The axe forgets, the tree remembers
Great minds think alike, but fools rarely differ.
Innocence is bliss. (But only as long as you're innocent.)How Tionin missed that bliss. The days when they could just curl up in his arms like nothing else mattered.
Days spent gazing out windows at freshly fallen snow, holding a cup of hot cocoa in stiff fingers. Light kisses trailed down chilled cheeks, blooming red.
Tionin missed the real Fiall so much. The two of them were always a matched set, working together like twin blades. They'd never know how many memories they made with the real Fiall, and how many they'd ended up making with the false one.
Their heart felt like it was imploding. A supernova caused by the crushing weight of guilt that settled on Tionin's shoulders like a weighted blanket. Comforting, but always on the edge of sinking completely into oblivion.
They wondered if that's what Fiall felt like before... before. There really wasn't a better way to phrase that.
(There never was a good way to refer to these sort of things, especially for the two of them. Death sounded too permanent. Reset too trivial. Do-over too light hearted.)
Tionin pressed a hand to a chilled window, watching the glass fog up around their fingertips. They could almost believe that Fiall's hand was about to pluck theirs off the window and press a light kiss to the side of their face.
Their hand slid down the glass as Tionin's forehead hit it with a thunk, barely even registering the pain.
How could they feel anything when Fiall was gone?
(Don't think like that. That's a line of thought you don't want to go down.)Small patters on the windowsill made them open stinging eyes, only to watch as more tears fell to decorate the wood. They started to crystalize, turning into unfairly beautiful patterns.
Tionin moved so that his back was to the window, gazing around the cozy room full of scattered papers and frantic writing. Crowded bookshelves over a flickering fireplace, echoing with lost laughter and love.
Of course, this wasn't Tionin's room. Fiall was insistent on having his own space, and after seeing the amount of clutter they'd swiftly agreed.
(Secretly, they'd been very amused with the entire process. This happened almost every time.)Fiall never was one for organization, but it just made the room feel more complete even with him gone.
He really was gone, wasn't he?
But he didn't have to be.
(Not with the lives they'd been living together. He was never really gone, but the years always go by too fast.)Tionin rose from their spot in the bay window to pick up one of the most recent papers. They smiled fondly at the scrambled writing, before picking up another one to look closer at the titles.
Fiall really was onto something, wasn't he? These theories of his could change how humanity looked at the Beyond. Maybe not as an ending, but a rest stop.
Maybe this could help Tionin find him again. The theories seemed so accurate, and so tailored into their exact situation.
(Had he known? No, Tionin would've noticed.)That was the hardest part, wasn't it?
Out of all the billions of people in this world, they always had to find the same one.
Well, if they met, then they'd never leave each other's side. It's just a matter of knowing if, or rather when, Tionin would see him again.
Tionin glanced around the room, gathering the papers that they could see in semi-neat stacks. If they could find just one page on what they needed, then they wouldn't have to go through the arduous process of finding Fiall again.
Maybe they could finally figure out why the two of them were stuck in this never-ending cycle.
(Maybe why one of them never seemed to stop and the other one was outside of it entirely.)Tionin would rather spend their entire afterlife with Fiall then have to stay apart for so many years, time after time.
They pulled themselves away from the stacks of paper, wiping away their tears before they could stain the precious writings.
This was it. The change that Tionin needed to break the cycle.
But what would Fiall say?
They'd never had the courage to be able to tell him about what happens every lifetime. Would he even believe them?
(Had he known this time around? Had Fiall suspected before and just not trusted himself to try and tell Tionin?)No. They had to hold onto that hope.
Tionin could wait and see what if the presence would carry over into Fiall's next life.
(It was far too early this life. So early. They could've had another fifty years together.)More waiting.
Well, Tionin was used to that.They'd know.
They'd been doing it since the beginning of time.
They'd do it until the end of time if that's what it took.Tionin would wait forever if it meant that they get to see Fiall again.
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Prompted Story Snippets
AçãoSome people might know me from my YouTube comments on various playlists, which I'm going to be compiling in this book. Most chapters are going to be between 500-1000 words, but an occasional longer or shorter one might pop up. Hope you enjoy! Also...