Author's Note: Entirely random, no real point, and I have no idea where in blazes this came from. I tried a slightly different writing style, but I'm not sure I pulled it off quite right. Enjoy, anyhow? This is the first time I've written in nearly a year, after all. xD
Setting Note: This takes place mainly in the week between the Tengen Toppa fight and Simon and Nia's wedding, when Gainax says they spent time together at the beach as a sort of pre-wedding honeymoon.
Forever Comes Too Soon
On the first night, it's a magnetic force, it's a need, and ever since they left the company of other people they can't let go for even a second. The ferry is long and the sun is still up when they arrive, but since he's been around, she can't last for long without pulling his face to hers, kissing him fervently, their lips slanting over one another's again and again until they can't breathe. He's real and she's real, as real as she can be, and time can't wait for them.
When night falls, she kisses him carefully, heart pounding and lips trembling. He's shaking a little too, and when he raises his hands to cup her face and press his lips to hers, he's a little more daring, a little more dangerous. He sweeps her up into his toned arms and carries them in farther, a soft bed, until she's splayed on top of him, lost in the kiss, until he rolls them over and they stare, breathless, until they can't hold back any longer. It's beautiful and awkward and wonderful all at once, and even as his flustered hands slip over her body with little grace, she smiles at him and he returns it, nervously but it's true and clear as day. Her back arches and her soft skin meets his face, as he trails light kisses wherever he can reach, their hands stroking, curling about each other, restless and sensuous and just a little bit afraid. And when he enters her, there's pain and there's whispered apologies and his hand smooths her moonkissed hair from her face, but then there is her open eyes, her pink lips and her breath short. And when they make love, they're climbing above the stars, the moon, they're past all the harsh truths and sweet nothings. The sounds that escape her echo until there's nothing left around them, and he envelops them in a kiss that swallows up their cries and moans, and he pulls her just a little closer as they slip over the edge together; a pure long note, as they shudder to a halt. The morning comes late, hours later, the sun creeping lazily above the ocean and both think they could lay entwined like this forever and never need another thing in the world, ever again.
It's the third night before Nia lets go a little. When Simon climbs into the cool sheets beside her and gathers her into his arms, he feels the change, and her hands unclench from her own chest to grasp at his own, gathering folds of his shirt and pulling tight, tighter. And his voice is suddenly lost in his throat, and she feels his warm hand thread up into her hair to pull her face toward him, and she cries into the crook of his neck with everything she has. Hands grope, pull, wrap around his warm, real body and he's crying too, he's whispering pained reassurances but she can't hear him anymore. Because he's real and he's here and it's not going to last, so she's not going to let go.
On their last day, their things are packed and waiting but Simon has other ideas. Nia's solemn expression seems to float away with the wind behind them as he runs with her hand clasped firmly in his, peeling once again for the ocean that swallowed laughter and tears in the days before. The pier disappears behind him; the ferry will be waiting for them but they don't care. She somehow catches up to him, laughing at his dumbfounded look as she yanks him in, clothes and all. They come up spluttering, clothes dripping and clinging to their bodies and Simon's dark blue mop of hair is a dejected curtain in his eyes. She combs her fingers up through it; it stands up with the seawater and she pushes off the ocean floor to wrap her arms and legs about him, kissing him hard on the mouth. He's startled for just a moment before he spins them about in the shallows, kissing her back as laughter passes between their lips. Because Nia's always been full of surprises and it seems Simon's never one step ahead, even now.
The morning three days later, he wakes up early in his own bed, far earlier than anyone could be by to bother him, pat him on the back, hand him a drink and do whatever it was a groom was supposed to do on his last morning as a free man. But she's done the same, somehow escaped her house of slumbering bridesmaids and friends who are sure to have all sorts of...girly things planned for her, who'd surely be disappointed over the lack of a bride to dote on. But they're at the edge of the glimmering bay in the middle of the dormant city, lit only by the cool rays of the sun's first light. He holds her hands clasped in his and he whispers everything...everything today will be too chaotic and joyful and celebratory to get out, everything their guests, friends, near-family, and even God are not meant to hear. She doesn't say much in return as her voice has caught, wanting to soak in his warm, feverish, stumbling words...he tells her he wishes tomorrow would never come so he'd never have to let go of her hand. She tells him she wished she'd actually took time to think about what "forever" meant...because today made forever feel so terribly short.
Because they'd said "forever"...they'd said it so many times. And saying it made it real. At least they'd thought it would.
When next they meet, she'll be in her beautiful pink gown Kiyoh and Kiyal had helped her pick and she'll have roses in her hair; he'll be standing beneath a pale gazebo beside one of the only old friends he had left to him, all grievances forgotten and all grudges dispelled. But forever will have come and gone already. The time to see, to talk, to hold, to kiss, to love.
So Simon sweeps her up one last time, pressing his lips to hers in the dim dawn light; Nia curves her hand about his cheek and tries her hardest not to cry. She smiles into his lips as he gives her one in return, and he holds her tightly against him as they look together toward the sunlight gathering on the horizon.
Because their forever would start all over again...someday. Forever had just come too soon this time.
End.