, and walk a few small steps forward before trying again.
"CAAA-LEEEB! WHERE ARE YOUUU…?!"
Still no answer. This time I run. Where is he? We're all gonna freeze to death soon, I have to find him, I don't wanna be alone, I don't want him to be alone, I have to find him, I have to, where is he, where—
"Rah. Rah."
"Whaa—?!"
Rahela's eyes flew wide open, and she gasped as if she'd just been in the throes of drowning.
But looking around at the now-familiar walls and ceiling, she could see that she was safe in her bedroom. And hovering above her, his worry-filled face illuminated by soft lamplight, was the young boy she'd been crying out for. Her very best friend.
"You back with me, pip-squeak?" Caleb asked in a low, gentle voice, brushing a lock of hair out of Rahela's eyes.
"Uh, uh-huh…" She took a deep breath, willing her racing heartbeat to slow back down. Sitting up in bed, she shivered; glancing down, her comforter had fallen to the floor sometime in the night. "Sorry for waking you up…"
"I heard ya callin' out to me in your sleep," Caleb said, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed. He leaned down to retrieve the duvet, and wrapped it around his dear friend's small, shivering body. "'S not like I could pretend I didn't hear it."
"Mm…" She bowed her head, a bit sheepishly, before sidling up against him. Not quite able to look him in the eyes without a sense of guilt, but not willing to let him fully out of her sight, either. "I was dreaming that… that the Sun went out. Everything was so … dark, and cold, and scary, I thought that the world was ending… And, I couldn't find you, which was even scarier…"
Caleb was silent for a long moment, before he asked, "Even scarier than the Sun goin' out…?"
She nodded. "D'you think it means anything?"
"… It was probably just a nightmare, but, if I had to guess…" Caleb began, before trailing off, nervously scratching an itch on his collarbone. A soft, regretful grunt sounded from him, as if he were ashamed of what he was about to say. "You mighta been rememberin'… how you must've felt after the tsunami. After we… got separated."
Rahela couldn't clearly remember much of her life before her grandma adopted her. And the earliest memories she could recall were a big, jumbled-up mess…
That earliest memory began with her desperately sprinting through a burning, crumbling city. The smell of smoke, the sound of screams. The sense that she'd been following after someone, but couldn't find them anymore. The piercing feeling of something striking her in the heart and staying there, and the stinging feeling from falling and scraping her shins on the pavement. Crawling underneath a pile of rubble and hiding in terror from the monsters that prowled the ruined streets. Swearing to herself that, no matter what, she would survive for as long as she possibly could.
More screams, blood pouring down like raindrops, a roar like thunder, a gaping maw with uncountable silver and red teeth about to rip her apart, a near-blinding beam of light… A masked stranger in white with kind blue eyes kneeling before her, then gently but quickly ushering her to the nearest safe place and vanishing as suddenly as he appeared.
And she remembered that, even after the screaming quieted down, there were still monsters everywhere outside. So with nowhere else to go, that ramshackle, deserted shelter became the closest thing she had to a home.
A broken-down playground, a metal swing, and a half-buried wooden carousel horse. A shelf full of books, books that seemed to have everything a kid could want to look for, from a seemingly endless list of names, to instructions for folding origami. A blossoming apple tree, with its fallen pink petals scattered over the grey tiles of an overgrown garden…
Then, from out of nowhere, the ground beginning to shake, and a giant wave washing the entire world away. Stumbling along a beach, searching anxiously for something—someone?—important that she'd lost…
Wandering back inland, finding another shelter, this time in a crowded hospital. Countless other lost, tired survivors milling about. A melting popsicle, a different garden from the one at her last shelter, feeling overwhelmed and lonely to the point of tears… and a sharp-eyed older boy who wasn't as scary as he looked—Zayne, as she learned afterwards.
Then, out of the blue, a gentle old lady coming along and offering to take Rahela back to her home in a place called 'Bloomshore,' miraculously spared from much of the destruction in Linkon proper. Agreeing without a second thought. Thinking on her first night here, 'I have a grandma now, I have an amazing new house, I'll get to fall asleep on a real bed from now on'… Only to wake up feeling hot and heavy and too weak to move. Spending what felt like an eternity stuck in bed, being sick and miserable, except for the few times when Zayne was able to come over and keep her company. Reading and watching Grandma's old books and movies all day, until she eventually, finally got better…
And then, last February, about a month after she got adopted, Grandma brought home someone else—another boy. A scrawny, disheveled boy, a little bit older and quite a bit taller than her, and who seemed to know her. The way his violet eyes lit up when he saw her was enough to make her heart skip a beat.
Something about him had seemed familiar, but the memory was like a pencil drawing that had been almost completely erased, where only the vaguest indentations were left. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't bring his name to mind… So, even though his expression seemed to ever-so-slightly dim, he said it was alright. He reintroduced himself as Caleb, took her hands in his, and promised that he would 'always be by her side.'
(A boy with a smile that warm, with a voice that sincere, with words and gestures that kind? It would have been near-impossible for her to not get at least a little bit of a crush on him...)
After that, Grandma sat the two of them down in the living room and filled in the gaps in Rahela's memory. She explained that they had both been orphaned in the Wanderers' first big attack on Linkon City, and had just happened to find each other in the same shelter. They had survived there together for over a month, with no one to depend upon but each other… Until the day a tsunami hit the already-battered city, and the two children had been separated amid the devastation. Rahela, for her part, had managed to find a more populated shelter, this time at Akso Hospital, which had been where Grandma first saw her and decided to take her in.
