If he tried really hard, looked back into the recesses of his mind and reached in deep, he could pull out the sunset.
The sunset where they had both seen each other but turned away, where they both were the same, but so different.
And they were only boys, only children, but the understanding that flashed between them was heavy with maturity and seriousness.
An exchange between the light and dark.
Fingers grasping together, forming a bond between them.
A bond that had vanished as easily as it occurred, but it was still there, hidden underneath by jealousy and longing and rivalry.
And the other looked for love, and he looked for revenge.
The other looked for acceptance, and he looked for power.
The other looked toward him, and he…smiled back.
But he had unearthed it, that bond, finally, that day when he, and he still didn't know why, saved him.
Nearly died for him.
It had been an impulse, no, instinct that told him, save him. He needs you. And he had jumped to take the blow.
And the boy had cried for him as the darkness consumed him.
But the tears of a girl woke him again.
He would look back at these reminisces and the ghost of a smile would linger. They had been young and reckless, but they had understood. It had been so simple then. Things that were important always drifted further away with time. Like emotions. And friends.
The rare times he would sit alone and think, the thoughts would blur and he would find himself grasping for the wisps with searching fingertips.
She told him she loved him.
She told him she'd leave everything for him.
He called her pathetic.
And then he turned and walked away.
And the boy with a raging inner demon promised the girl with tears that he would bring him back, but she was left broken and the boy held his broken promises in a clenched fist.
And he himself wished for the time when it was so simple.
But he forced himself to look at it with apathy.
He must let go.
He must forget.
He must…but he couldn't.
And each time he remembered, he had to reach deeper, look further, into the surrounding black of subconscious.
And he wondered briefly if the memories would ultimately fade away too.
And he told himself otherwise, but he didn't want them to disappear.
And he wanted to see him again, the boy with broken promises and bonds and a broken heart.
And he himself had his broken ambitions.
And even though the friendship had been forsaken, enmity erected in between, inner battles over water and tall gates...
When they would meet, they would smile their broken smiles,
just like that sunset.