By Duzzie

Word Count?

Maybe

A/N: Hmm, okay, this is the edited and somewhat redone version…I'm really sorry at how much I botched it! B-but...yeah, I know, there's no excuse...sorry...

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"Tsume," and memories are born in a dark world with a single light of hope.

"Tsume." and memories end in a white land of the moon and of the shadows that lurk, ever so near.

He doesn't remember, doesn't know why he's here or how he's here or when he got here or what is here. Tsume knows none of this, but he does know Toboe.

He does know Toboe.

Whispering the boy's name, Tsume silently disregards his surroundings for a moment. He can still feel the field of green; the light breeze blowing.

And then this world—he thinks for a moment that this is Paradise; but that's not right, because Paradise isn't just grass and Toboe—erupts around him. There is no other color but pasty gray, and then there are feathers and hundreds, thousands, millions of doves.

Funny, there is no urge to chase them.

Toboe comes up to his side, quietly, swiftly, like a ghost of a ghost of a reality that was never real.

"Where…Is this?"

"I don't know…but…this is where we are, and that's it, so it doesn't really matter anyway, right Tsume? It's just where we are right now," and then he turns and gives him one of his smiles. One of his special smiles that he only used to give to him.

And that smile is enough to make him want to cry again, because it reminds him that he failed, it forces him to remember, and how can he give him such a smile when he was a failiar? How could he have gone to such a beautiful place after all he had done?

"I wanted to take you to Paradise,"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry Toboe. I wasn't…I wasn't there and I never told you…"

"I know…I know,"

"I know, Tsume. It's okay…Thank you," and with that, maybe it is okay. Maybe he failed and maybe he hadn't deserved to be forgiven, but he was, and he had. And maybe that life was just a dream, and this is the reality and maybe there was no one else but them, maybe this was the only truth…maybe all of their memories are false…and maybe not.

And maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.

"So, was it worth it? Was Paradise worth it Toboe? Was this worth it?" there is no uncertainty in his voice, nor is there anger or sadness or happiness. It is a calm, resigned, understanding tone. It was as if he knew all the answers there were to know, and still wasn't satisfied, but that was okay.

How funny that his voice would sound that way.

"…Yeah. Yeah, it was..I think," it probably was, if Toboe said so. He stops and stares at the sky. It's impossibly blue, and impossibly perfect, and impossibly their Paradise. "It was worth it Tsume, every last minute. Every last second I spent on Paradise with you guys was worth it, and I don't regret any of it,"

"Heh, yeah…Yeah, guess your right," really he doesn't know if Toboe's right, but now it doesn't matter. This is it, this is the place where dreams end and dreams are born and lives are lost and lives are renewed. This is a paradise in which there needn't be concern or war, hate, nor questions.

There didn't need to be, but there was.

"Let's meet again in Paradise."

"Do you think they made it? Kiba and Cheza? Did they make it Tsume?"

"I don't know," at this, Toboe's ear fell a bit, but was up just as quickly. His eyes held the same determination, looking into the sky, which Tsume's heart had lost to in life.

"Well, they must have, right? Yeah, I think they did, 'cause Kiba wouldn't have been satisfied with anything else, right, Tsume?" and then he laughed, and in his laugh Tsume heard the sounds that make a paradise.

"Yeah. They must have…Guess we didn't make it with them, though, in the end," Finally, he turned his head from the sky.

"I dunno...Maybe we didn't make it with them…but I'd say we made it Tsume," he stared him down.

Tsume met his gaze.

"…Maybe your right, kid."

And memories are once again reborn.