[AN:

This is the rough draft for the introduction of To The Breaking Point, a rewrite to Oblivion that really has no business suddenly coming to life so long after I started the latter. I wrote it late at night, I didn't edit it, etc., etc. So... you've been warned. (I'm sorry! This is more to let people know that I'm continuing on with this, rather than the real, well-written introduction I'd expect of myself. plz 4giv me)

In terms of what's new, it's essentially just a reworking of what I've already done, with the intention of writing it out to its conclusion. The setup and all is gonna be a bit different, but the spirit of the story remains the same, blah blah, etc. It's the sort of thing where you like an old idea, but the actual implementation at the time (read: the writing) wasn't so hot, so you go back and redo it all sexy-like. That's the plan, anyway.

So "enjoy" this bit of crap, and just know that I'll polish it up and have a real start to it up soon-ish (eventually?).]

To The Breaking Point

I. Introduction

15 years.


It had taken Keitaro Urashima and Naru Narusegawa 15 years to find one another. 15 years of living life, growing, and waiting, and they had finally met once more, but as strangers. The passage of time had worn away at their memories, casting their remembrances of the other's looks and names into an unknown abyss; changing and crafting them into different, new versions of their former selves, so that when they met once more they were not as the remnants of their memories portrayed.


It would take another two years for them to rekindle their past feelings and grow them into something new. Unbeknownst to them, they spent those years rediscovering what they had once had, and then ushering it into the present-time, finding their love in ways that they couldn't have imagined as children. Romantic love, dates, a real relationship on the cusp of fruition--those were the products of their reintroduction, entirely separate from their childhood memories of sandboxes and playdates, games of make-believe and farewell kisses.


But was it meant to be? they might wonder. Keitaro, having grown more in those last two years than in his previous 15, had finally begun to discover who he was. But to make good on those discoveries--to not only figure himself out in an abstract way, but to act on those realizations and come to truly know himself--he left.


So for six months their relationship ground to a halt, leaving them only to pine for their eventual second reunion. His hope was on open one: that upon his return they might finally realize the love the two had shared for so long, and make good in it; as was hers, though she would hardly admit it so clearly to herself.


But upon his return there was nothing.