"One is meaningless without the other..."
It was a cold day in Mother Russia. The blizzard was endless, a blanket of white spreading over the vast sea of land. Nothing could survive long in such weather, for anything left out unprotected would become no more than one with the snow.
"You can't go out there alone!" shouted the shoelace. "Do you remember Sock? Do you remember what happened to him?"
The shoe stood in silence. Was it because he did not know what to say, or was the wind too loud for the shoelace to hear his response?
"You know how Sock died," the shoe started. "He was irresponsible."
"Don't say that, you know Sock just wanted to keep us sa-"
Shoe interrupted. "He was a идиот, a fool. He knows what his death meant to us, and he just didn't care. Shoelace, I'm leaving to find help. Stay inside the shelter, or you can think of yourself no more than what Sock has become." Without another word of comfort or of argument, Shoe turned around and ventured into the blank, white sheet. Shoelace did nothing but stare as the figure of Shoe gradually became more and more blurry, until not a trace of him could be seen through the layer of falling snow.
Shoelace waited for several minutes in the blistering cold. Those minutes turned into hours, which turned into days. After a total of 3 days, Shoelace could not handle it anymore.
"I haven't slept a single minute since he left," thought the shoelace. "My orders were to remain here, but my responsibility as a comrade, to save my friend: That is more important."
Nothing much was to be prepared, as the shoelace was left with almost nothing while in the temporary shelter. He began his journey to locate his comrade, though the time of day was unknown. The blizzard blocked out the sun and the moon; days and nights were equally as bleak and harsh. At last, despite his exhaustion, Shoelace found a speck of color in the sea of white.
"Shoe!" he yelled with all the strength he could muster. "Is that you, comrade?"
No answer was given. The wind could have swallowed his voice, but as the shoelace approached his friend...
Cold. Still. Frozen, as if he was a grief-stricken monument. "Shoe, please wake up," pleaded Shoelace. "We've been through too much together to let it all end here. Nyet, I won't believe it!" The poor shoelace could not comprehend his friend's status. Somewhere inside of him lived a hope, a possible false hope, that his friend had an ounce of life in him. Shoelace finally accepted his friend's fate. And his own. There was no way back once they abandoned the shelter; no one was here for them. They were alone, but together.
"I know you can't hear me," started Shoelace, near tears. "but I really want you to know that I appreciated what you did. You risked your own life to save us both, and if you were alive... I would never be able to repay you."
Before shoelace lay down in his snowy grave, he gave a light kiss to his friend.
"Good night, comrade," were Shoelace's last words. "Good night, friend." were Shoe's.