Word Count: 1,424
Blink. Blink. Blink.
It was all she could do. Her limbs felt like lead; she couldn't even twitch her fingers. Her vision was blurred; her cheeks were wet with tears, and she couldn't even remember why.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
Words were floating out like endless rain into a paper cup; they slithered while they slip their way across the universe. She struggled to put coherency to them, but when they just refused to, her eyes stung. Frustration threatened to blow out of her like steam from a boiling teakettle, screaming just like it too.
But she held back. She held back the hot tears that stung her eyes, she held back her frustration.
Blink.
A tear escaped the second she opened her eye. It was inevitable.
Blink blink. Blink.
She let them fall.
Her lap grew damp and warm, but not for long.
Blink blink.
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy, they drifted through her opened mind. Possessing her, she lived a life she knew, but the memories were snatched away the second it was over. Yet the aching nostalgia they left behind caressed her, pulling her close, wrapping itself around her mind, giving her great comfort through the tears that just didn't seem to want to stop.
She opened her eyes. They were damp, but they did not drip tears.
Her limbs. She could feel them once more, a little lighter, a little stronger.
She heard a rustle behind her.
Startled, but she could not move.
She painstakingly moved her hands from the armrests of the chair she was sitting on onto her lap. She painstakingly folded them. They fumbled as they struggled with the fine motor skills of it, but she managed. She lay still.
Grey.
Every time she moved, she felt as though something was tugging at her, tugging, tugging. Like the moon did the waves, the tides. Tugging, tugging.
And all the world was grey.
Images of broken light danced before her like a million eyes; they called her on and on, popping out against the drab, dreary greys of her everyday life.
She could move better.
A single window, a skylight, was above her. She thought that perhaps she slept through the days, for all she ever saw were stars.
Her hands were folded tightly, laying on her lap. She crossed her ankles. She sat up straight like a doll, her toes pointed inward.
A rustle. A rustle. They came up behind her.
She lay still.
She was not alone. But of course, she had long known this. For what else could explain, what else could explain all the rustlings around her?
Blink, blink.
Something, something: something behind her. Something, something: something beside her.
Her thoughts meandered like a restless wind inside a letterbox, stumbling blindly as they made their way across the universe.
She was in a spaceship. But of course, she had long known this. For what else could explain, what else could explain all the stars in the sky above her?
Blink, blink.
She was not alone.
One day she thought she should take a glance at him. One day she thought she could sneak a peek at him.
But he was there, looking back at her. He had known that she was there; they were not alone.
She went and she fell deep inside his eyes.
Her legs, all too used to sitting in a chair, collapsed beneath her.
She fainted.
Lost.
Yes, she had thought. She had long since thought she had lost her way of thought. But yet, here she could, and she thought that she was lost.
Now, where could I have gone?
Sounds of laughter, shades of life were ringing through her opened ears.
She lay on the ground, unable, unwilling, to stand and reach the chair. Her vision was blurred once more as her memories possessed and caressed her.
She could taste the salt on her lips, she could feel the warmth of the drips, the drips of her tears.
She saw him there, crouching by her side. She saw him there as he tried to wipe them off. Someone like she, always dripping tears.
A single memory crossed her mind. She snatched it, she latched it, she held it close; it gave him a name.
Armin.
Blue.
She held his hands, enclosed in her own. Limitless, undying love shined around her like a million suns; it called her on and on, across the universe.
She thought once again she should take a glance at him. One day she thought she could sneak a peek at him.
Hand clasped tight, she looked into his eyes. And she knew, oh she knew, without a reason why, he felt the same as she.
Oh, how he was crying so! Oh, how the tears, they just fell to the floor.
And she reached out, and she tried to wipe them off. Yet she found that she could not, for she went and fell deep inside his eyes for the second time.
A sliver of starlight had fallen into the cabin.
His eyes were blue.
The dim roar of the sea rushing to shore. The smell of the salt air, the taste of it on her tongue. The warmth of his hand holding her own.
The sky, shades of red, shades of blue, fading to black, fading to grey. The stars hidden from sight, a disappointing night.
The dim roar of the sea rushing to shore, crashing against the sand.
Shades of blue, shades of black.
What a night, what a sight.
He was there, he was here. She knew who he was, and she loved him all the same. Never meant to be, their fates crossed by the stars among which they now traveled.
Well, I defy thee, stars.
There they were, always chasing time; yet they ran the wrong way. There they were.
Dripping tears.
Memories of a life that had long since passed flashed before her eyes. She saw him there, underneath a cloudless sky, and his eyes, oh-so blue they gazed upon her with a fear so unfamiliar.
Then, she was caught. How she cried, how she cried. And though she had escaped, she had yet to wonder:
When did you look at me with those eyes, Armin?
The fault, my dear Annie, is not in our stars.
She gazed out the skylight at the stars drifting by. She dared not look at him though he was seated beside her.
Blink, blink.
Her sight began to blur. He looked at her, concern in his eyes.
But she did not let him see, lest he ask her how she be.
But he knew, he just knew, without a reason why, that she felt the same as he, and he pulled her to her feet. Ignoring her tears, he held her close and so began to dance.
She knew not what they were doing, her feet knew not where to go, and she looked up at his face.
A little cottage by the sea, morning walks through the mist, in a land called Paradis. There she loved her dork Armin without a second thought. They had a kid, maybe two, and lived in quiet peace.
Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sails from briny beach to misty mountain. Noble kings and princes eyed them wearily; they were known all around, though not necessarily liked.
A shifter lived far from forever, even in other lifetimes. One day as she lay in their bed in their cottage by the sea, she found his sorrowful blue eyes were the last the that she saw.
His expression was kind, with a small, sorrowful smile. He took her hands, and he guided her in dance. And as the tears formed again in both of their eyes, the world grew blurry for the millionth time.
Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
The sound of tears hitting the floor.
Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
Even the stars danced around them.
Memories of a life long gone crept back to her, remaining with her this time, and she found herself crying even more. She cried the tears she wish she had all those lives ago: she cried for light when the days were done, for she feared what the next would bring; she cried for her father, whom she saw but once again; she cried for the love she could never have, the one who stood before her now.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
They danced, alone among the stars, and the blurry space faded to black.
Author's Note: so this was originally going to be eremika and then i was like "but wait i never write for aruani that much and plus i have this shelter au for them that i'm publishing next month so hey. also this is so extra like wow beatles lyrics and shakespeare references geez me what the hell since when did i become so cultured. i'm supposed to be an uncultured swine of a weeb.
also: super important note to the people following me as a writer: there is a time rapidly approaching where it will seem like all my snk content (or all content) will drop off the face of the earth, replaced by soul eater fic (or plain nothing). for this i sincerely apologize in advance. i currently have no plans to abandon snk or stop writing fic for it since snk will forever be my baby but like. people can have other babies too. most people have other babies. anyway YEAH I APOLOGIZE I AM REALLY SORRY.
thanks for reading my Super Extra(tm) fic. fave or whatever if you liked it idk i'd sell my soul for some reviews but do what you want. (have a greaaat daaay~~)