Another magnetic poetry wonder! This one was, erm, hold on. It was 'nearby to my heart a piece of heaven.' I tried about six different stories with that one, too; it didn't really want to be written, and this is really cheesy. I think next time one of them doesn't want to be written, I won't write it.
HEY LOOK HERE BITCHES! Ep 25 spoilerz, yo.
Disclaimer: Not mine. I don't want 'em if they're going to be like this.
Three hundred six words: Steam
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"Coffee." Breathing deeply, I close my eyes.
Smiled at my bespectacled friend. Took a sip. "I appreciate it, Maes."
He grinned back. "Black ,two sugar." He sat beside me and folded his hands between his knees. Staring at the wall in front of us, he sighed, and I assumed he was just as tired of this war as I was.
I took a drink of coffee and waited. When Maes Hughes had something to say, he would say it, and that was that.
"Roy," he said quietly, "if I died, right now, and you lived, what would happen?" he asked, turning a pensive gaze to me.
I almost spat out my coffee; this was not the Maes I had come to know, the occasional prankster, the natural joker. Where had this depressed one come from and did I still have the receipt?
Setting down my mug, I spoke carefully. "I would make sure you had a proper burial," I said slowly. "I would take care of Gracia for you." Pause. There was a twitch at the corner of his mouth at the mention of his sweetheart. "But most of all, I guess, I would miss you."
He raised his eyebrows high, but he said nothing.
"I would keep your picture where it belongs." Turning slightly to face him dead on, I tapped the left side of my chest with two fingers, thud thud. "Right here." When he gave a sad smile, I punched his arm. "But you're not going anywhere, you hear me? Nowhere but out of this hellhole."
And he laughed.
And I open my eyes, staring at my reflection in the window, the steam of my coffee floating upward to bathe my face. I've kept my promise, Maes. Now what?
Ducking my head, I don't care that tears splash into the coffee I hold.