You can feel it, it feels like nothing else, pain blossoming though your jaw and mouth and cheek. You can taste the tang of metallic blood in your mouth, seeping though your teeth and between your lips, feel the beginning of swelling in your cheek.
You turn your head, slowly, to look back at the boy before you, inspecting the swell of tears in his eyes, marring the pretty sky-blue. He's confused, pained, trembling from toe to head, fists clenching and unclenching.
You can't help but think how beautiful he always was, how beautiful he always is, even now, trapped between hatred and sorrow, fear and pain, love and desire and loneliness.
You can't help but think how beautiful he is, almost crying but not quite, a healthy blush to his cheeks, lips moist and red, a faint tremble that would be so sweet and naïve and seductive if he hadn't just punched you. How pretty and sad and how you almost feel happy that he cares enough about something you said to have such a vehement reaction.
But you know he only cares because it was about one of his friends- Riku or Kairi, and you don't remember which it was but it doesn't matter. And your beyond caring anyway, because he'll never look at you the way he looks at them, and he'll never be that happy to see you.
You'll never see the same smile they see, or the same way his eyes shine. So you content yourself with knowing his eyes are shining now, if with tears rather than love, sadness rather than happiness. He's still looking at you for that fraction of a moment.
"How could you? How could you?"
You can't remember what you said; really you can't, because it was said thoughtlessly, just because you knew it would hurt him. So you say nothing, memorizing every line of his face, the upturn of his eyebrows, the way his trunk-brown bangs are sticking to his wet cheeks, the way he's breathing hard because he's so hurt.
He screams because you haven't moved and punches you again, on the same spot, and you think a tooth may be loose now but you're not sure. Blood is dribbling of your chin now but you still don't move really, looking back at him with those empty eyes of yours, and you think maybe it frightens him how blank you feel, because he stumbles back with a gasp.
He curls on himself a bit, hunching forward, eyes clenched. Thick tears roll from between his lashes- they clump together nicely- and he darts away from you, stumbling in the sands for a moment, disappearing around the bend.
You finally move, if only a bit, touching that spot that's going to bruise soon a bit gingerly. You think maybe he broke your jaw and someone'll have to fix it.
At least he looked at you today.