A weird little thingy. I mean really. Buut... Yeah. Hmmm... No eloquence at the moment. Pity. Anyhow.
h e l i o c e n t r i c
Light glares off the worn gray grains of cement steps like so much fire. On one side, earth tones of brick seem to smolder in the heat- on the other side, railing and air.
Forty-two steps. He's counted them somewhere along the line, even recounted them, so he knows- exactly forty-two steps, and it's never seemed so far down. Standing at the edge of the landing, the tips of his sandals are hanging heavily off the edge.
He sways a bit, eyes losing focus. He closes them.
A familiar sensation rushes through his body, a kind of rush he remembers feeling long, long before.
He can almost hear the water, feel the warmth of the rocky ledge under his feet as he prepares himself to jump into the shining water below. It's hypnotic, the way the light reflects off of the surface like fire, the way it ripples- again he sways, just a bit, not unbalanced, but not steady either. His heart beats slower as he takes a deep, lung stretching breath, and a calm expression of determination crosses his unscarred face-
"Raido? What are you doing?"
Hazel eyes snap open. The water disappears, replaced by forty-two cement stairs glinting under a merciless June sun, and at the edge of the last stair, one man. Dark blue cloth ties back dark brown hair, allowing two dark, dark eyes to peer curiously up at him. A senbon flashes in the sunlight as it's shifted slightly in the corner of a frowning mouth, and he focuses on that for a moment. He sees it replaced with a long stalk of grass, sees it clearly even from up so high above him-
"Raido, answer me."
He turns his back to the forty-two stairs and the man at the bottom. A blinding spherical blaze burns, suspended in a sky that is fiercely blue. Below it, there is a metropolis that he is very much a part of now. Even if its crammed buildings and unrelenting cacophony and size and existence suddenly seem so out of place in the calm, dominating heat that is summer to him.
He closes his eyes and feels the hot sun wash over his face, sees the bright, blood red glow where light pushes past his shut eyelids. At this moment it is painfully clear that there is no cool grass or warm stone under his feet, and he is nowhere near the large wooden house in the fields where summer was so different, and the sun is not pressing down with on a face that is still unscarred.
He knows that the man is no longer at the foot of the stairs. He's behind him, and he's not making any sudden movements, either.
Maybe he thinks something is wrong with him.
He does not open his eyes, because as much as he knows all of these things, he doesn't want to see it. Not right now.
" 'S nothing, Gen," he murmurs, and his lips lift up in something that he remembers would have unfurled into a goofy smile on days like this, too long ago and too far away.
" 'S just-"
He pauses, and he finds himself speaking more to himself than the man behind him.
" -I 've never been that much of a city boy. You know that."
Would perfectly adore a review or two!