A/N: Written for the Quintessential Quoting Challenge on the A&M fanfiction Forum (quote is below), and for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom 40. Also for the 100_tales challenge on livejournal, prompt #090 – travel.
The Promise We Made to Meet Again
"Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one." – Oscar Wilde
I wonder…if a friendship with someone can ever really end. Especially if you weren't raging and screaming the last time you saw them.
I haven't seen him in almost a year, and all I have is a photo taken one day by phone. Hardly memento quality, but we're both smiling and happy in it and that's special enough. Even if Akira Takizawa no longer exists – or maybe it was just another pseudonym, and a boy by that name never did exist – it's special enough.
It still brings a smile to my lips when I see it, when I remember how we'd laughed and teased each other the whole way back, how he'd mockingly snatched at my phone and I'd held it away until we almost lost it to the river. And if I have my travel-books with me, I can flick through them and note new places we can visit together to build up an album of pictures just like this one.
We had planned to, one private moment before the shutter closed. And he had promised me, so we'll do it someday. Even if I have to hold his hand and help him – because he really is just a lost child, without his memories. No matter how sad the past was to make him lose them, he still smiles – and smiles for me.
Though I'm slapping him when I see him next for making me worry so long about him.
And then I'm taking him to the new amusement park – unless he's in America again, then I might have to rearrange my plans. But we'll go on the rollercoaster, the Tunnel of Love (I wonder what he'll think of that) and then to a boat cruise across Tokyo Bay…and finally, to the new picture booth in the mall to seal the deal. And he'll say something to make me laugh and then press the button, and I'll have his grinning boyish face and he'll have my "pretty smile" and we'll have a mark for a beginning and an end to our friendship.
And then we'll grab the end of the rope and drag it along, because I don't want it to end. And I know Akira doesn't either; he had my phone, and he left this for me. Left me with his cheesy grin so I'd laugh instead of cry. Because I was sad when we first met, and if he doesn't remember again I'll have to make a happy first meeting this time.
And I'll buy him some bunny ears too. That'll make us both laugh no matter what surrounds us. Though hopefully he won't be stark naked again; that was awkward enough to deal with once.