A/N: This is really just a random little oneshot to go with the longest solar eclipse this century. It actually went on Wednesday over in parts of China, Japan, and other areas over there. I only found out about it when I didn't have time to write a oneshot hence the lateness.
On another note, this could be classified as my first RaySalima.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade.
Once In A Lifetime
The small Japanese suburb had itself all in a twist at the fault of a certain once in a lifetime event that would display its wondrous and mysterious glory to them. For six minutes and thirty-nine seconds, that day of July twenty-second, the moon would drop itself over the sun like a blanket over a lantern, concealing its brightest light and leaving only a brilliant crown visible. For that short time, a small portion of the world would be plunged into a short period of night.
Scientists, reporters, and families had come from all over the planet to witness the longest solar eclipse of the century. A delicate distance away from the foreigners sat two teenagers on an outcropping that stretched out into a river. The pair dangled their legs over the edge and watched in mild interest a family of five scuttle their way across a bridge to the popular site for observing the spectacle.
The girl noted how the four children followed their mother in a single-file line remarkably like a mother duck and her ducklings. The young man laughed, steered his smiling eyes to his girlfriend and commented on her unique mind.
Salima smiled and leaned back on her hands. "Well they do."
"I never said they didn't." Ray defended, "You're just the only person who would notice that, is all. Most people don't think like that."
"I'm not like most people."
"No, you're not. That's probably one of the reasons I like you so much."
The redhead nodded absent-mindedly, now busy studying the angle and size changes the beginnings of the eclipse were having on their shadows.
Ray found himself staring at her, watching her wheels turn and the placid, indifferent look on her face that revealed to him a fact that he already knew so well: the simplest things could amaze Salima. She was one who not only stopped to smell the roses, but pondered their meager beginnings and how a plant, so unimportant to begin with, had become a gift of not only joy and love but despair and grief.
"People are saying that this long without the sun at an unusual time could trigger the end of the world." Salima looked up from her shadow.
Ray raised an eyebrow. "There have been other eclipses before. And don't we go hours every night without the sun?"
"Yes," she stated, resting her black eyes in the comfort of his golden ones, "but it got me thinking-"
"Like things so often do."
Salima gave him a playful glare to which he gave a grin in return.
The girl continued with a sigh. "What if, seconds from now, the world just stopped spinning? What if the icecaps melted and flooded the planet? What if the whole Earth was engulfed in flame, leaving only a cloud of ash in its place? What if World War III was unleashed and nuclear technology destroyed nearly everybody and the few who are lucky enough to survive rot away in the toxic waste? What if, before you could take another breath, everything just vanished and we're forced to live out the rest of our days in agony, hunger and knowing the sweet release of death is just beyond our reach?"
She finished the last words with a level of ominousness as if she didn't want to believe these things would really happen but she knew they could and she relished the thought of using such unknown and frightful happenings to make people see what she saw.
"Sal, that's highly unlikely."
"I know it is, Ray." She intensified her gaze. "But my point is, we have to live life to the fullest, live every moment like it could be our last and cherish those times that are meant to be cherished. We have to love like there will be no heartbreak and forgive like nothing was the matter in the first place. We need to look past the little things when they don't matter and notice when they do. We've got to look away from anything that tries to tear us down and into the beauty that is always ready to lift us up. We have to Ray, because we never know what could happen. We'll never know."
Ray scooted closer to her and placed his face inches from hers. He studied her half shaded features symbolic of her knowledge of both dark and light. She was strangely calm after speaking of such disastrous things. That was something that he really loved about her. She was aware of the horrible ways of the world and all that could happen, but she never let it get to her. She was truly a remarkable person.
"You're right, Salima. We never can know for sure. But the unknown is what makes life an adventure," he leaned in closer, "and the known is what makes it real."
Salima rested a hand on his cheek and pressed her forehead to his.
"You sell yourself short; you're just as insightful as me." came her half-whisper.
The pair sat mesmerized by each other, her thumb stroking his soft skin and hands intertwined. Ray tilted his head down and caught her lips in a loving kiss. She flung her arms around his neck and pulled nearer to him, deepening the embrace as his arms wound around her waist. They came apart just as the sun was completely covered.
Salima slid over so she was pressed against Ray. "It's very beautiful, isn't it?"
Ray glanced down at her and she smiled up at him.
"It's gorgeous."
"I think it's amazing how there's so much you can't see of the sun unless the moon covers the brightest parts." She looked up at the eclipse contemplatively.
"Kind of like people." Ray mumbled.
"Mm-hm." Salima cuddled against him. "There are sides of people you don't see until the most apparent parts are masked over. Even then that other side, buried deep within their character, is only visible for a short time."
"Sometimes that's all it has to be visible for." The moon was beginning to slide off the sun. "It's still possible to remember the beauty that may only be shown once in a lifetime. It was, however deeply buried, always there."
"You're definitely as perceptive as me." The redhead grinned.
"Or maybe it's just a once in a lifetime thing."
A/N: I wasn't too sure about the ending. I hurried to finish this one in a reasonable amount of time but it didn't really happen. It's actually been done for a while; I just haven't been able to find typing time. Oh well, at least it's RaySalima.
Please ignore any mistakes; it's after one in the morning here.
Review?