Last September

                It was just like any other day. Except the sky is gray.

                The wind blew calmly, but regardless it blew. The streets were clean, and the leaves were subdued.

                It was an ordinary day, except that it also wasn't.

                On these gray skies were imprinted glints of the sun's rays, but that was not the important thing for most.

                Several blocks from the exit of a likely quiet residence, there stood a lowly but jolly looking house, now made gray by the reflection of the sky. The front door opened, and out came a girl and a boy, the earlier shorter, with long brown hair and a cardigan top, and the latter taller, with face of calmed wakefulness and a blue, long-sleeve buttoned shirt top, sleeves folded, just below the elbows.

                They stood still, anticipating.

                "Keys?"

                "In the trunk. No cheating, yeah?"

                "Yeah."

                They walked quietly but briskly, determined, towards a silver sedan, faces all serious, firm as they brought with them in each hand a bag of chips of distinct flavors and brands. Still briskly, opening the car doors, their hands slid frantically, with the struggle of using only tips of a few fingers due to their hands full of the bags of chips in each.

                Until at last, they got hold, and they both finally made it inside.

                A few hush seconds, and they stared in each other's eyes. The atmosphere was stagnant.

                The silence broke as the girl's lips suddenly puffed into a smile, releasing weak salivary sprays towards the boy's face, making him squirm, then, wiping saliva off his face while jokingly smelling it, asked if she really did brush her teeth this afternoon. The two started laughing, the girl slapping him lightly in the face and the arms saying she even swallowed some toothpaste as she did.

                As they drove through, talking, past the houses and the streets, there were things, which they would've seen but didn't, interchangeably in view in the left and right windows as they went; the hysterical Mrs. Sandoval falling down to her sleep, as she panicked putting in an RV their enormous camping bags to only trip into one, faceplant; Ate Edna, wearing a raincoat for some reason, yelling "Punyetang, magugunaw na nga 'yong araw eh!" while chasing her dog as poop constantly falls from its butthole; and the dues guy cursing his precious bike crashed towards a pole in the intersection, gallons of gasoline tilted and spilt beside. There was the 'holy' Witnesses family too, staggering, carrying heavy bags containing tons of cash, out in the open.

                They don't notice these things.

                They exited the residence, stopped at an empty chain on the way, sneaked in to steal cooked food- hell, even reheated and cooked a few more before going back to the car, then drove away.

                They ate as the boy drove, the bags of chips barely even touched. The skies were still gray. And the wind dashed opposite them.

                The boy turned the radio on.

                "...nakapagtataka nga naman, kasi noong nakaraan lang, ang sabi ay hindi pa ho handa, ano? "

                "Exactly. Kahit ako hindi gaanong panatag, lalo pa't artificial solar light iyon. Delikado. Pero eh, iyon nga ho ano: bukas na ang Sanctuary para sa lahat, at maaari na itong mapuntahan. Magdala nga lamang tayo ng tubig at makakain, dahil sa haba at tagal ba naman ng... "

                The broadcast still ran in background when the girl spoke.

                "Mon."

                "Yep?"

                "Sure ka?"

                The boy smiled, still looking ahead. "We both know you love sunsets, Gel."

                "And I haven't actually seen one."

                "And you're about to. The last one there is. And will be."

                "And you'll die, too."

                "And that's fine. I'm with you."

                They exchanged glances, tender, fond ones, then smiled, for a deep forever that lasted some seconds. They looked ahead, smiling still, in silence, in company of the other.

                Again, in the midst of the sun's softening rays on both their faces,

                they laughed.

                "Three times. Three times we've seen the world end; both of us, didn't we?"

                "Mm-hmm. A dog, a friend, a father to you."

                "And a mother, a sister, a brother to you." The girl looked ahead.

                "All uncalled for."

                "All unfair."

                Silence.

                "And we accomplished our own bucket lists the rest of the month, yeah?"

                "And we saved the last day. For this. For us."

                Driving to a turn leading away to an underpass, loud shouts and vehicle horns, which they don't notice, can be heard from some distance afar while they talked. Probably from the blocked overload of cars they just managed to drive away from.

                Then, the overlooking. 

                They sat on grass. The great, flaming sun was shining.

                He leaned on her chest.

                She held him tight. His hands held the arms that wrapped him.

                The sunset burned.