"Maybe I know somewhere
Deep in my soul
That love never lasts
And we've got to find other ways
To make it alone
Or keep a straight face."
Maka woke up at three in the morning today. When I got up to use the bathroom, her side of the bed was empty and I found her on the balcony, staring up at the sky. So I finished my business and went out to join her, careful not to startle her. She smiled at me when I leaned my elbow on the rail with my chin in my hands.
"Something on your mind, Maka?" I ask her, and she automatically shakes her head. "Nope," She says, but I can tell that she's lying. She has this habit of wringing her hands when she's lying, and I've picked up on this trait. I'm glad I'm one of the only ones who has. "You're a terrible liar." I joke, and ruffle her bed head. She just sighs and looks down at her feet. "Seriously, what's up? You can talk to me, you know." I persist, and eventually she gives in.
"I'm losing my memory, aren't I Soul?" She manages to ask me, and I stop messing up her already messy hair. Instead, I begin running my hands through it's silkiness. "I'd be lying if I said no." I reply quietly, and she looks up at me with tears in her olive green eyes. I hate it when she cries.
"I don't wanna forget you, Soul! Or anyone else! Not Liz, not Patty, not Tsubaki, not Black Star, not Kid, not Crona! I love you so much, and I wouldn't want my life to be any other way." She sniffs, and I sit down next to her, turning my chair towards her.
I tilt her chin so she can look at me. "Maka, listen to me. That will never happen, okay? Never. I'll make sure of it." I kiss her head, and she cries into my shirt. I would usually complain that it was uncool to have tears on my shirt, but right now I can tell that Maka needs to cry like this, so I don't say anything and continue to run my hands through her hair. We stay like this for a while. It's actually kinda nice. In a way.
When she's let it all out, we both smile at each other and stare at the night sky. I point out all the planets to her. I remembered that Tsubaki showed me where they were once and I thought that it would interest her. Just as I suspected, it did. She said that she read about the planets in an astronomy book once, but forgot the names of all the planets, including the one we were standing on. I've never known them all myself, (I'm not that good at astronomy) so I get out her book and look up the planet names. We look at the sky quietly after a while, until Maka speaks up.
She smiles. "I like the night sky. It's really pretty. It's like someone threw a blanket over your head and cut out tiny air holes so that you can breathe." She says, and I look up, trying to envision it. I kinda get what she means, and I smirk. "I never thought about it like that." I tell her, and she yawns. I look at the clock inside and realize that it's 6:53, and we've been up for three hours. Just then, we notice the laughing sun emerging from the horizon, and the moon setting to go to a different part of the world and laugh at those people. We watch the sun rise before heading inside. It laughs at us.
Maka and I walk inside so I can make breakfast. Luckily it's Sunday, so we both have off. As I'm pouring bowls of cereal, Maka looks at pictures around the walls in our dining room. As I put our bowls on the table, she turns to me and points to someone in a picture. "Who's this?" She asks, and I walk over to see who she's talking about.
It's a picture of her when she was a little kid. She's swinging at a playground, her red dress and blonde pigtails swishing behind her dramatically, while being pushed by her mother, Kami. Spirit took the picture. She's pointing to the blonde woman in the photo, who is laughing and looking like she's having a great time.
I frown. "That's your mother, Maka. Kami. Ring a bell?" I ask, hoping it does, but she just looks at the picture again. "She's pretty." Is all she says, turning to her cereal bowl. I freeze. That's the first time I ever had to remind her of something where she didn't remember soon after. I'm suddenly really concerned.
Grabbing the phone off the receiver, I quickly dial her mother's number. I hand her the phone, and she gives me a quizzical look. "Why don't you talk to her?" I suggest, and she picks it up, shrugging. Waiting a little while, I hear Kami's voice from the phone, trying to make out what she's saying.
Maka's parents know that she doesn't have a good memory. So I listen to everything Maka says very carefully.
"Hi, mother... I'm fine... No, I asked Soul a question about you and he thought that I should call you... No, I was wondering who you were, he said I knew you... Yes, he's right here... Okay, I'll put him on for you. I hope I can talk to you some other time as well. You seem like a very nice person. Goodbye." She says, handing me the phone.
Oh no. That didn't sound good.
My stomach lurches as I grab the phone from her outstretched had. It's worse than I thought.
She's forgotten her mother completely.
"And I've always lived like this
Keeping a comfortable distance
And up until now I have sworn to myself
That I'm content
With loneliness
Because none of it was ever worth the risk."
-Paramore, The Only Exception