Everglow: Friend From Far Away

18 - Night Of Tears

"Fisch? Are. . . are you alright? Is everything ok?" she quietly asked, slowly approaching him as he sat motionless on the grass.

Startled by her voice, he whipped around, semi hiding his face with his sleeve.

"Oh. . . hey. . . hey Ko. Yea. . . yea I'm. . . I'm fine," he lied trying to hide his face from her as she stood behind him. As he turned, Ko noticed a small river of tears flowing from his eyes down his face. Every time he turned, a drop would fall and land on his leg with a soft 'plop'.

"You're. . . fine?" she questioned, clearly not deterred by his lies. A small sniffle escaped from his nose, and he once again covered up his face with his sleeve, trying his best to mask himself from Ko, even though he knew that now she'd seen him like this, there was no way she was going to leave him alone.

"Is it normal for humans to sit all alone, staring at the sky and crying? Because that's not exactly what I'd call fine," she jested, trying to lighten the mood. For a second it seemed to work, Fischer let out a tiny chuckle, but it wasn't enough for him to turn or give her any sort of eye contact.

"Yea well, I'm not exactly normal," he blandly stated through choked up breaths. Ko shuffled a little closer to him and crouched down, taking a seat next to her weeping friend. She thought back to when he had comforted her in the shed, back when they first met. Now was as good a time as any to return the favor.

"You're right. You're not normal. Because normal doesn't exist. Everyone's different. Everyone has things that set them apart from each other," she consoled.

He shook his head slowly, his mouth twisted into a crooked frown, his eyes red and glassy. "Not like me Ko. I'm different. Just. . . don't worry about it. I'm alright. You can go back to sleep,"

"I couldn't sleep. I had another one of those nightmares. And besides, even if I tried, there's no way I'm going to be able to get to sleep knowing you're feeling like this. What's wrong?"

Fischer let a deep sigh pass through teeth as he tried to come up with some sort of response. He'd been through this routine countless times, but he'd never actually had someone in person to talk with.

"I. . .I don't know," he sniffed, keeping his head facing the grass.

Ko's brow drooped slightly lower at his answer, thinking he was just trying to cover up what was really eating at him.

"Fischer, you can tell me-" she was cut off by his head turning towards her and his gaze locking onto hers.

"No, I mean it. I don't know. I've never known. I've been like this my whole life. I don't know why ok? I just," he choked, trying to find the words to explain to her, but only being able to repeat his last few, "I don't know."

His words suddenly felt like an anchor inside her chest. Even though she'd only known him for two weeks, seeing her only friend like this was crushing, like a vice had her heart clamped between it's jaws.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that Fisch. Is. . . is there anything I can do to help?" she asked gently, shuffling slightly closer to his side.

Noticing her sudden movement towards him, Fischer turned his head back towards her. Ko noticed his lower lip begin to tremble, his head starting to shake slightly. She was about to repeat her question, when his eyes closed, and his tears began to turn from a river into a waterfall. His shoulders shook up and down violently as he started to sob uncontrollably.

Without any further hesitation, Ko wrapped her left arm around him and gently pulled him closer. His head fell onto her shoulder as she wrapped her other arm around him, resting her head on his.