HIYA-A place for random posts

Walking into Caleb’s home on his private island in Skyhaven, the woman found herself the only occupant. Looking around, it was clear Caleb was still tending to his duties as Colonel after returning from another expedition in the Deepspace Tunnel. She glanced at the digital clock in the living room—6 p.m. Perhaps she could surprise Caleb with her unexpected appearance in his home... or perhaps not. More often than not, Caleb was always aware when she arrived in Skyhaven.

She walked deeper into the home, noticing that Caleb had bought more things for the place. To her, it still felt cold and sterile, but the new plush carpets and pillows—strangely to her taste—hid it like a band-aid.

“Aah!” she exclaimed in surprise, stumbling over a small package she knocked over. Throwing her weekend bag onto the couch, she bent down to pick up the package. The label on the delivery box read: ‘1 Desktop Robot - Yellow.’

She raised an eyebrow. The last time she owned such a thing was back in high school when she used to talk to it while working through her problems—when Caleb wasn’t around. That was years ago. And yet, Caleb bought one. The woman couldn’t help but wonder why he bought the exact same model. She had thought it was out of production. As if it were for her, if not him then this robot will do. As if he were trying to—

She stopped the thought in its tracks, setting the box down on the coffee table before heading toward the kitchen.

An hour or two later, Caleb returned home.

He didn’t tense up when he saw the lights on. He wasn’t even suspicious. He knew she was there. After all, she was the only one who held the key to all of him. The soft creak of his leather boots and the beep of his keys accompanied his entrance. The sounds of chopping from the kitchen, coupled with soft humming, greeted him.

The humming brought him back to memories—memories he wished he could live in forever, despite the pain and immense joy they carried. But he shook his head, forcing himself back to the present. Taking off his Colonel’s hat and tucking it under his arm, he headed toward the kitchen.

“Whatcha doing there, pipsqueak?” he asked, making his voice sound light and playful, just like before.

How he only called her pipsqueak because it used to annoy her. How it reminded her that he was always taller, always older. How that nickname was his shield, a childish pretense to keep the boiling feelings inside him at bay. Like staying in a familiar dynamic would not ruin him. Would not ruin them. When all he longed for was to call her something else entirely—

“I’m making you your apple soda,” her voice broke through his thoughts, shaking him like the vibrations of a collapsing star forming a black hole.

She was making him his favorite drink. And suddenly, it felt like it was all for nothing while simultaneously being everything.

She stood before him like a black hole with her declaration, and once more, her presence warps the space around him, pulling him in whether he fights or not.

He took a deep breath, lest he forget this moment.

“Well then,” he said after a beat, his tone masking the aching thud in his heart—simultaneously light and unbearably heavy. “I’ll go get changed, and I’ll make you one of your favorite dishes in return for the soda.”

He saw her shoulders relax slightly. He didn’t comment on it.

Turning away, he walked toward his bedroom—to slip into clothes the Caleb she knew would expect to see him in. Clothes she still liked. But it was still all so new between them.

She listened as his footsteps disappeared into the depths of the house. Relief- or was it something else?- settled over her. His Colonel uniform still filled her with all sorts of emotions. Some she could name. Others…she dared not. It blurred lines that were already too hazy yet still held them both back.

Lost in thought, she didn’t realize she was chopping the apples harder than usual until she heard Caleb’s voice behind her.

“Did I do anything wrong this time, pipsqueak?” he teased as he looked over her shoulder, watching her progress.

The presence of him behind her-close,solid,warm-was both comforting and suffocating.

“Ugh, Caleb,” she groaned in mock annoyance, falling back into the rhythm they knew. The rhythm that let them pretend.“You broke my concentration.”

“What, cutting chunks of apples needed concentration?” he teased, reaching over her head to retrieve the plates, the brief press of his chest against her back making her instinctively lean into the counter. Too aware. His height, his warmth and his-

“Pass me a knife, will you?”,

Wordlessly, she reached for the knife block, pushing it toward him before stepping away from the shared counter. Distance. She needed distance.

Caleb could only smile.

