Work Text:
I
Takuya rubs his hands to keep them warm and looks at the old computer screen. The small green dot moves slowly forward, towards the bigger dot. Takuya imagines the journey: the determination on Hiroki’s face, the hungry sea underneath, the churning clouds above.
Takuya has imagined this journey a thousand times. He grew up dreaming about it. But the dream used to be shared, theirs, not his alone. They talked about it so often that Takuya couldn’t even remember which details were added by Hiroki and which were his.
But in the beginning, one thing remained the same: they were flying together. They reached the tower together. They built both the plane and the promise together, part by part and piece by piece.
II
Sayuri appeared without any warning, and once she did, oh well - that was it.
When Hiroki told her about the plane and the plan, Takuya knew one of them would have to stay behind. The plane was built for two, and so was the promise.
If Sayuri understood that, she never said anything. Hiroki didn’t either. And although Sayuri never tightened any screws or programmed pieces of the code, she painted the journey with the golden sunset and told about the light glistening on the steel wings when the plane soared above the clouds.
Sayuri climbed inside the promise and fastened her seatbelt.
Takuya cut his own and gave up his place.
III
You can give up on a dream, but don’t try to fool yourself: the dreams will be waiting for you as soon as you fall asleep.
IV
The green dot crawls onward so slowly it makes Takuya almost sick. He is worried, he is angry, he is devastated, he is proud, he is desperate, he is miserable.
He thinks about Hiroki, his hands gripping the controller. He thinks about the plane, cutting through the clouds, and the ice covering the wings. He thinks about Sayuri in the back seat, behind Hiroki, probably dreaming about what is currently happening.
Dreaming, although she is right there, although it is true, although it is happening.
Takuya can’t even dream. He has only this: the truth, the reality, the promise both broken and fulfilled.
V
This is how it happens:
The plane reaches the tower, circles around it, and turns back.
Another dot stays right there: the one that tells this story is over.