[crystal]

Week 2 Without You

There were crystals hanging in the window of that fancy Tops shop, and they jingled every time the door opened like a chorus of wind chimes.

The sound made Yuzu stop in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at the crystal chimes, watching the way they bounced slightly in the movement of people inside the store, each perfectly blue crystal angled at just the right height so that they would bump against each other and draw out those clear notes.

For a moment, her fingers hovered over an invisible piano. She remembered the feeling of soft hands over hers—Masumi had played before, she said. This is the way to angle that note.

A hollow laugh bubbled in Yuzu's throat at the ghostly memory of those warm hands on top of hers, that self-satisfied tone in her voice as though she somehow knew more than Yuzu about the piano and was pleased with herself because of it. Yuzu hadn't complained, though. She had let Masumi guide her fingers over the keys even though Masumi barely remembered anything of her piano lessons from her youth and it made the music go a lot slower with two people trying to play the same thing at once.

Yuzu had joked with her that night that she should just have Masumi play for her when she sang. Masumi had made that little huff of self-satisfaction that she seemed prone to—that sound that she made when she was pleased with herself.

But she had been blushing, Yuzu remembered. A hint of red that matched her eyes, deep and crimson and sharp as rubies.

She had been gone from her own dimension for two weeks. Everything hurt. Her hand wrapped into the cloth of her shirt over her heart and squeezed. Her eyes screwed shut for a moment in a futile attempt to still the tears. Images flashed over her eyes—her father, the kids at You Show, her friends from school, Gongenzaka, Yuya. Masumi.

"Oh my god, are you crying?" she had asked that night.

Yuzu had rubbed furiously at her eyes, blushing with embarrassment.

"It's a sad song," she had said, defensive. "It makes me sad."

Masumi had looked at her for a moment, eyes wide with incredulity, that roughness and irritability and insensitivity that had made Yuzu dislike her so much the first time they had met. And then her eyes had softened, from hard-edged rubies into soft red rose petals. She had looked down at the piano. Hand resting tentatively on Yuzu's shoulder. She had said nothing more as Yuzu tried to get a hold of herself, embarrassed for her tears. It was only a song, after all. It didn't mean anything to her.

"But sure a body's bound to be a dreamer," Yuzu whispered to herself, the song that had made her cry that night, "when all the things she loves are far away..."

It meant something to her now.

For a moment, she thought that she could feel Masumi's hand on her shoulder again. Squeezing ever so gently, with a lightness and sensitivity that Yuzu had never imagined possible from Masumi. A silent reassurance from the last person she had expected it from.

I wish you had come with me, she found herself thinking, and was surprised at how much she meant it. How much safer she would have felt if Masumi had been at her side, with her diamond-sharp tongue and her quick-tempered fury in a duel.

"Oy! Yuzu!" Yugo called over his shoulder. "What's the matter? Come on, we have to keep moving!"

Yuzu blinked away her tears quickly and plastered a smile onto her face. Yugo wouldn't notice the difference, she thought.

"I'm coming!" she called.

The crystals continued to swing back and forth, back and forth.