#cxhweek

@senshixshitennouweeks

“They’re so hot!”

Helios laughed and held up a napkin to Chibiusa.

“Here. You might need this.”

Chibiusa grabbed the proffered napkin away from her boyfriend and scrubbed vigorously at her mouth and fingers.

“The waiter said those were the least spicy!” she said, before trying to douse the burning in her mouth with her drink.

“Maybe for the next round, we’ll order some of the barbecue wings?” Helios suggested, looking fondly at her.

Chibiusa nodded.

@senshixshitennouweeks

Her laughter was the first thing he heard from her. He’d been working the carousel on the boardwalk to pay for seminary school (not many career opportunities for someone who could play the organ in the area). He saw her carrying a massive white unicorn plushy, the kind they were giving to winners at the ski ball game who got three hundred points or more. Her hair was her most notable feature, thick and done up in a double bun style which vaguely reminded him of rabbit ears. She wore a ruffled pink top and a pair of jeans. Pretty standard wear for the summer heat but she wore it so, so well. He almost forgot to start the music for the ride he was so busy watching her climb onto the white wooden horse she chose as her carousel steed.

As the ride sped up, more of that angelic laughter rang over the music he played and just made him giddy.

Who are you, he thought, and how do you just make everything so rosy?

The ride ran down and the girl left, joining what he assumed were her friends. Helios could curse the rest of his shift. How would he find her before she left? Already, she was disappearing into the sea of people. A quick check to see if anyone was watching. Helios rose and hoped that they could find an organist before he got back.

*

He’d been unable to find her between the food stands and the Ferris wheel. Not a single strand of pink hair anywhere.

“Looking for someone?”

From his grizzled rail thin appearance, some said Old Pete had been part of the boardwalk since it’s inception. He usually worked odd jobs around it, but no-one was really sure what he did exactly.

“Yes,” Helios replied, “have you seen a girl; pink hair, carrying a white unicorn doll?”

Old Pete stuck a piece of tobacco into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Helios was unsure why he would still chew it with all everyone knew about the habit these days.

“Over by the roller coaster,” he said at last.

Helios thanked him and made a beeline for the coaster.

“And don’t worry about the carousel,” Old Pete called after him, “I took piano for five years.”

Honestly, Old Pete was a lifesaver.

*

Helios had not expected to be accosted by a unicorn plush when he arrived at the roller coaster. It was only after he removed it from his head did he realize that it was the same one the pink-haired girl was carrying. And suddenly, she’s there.

“Sorry,” she said, looking sheepish, “lost that on the ride.”

“It’s no bother,” he replies, handing it back to her. Their fingers brush and he’s conscious of it. Really, he should just forget how his heart’s tightening or that he was blowing off work to chase a girl and just go about his life.

“I’m Helios,” he says instead.

The girl smiles.

@senshixshitennouweeks

Dreams, they both knew, were limitless.

When he had been trapped in a cage, crying out for help all those many years ago, he dreamed of clear blue skies with endless clouds and the warm sun, green fields running below for miles that you could smell, could feel underfoot, could know meant life was still worth taking in.

When she had been a little girl, she knew dreams could be translated onto paper, in brush strokes and the scratch of a pencil. She knew dreams came to us in the night like old friends, offering glimpses of the future and our desires, our most precious memories.

@senshixshitennouweeks

She’s reminded too much of him. Thanks to the color Gold. In the foil of a brightly colored gift, in the glow of the sun as it rises or sets. She sees his tender eyes, the warmth he radiates.

And her heart aches.

Golden. She wishes she could just focus on the good her memories of him bring. Of the joys they shared in that dream world as children.

But the reminder of his absence is too much sometimes.

@senshixshitennouweeks

Chibiusa opened the envelope she’d found in her mailbox that afternoon. Pale blue with a stamp featuring ducks on the corner. Out tumbled a key along with a note.

Here’s the key to my apartment, the note read, I didn’t really know how to approach you about it. We spend so much time at each others’ homes that I just thought we could...

Chibiusa smiled. Helios. Even in something as casual as writing a note, he still preferred the delicate touch. But he made a good point. She spent so much time at his apartment that she might as well have a key. And now that she thought about it...

Grabbing the pink glitter pen she kept by the phone, Chibiusa flipped the note over and wrote I think that’s a wonderful idea. Here’s the key to my apartment in case you ever want to visit.

Chibiusa rose and went to grab her purse. She’d need to buy an envelope, but she still had some stamps lying around. And of course she’d need to get a copy of her own key made, but she smiled to herself as she slipped the copy of Helios’s key onto her key chain, where it dangled by the little bunny charm she always kept on it.