"A single drop of blood dripped from that heart, and the ripples it made across the light and the darkness caused a dragon to grow around the heart, encasing it."
-the Heartbeat Cycle. Author unknown.
Yuma was pouting again.
"I lost again yesterday," he said, slumping into the sand crosslegged and folding his arms tightly.
Lua's lips quirked into a half smile.
"Keep trying, Yuma-kun. You get better every day, you know."
Yuma nodded, but didn't stop pouting. With a bigger smile, Lua sat down beside him, and Yuma fell back against them so that his head was leaning against Lua's chest, as he was accustomed to doing.
"But I beat my time running to school!" he said, sounding more cheerful. "I even got there before Kotori-chan!"
"Ah, good job, Yuma-kun!"
"I should bring Kotori-chan to meet you! You'd like her a lot. She's really smart. But she's nagging me a lot."
Yuma frowned at that. Lua laughed softly, and tickled him gently at his waist, making Yuma curl up and giggle.
"Sometimes I think you need someone to do that for you," they teased. "How many times have you bruised your knees trying to run down the stairs again?"
"I have to kattobing!" Yuma said, waving his arms around a bit. "I have to keep doing kattobing, so that I can go with to-chan on an adventure! He said he'll take me to the mountains someday! I want to see the mountains."
Lua's laugh was soft, but not teasing, and Yuma blushed. He let his arms fall to his sides and stared up at the sky.
"Lua-kun? Have you ever seen mountains before?"
"Hmm? Mountains?"
The realm around them was silent, save for the sand that shifting and twirled gently in a silvery breeze.
"Yes. I have...I think I lived among them during one of my lives..."
"What about the ocean? Or a forest?"
"Yes, I've seen those things before...in other lives. Why do you ask?"
Yuma didn't answer. He just lay there, his head back against his friend's chest.
"It's really quiet here," Yuma said. "I just thought...maybe you get bored. Or lonely. Because it's really quiet..."
Lua drew in a breath.
For a moment, it felt as though the twilight colors were suffocating. All of it, all the same colors, the same scenery, everything always the same, always empty, always cold —
They found that they were almost choking on unwept tears.
"Lua-kun?"
Yuma stared up at him, upside down. Lua swallowed.
"I'm...fine."
They had to close their eyes for a moment. When they opened their eyes again, they brought out the biggest smile they could muster.
"I'm not lonely anymore, Yuma-kun. Because you're my friend."
Yuma half smiled at that, but the boy didn't look completely convinced. He wriggled up off of Lua's lap and sat cross-legged on the ground again. For a moment, they just sat there in the silence, hearing the faint breeze drag sand across the landscape into shifting dunes, watching the floating glimmers bob gently in the air.
"Can I make an ocean?" Yuma said suddenly.
"What?"
"I want to make an ocean."
Lua just stared at him for a moment. The words did not fully sink in.
"What do you mean?" they asked.
Yuma scrambled to his feet, almost slipping on the sand and falling back down again.
"I can make stuff here, see? Cause it's a dream, and you can do stuff in dreams! Look, look!"
He stared at the sand for a moment, his nose wrinkling up and his cheeks going a bit red. Lua almost snorted at the funny look, so concentrated, not at all like Yuma's normal open, always smiling face. The look didn't really suit him —
And then the sand swirled a bit, and there was a coin laying on the ground.
"See!" Yuma said, picking it up and showing it to them.
Lua's mouth nearly fell open. They stared at the coin. Slowly, slowly, the accepted the small, golden circle from Yuma. It gleamed in the palm of their hand. A lion's face growled out at them from the coin's side.
"How did you do this, Yuma-kun?" asked Lua, turning the coin over in their hand.
"Cause it's a dream! I can do things like that!"
Lua had to look up at him. Into the wide, shining crimson eyes of this boy, so full of hope and joy and cheer and happiness and friendliness —
Their breath caught in their throat. Oh. Oh. Oh.
They had thought so, but they hadn't...part of them hadn't wanted to...
It was Yuma, wasn't it?
"So I want to make an ocean for you," Yuma said, oblivious to Lua's sudden quietness. "Because oceans sounds nice! Then it won't be so quiet here...and it will look pretty! But I don't want to do it without asking. Because this is your home, right?"
Despite the revelation growing in their mind, Lua could feel it—the familiar feeling growing in their chest for the first time in ages. It was light, soft, it felt like hot chocolate and kittens and warm spring days and all of the beautiful things that they had not gotten the chance to experience in so very, very long.
Lua closed their eyes. A single tear managed to find its way down their cheek. The world was cruel sometimes, wasn't it?
"Thank you," they whispered.
"Huh?" Yuma said. "Thanks for what? I didn't do anything yet."
Lua opened their eyes. They stood up and stepped forward so that they could put their hands on Yuma's shoulders.
"Yes," they said. "I would love to see an ocean again."
