She was asleep. It was sort of like a small miracle, seeing her asleep, because in the future—in her future—she was always moving around, bustling, smiling fake smiles that masked deep sorrow. But here she was, draped under a jacket far too large for her, her arm tucked under her head like a pillow and her chest moving in the sweet, slow rhythm of sleep. Gently leaning down, he picked up glasses and held them up to the sunrise, letting the light filter through the lenses, stained with salt from tears. Rin, at age fourteen, the previous night, had been crying.
Looking down, he noticed that her cheek was also sporting a large bruise, likely from a hit to the face. “Abuse,” He saw Susano’o mutter, gazing down at the child that had been determined to be his daughter, flesh and blood alike. “Her adoptive mother must have done it… that would rationalize her reasons for fleeing up here to sleep, of all places,” He said in a whisper, his silky voice wafting to Yukimura’s and Zexion’s ears alike.
“I hear someone,” Zexion whispered to them, and, opening a portal behind them into the clock tower, he ushered Susano’o and Yukimura in, the latter dropping the glasses after cleaning them off.
“There you are! I knew you’d be sleeping up here again…” A female sighed, taking the jacket off of her and nudging her foot to rouse her from her slumber. “Get up! We’re getting breakfast at Michael’s today, remember? It’s his birthday!”
“Oh, yeah…” Rin yawned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She looked so different from how she was in the future… here, she was more tomboyish, with short cut hair and baggy shorts, and an obviously un-ladylike demeanor about everything. In the future, she was so demure, so peaceful, so… lonely.
“So… these must be the friends that she lost,” Zexion murmured, and Susano’o nodded. “First… she lived without real parents. Then, without real friends. And now, she’s surrounded by people that love and care about her, and it’s like she’s drowning. She doesn’t know how to pull herself up to the surface, because she’s never been there before.”
“But… there’s always going to be someone to pull her back up.” Zexion cut in, glancing at Yukimura. “You’re like her life raft. She’s holding onto you because she’s got no other way to live. And… I guess… in those thirteen years, the life raft started to deflate, and she was left without a way out. She was drowning… and in one final act of desperation… she killed herself before the ocean could. Now, where is she? She’s lost. And… the life raft is the one who has to be there to find her again. That’s the way it is, right?”
Yukimura nodded, watching the girl who would someday be his wife run off, her too-large coat trailing behind her, a goofy grin on her face that he’d probably never see again.
“I’ll pull her back to shore.”
