"Hey, Len."
"Mm?"
A soft shuffle beside her, and his acknowledging motion.
She twirls a little strand of her hair between her thumb and forefinger.
"It's been a crazy year, hasn't it?"
The wind whips past them, swirling around the world and their legs, ruffling the edge of her shirt and shorts. The soft grass beneath her provides ample comfort, even if the edge of the precipice they sit at digs into the back of her knees.
Len sighs beside her, and she watches him kick his legs a bit into the open air absently.
"...Crazy isn't the word I'd use, Rin. It doesn't seem strong enough."
She can't help but to agree.
"So much happened," he continues, staring out ahead into the rising dark of the sky. "...So much."
Her hands find themselves dipping into the grass blade, ripping them from their positions.
"...So much hurt and pain this year," she murmurs in return, eyes cast to the ground and the pallor of her skin. "So much sadness."
"I never thought we'd live through something like this," Len mumbles, and there's a tinge of regret and bitter mirth in his voice. "Not us, you know? When we were born, it was… It feels like a long time since that day."
It feels like a soft stinging in her chest to recall what life was like only a year ago. What was only twelve months ago on this exact day, feels like it could have been centuries and lifetimes ago. Before sickness and masks, before the outbursts of racism and hate came out in full force.
She feels like a completely different person since then.
"...Can you believe how much we planned, Len?" Her words crack slightly as she speaks, her throat suddenly dry. "All the things we were going to do?"
"The concerts we cancelled, the memories we didn't get to make," Len responds, tone turning wistful and quiet. She can feel him shifting uncomfortably with recollection. "The friends and family we haven't seen, and… And the ones we won't see again."
A lump forms in her throat, hard and painful.
"...We wanted to do so much for ourselves, didn't we?" Rin can't stop the tears from beginning to collect under her lashes, but she forces herself to stare ahead across the open expanse of space before them, where the sky is starting to lighten with the first dash of dawn's light. The cavernous cliffside they sit upon feels like it could swallow her within a moment's notice, but it's nothing compared to the yawning hole in her heart.
She can remember as vividly as if the day was just yesterday how she felt last year on their birthday. Heart full of hope, eyes filled with light, hand in hand with Len. Ready to charter the waters of a new decade, rough as the waves may have been.
They were never prepared. They couldn't have been.
"We were going to travel the world again, remember?" She can't stop revisiting the painful memories. "We were going to be together and travel, and sing at all the places we haven't been yet, and bring happiness to people again. We- We-"
"Rin, shh…" Len's hand slides over hers grasped tightly into the grass, comforting her.
"We had so much we wanted to do together, but then we were separated for so long, and you got sick, and I was so sure I wouldn't be with you again, Len." Rin is openly sobbing now, the tears cresting down her cheeks, crystalline and salty. "You were so ill, and I couldn't even see you. They wouldn't let me see you, and we were so far apart. Months upon months of time without you. I—"
His arms wrap around her tightly, and she finds herself burying her face directly into his shoulder, leaving tear marks over his top. He lets her cry for a few moments, softly rubbing circles into her shoulders.
"...Don't think about that right now, Rin," Len murmurs into her hair, pressing a chaste kiss to the blonde strands. "That's behind us. Things are going to get better."
"Are they?" She can't help the hiccup that follows as she pulls away to meet his handsome blue eyes. "It feels like nothing will ever be the same again."
"It will." He brushes a tear off her cheek and offers a small smile. "We did it. This year is behind us now, right? We made it this far, and we're together now. I know it hurt a lot to be apart, and I missed you so much. But I'm here with you now. We're going to make it through the end of this year, and the next, and every year after, forever. We have each other, don't we?"
She gives him a tiny nod.
"I'm so glad," Rin whimpers. "I'm so glad you're here. If you weren't, I…"
"I know. I'll always be here." He leans close and kisses her forehead, leaving a soft warmth behind. "We're not going to be apart again."
"I can't stop thinking about… the friends, and family that we lost," she tells him quietly. "People we loved that couldn't— they didn't make it."
His expression becomes tired and sorrowful.
"...I think about them every day. I think about what could've been done to prevent losing them, and sometimes I'm so angry at other people and even us that I wonder if we'll ever get past something like this," Len says honestly, before taking a deep breath.
"...But, then I remember I have you. I remember what we do, and why we're here. From the day we were born, we were meant to be a beacon of light to other people. We've lost friends and loved ones, but millions of other people have too. If there's only one thing we can do for them, it's keep singing. We have to keep on for who we lost, and to help the ones who are still here. As long as you're with me, I can do it. I know it."
His erudite admittance, though hard to hear, lets a small sense of ease wash over her. Her tears finally subsiding and her sobs growing quiet and less frequent, she stares at the crest of the rising sun over the cliffside, illuminating the ocean before them that stretches for hundreds of miles like a sparkling blanket.
Even amidst this mess, the cries of separated families and the sweeping wave of sickness, the world is still beautiful.
"...We can," Rin says, glancing back to him. "It's going to be hard to try again. Starting over is going to be difficult, and things won't ever be the same again. But… I don't want to give up on the world. They still need us, don't they?"
"They do, Rin. Can't you hear it?" He gestures out to the great expanse. "The voices of millions still singing our songs— they need us now more than ever."
Rin closes her eyes, and just as he says, she can catch the soft lull of hundreds upon hundreds of people in chorus far away from them, each whispering the words to a song they had sung before. With sadness, with happiness, with hope and despair.
He's right. They do need them.
His fingers entwine with hers, locking tight with no intention of letting go.
"Happy birthday, Rin," he says into the wind. "We made it, and we're going to keep going. Until the day they can rise on their own, and we bring that happiness again to everyone we've touched that's in pain right now— we're going to be okay. We can do this."
Rin catches sight of him, illuminated in the beautiful rays of the sun now lighting up the world and erasing the darkness.
"...Together?" she asks, and his smile is radiant.
"Together. Always."