alone in the universe

. o .

He wasn't looking for her, but he found her just after sunset, sitting restlessly on the balcony rail.

She looked like the siren on the helm of one of the sailing ships he'd always wanted to own. Hearing his footfalls, she looked over and smiled in a way he'd forgotten – open and warm, her heart in her eyes.

He wasn't whom she had been expecting, and he saw her smile slip, but he joined her on the rail; his smile practiced and (mostly) for show. He wasn't intending to stay, but as the wind tangled their hair together, she sighed, suddenly pillowing her head against his arm as the stars winked into being over Flanoir's lanterned streets.

She looked, he thought, like a spirit from Sybak's oldest books, the resemblance only heightened by her uncharacteristic silence. She looked like the sort of girl people would fight for, die for, and he wondered if she'd grown into that girl or if she'd always been that way.

He wondered if she hated that power as much as he did.

He wasn't about to ask. He thrived on colour and noise and chaos, true, but there was something here that even he didn't want to dispel. So he would take the false peace and the warmth she offered as her weight pressed against him in the oldest gesture of trust; would take it in two hands and not look back. He wouldn't let her win (and that was what it was; it was him or the girl at his side and he had never been completely blinded by beauty, so if she was going to follow willingly, well - ) He certainly hadn't planned to say anything, but he found himself whispering an unconscious apology to the night sky. I'm sorry...

She stirred, but there was no question in her eyes as she looked up. I know, she said, reassuring the stars, and his victory was hollowed as her fingers brushed over his heart before resting shyly on his shoulder

I know.

. o .

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction...
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

. o .

...but sometimes it's just not enough, you know?

. o .

finis.

. o .

sabe's scribbles: written as a kiriban drabble for Angry Girl - 100th reviewers are someone to celebrate! That said... thank you for reading! Also, the drabble's title is taken from the very awesome David Usher song of the same name.

disclaimer: everyone here still belongs to Namco.