Yuma's entire face lit up.
"Okay!" he said. "Just watch, I'll make a really pretty one! Oh! And then maybe I can make a forest—and some mountains—and everything will be really nice just wait!"
Another tear rolled down Lua's cheeks as they stepped back and watched Yuma hop forward to stare at the sand again. There was only silence for a while.
And then a rush of wind blasted past both figures, hot and salty and rough. A whistling sound accompanied the sudden growing dark stain that shot out from just in front of Yuma's feet. The darkness unrolled from that point all the way towards the horizon—like a carpet unfolding across the floor. For a moment, it was only a long, dark shadow. And then it deepened and turned to a dark, dark shade of purple to rival the sky above.
Sloosh...sloosh...
The sound sent a pleasant shudder through Lua's small, crystalline frame. It was an ocean sound, the waves sloshing in and out, in and out, in and out...
It was, Lua thought, the most beautiful thing they had ever seen.
The ocean stretched out to the horizon, where it almost seemed to blend directly into the sky. It was a deep violet in color, with lavender foam at the peaks of the far out waves. Nebulas of color, mostly blue and green, swirled within the water itself, and the glimmers of the air seemed to have been mixed directly into the sea, so that there were stars in the ocean.
Yuma plopped down to his backside at the foot of the water
"I tried to make it blue," he said, actually pouting. "Sorry, Lua-kun."
"Sorry?" Lua said, incredulous.
They crouched down next to Yuma, putting their hand on his shoulder and squeezing. They were trying so hard to keep in the tears.
"It's beautiful," they said. "Thank you."
Yuma blinked. He smiled hesitantly—and then bright and wide and shining like the way he did, all of his emotions spilling out all at once. Just that would have been enough.
This would have been enough...
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all.
The pair sat at the edge of the ocean on Yuma's next visit. The boy had already tired himself out running back and forth into the foam, squealing with delight at how the water was the perfect temperature, just barely warm. He had amused himself for hours tossing the water into the air and watching the stars and nebulae hang in the air for a few moments before they fizzled out in a spray of watery sparks. Yuma had even pulled Lua into the water and taught them a game called "Marco Polo."
The tired young boy was laying against Lua's chest again, a grin permanently plastered to his face. Lua smiled down at him, holding him in a light embrace.
"Do you like the ocean?" Yuma asked, looking up.
"I love it."
Yuma smiled, looking very, very pleased with himself.
"Can I make a forest next?"
"You look tired. We can wait until tomorrow night."
"Kay."
The ocean sloshed in and out. Quiet. Soothing. Lua had to close their eyes just to enjoy the lovely sound. How long had it been? They could remember living beside an ocean, but none had been so soothing as this one.
"Eh? There's more stars," Yuma said suddenly.
And there were—many more than the little boy remembered. There was a quartet of stars just beneath the little red one and the larger white one. A little farther away was a flickering star like a faraway candle-flame, vaguely emerald in shade. And there were more, too, in different colors, scattered across the sky. As though someone had dropped a pinch of glitter.
"Did other people come and leave their stars?" he asked.
Lua shook their head.
"No, Yuma-kun. I put them up there for you."
"For me?"
"Mm-hm. Look."
They leaned their head down next to Yuma's and pointed at the sky.
"See those four? Two of those are your parents' stars, and below that, your grandma and your sister. You've told me so much about them. I think their stars should be here too."
They moved their finger across the sky.
"That one is your friend Kotori. And that one is your teacher that you always talk about."
Yuma's eyes widened as Lua pointed out each of the stars, naming another friend, acquaintance, family member that Yuma knew.
"Why did you put my friends up there?" Yuma asked.
He squirmed out of Lua's light hold and sat up to face his friend.
"You haven't met them yet, but you gave them stars in your world?"
Lua smiled, eyes glowing with a secure warmth.
"If they're your friends," they said. "Then they are my friends too."
Yuma stared up at them with his wide, crimson eyes.
"And it's not just my world anymore, Yuma-kun," Lua continued. "It's yours too."
"Huh? Really?"
"Mm-hm. Because you made this beautiful ocean. This world is for both of us, Yuma-kun. And I'm so happy that I can share it with you."
They wrapped their hands around Yuma's. Yuma's hands were so warm. Living and solid. Not like Lua's strange, vaguely see through hands, that were neither warm nor cold, but simply there.
"These are our stars now," they said. "They belong to both of us."
Yuma's eyes widened further. The smile that then grew across his face was so bright that it could have rivaled a sun.
"And I'm glad I got to be your friend, Lua-kun!" he said.
And with that, he jumped forward to hug the taller figure. Lua squeezed him back—the feeling of another solid body was just as soothing to them as the sound of the ocean. So long, they had been alone here, their last human life feeling so, so far away.
They hid their tears in Yuma's hair.
After all this time, they weren't alone.
But what was the cost of that?
I'm sorry, Yuma-kun.