O.o o.O

It's when you don't remember your mother's face or the sound of her voice that brings you back to reality. The guilt and fear and worry deepens when you turn at the screams and laughter behind you and see your sisters romping around with other children, their faces streaked with dirt and war paint and their pretty ruffled nightgowns looking nothing more than the rags of beggar children.

"Mai," you call. "Mio." Your sisters turn to you, and you wonder if your thoughts show on your face because they run over laughing, their happiness just another reminder of what you three left behind.

O.o o.O

"I have to go home," you say, and you're waving your hands around wildly as you talk - you're not sure why, but you're somehow hoping it'll convey whatever it is you're afraid to say. "We have to go home."

He looks at you with a carefully blank face. "If," he clears his throat, "if it's what you wish."

"Come with us," you say - plead - you're pleading him. "Come with us. The others are coming too. Come with us." There are tears in your eyes and you know he sees it because his gaze softens briefly before he steels himself.

"No. I'm not going to grow up. I'm not going to go to school or get a job. I'm going to stay here and be a boy forever." He leaps away from you nimbly, hovering in the air. "You can't make me!"

And he's gone.

O.o o.O

"Keita," he says, stepping out from the shadows, and you had almost thought he was going to let you leave without saying goodbye.

"Ryuichi," you say, running over to him, and he's stiff and awkward as he stands in front of you.

"I'll lead you guys back," he says, and lifts his chin defiantly.

You don't understand and can't explain the warmth in your chest when he says that, nor can you understand or explain the upward tilt of your lips. "That would be wonderful."

O.o o.O

There's commotion behind you - tears and laughter and cries of joy and hugs and kisses - but you're at the window, leaning slightly out.

"I guess. This is it," he says, and bobs as if getting ready to speed off.

"Wait," you say, heart thundering, and you've never been more certain of anything in your short-lived life so far, gazing towards Ryuichi, the big white moon silhouetting him, making his skin glow an otherworldy silver.

He just looks at you, and you wonder if he feels the same as your eyes fix on the corner of his mouth, and you imagine you can see a line of tension on his clear boyish skin.

"You won't forget me?" you hear yourself say softly, and your chin trembles as you speak.

"Me?" He grins, and does a flip in the air. "Never."

"You'll visit?"

"Maybe," he says, and you wonder if you're being cruel and selfish, asking him to watch you grow up as he stays forever in limbo, forever a twelve-year old boy as you change before his eyes. And then you can't help but feel rather self-centred - after all, he wouldn't want to see the other children grow up either, would he? The boys that had been following him around for as long as they could remember - how would it feel for him to watch them becoming the one thing he hated and vowed he would never be?

The deluge of guilt flooding into you must be showing on your face because Ryuichi stops his acrobatics and smiles and says, "Yes."

"I - I want to give you something," you stutter.

He holds his hand out, lips parted in curiosity.

You wrap your fingers around his palm. "You need to close your eyes."

"Is it a surprise?"

"Not really," you whisper, and you're leaning in, eyes falling shut as your lips meet his.

You see his eyes flutter open as you pull away, and he blinks at you before smiling softly. Your hand slides from his as he floats away, higher into the night sky, and he gives you a grin and a wave before turning and flying off.

There are tears in your eyes as you blink and lose sight of him, because somehow you know, in your heart of hearts, that you will never see him again.

O.o o.O

Fin.