Vanilla Twilight
"The stars lean down to kiss you,
And I'll lie awake and miss you.
Pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere.
'Cause I'll doze off safe and soundly,
But I'll miss your arms around me …"
Two gray forms darted about in the green meadow, chasing something in their path. On a hill nearby the meadow, two small shadows watched the speeding figures. Both of the watchers were tiny rag doll creatures. One of them was a male made from brown burlap and the other was a female of nearly white canvas. The female looked to the evening sky, hoping to see just one star. When she saw none, she returned her gaze to the meadow and smiled.
"I think they caught 'im," she said, pointing to the flashing lights beyond.
The lightning quick forms that they had been watching were, in fact, two dolls like them. These twin dolls flashed their characteristic optic eyes in excitement.
The male doll looked too before he saw a grasshopper fly out of the grass and the twin dolls scurry out of its way. He and the female chuckled. "Or maybe it got them."
The female smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. She felt safe and warm being there with him.
"Why do you have to go, Seven?" he almost whispered to her.
She blinked and sat up once more. "Nine, we've been through this. I'm going to find supplies and you're watching home with the twins. You all need to be safe."
"I want you to be safe," 9 muttered.
7 scoffed. "You should know by now that I can take care of myself."
"I know…When are you leaving?"
"Early morning, before the heat of the day."
"You'll say goodbye, right?"
7 smiled. "Of course I will."
Just as she promised, 7 left the next morning. She gave everyone a hug goodbye and reassured 9 that she would be all right, though deep down part of her wanted to just stay. The quartet became a trio as the warrior doll walked off into the distance, her bird skull helmet atop her head and a supply roller skate trailing behind her by a string.
When 3 and 4 tried to drag 9 away to play a game with them, he knew, (and they knew too), that he was going to deeply miss his partner while she was gone.
"I'd send a postcard to you, dear,
'Cause I wish you were here.
I'll watch the night turn light blue,
But it's not the same without you,
Because it takes two to whisper quietly…"
Only two days into her trip, 7 already had success in finding valuable supplies for her family. Unfortunately, she was also very lonely. She found this feeling strange at first. She had always been something of a loner, and while living in the ruins, she never regretted being alone and actually enjoyed living on her own. There had no complication of working in groups out there, and certainly no trouble seeing that she alone was in charge of her path. Truthfully, she was not all alone then. She often visited the twins in their hideaway and would even occasionally spy on the others staying in 1's sanctuary, but that was only to ensure their safety, not really for herself.
It was 9 that changed all of that, she decided. Ever since their journey out of the emptiness, she and 9 had been stuck like glue. Now, after a week on her own, she was feeling strangely empty.
She looked up to the clouds that evening. They looked almost like other stitchpunks, and (out of boredom, she guessed), she actually spoke to them.
"So, I miss him. Don't rub it in."
She paused when she saw the star gleaming in the sky she had hoped to see before she left. It was at least a little comforting to see that. She promptly sank into the grass out of exhaustion soon after. Placing her hands together, she thought of 9 again. How she wished that he could be there, holding her hand.
"The silence isn't so bad,
'Til I look at my hands and feel sad,
'Cause the spaces between my fingers
Are right where yours fit perfectly…"
9 did everything he possibly could to distract himself from thoughts of 7. The twins let him join in every game they could possibly conjure, but it just wasn't enough. Even when 9 was in the best of spirits, 3 and 4 could tell he just wasn't himself. In the night, when the three stitchpunks would lie down after a long day, 9 would just look up at the sky, thinking of her. He loved the twins, and their company was the world to him, but he was still lonely without 7. Each new night she was gone, he felt worse.
4 woke up one night and saw 9 watching the clouds from their small shelter. Are you okay, Nine? she clicked to him.
9 sighed. "No. I miss her."
4 paused and picked up the corner of a book cover. You could read one of our books.
So, 9 read books to distract himself. The twins were happy to oblige in that hobby, and the trio would not sleep as they read the nights away, engulfing themselves in tales of wonder. It gave 9 something to do to ease his restless heart.
"I'll find repose in new ways,
Though I haven't slept in two days,
'Cause cold nostalgia chills me to the bone…"
Just as 7 was about to return home, a flash storm struck. She had to delay her return trip and stop for the night in the safety of a hollow log. The raindrops that found their way into her quasi-shelter seeped through her fabric skin and irritated her, but her thoughts remained on home. As she shivered from the water, she wished that 9 were there to hold her and keep her warm. At last, the warrior doll removed her helmet and hung her head. If she could have cried, she certainly would have then.
"Oh Nine…"
"But drenched in vanilla twilight,
I'll sit on the front porch all night,
Waist-deep in thought because,
When I think of you, I don't feel so alone.
As many times as I blink,
I'll think of you tonight…"
The storm had not hit the stitchpunks' home yet, but the hazy sky and dark clouds over the distant hills warned 9, 3 and 4 of its arrival. The three of them stayed safe inside their shelter beneath the hollow oak tree root as the winds howled outside.
9 poked his head out of a nook in the root and prayed to anything that could hear him for his mate's safety. He quietly whispered her name into the night.
"Seven…"
It was the next morning after the rains had passed that 3 and 4 ceased tromping about in a nearby mud puddle and alerted 9 of something they'd seen. They pointed to a moving shape in the distance. When 9 looked up and saw the approaching shape, he almost could not believe she was really there. But it was 7, dragging the skate behind her as she trudged through the mud toward home.
9 ran to her before he even had time to think about what he was doing.
"When violet eyes get brighter,
And heavy wings grow lighter,
I'll taste the sky and feel alive again…"
When 7 saw 9 running toward her, she instantly dropped the skate and ran him too. Had she been in a less foolish state of mind, she might not have smiled so wide or laughed so much as the space between them diminished. They crashed into each other at full speed, nearly causing themselves to fall over. After a long embrace, 9 kissed her. She kissed him back, and they were two parts of a whole once more.
It was only when they saw 3 and 4 were watching them did they part, embarrassed. Given the opportunity, the twins gave 7 a hug too.
"Maybe I should leave home more often," she said with a chuckle.
9 smiled at her and the twins both started taking things out of the roller skate and racing up the hill to lighten 7's load. "So, how was your trip?" 9 asked when they were left alone again.
"It was okay," 7 said, and wrapped her metal hand around his. "But it was lonely out there. How about you?"
9 paused. "I really missed you, Seven."
7 felt as if time had healed the wound in her heart from missing her mate so much. She was complete again, and could accomplish anything when she was by her partner's side. Though she could not tell, 9 felt the same way.
"I missed you too."
"And I'll forget the world that I knew,
But I swear I won't forget you.
Oh, if my voice could reach back through the past,
I'd whisper in your ear,
'Oh darling, I'm glad you are here.'"
The End.