HitoIzu Summer Contest 2020

Meant to be

Prompt: Starlight

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It was weird.

Time flew forward and crept backward slowly. Like a swing forward and back, forward and back.

But things were changing.

A creature of time shouldn't have a form. Yet it did.

Yet he did.

Two steps forward, one step back. Houses, dinosaurs, high scrapers, and bronze era.

He saw all.

Something dragged him, to Europe, to Asia, back to Pangea, and once again to Africa.

Earth was enticing.

But things were changing.

Something joined him.

Someone joined him.

Bright.

A creature of light.

A creature of life.

"What are you?" Time spoke. He spoke. For the first time since— Since—

'I don't know.' Light didn't make a sound, its 'voice' was a melody without notes, its language lacked words with finite meaning.

Light was beautiful in its weirdness.

They shouldn't have physical forms. They shouldn't have any form.

They did.

From snails to birds to humans back to microbes; wherever they went they could not only be but also interact.

They shouldn't.

Whatever Time touched aged up and withered, whatever Light touched burned bright, ending its life, like a supernova.

But they could touch each other without creating problems.

So they did.

'What are we?' asked Light once.

"We're Time and Light." Time knew it wasn't the right answer, but it was the only he could give.

'Why aren't there others like us?'

"I don't know." The endless universe seemed so much emptier and lonely, Earth being the only place with life.

'Where is my sister Gravity? Trying to bend me to her whims for so long. Where is your brother, Matter? Aren't we in him and him himself now? Why us?' Light looked at him expectantly. It wouldn't take silence for an answer. Why us, Time?'

He didn't know.

He still didn't know years later, when they lived their lives as normal humans would.

He still didn't know eras later, watching the birth of the sun.

He didn't know why them while petting dinosaurs, making sandcastles on the moon, exploring Alpha Centauri—

He didn't know during years spent as a formless being, just fulfilling his purpose, keeping away.

Keeping away from the blinding starlight to which Light has taken a liking. It seemed... more at peace without him. Its existence was easier.

He made peace with it. They just weren't meant to be.

'I know why us now.' Light found him by itself, in the light glow of constellations adorning the sky. Its form human, with beautiful green hair and glowing green irises... 'We are just meant to be.' Its lips tasted sweet like a fresh peach or water from the clearest spring.

Time liked this answer.