I didn’t know you could mend things with a single touch.

 
Timeline/World: Darkness of Space – Lost in the Stars
Characters: Zaahir
Race: Human
Age: 34
Current residence: Tadaran, Ivamis Continent, Inera
Final Word Count: 788 words
 

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A few months ago, I was worried we would have to leave again.

We’ve been living in this house for almost four years at this point. Robin still sits at that loom and creates smaller and bigger pieces every day. The young woman who comes and goes every so often still does so, perhaps not like clockwork but not far from. Over the last year, I’ve seen her belly round up with the passing months and for a little while after that, she didn’t come. It took two months before she came again, a little bundle of joy strapped on comfortably to her chest.

As the little one grows, she changes his position. Before long, I imagine that before too long, he’ll be on her back instead of her chest. It hasn’t stopped her from coming, at least, except for those two months where I assume that she and the tiny little one bonded in a way only a mother and newborn child can. Robin was baffled by the sounds of the little one when she first came back again. I’d been keeping him updated on her wellbeing and the size of that baby bump. It’s not as though I have a lot of knowledge on the subject, though I wasn’t as sheltered as he was.

It was adorable in its own way, Robin has starkly refused to be anywhere near the little one, even though, up until this point, she has kept him bundled up close to her. So, there is no holding of the little one, only some gentle head-touching and I suppose I don’t fully blame him for not wanting to touch the little one but still.

A little while ago, I remember how baffled she was at something that seems so simple to me (and to Robin, really), that it made me smile in a way I don’t think I had for a while. Just the week before that particular event, Robin had handed her a smaller piece made on the loom. It couldn’t have been much bigger than three feet all around. Something much smaller than some of the other pieces he’s made.

A week later, she was bringing it back, looking frustrated—at the person who had handed it back to her and not Robin, she said—because the piece seemed to have been ripped open in the middle and the person who had first taken it hadn’t wanted it anymore after finding out that there was this big—their words, it was no bigger than a pea—rip in it.

It took Robin all of a moment to find the so-called rip before his fingers did whatever magic—it’s not magic, trust me—it is they do with the threads and the loom, and he was handing it back. The hole was gone. She gasped, clearly sounding pleased. Her eyes were huge as she looked at him, curious. And with awe in her voice, she told him that she didn’t know he could mend things with a single touch.

I’ll be honest, I don’t remember the last time I’ve heard him laugh this way. It was a startled sort of laugh that made him sound just so young again. I can tease him about things all I want, but I’m another version of him, we’re not like brothers, but he still has little interactions with others and this kind of thing is good for him.

His face was so adorably pink as he told her that it wasn’t magic, just a careful shifting of the threads. She didn’t seem to notice. I think she was just so awed still that it seemed like such an easy fix—Robin can do miracles with his hands—that she wouldn’t have heard any of it even if he’d told her it was all dark magic ritual or something of the sorts.

Not that I think that dark magic is a thing here. At least, I don’t believe it is. I know that the people who killed my Kane and then killed his Kane were using technology, not magic. The doorways we opened were based on technology, perhaps with a smidge of magic—it was, after all, what Kane had been about in his own way—but it was mainly based on technology.

Out here, in this place that I’m still not even sure of the location of, we live a simple life and I keep an eye out for things that might not belong. I really don’t want us to have to leave this house. It’s the most comfortable one we’ve found so far, and the villagers really are all quite nice. I don’t think it would be fair if we had to go anywhere.

Do you always ask people you just met if they want to rob a bank with you?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Jacomus Rochemont
Race: Human
Age: 46
Current residence: Yamanashi Region, Japan
Final Word Count: 797 words
 

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At times, you will hear rumours that are being shared between the students and you will have to ask yourself if you’ve truly just heard what you think you’ve heard. Every so often, the rumours are fairly harmless, some are about celebrities that might or might not have come to this school themselves. Others are about this new fad or that other one about healthy eating, or the best way to do either one of these other things out there that you don’t care much to hear about at all as it doesn’t concern you.

Once in a blue moon, you’ll hear a rumour—or two students talking quietly between themselves that, even if you try not to eavesdrop you still hear—that will leave you pausing, turning to them and asking to speak to them.

I haven’t had to do that in a few years at this point. The last time was almost six years back and it was the strangest thing. I almost let it go when I first heard them, it was by far too out there—the idea of one asking another student he’d only just met if they wanted to rob a bank together—that it didn’t seem as though it could be real at all.

I still paused when I heard them, waited a few moments as though perhaps I was waiting for them to elaborate, and when they didn’t, I did turn to them, asking them if they would join me a moment. It was late in the afternoon, classes had just finished, I found an empty classroom and we did step inside. This wasn’t all that out of the norm. A lot of the students knew that I roamed the hall and, every now and again, I’d step into a classroom with one of them, mostly to ask them how they were doing, how they were handling the schooling and everything else.

I like making sure that my students are doing as well as they can. Healthy and happy students are important for a school to be able to run properly. Others might not agree with this line of thought, but it is mine and that is all there is to it.

Now, these two students, they did follow me into that classroom, I settled at the front desk—my legs have their good and bad days—and I asked them how they were doing, how their studies were coming along, then I did ask them about what they were just talking about. They shared a look, and even now, I’m not sure what it is that passed between them. I don’t know if they were trying to decide which one should answer me, or what part of the truth, or lie, they were going to feed me.

Eventually, both just turned back to me, looking as sheepish as they could and one—the one I hadn’t heard speak when I’d crossed them in the hallway—told me that they had been talking about a new movie that had been coming out. I hadn’t heard of the movie itself—I’m not big on movies—but they had seemed sheepish enough and honest enough in their answer that I mostly just asked more details about the movie, curious as to what it might have been about.

What they told me did match with a movie I later found out had indeed been released just a week or so before, it still was playing in the theatres and it did have a scene similar to the one I had walked up into if you would. A scene that, as I watched the trailer, made very little sense to me but I suppose that this is one of the reasons why I’m not all that much into movies. I might have a hard time letting go of what I believe in, in a general sense of life, to be able to settle into the type of life that is being portrayed on the screen.

It’s at that point that I tell myself that my own life has had its own rather incredible story attached to it and it has been more than enough for me. A first wedding that turned into hell, the loss of my child at a far too young age along with the near-loss of my ability to move at all, a second wedding that fell through the cracks despite my best efforts and now, well now I take my life one day after the other and I cherish every moment with the man standing at my side. I’m happier than I’ve been in years. My children seem happier than they have in years as well and that just adds a cherry on top of this delightful cake.