It's Only Us in the World

Just Us

My eyes were fairly blurry when I awoke from my nightmare-ish slumber. The memory of his hoarse voice and crumpled body snapped me back to my reality. Alone.

Don't be so hung up on the fact I'm gone, he chortled in my vague imagination. His voice was so clear, as if it wasn't on its way to being burried 6 feet in a funeral casket. Take a good look around you, Emu. What do you see?

I took a long glance to the faces around me, and acknowledged that there was no more than one. One pair of dull looking eyes that only sparkled in my arms, one pair of lonely looking lips that would be so much happier pressed up against mine, and one pair of gorgeous hands that gently flipped to the last page of her book. One Mafuyu in this tired, cold world.

"Hello." She noticed that I was awake. "How are you feeling?"

"Not great," I said. "But I'm happy you're here."

"Of course. I have nowhere else to go."

She was lying and I could read it off every feature of her face. She had a million paths and a million opportunities but she chose to live each and every one of them with me.

"Did you like the book?" I asked. She tapped its soft cover and thought for a moment.

"Yes. I enjoyed it a lot." She smiled and I could tell it wasn't forced. It was Mafuyu.

"Do I get to know your favorite part now?"

"Hmm..." she pondered. "Yes, but let's head outside first. The snow is falling sweetly now."

I watched her with amazement. So much can change.

"Only if you're comfortable of course," she swiftly added. "If you wish to stay inside then that's fine too."

"No no, let's go!" I grabbed her hand and we paced out the door. A shifting breeze neary sliced the scarves off our very necks and we laughed. So cold, but oh so radiant.

We were met by soft puffs of snow and danced in it without a drop of humiliation. The kids that were building snowmen nearby gave us peculiar stares, and we glared back at the drivers that seemed to not understand the feeling of true love. Raw, true love. I bounced into her arms and gave her one long, warm embrace.

"My favorite part--" she started through deep breaths. I brushed the snow from off her nose. "--was when they fell in love. I thought I'd hate it because I figured it would derail the story and blow away the underlying message of it all. And admittedly, I imagined true love to be ridiculously unrealistic."

"Yeah? Well what made you change your mind?"

"You."

I laughed and she laughed as well. Though, I could tell she was entirely serious.

"You changed me," she said. "I see everything so differently now. It's a world of happy moments and opportunity."

I couldn't form words, so I formed tears.

"Oh Mafuyu!" I sobbed through happy sappy cries.

"Don't cry please."

I sobbed even harder.

"You mean the world to me, Mafuyu! I would sacrifice seven whole limbs to spend the rest of my life with you!"

"You don't need to. I'm not going anywhere."

I covered my flustered face with my hands and jumped away.

"Now I'm embarrassed!" I giggled. There's a lot of hurt in the world, but there's a lot of love too.

What do you see? Pops suddenly asked again.

Two big lives in one small world, I replied. Because even when our lives are so huge, it's only us in the world.

I looked back at her with admiration, my very own words ringing in my head. A wide smile appeared on my face.

"What are you smiling at?" she asked with a shy snort. I held out my hand to her and she took it without hesitation.

I met her gaze. The world was still for a moment, no more than a brief one. I could have counted each and every shard of ice on each and every snowflake, but I didn't. My eyes were on her.

"I love you," I whispered. It was no louder than the fall of powdery ice, but I knew she heard it. She knew I knew she heard it. She didn't respond for a second, and I wasn't expecting a response either. I just wanted her to know for the sake of knowing.

Mafuyu pulled herself closer to me. We were both covered in frigid layers of snow.

"Me too."

The world was ours.

Asahina Mafuyu and Otori Emu.

Or maybe,

Just us.

"It's hard to find words

Which is funny,

You're always so full of them

I often dream to listen

If you stayed enough to say:

Oh my dearest,

My love and my life,

My world and my strife,

I thought there was none,

And then there was you."