The days lengthened, bringing the sun and the shine. On a day hotter than those before, he would walk sandy shores with bare feet. Feel the grains beneath his soles and think of him with a smile. Think of how his pale hair would almost shimmer in the bright light, how blue eyes would reflect warm waters. How he could imagine him diving into irradiated waters without a care, laughing and splashing around because "it's not strong enough to hurt me, is it?"
Sometimes he heard his voice. The nights had gone from too cold, to too
hot. His slumbers would be restless, feverish, plagued by nightmares. Bleary eyes would catch the shape of him, reach out and... he wasn't there. Of course he wasn't. A figment of a sleepless imagination. Ice had melted, protective layers thinning, and what was left it in its wake was a scorching heat.
Desperate. It had been too long, years and years and years. Compared to the centuries that was their lifespan, perhaps that was nothing, but it still hurt and ached. He looked up to the stars and the moon was so bright, glowing, a temptation he knew he could not yet cave in to.
So he fought through the heat, skin slick with sweat and blood. That trail of crimson still followed him; carcasses rotting under the sun.
But he could see where he had been, and where he had yet to go. He could
feel that he was almost ready, but he had to push through the last of the cloying humidity, let the emotions wash over him.
And then, and
then, he could back to those blue, blue eyes and tell him...
Well, there was nothing that he had the right to say but he knew how he felt, how his devotion would burn brightly forevermore.
summer