But once the girl was finally in a safe place, all the stress from those weeks of living on the streets caught up with her all at once. She fell dangerously ill, and the resulting fever was the reason why so many of her memories of that time had been so thoroughly burned away. But in time, with the medical advice of a doctor friend of hers, and the companionship of his young protégé, Rahela had managed to make a full recovery.
And then, earlier that day, Grandma had come across another orphan; a lost boy wandering around the broken streets, looking like he hadn't slept well in days or even weeks, his voice hoarse and ragged from calling out Rahela's name, over and over again. And so, she'd brought him here, to reunite him with his friend, and to give him a home…
After the explanation was finished, Rahela had turned to Caleb, and saw that he'd been staring at the floor the whole time, with a clear expression of pain on his face. All at once, she burst into tears of guilt, hugged the boy as tightly as her tiny arms could squeeze, and apologized to him. He was the reason she was here today, they'd survived all those weeks because they'd stuck together, how could she have forgotten about him? But despite how upset he'd seemed to be while Grandma was telling the story, Caleb only laughed, hugged her back, and promised, 'hey, Rah, it's alright, it's not your fault, I'm just glad you're okay…'
The only thing for it, he said, was to spend every day together from then on—and they did exactly that.
It had been a few months since then; it was springtime, Rahela had recently turned nine in March, and Caleb would be turning twelve in June. They'd formed a sort of trio with Zayne, and he played with them whenever his schooling would allow; whether the three of them were meticulously searching the house for secret passages, digging in the yard to hunt for buried treasure, or simply running errands for the grown-ups, Rahela was happy as could be. But even when Zayne couldn't make it, she and Caleb still had fun. Living with your best friend meant that every day was an adventure and every night was a sleepover.
(Not counting that whole snafu where she'd accidentally gotten stuck in the attic for several hours until Caleb managed to rescue her via the window. That day… wasn't fun, to say the least.)
Even though they hadn't been together for all that long, Rahela had grown to adore Caleb with all of her heart. So much so that… even the thought of being ripped away from him again was enough to make her feel like…
Like she'd gone from a perfect sunny day, to a cold, unending void…
"Hey, Rah, you're shakin' like a leaf." Caleb's soft, low voice brought Rahela back to reality, as did his hand gently squeezing her shoulder. "Sorry, I shouldn't've reminded you…"
"I-I," her voice wavered, as a stinging feeling rapidly built up behind her eyes. Throughout so many of her vague memories from before the fever, a deep feeling of suffocating worry lay underneath the surface; even if she didn't remember Caleb's name or face, she did remember how afraid she'd been for him when they were separated. And she knew now that he'd been just as terrified for her, desperately searching and calling for her, every single day. Of course she couldn't stand the thought of either of them going through that kind of pain a second time. Rahela sniffled, and used her comforter to wipe away her tears and muffle her breaking voice. "I… dunno what I'm gonna do if we get split up again…"
"Hey, Rah, it's okay," Caleb soothed, as he slowly petted her shoulder. "That nightmare does sound scary, but it's never gonna come true. 'Cuz even if the Sun did up and disappear one day, I'd still find you in the dark and keep us warm, no matter what."
The girl sniffled, and dared to look up and meet her friend's violet eyes. She asked, "Do you promise…?"
And he answered, with a soft and sweet whisper, "I promise." And he affirmed his words by gently enfolding her into a strong, tight hug.
Caleb gave the best, most calming hugs in the whole entire universe; they were the kind that felt like being wrapped up in warm, spring sunshine. Though nobody else, not even Grandma or Zayne, really gave Rahela enough hugs to compare his to, she was still sure that his were the best. She could go into the most securely insulated underground bunker in the world, and she'd still feel safer and happier in his arms. Here, with his heartbeat in her ear and his nails gingerly raking through her hair, she could believe with all her being that she would never lose this. They would never lose each other again.
Before long, her sniffles had subsided, and Caleb spoke up again, this time with a slightly conspiratorial smile. "… Hey, Rah. Do ya wanna know a secret?"
Rahela canted her head. "Mm?"
"You had nightmares back at the old shelter, too," the boy explained. "Back then, I'd always make you feel better by dragging you out to play in the garden until you felt better. So I learned that the best cure for nightmares is to erase it from your memory and make a brand-new, happy dream."
"How do you make dreams?" She asked, unsure of what he meant, but intrigued nonetheless.
"Close your eyes, and I'll show ya."
She did so, and listened as he softly and steadily spoke idyllic dreams into real possibilities.
"So, picture this… building a giant castle together out of all of our combined pillows and blankets, turning on a nightlight, and reading comics or playing cat's cradle until we fall back asleep. Taking one blanket each, sneaking downstairs to the couch, and catching the secret, really good cartoons that only play when it's still dark. Or… Me flying us up to the roof with your comforter, huddling together to watch the sunrise, and staying up there and sunbathing until we get hungry, or until Gran yells for us to come back down. Which one do ya wanna do the most?"
"Mmmaaah…" Rahela yawned. Truth be told, Caleb's sweet voice washing over her had nearly lulled the girl back to sleep. But she fought off her drowsiness, and said, "Last one. Since my dream was about the Sun disappearing, I wanna tell it 'good morning' when it comes back up…"
"Hehe, sure thing, pip-squeak…" He grinned, and playfully tweaked her nose. "… If you can stay awake that long~."