Even though it was just across the kitchen, his illogical side saw it differently.

He shifted his gaze back to the vegetables he was expertly chopping just as the sound of the blender filled the quiet kitchen. The harsh machinery filled the space where their familiar banter should be.

They could still talk like they always had. But it was like winding up a music box over and over, their groove lost on a different frequency.

They were both too stubborn to move. Too scared of the change.

“When are you leaving again?” she asked suddenly.

The minute pause in Caleb’s chopping was almost imperceptible.

“Eager to plan illicit activities while I’m gone?” he teased, aiming for levity. But the words reminded him of what he lacked.

He had no luxury to join her adventures. No luxury to be by her side like he used to. And the darker part of him wondered—

Did she find new people to go on adventures with?

She nudged his arm with her elbow. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

Her touch landed on his disguised mechanical arm. The phantom sensation it gave him was both familiar and aching. He couldn’t feel it. Not fully.

She kept her gaze on the boiling pasta. “I just wanted to see if I’ll be free the next time you come back. Maybe you can come over to my place if our schedules align.”

Caleb exhaled. Back and forth. Heaven and hell. Over and over again.

And yet… he was used to it.

“I don’t remember it on top of my head so I’ll look for it and let you know later”, he smoothly lied as in fact he knew when his next expedition and when he is coming back again. To her. It was just his pathetic way of finding an excuse to contact her.

“I’ll hold you to it and oh the pasta is done by the way”, announced the woman as she was carefully pushed to the side watching Caleb take over the rest of the cooking. Judging on the ingredients Caleb had prepared it was going to be a Mediterranean night

Dinner passed with playful banter, plans for his next outing, and stories of her latest missions. Caleb was listening-humming in response, asking questions, throwing quick glances her way. If she weren’t so distracted, she would have noticed those glances felt like a fleeting caress. As if memorizing her all over again.

The woman soon reached the conclusion of her stories,

“Apart from that Lemonette for some reason keeps making appearances all over Linkon City which makes patrols more difficult,” the woman concluded as she set her utensils down on her finished plate.

A small teasing smile graced her lips, “Don’t tell me that you even managed to get a Wanderer to like you” the woman continued her teasing tone, “Because I’m beginning to see a pattern here of Lemonette’s appearances and your arrival back, they seem to coincide.”

“Oh?,” drawled Caleb following along with the woman’s banter, pausing from taking a bite of the cooked pasta to rest his chin on the palm of his hand. Using his fork to point at the girl, “Would you be jealous if I looked forward to getting a gift and attention from a Wanderer?”,

The implication was there as they both knew that Caleb never accepts a gift from anyone except from the woman and the grandma that raised them.

The woman looked at Caleb with a look as she knew it was meant to be a jest but secretly she did care, childishly she stuck her tongue out to Caleb, “Then I’ll tell Lemonette to make you a super duper sour candy”,

“I look forward to it, pipsqueak” singsonged Caleb as he began to eat his dish once more as he took in the flush on the woman's cheeks and the familiar feeling of pride to have made her look like that.

After dinner, the woman wanted something sweet. Caleb disappeared into the kitchen and returned with two mini pints of ice cream. The one she liked. Not that she needed to know he bought it just for her and would restock it everytime.

“Mmmh,” hummed the woman with pleasure as she dug into her half pint of favourite ice cream, “Also Grandma’s birthday is coming up soon, we should leave something at her grave,” the woman remarked as she dug back into her desert.

Caleb, in turn, hummed in thought as he didn’t realise how much time has passed since that…bombing. The death of their shared guardian who told them to call her grandma and gave them life much different than before. A life Caleb remembers vividly and the woman forgot.

The woman began to talk about possible gift offerings they could leave at the grave as they ate their ice cream. Half of Caleb’s mind was present while his other mind delved into one of his rare introspections.

He was thankful. Their grandma had brought them together, given them a family bond that ran deeper than blood. But bonds, he had learned, were a double-edged sword - strong enough to hold, tight enough to constrict.

Watching her, he knew with certainty: he loved her.

