p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"There's rain dripping from the ends of Kazuki's hair, but he still makes no move for shelter. Soushi wants to urge him inside, or at least to somewhere less open, but instead he is left only to observe; to track the droplets down his cheeks and listen to the soft huffs of his breath below the rain and follow the distant look in his eyes as he stares out at the black expanse of the ocean./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Where are you, right now?/em he wants to ask, as if he doesn't already know the answer.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(Kazuki is standing here on this island, in rain that he doesn't seem to even notice. Kazuki is beyond the horizon of existence and nothingness, reaching for where Soushi went on without him. The only truly unanswered question is when that balance will tip away from equilibrium.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"They stand there like that, together and apart all at once, for what could be minutes or hours. Soushi has a sinking suspicion that it's closer to the latter than the former./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Eventually, though, Kazuki exhales slowly and closes his eyes, turning away from the railing. If his eyes were open, his gaze would have passed over where Soushi is standing, but it's better this way. /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(This way, it doesn't matter that Kazuki wouldn't see him anyway.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Soushi," Kazuki breathes out, and the longing in his voice would make Soushi's heart ache, if it could. If he still had a body to feel it with./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Soushi can't answer him. Not even as he once had, when they'd at least had the Crossing to keep them tethered to one another. Then, a part of Soushi had remained on this side of the horizon. Now, nothing of Soushi is truly here. Soushi does not exist here, no matter how long he spends watching Kazuki./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I'm still waiting here," Kazuki says into the night, his voice choked and barely audible over the rain. It doesn't matter, truly, because Soushi has no ears to hear it with. He knows what Kazuki is saying, even if he's not truly here to listen./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(em style="box-sizing: border-box;"I will wait for you, forever,/em he'd said, once upon a time, back when Soushi could promise to return to where he was. When reuniting was something that Soushi had had the power to enact. Now, though, Soushi is gone, and he cannot cross that horizon in reverse.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kazuki draws in a shaky breath before him, and then opens his eyes, staring straight at where Soushi is not. When he speaks, his voice is still choked, but it rings strong and decisive into the night as he echoes Soushi's own words from all those years ago./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I will come to where you are. I swear it."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(Soushi will wait for him. Forever.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Where are you, right now?/em he wants to ask, as if he doesn't already know the answer.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(Kazuki is standing here on this island, in rain that he doesn't seem to even notice. Kazuki is beyond the horizon of existence and nothingness, reaching for where Soushi went on without him. The only truly unanswered question is when that balance will tip away from equilibrium.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"They stand there like that, together and apart all at once, for what could be minutes or hours. Soushi has a sinking suspicion that it's closer to the latter than the former./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Eventually, though, Kazuki exhales slowly and closes his eyes, turning away from the railing. If his eyes were open, his gaze would have passed over where Soushi is standing, but it's better this way. /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(This way, it doesn't matter that Kazuki wouldn't see him anyway.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Soushi," Kazuki breathes out, and the longing in his voice would make Soushi's heart ache, if it could. If he still had a body to feel it with./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Soushi can't answer him. Not even as he once had, when they'd at least had the Crossing to keep them tethered to one another. Then, a part of Soushi had remained on this side of the horizon. Now, nothing of Soushi is truly here. Soushi does not exist here, no matter how long he spends watching Kazuki./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I'm still waiting here," Kazuki says into the night, his voice choked and barely audible over the rain. It doesn't matter, truly, because Soushi has no ears to hear it with. He knows what Kazuki is saying, even if he's not truly here to listen./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(em style="box-sizing: border-box;"I will wait for you, forever,/em he'd said, once upon a time, back when Soushi could promise to return to where he was. When reuniting was something that Soushi had had the power to enact. Now, though, Soushi is gone, and he cannot cross that horizon in reverse.)/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kazuki draws in a shaky breath before him, and then opens his eyes, staring straight at where Soushi is not. When he speaks, his voice is still choked, but it rings strong and decisive into the night as he echoes Soushi's own words from all those years ago./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I will come to where you are. I swear it."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(Soushi will wait for him. Forever.)/p