The sun shone on the sand as they took off running from the dunes, laughter echoing on the still air of the beach: there was no one else to hear it today. The beach was deserted. They didn't care. This day had been long coming, and finally it was here, bright and magical, unreal.
So why are you doing this? Pity? He deserves none.
It might've been: even if it was a dream, it was real then, and that was all that mattered to them.
He deserves one day to remember, a special day that was just his. Everyone deserves that, if nothing else.
The tallest of the three ran over the dunes, his flamming red hair, done in flamboyant spikes, catching the sun, his gloves dropping behind him like startled birds as he shed them, his coat flying across the sand like some sort of lost soul as he strode down to the water in just his undershirt, watching the waves break on the sand. He left no footprints.
And the others? Are they really with him there?
The second tallest walked along the grass of the dunes, just taking everything in like he didn't have a care in the world, like this day would last forever, and nothing would ever make it end. He dropped to the ground, and tugged off gloves to reveal pale hands with ragged nails, digging into a tidepool by the grass to pull up a shell from the depths, wiping it clear of mud and fish crap. He smiled at it, watching its damp surface catch the sunlight, shimmering like fire.
She is. It's for both of them, their last day in the sun. She'll be gone after.
The last, a short girl with dark hair, bent to look at it, and smiled. "You can hear the waves in it.." She whispered, gently taking it in her slender palm, and holding it to her ear. She closed her eyes, and listened to the echo, memories washing over her, as well as dreams. Or, perhaps, these were memories as well. It was hard to tell, and at the moment, she didn't care. Right now, she was with her two best friends, they had the beach, and nothing else mattered.
It's the least I can do for him, to make it easier.
"Hey, Xion!" The red head called, digging in the sand by the shoreline, his dark swim suit catching the light like a shadow, his eyes glinting "I found something cool!"
"Everything's cool to him." The blond quipped with a laugh, dragging a lazy finger through the tidepool, his nose blotted with sunscreen. His swin trunks were pattered with hearts.
"Be nice." She said, lightly swatting his head. "Head wound! Bleeauughh!" He grabbed his neck, and pretend to die, falling over with eyes squeezed shut, and tongue lolling out. She laughed, and took off over the dunes, the sun shafting out from behind clouds to bathe the shoreline in warmth, as Axel held up a small fish he'd caught. It was red, and he made a face at it. "I think we're related..he has my hair." He teased, prodding the fish's red dorsal fin. It wiggled, and he dropped it into the tide, letting it swim away. It seemed to blur under the water, leaving a streak that marred the clear water like ink.
But it's just a dream.
"Was that all?" She asked, looking back to Roxas, who was half-heartedly building a castle out of the sand, having the towers fall over repeatedly.
"No, I found this in the dunes..I dunno, looked cool. You want it?" He held up a rusty chain, a crown medallion dangling from it. She looked at it, and thought she'd seen it before. "Sure, it's cute." She put it on, and kissed Axel's cheek. "Thanks."
Axel rubbed his cheek hard, redfaced. "Bleaugh...cooties."
She laughed, and took off to help Roxas build the castle, dragging her pail full of water to make the sand damp, and easier to build with.
The spent the whole day on the beach, just goofing off and laughing in the sun, but, like any dream, no matter how dear to you it is, it had to end.
Even a dream is better than nothing.
They sat in the sun on a tree that bent over the water from an outcrop of rock, and watched it sink over the distant horizen. Xion had brough ice cream, and they ate quietly, their eyes reflecting the orange glare.
"It was a good day, though.." Xion said quietly, watching the sun. Her eyes glinted with tears. One fell from her cheek, and hung in midair for a moment, catching the light and flashing like a crimson blood drop, before hitting the sand.
"It was. I won't ever forget it." Axel said softly, smiling at the sunset, as the first fingers of true darkness settled on the sand, the waves crashing as the tide came in. The castle they'd built crumbled, and washed away, the pail floating on the water like a raft set sail, or a bottled message. It was lost to sight all too soon, like it had never been at all.
"We'll always have today." Roxas said softly, but there was no reply. There was no one else there: the tree was empty, and the winds lightly ran across the dunes, shifting them with a soft sound like sighing. Seas shells dotted the sand: thallasia shells, reflecting the final ray of light back to the sky, as day faded.
WINNER his ice cream stick said, cheerfully. WINNER.
I suppose so.
"It was a good day." Roxas said, mirroring Xion's words "I'll never forget it." The wind carried his words away, forgotten, but not without meaning. He never would forget it.
The wind blew sand over the stick, dropped and forgotten. The beach was empty. Footprints darted the shore, two heavier sets, and a dainter set. The waves washed them away, as if they had never been.
Maybe they hadn't.
It's better than nothing
Somewhere in the world, very far from this beach, farther than the shoreline that winked like a dream at the edges of your vision when you looked out on the water, past the moonlight ripples racing across the surface, Roxas shifted in dreams, and a machine beeped.
I suppose so
It had been a good day, though, and that was all that mattered. Nothing else but memories of that last day spent in the sun need remain. Nothing else of them, two that never should have been, and one who is, but not here. Somewhere, the story goes on.
The beach was silent: the sand unbroken. The waves droned on, as they had for all time, and forever will so long as the sun shines on them. No one had been there all day.
Distantly, the clock tower gently chimed eight pm in town, and a light went out in a bedroom of a small house on Market Street. A boy slid under the sheets, and drifted to sleep. The moon played on his face. He smiled in dreams, and rolled over. Sand clung to his toes.
On the beach, an ice cream stick cheerfully said WINNER to the night. The next day, a boy found it, and got a free bar with it, to share with his friend.
"It's a good day," He said.
That was all.