It had taken him so long to admit it. The kind of love that was both a poison and a cure.

Skyhaven had been his dream, a place where he could soar free. But love tethered him. And instead of resenting it, he found that he didn’t want to escape. Like a celestial body bound by an unseen force, he is always drawn back to her orbit.

It was the necklace she had given him, the laughter they shared, the way she grounded him. She was why he fought, why he returned from the Deepspace Tunnel against all odds.

Even if it meant putting himself in harm’s way again, his second death would be for her alone. A phoenix only to die again.

Love should be an absolution. But absolution could only come from her.

Focusing back on the present moment, he noticed a stray drop of ice cream at the corner of her lips. He automatically reached over to wipe it for her causing her to stop mid talk. Her wide eye gaze honestly made him want to move his thumb and caress her lower lip.

“You know for someone who claims she’s all grown up, you sure do eat like a child,” he teased her not missing a beat lest she suspects where his thoughts went to,

For a second, she forgets to breathe. Then, before she can stop herself, she swats his hand away. Too quickly, too sharp. As if the touch might change something neither of them are ready for.

“So? There’s nothing wrong with being young at heart,” the woman quipped back to Caleb as she gave her ice cream spoon a long lick to finish off the leftovers. While she kept her gaze on Caleb she could see the miniscule movement of his eyes before focusing back on her face.

The woman presented her empty ice cream cup and ice cream spoon to Caleb as she playfully continued, “See I’m stopping at one ice cream cup, would a woman like me go for a second one?”,she asked him,

“A woman huh?Caleb remarked as he leaned back in his seat and there was that tiny crack on his face that the woman, knows well, “I do have another ice cream cup in the fridge and it would be awfully lonely to eat one by myself,” Caleb goaded her with his faux sadness.

For some reason, the woman couldn’t help but notice there was another layer to this. Their interactions these days are often double layered and hardly straightforward as it used to be. Right now, this conversation made the woman wonder if Caleb was thinking of the changes in her. Changes that he wasn’t there to see and witness during his time away after his supposed death.

Much like how she feels about his own changes perhaps she’s slowly understanding that this independant version of her was someone he is still coming to terms with. Especially since she still pictures him being part of her life in the future.

“We can share a cup then,” the woman conceded and was given that boyish smile on Caleb’s face that made her heart flutter and wanted to keep to herself forever.

When Caleb returned with a new cup of ice cream and sat across from her once more, the woman quickly snatched it playfully from his grasp. Earning an equally playful sound of protest as Caleb waited patiently to see what she was up to.

The woman sported a mischievous grin as she opened the ice cream cup and taking out a spoonful of ice cream she held up it to Caleb, “Prove you liked the apple soda”

She watched as Caleb eyed the spoon and belatedly realised it was the spoon she was using originally. However, before she could withdraw, Caleb was quick to eat the spoonful of ice cream from it.

For some reason, her heart beat faster at that action and she couldn’t understand why. After all, they've shared utensils before and didn’t bat an eye about it. Yet this new dynamic between them that she dared not label yet was perhaps another factor at play.

Caleb copied the woman’s actions and used his own spoon to scoop out the ice cream and held it up to her.

“Prove that the dish I cooked for you was delicious”,

Without hesitation, the woman leaned forward to eat the ice cream. Keeping her gaze on his face and though there was a slight smirk on his face there was tendril of that fire. Like he likes watching take what he provides for her.

Their game continues as the sentences shifted differently,

“Eat if you’ll come to down to Linkon soon,” Caleb ate

“Eat if you’ve been sleeping on time,” the woman ate

“Eat if you’ve also been looking after yourself,” a slight hesitation from Caleb that the woman did not miss as Caleb ate the ice cream

“Eat if you’ve haven’t been pushing yourself too hard at work lately” it was the woman’s turn this time to pause for a few seconds that Caleb immediately noticed.

They had told two lies and two truths to each other. Since when did their dynamic have become hide and seek all in the name of each other’s peace of mind and happiness. Then, as the last two spoonfuls remained, they both spoke at the same time.

“Eat if you still promise to let me stand by your side”