"…and after countless summers, one day, I was all alone again. A peaceful end…at the end of everything…I was truly…and utterly…alone."
-x-
He never recovers from that night, when that blue crystal shattered thousands of feet below them and emerald eyes slid shut for the last time.
Ren never notices. She had not known him before—does not know him now, truth be told—and she would never understand, even if she had.
Sometimes he thinks he gets better, and he goes for days, weeks, months without grabbing the locket, without opening it.
-x-
(And then the little boy they had found died, too hungry and weak to survive their journey)
(And then Ren's herd of cats began to dwindle, falling asleep and never waking up)
(And then the radio's batteries died)
He breaks a little more each time.
-x-
She's flighty as ever, something insubstantial and fey. She is never bothered, never sad. She can be solemn, and she is, when he mourns their losses, but it never touches her, never hurts her.
-x-
Sometimes he looks at her and grieves, for everything he lost trying to find her.
Sometimes he thinks it wasn't worth it.
-x-
His grief is a weight heavier than anything she has ever known, and she can't bear it.
He's expected it for countless summers, but when she decides to stay with the band of survivors they've cobbled together, it's still a shock. It hurts.
Or, so he thinks.
But she fades from his life surprisingly easily.
-x-
He is alone again, but he does not mind. He is older, now, and the nostalgia that threatens to consume him nightly is more comforting than what he sees around him.
He had fought so long, so hard for others, to look to his side and find someone else standing there.
And, for a short time, he had. He'd been surrounded by others.
(And he hates her for taking that away from him)
-x-
Glass crunches beneath his boots, and he sighs as he picks his way through the tower. His sorrow does not hide his smile for long, however.
Home.
He drops his pack onto the ground and gets to work.
Not everything is salvageable. Ruined books and paper find themselves in a crate for tinder, and he sweeps the floor clean of objects he remembers being useable ages ago.
The place seems barren when he finishes, but…it's appropriate.
He tackles the observatory next. The telescope is somehow in perfect condition, and that eases something within him.
The yard is next.
-x-
He opens his locket one night, and leaves each object resting gently on the mantle, laid out for all to see as they wink in the light of the red dawn.
A silver screw, a skull ring, a fragmented blue stone, a plastic flower…They have faded with time, colors dimmer and surfaces dull, some scratched from constant handling.
But that is alright, because he is fading too.
He has never seen anyone live to look as old as Chiyo had in those moments before she died—even Grandpa had only the beginnings of silver in his hair before he had passed on—and he will not do so either. He is taller, thinner, his hair longer, but age does not crush him with its weight.
He hesitantly picks up his most precious object, rolling the metal around in his fingers gently.
He sits in an old armchair, one that Grandpa used to sit in when Seto was smaller. He never truly read Seto a story, but he would read aloud from his book if Seto was sitting near him, and that would enthrall Seto for hours.
There is no one for him to read too, and he would not do so if there was. He is all alone now, and has been since they parted ways.
-x-
They wait for him, forms faint and indistinct, at the edges of his vision. The sun is setting, dying the sky the same red it had been that morning, all those years ago.
If this is what death is…he mourns that he has not come to this realization sooner. He smiles at them, and emerald eyes grin back. Arms fold over tattooed flesh. The soft hum of static teases the edges of his hearing. Young lips smile an old smile.
It is the end of everything, he thinks.
But this end is a peaceful end.
And he closes his eyes.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
FINALLY. I have wanted to write for Fragile for EFFING EVER. And FINALLY something's out!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. And if you got all mah less-than-subtle references, you're the best. I tried to make this as less cliche as possible...But the theme I was given was 'Fading' and I chose to use the end quote of the game because it tells you EVERYTHING YOU DID WAS FOR NOTHING BC SHE LEFT HIM AND HE DIED ANYWAY.
So, yeah, Ren's not mah favorite character. But I feel like this was a more optimistic fic based on that...(No, seriously, I almost made this fic really dark). And it's got a happy ending :D (Well...)