Author's Note: The title was drawn from the Owl City song.

These stories will be my first attempt at a Gurren Lagann fanfic, or a fanfic at all, really. I know that it's very far from perfect, so please bear with me. Any constructive criticism is welcome and greatly appreciated. I think I'd like to become an adept writer someday... Even just by reading something I've written, you've pushed me closer to my goal.

Please enjoy, and I'd love you 5ever if you shot me a review, too!


"Hey, Kamina?"

"Yeah, Yoko?"

"What're you gonna do when this is all over, Kamina?"

Yoko had said one thing, but both of them felt the if inside that when. The man and woman lie on their backs beneath the stars, a softly sleeping Simon completing the top point of their noticeably lopsided triangle. If there was one thing that boy could do, it was sleep. But Yoko and Kamina weren't always so lucky.

Yoko felt rather than heard Kamina when he stirred restlessly across from her. A cricket chirped, compounding the silence before her comrade finally spoke again.

"To be honest, I haven't really thought that far ahead, Yoko." Yoko felt the smirk in his deep, sleepy voice as he tried to keep up the little game of saying each other's names after each sentence, but she also felt another emotion besides amusement. She couldn't quite place what it was, though – not exactly.

"Oh, come on," she snapped back, inexplicable annoyance tingeing her voice. "Everyone has a plan! Even if it's just to, you know... settle down."

Yoko wanted to smack herself in the forehead. Hard. Where had that come from? She was glad he couldn't see her, because she knew that her face definitely did not look normal at this point. She sighed to command control over her breathing, and then just lie still in the silence that graced them for those next several minutes. To Yoko's surprise, the silence was anything but awkward.

Again, Kamina broke it.

"In my village underground, I met all kinds of people. And whether big or small, strong or weak, nearly all had one common life goal, one core desire – stability."

Yoko's eyes widened in curiosity and she positioned her head so that she could watch Kamina as he spoke. While the wind played with his dimly moonlit hair, he was jabbing a thumb toward the slumbering younger boy. "Especially this guy," he said. "His determination was amazing. Everyone's was." He paused for a moment, probably to gaze at the cloudy night sky. His smile was so serene, so assured; Yoko felt her heart catch, even as she willed it to continue beating normally.

"I saw that, at the end of the day, all they wanted to do was be free to live their lives," he continued. "To laugh, to love, to cry, to do... whatever. And I wanted nothing more than to give that to them, to give that to my little bro."

Yoko felt a lump in her throat as she spoke. She had a feeling she knew what was on his mind. "So? What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that that's what I'm supposed to do – what I'm meant to do. I think the thing I want most is to see everyone laughing freely, on this surface."

Yoko was speechless.

"That's what you were asking, right?"

Before she could do anything to stop them, Yoko felt the tears rolling down the sides of her face and onto the dirt. His words were so simple, nothing that really surprised her; she knew that Kamina was that kind of guy. So why was she so moved by it? She found herself clutching her hands over her chest.

"But that's not what I want most..." she mumbled quietly, almost as a whisper. Out of habit, she played an image of a kiss in her mind, this one different from all the others, yet just as necessary.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."