The One Year Smile
It started in a narrow, dark alley. I know, not very romantic or memorable. But hey, it was a start. Anyways, I was fighting, and losing to, some really annoying street punks at the time... I met him there. He was walking past, minding his own business when he saw us and just ran to help. It was nice of him, kind of stupid now that I look back on it, though. He startled the guy who was holding me, making him drop me, so I ran. Straight to the boy who helped me with my hand outstretched. He grabbed onto my hand and just changed into a gun. Yes, dammit, you heard me. He transformed into a fricking Magnum Revolver. Getting back to the situation at hand, I used the gun to startle the punks before running away. The boy turned human again, his hand still in mine as we ran.
"Miss?" He called. His voice was a bit hard to hear, a little too soft for the noise of the city at night, but I heard him anyway.
"Curse."
"Huh?"
"You can call me Curse." I clarified, sending him a grin as we stopped moving. I collapsed on a bench, him following beside me as he let out an affirmative sound that clearly stated the end of the subject. I took this silence to fully examine the looks of my kinda-sorta savior. He had soft, spiky brown hair that flopped over the right side of his face just a bit too much, and bright green eyes, wide and panic-stricken at the moment. He was incredibly young though, much younger than I thought with the stuffy, business like suit he was wearing. He was probably younger than me -and I'm young to begin with- a highschool freshman of maybe 14 if I had to guess... And he was definitely not from Milan, probably here on a school trip or something. "What are you doing in Milan?" And come to think of it, why the hell are you on the streets so late at night in a foreign country?
"What were you doing being out so late...?" He asked, his voice still soft. He even stuttered! But he avoided my question by throwing his own, so he was a sly little fox.
"It's normal for me, but not for a foreigner!" I argued. "Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful you saved me, it's just... Well, you could've gotten hurt and it would've been totally my fault."
"... I... Um..." The boy's face darkened, turning a glowing shade of red. "You were worried about me...? Even though you were the one being attacked...?"
"I'm tough enough to handle myself, but you look like you couldn't even throw a right hook." I shrugged, but gave him a grin anyways. "So you need to be protected and I was the only one there to do the protecting. Even if you were the one who saved me. 'Kay?"
"R-right...!" He shot me a small, shy smile, his cheeks still a bright pink which brought a sincere smile to my face as well. Suddenly my smile dropped, and so did his as he looked at me in concern. "Are you alright?" He queried.
"Yes... probably... Okay, no. But it's nothing important." I sighed when his look told me he didn't believe a word. Sharp little bugger. "I just haven't really smiled like that in a long time."
"Why not?" He frowned. "You have a pretty smile. Why not show it off?"
"Thanks, but I just never have a reason to. It's nothing." I waved a hand dismissively in the air and he grabbed onto it. He looked straight at me, his eyes glittering.
"So only show me your smile." He smiled at me, as if to emphasize his point. "It's a bit selfish but don't give anyone else the privilege of seeing it. Only me, make it my smile, something nobody else can have."
He continued to practically stare at my soul as I just sat there, staring back, not because I wanted to, but because I was too shocked to move. This boy I just met, this boy I don't even know the name of, was asking me to give him my smile. To never show it to someone else, not that I smile enough to do that, to only smile at him. It was as close to a confession of love I'd ever been. "...Sure." I finally answered, not moving an inch.
"... What?" Obviously he wasn't actually expecting an approving answer.
"I'll give you my smile, but you have to promise to come find me, no matter how lost I am, in one year." I said. He blinked once, twice, three times.
"In a year?"
I got up, walking away until I was at the edge of the empty plaza square we were in before turning back to him. A bright smile, the kind I promised only he could see, quickly stumbled onto my face. "Come save me, okay? Don't forget." And with that I ran away, twisting and turning until I knew he wouldn't find me, finally falling against a wall to catch my breath. In a year, if he remembered, he'd come back. I kinda think I had a few feelings for him. Maybe it was love at first sight, maybe it was a hero worship thing since he saved my life, but whatever it was, it was there. And it was a start. A start that was definitely romantic and memorable.
A year later, I had already left my old life behind. I stopped fighting, I stopped staying out late, I stopped stealing. I stopped everything dangerous so I'd still be alive for that day. Because that was the day he was finally supposed to come back. That boy whose name I never learned, that boy who owned my smiles, that boy who I kinda-sorta had feelings for. But if I didn't have feelings for him, why would I wait out a miserable year to see him again?
So I waited, and waited, and waited until it was almost midnight and he didn't show up. I felt like crying. I wanted to see him again, I wanted to give him another of those smiles I couldn't give anyone else. I ran, to the plaza square we talked in all those moons ago, and I sat in that bench we were on all those days ago, and I cried over that promise we made all those months ago. But when the big clock struck midnight, like I remember it doing very soon before meeting him, I heard him talk to me.
"Are you alright?" His soft voice, still so soft, still reflecting his every emotion, still the same as a year ago when he asked me the very same question.
Just to pull the illusion on a little longer, I replied; "Yes... Probably... Okay, no. But it's nothing important." Just to pull it a little longer. Even though it was a lie. Because it was everything, and it was important. Because I seemed so crazy that I was reliving the night I met a boy who never even told me his name, who I gave my smile and -obvious to me now- my heart, who broke a promise to come back for me.
But then I was pulled up out of my seat on the bench, into a tight embrace. A soft mouth brushed against my ear and I heard his sweet voice tell me everything I needed to hear. "My name is Coreen Dissidia, and I'm here to take you away with me."
I moved so he could see my face and gave him one of the smiles that only he deserved. "Nice to meet you." I whispered, reaching up to finally kiss the boy who owned my heart. The boy who owned my smiles.