A/N: This one is really experimental. And... short. Sorry about the shortness.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in Reborn -- even these two amazing characters.
A Necessary End Will Come
Smoke is supposed to be gray.
Another exhale. Soft blue smoke rises up in long wisps and slides into the black. A streetlight is positioned so perfectly on his silver hair, his face, making it into a spotlight shining for an audience of one. His lips pause dramatically. His long, slender fingers reach the cigarette up to his lips.
"Us. What do all humans have in common? We're all protagonists." Dramatic pause. A long drag on his smoke. "We walk around everyday, empty but looking for a fill. Drama. Events to fill in the book and movie of our life. We are the clichéd heroes, even to ourselves. The tortured artist. The single mother. The badass with a heart of gold." Enthralled, I watch. I don't turn. I can't blink. I'm afraid of missing anything.
Stupid, slow girl. She watches him with wide eyes. I watch him. Here on this bench, trees are lined behind us, and a bicycle track runs horizontally across my vision, merely a slash of dark gray against lush green.
"We want to suffer. We're the victims, just waiting for our villain to give us some real material to market. Opression. Torment. That one really good breakup." He smirks here and I catch my breath. He sucks in on the cigarette, and the end flares up with life. It's dark outside.
I've never met this man before. I'll never see him again.
"The idea is to let go of this self-absorbed megalomaniac bullshit. Accept it. Every play has side characters. You'll be lucky if you even get five minutes in the sun. Most people are designing the sets or making everyone else look good. Where's the shame in that? It's an honest life."
He's beautiful. Unbelievably.
Drag. He looks at me without moving his head, just a quick flick of the eyes. "What's your name?"
I haven't looked away yet. I shrug. "Does it matter?"
The first thing I've said since I sat down. It seems to please him, oddly enough. "No. No it doesn't."
We sit there in silence a moment longer, gazing at each other. Me, with admiration, him with a quizzical sort of stare. Without hesitation, I say something I never intended to. "I love you."
He grins and looks away. "I figured, kid." He throws the glowing stub down and grinds it into the wet grass with his heel. "I figured."
Authout's Note: Again, really experimental. I had a really weird feeling, and I was thinking about how when we pass people on the street, we're just... drones. We could be passing up people we would love, admire, and live with. I met my best friend through a simple comment about her pants, and we ended up so close. It was also paired with a new kind of writing for me. Fragments. Short sentences. Lots of them. Haha, anyways.
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