Chapter Twenty-Eight: Moon Eyed
With the intangible force of fatigue weighing down on eyelids, drooping and pushing the rest of their faces into premature frowns - with the iron smell only natural to spilled blood not merely hanging, but repeatedly invading and declaring war on the nostrils of the students (metal in all forms conductive) - with the same misshapen globs of mud they battled so valiantly against caking their skin and bones and muscles and hairs and teeth and - with all of the triumph and turbulence that came with the aftermath of hard work, the students of Class 1-A couldn't find it in themselves to settle down so easily as the night came. This unrelenting zeal for energy pushed them onward; primal voracity for life was not satisfied by the meal they'd consumed just before. Despite the way a hard day's work could erode at bones, the mind's will was carefully preserved in an intricate net of neurons, so as to push the body beyond pitifully imagined limits. Thus, "food for thought" was sought out by the students of 1-A, or whatever so tangibly represented the satiation their tired minds desired.
"Fascinating" was one term for the innate craving, while "fanatical" was another. However, "human" applied to both faithfully, and thus, a star speckled sky beckoned those who were itching for more in the period so mysteriously labeled "after hours", with potential consequences that fit the bill perfectly.
The night's end was but a facade, the blackened skies' youth pronouncing itself as a particular whisper from one to another.
"I want to show you something" preluded the scene that was to come, a waning moon gazing down at the two who crept across greenery stained by the expansive sky. The picture was chilled to perfection; the grins that their faces were shaped around were warm to the touch. Steps taken forged a path through the earth's fur coat, grasses and weeds seemingly accepting of their secondary role in the tale that tore at the darkness. Although the biomass took on many forms around the fated pair, some inviting and others unruly, every piece of the setting appeared to envelop them, nature's spectacular support protecting them from the blistering wilderness.
The sky without sun carried a certain appeal, Mother Nature's soft hands holding on to those brave enough to dance through the dark, while brandishing instruments to fend off obsidian nightmares that capitalized on its deep shade of beauty. She may have smiled had she been sheltering two with feather-weight fantasies, but the density of whatever she held on to on that night left her with lips downturned and great body paralyzed. Her trees, her grasses, her weeds - they were all secondary, all just the chance setting of the heart dropping moment sure to come.
Mother Nature inhaled the foreshadows, exhaled poignance - something only a force so impalpable as she could do.
Ayumi and Kirishima. Even Mother Nature couldn't deny how easily it rolled off the tongue.
—
Bathed in a glow bestowed upon them by a dying moon, the duo forged a connection that was long since overdue. The canyon's edge they dangled their feet over was all to giddy when allowing them to sit comfortably, rjfjjftnjf
"Alright. You first." The words poured naturally from her lips, as though she was born to speak their syllables solely.
He looked away, however, no thought needed for him to decide on his question. A gleam that perpetuated a playfulness natural to the boy shone in his eyes as he asked, "Hm...what's your favorite color?"
"It's gotta be red."
"Heh, that's funny. It's mine too, but I've recently taken a liking to green."
They were welders - this time not forced to be at odds, molding a molten passion into a wonderful thing with their trustful, prophetic hands.
—
"Why'd you dye your hair?"
"I guess...well...I guess it was my way of proving something to myself."
"Did it work?"
"Mm..."
"I think it did, but I can't speak for you."
"Ayumi, I think you know me well enough to."
—
"So, what's up with your name? I know it's a touchy subject, but how come you don't go by Bubaigawara?"
"Aw, you tired of my first name?"
"Well, I'm tired of you not calling me by mine."
"Okay, Eijiro. Happy?"
"I'll be happy when you answer my question."
"You have time for my story?"
"The moon's still high."
"Okay then...Well, I don't think I've put it into words before, but I believe this is how it would go.
"My mom was never really around, to put it lightly. Uh...when I was around seven - I think - she took me to this underground 'quirk doc' to have my quirk removed somehow. She didn't like the idea that I could attract attention because I wasn't supposed to exist to the world."
"Jeez, that's heavy. You shouldn't expect yourself to be able to carry that around all by yourself."
"...what's worse is the number it did on my brother."
"Oh...Jin, right?"
"Yeah. My self-destructive quirk wasn't a good look for me nor good to look at from his perspective. He was isolated, completely and utterly isolated, and it hurt me that I couldn't do anything to stop myself.
"In an accident one night, he was...stabbed in the head with a knife. It split h-his right and left brain from what I could tell...so for a while he struggled with communication. He had already taken to splitting himself for entertainment, and this fragmentation of mind and body only furthered his descension into a madness I couldn't know.
"It's not that I hate the name. It's just...there's no family I have to share that name with anymore."
She was crying. She was crying.
He wrapped her in a hug.
"Hey, I'm here. It's all going to be fine as long as I'm with you."
"It can't be. You're the unbreakable one, and I'm lying on the floor in pieces."
"Then it's a good thing I'd spend a lifetime picking them up if it meant you'd feel good again."
He wiped the luminescent tears he had seen coming from miles away.
"Yeah?"
"You could take my last name any day you'd like."
Her heart skipped a beat, a beat that he stole with a heady smile. And, though it hurt a good deal, it left her breathless, her eyes carrying an incandescent glow that could part the tears that tried to put them out. She was bloodshot, as always, but with him by her side.
—
She nestled into the pocket of his arm it seemed he kept just for her.
