#beyondisms

A lullaby for you - Jyongri

“Sometimes it’s easy to forget the times we weep. The moment makes us weak.”

   They’re about halfway to the train when Mirai starts playing with her glasses -- taking them off, rubbing them on her shirt, placing them back on her nose... taking them off, rubbing them with a cloth, back on the face... taking them off--... 

   It’s no surprise she’s nervous! It’s their first Valentine’s Day officially together. She’d wanted to give Akihito something homemade, and had thus set to the impossible task of trying to bake. ( She’d never cooked anything for him, after all -- not really. Once in a dream, but... ) Sakura had woken up from the crashing of pans and cross mumbling and found Mirai two trays of burnt cookies and exploded chocolate deep. 

   “How unpleasant,” Sakura’d said, and there was almost something like the hint of a smile on her face at Mirai’s offense. 

   Now it was morning, and the three of them -- Sakura, Mirai, and Akihito -- are on the way to the platform. Sakura was half-asleep beside them -- Mirai, though, was wide awake, energized solely with anxiety! The fifth time she takes off her glasses, Sakura gives her a shove so hard she stumbles right into Akihito. 

   Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. 

   “U... um... senpai...” 

   She shifts, pulls a box tied with pink ribbon, faux-strawberry scented, from her school bag, almost drops it! “AH-- uh-- um...” 

   She does not know where she is. 

   Or who she is. 

   Or maybe... that’s wrong. Maybe, for the first time in her life, she truly feels... right. 

   Neoma’s not here, but whoever is here is loving this. All her life, Neoma’s felt a bit too cold, a bit too far away from her own flesh and bones -- but now she’s in it, part of it. There’s a fire in her belly, in her throat. Fire lining her hands, curling in tendrils from her lips when she smirks. 

   It feels so good -- being alive. She wants the whole world to feel as alive as she is right now. She wants every single person, house, blade of grass to burn with her.