Koon's POV

So it had finally come. It had been the day that we'd all been counting down for. The day that we all had been looking at - the end of the term, the end of the reign of the Ducks as we knew them, the supposed end of Charlie and Adam.

It had been this day, of all days, that had been filled with a spirit of hope, flickering from all our lips with every good bye that was uttered, and every regret that remained unspoken. This day was the deadline. Had we made it?

The film over my eyes was having a particularly hard time wearing away on this morning. And even as the sun rolled up over the hills in the East, it was not a day that any of us were looking forward to.

My lips, parched and cracked, opened to inhale a dry breath of air. And, smelling of sweat and clothed in rumpled garments from the previous day, I made my way to the door, to where I knew the finale would be played out.

As expected, there were two lone figures sitting by the lake. The stockier figure's arm was wrapped around the slimmer boy's waist, whose head was resting comfortably upon the broad-built shoulder of our captain. I was tempted to stand at a distance and watch the ritualistic happenings that would lead up to Adam's departure. Buffalo was a pretty notable distance from our Eden Hall…I'm sure neither of them needed to be reminded of that, however.

Through the past few months, comments and insults had flown back and forth. Not to mention the punches and lies that had grown spitefully along with them. And even as I set to the task of approaching the pair of uniformed peers, I wondered what they were thinking…feeling…

What would they have done differently? How could any of us have avoided the systematic flow of chaos that had ensued so sporadically? Was there anything at all that we could have used to maneuver around it?

Did any of that even matter now?

I could only assume that Charlie had taken my advice and gone to see Adam. And from there, I could only assume further that they were now an item again. For some reason, I found deep content in seeing them together, as peaceful as they were.

It was the kind of feeling that left an odd stirring of calm in the pit of your stomach, which gradually worked its way through your body, giving you an almost numb feeling…but a good one.

There was a soft breeze blowing around us…the sort of breeze that lifted your spirits with it, and carried it into the sky where it twirled and danced with the sunbeams that you had trouble recognizing.

But there was also an eerie silence over the whole area. That could have been chalked up to the fact that it was barely five in the morning, and most of the school was asleep, or just being roused from their dreamless slumbers.

However, I had a feeling that Charlie and Adam had been up long before I'd decided to join them.

Maybe this was good for them. Maybe the distance would help. But we'd find that out in due time…

I didn't envy them in the least. If I'd been in either of their shoes, I'm not sure how I would have coped. And it wasn't that I didn't have a similar story - it was that I was not in love…love always complicated things. My tastes of it were as bittersweet as dark chocolate with a pungent aftertaste. Needless to say, I was not exceedingly eager to try my unmarred hand at it any time soon.

With a harsh swallow of air that reminded me of delicate porcelain, I took those fateful last steps towards the idle couple with fixed stares and downcast frowns on their pallid facades.

No words crossed the threshold of my lips, for they would have failed my intentions. I did not wish to interrupt what seemed to be the last few moments of complete understanding the two boys would share before Adam's departure.

They spoke no words to me, but their heads turned and their gazes crept up to meet mine, steady and wretchedly stolid. The sole area of feeling in my body while under those lonesome stares was my feet, oddly enough.

There was a rustling from just overhead, and the three of us craned our necks to see what rascal had shattered the coherent silence which had previously lain over us as a sheet of glass is lain over diamonds in a showcase. We were the diamonds, with newfound luster, staring through the sheen at a small intruder whose time was spent scrambling up and down trees.

But I was the only one who seemed to take offense to the unfortunate presence of this estranged creature. Soft sighs like satin rose from the earth where my two friends were perched, still attached and tranquil.

This was their way of saying good bye? I'd never seen anything like it, and it rather perplexed me. Where they used to saying good bye? Had they practiced and rehearsed many times for this moment?

Somehow I wouldn't have been terribly surprised to find that they had. Each of them was aloof in his own way, and that made if very hard to muse on the foundations of their relationship. Not that it was any of my business in the first place, and meddling, I suppose was what had gotten us into this predicament in the first place.

So I took a step back, joining the ranks of the rodents that scampered between voids and wove through comfortable lapses of repose.

Like an audience member I watched, to no one's dismay, the gentle care in which each boy took the other. Tender kisses that seemed to mean more now, with an imposing obstacle, than before, when the stakes of discrimination had been high as the monsoon rains in India, were exchanged with utmost adoration.

And love passed through the hollow gap between branches, as cliched as a fairy-tale, watching over the duo that bred magic too many times to remember. It was almost as though, now, when it was nearly too late, things were making the transition from havoc to levels of normality that had been in the past.

Charlie and Adam were, but the moment had passed, and Adam's slender shadow rose wordlessly. Tears behind his sea-green eyes, he ducked his head from my gaze, the pink shine in his cheeks having replaced the flush of rage, and the hideous aura of helplessness he had once held, had seemed to melt away overnight, as Charlie's mood of hatred had.

When the sandy brown's shadow had risen to his level, the two performed that unfamiliar dance…the dance that one acted when they hadn't given up just yet. I had never witnessed it before, and watched open-mouthed and aching at the effortless choreography.

A fluid embrace, similar to the liquid coat upon their cheeks. Soft whispers and prodding noses where ears lay hidden below tufts of thick, unkempt hair.

I'd never know what it was they murmured to each other in those last few moments, but a feeling of revelry sought my lungs when hope and promise, holding hands, flicked across Adam's expression.

The dainty boy let his eyes trail towards me, and this acknowledgement was enough.

His footsteps led away, that dawn…further away than any of us could have imagined.

Shuddering breaths wrought the lone chassis that stood just a few feet from me. Immeasurable sorrow cloaked him, and it was with heavy reluctance that he turned for the lake. I watched his expression become neutral, calm like he had been moments before.

And somehow, I believed he was still sitting with Adam beneath that tree.

I believe it's easier to think that way.

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The End.

I would like to dedicate this chapter to Maya, who, throughout the last year, has helped me develop as a writer. These pieces can be found on fictionpress.net under the pen name of Collegiates. Yes, that was a shameless plug.

This was also for Koon - the budding, blossoming character that got his official start right here in these pages. It is for every character that followed his creation, and every character that will follow theirs.

I would also like to apologize for the 14-month wait that has been endured for this last chapter. In all honesty, I meant never to complete it. But strange things happen and sometimes stories just need an ending.

And with this, I'm hanging up my hat and quill. After more than a year of loathing the memory of this story, I think this last chapter says it all. But now I'm ready to officially retire from this unfortunate genre of fanfiction. Anything in the future will probably be co-written, and even that flaunts itself a bit sketchy.

Finally, thank you to those of you who read this ending. And those of you who have endured the ups and downs of this story and that which came before it.