"My turn. How come you haven't mastered unbreakable yet?"
"I don't get what you mean? We've been practicing it. I guess...I'm just not there ye-"
"Eijiro. We both know that's a lie."
"...I'm not a liar, Ayumi."
"The tongue does wondrous things on its own. Your mind is what's holding you back because I know - I damn well know - that heart of yours is unbreakable."
His arm tightened around her slightly - so slightly - and his eyes remained trained in the direction onward. She understood then that he was more than simply a tongue's reach away, caught up in threads of thought that tangled with his malleable existence. And, despite the way his limbs seized up as did the trees crippled by the dark, the way his eyes deflated when someone had the gall to push past his hardened exterior - despite it all, despite what he concocted to torment himself - to be specific, a menagerie of vile thoughts more fragile than the glass aspirations they were modeled after - despite every last thing, she stayed tucked into the spot next to him, refusing to take her eyes away from his form. That girl, who threw her faith onto him recklessly, a security blanket with iron woven in - the blood or her resolve? - that girl was right next to him, and had been all along.
She just wanted him to know.
There was no fight to earn her respect, no lust or passion that had come to the surface and pulled all in. There had been none of that, yet, the boy who'd been the puppet of his tongue, riddled with insecurities and a fear of incompetence alike, somehow missed her entirely.
She just wanted him to know.
She had been there starting from the instance where their eyes collided by chance, therefore, his heart was unbreakable.
"Okay. I'll show you it tomorrow then."
—
"What's your plan for the future?"
"Future...huh. Never really thought about it too much."
"Maybe you should. I'd hate to see you lose this."
"This?"
"This."
This. Inexplicable, yet it made her cheeks want to flush a bit regardless.
"I think I'd hate to lose it too."
"This?"
"This."
"Then...well, I have another question for you."
"Better be a good one if you're gonna talk over my turn."
"Okay, okay - jeez! Girl, you're killin' me here!"
"Mhm. I seem to have that effect on a lot of people!"
She jabbed him in the side, playfulness both dulling and intensifying the prideful pain that flamed up on his side.
"Alright! I'll-I'll ask it!"
"Will you now? Funny, I thought you said that like ten minutes ago!"
"H-hey! I can't help it! Maybe you just stun me to silence!"
"Yet you keep running that mouth of yours! Let me give you a tip: don't lie to someone who's well versed in them."
The snickers they passed back and forth somehow distracted both from the severity of the words she'd uttered.
"Oh? Care to explain yourself, Miss Ayumi. That wasn't a very lady-like statement just now..."
"And what? You hate me? So sorry! Wasn't aware I lived to please you, but thanks for letting me know!"
Sharp laughter rebounded over and over against the plain looking walls of the of the outer facility, an infinite symphony only the two who orchestrated had the pleasure of bearing witness to its entirety. The woods laid out before them, for them - Mother Nature's soft spot was showing - chittered, so moved by the duo rooted on steps of the camp grounds that laid in the pit of the forest's stomach that the stiffness they once exhibited vanished. Although it had to have been physically impossible, the chemistry between the two teens from Class 1-A had changed that of air molecules, as though they were bleaching the dark canvas their eyes perceived. There was a new atmosphere, one that the leaves on the trees absorbed in place of the ominous and tension-thick air that night carried.
And after laughter came softness.
"Nah, I don't think I could hate you. I don't think...I could ever hate you."
"D'you mean that?"
"Huh?"
"It's just...I don't want you saying things you don't mean. I don't need you becoming a liar for my sake."
His eyes seemed to shine; the grin he dressed his face with carried a bite she wouldn't have felt at ease without.
"What makes you think I'd become a liar for you?"
The blush that bloomed atop lush green skin wasn't the rosy type - it was crimson.
"CAN IT!"
"Alright, alright. Here's the question. I know you've been dying for me to ask it."
"'S about time."
"Would you ever consider going crazy for someone else?"
"Well, it depends. What would this 'craziness' you speak of entail?"
"Not sure. But would you be willing to?"
"Sure. I'm a little insane as it is, so what would be the difference?"
"Oh?"
"My quirk had me off the rails from the beginning. I don't think I can imagine myself living to an old age, so I really hope I go out for someone else."
"You really should live for yourself, Ayumi."
"Eijiro, I've been trying. It's not working. So, yes. I'd love to go crazy for someone."
She made the languid words she uttered burn with passion somehow.
He was amazed by it - no, amazed by her.
—
She looked up, taking in the nebulous smells of the dark, as her eyes radiated a light reminiscent of the moon.
"I think if I were to end up a pile of dead cells, I'd want it to be with you."
He looked over at her, the girl he was carved onto the steps with, and sighed, the brilliance between the both of them enough to make up for what the moon left them to tangle with.
"The feeling's mutual, Ayumi."
"Eh? Isn't this the part where ya kiss the girl?"
"Nah. I think it's where I'd confess my undying love for you."
"Don't worry, I think I get the picture. I'll take you up on your offer some day, though. Not today, but some day."
"Which offer?"
"Your last name. I'll take it. Someday."
Strong gusts of wind - a celebration of sorts? - rushed at the pair, signaling the end of the limited time they'd made for themselves. Not a bitter end, not sweet either - it held a luster incapable of ever being shone again.
"No rush. You got time."
It was a wonderful thing, the thing they made in the dark.
Author's Note: working on the final chapter - trying to end it right -_-
