;:I>still.the.stars.find.their.way<I:; [Rina, closed]

for future and dreams
they're fleeting, retreating

Darkness stirred as if a heavy wind was blowing. Faint lightning-like streaks of canary and marigold yellows emitted in the distance rapidly, luring one’s eyes into a dreamy haze. They’d dance upon one’s view, teasing each other until they’d succumb to each other. The streaks would form a gothic horror of indescribable fluids with a mind of its own. It’d trash violently together, putting together a sentient humanoid figure, amber shelled and all. The most outstanding feature was the heartless insignia that seemed to crawl upon it’s helm. The being’s attire spawned from nothing, dressing the creature in it’s usual garb. It’s blinding white eyes locked eyes with the frightened woman in front of it.

“I am what your nightmare seeks when it's drawn out. I am something more,” Fear would speak behind the helm, but it’s voice would resonate around them as constant whispers, surely to disorient the weak. The heartless stepped forward and made a gesture as if it were inhaling the air around him. One step towards the girl was one step closer to the darkness that had its clutches on the human. Inside the consciousness of Fear, a chuckle was had as he learned of their name. “Rina. You’ve done this to him, you know. I rarely am let out to play.” The latter sentence was stated with a sinister sneer.

“Your other side is so potent, raw,” the creature stated with wonder, referring to the darkness within her. “I sense that it craves a release; do you feel it too?” The echoing whispers would seem more within Rina’s head, as if Fear was speaking to her heart. The being then started to take several steps forward towards the alluring abyss in her heart that Blackout found difficult to resist.

it's okay
i promise

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS

I don't know what to say

but I'm going to want you till the stars evaporate

“Wake up, *****” a gentle voice whispered in the soldier’s ear, the latter of the command being inaudible. Soft strands of silky hair would stroke the man’s nose, putting a warm smile on Shiro’s face as his eyes fluttered open. In sight, would be the girl that had flashed into his consciousness earlier, putting the state of the man’s eyes into shock. How could it be her? He was just with Rina. Where was Rina? Looking around him, he was laying down upon a warm plain filled with grass and flowers, water flowing through a small creek could be heard in the distance. The intellect sat up, confused, trying to puzzle what was happening.

“Who are you?” Shiro asked the girl that was kneeling beside him. She had short raven hair, wearing a black sweatshirt with sleeves that extended past her hands. She had two eyes that sparkled with the color, indigo. There was something that drew the man to her, but he couldn’t gather why. Was he in a dream? Was Rina in his dream and was he finally awake? No, that didn’t make sense.

“You don’t remember me? That hurts,” she stated, at first surprised and then saddened, turning her head to the side in disappointment. Shiro felt as if he should feel bad about the situation, but his mind couldn’t be side tracked as he worried for Rina. He couldn’t be in a dream when he had met Rina- it was so real, but then why did this girl in front of him feel so familiar? The intellect’s head raced to assess the situation and then it hit him. Blackout fumbled to grab the dog tags that rested upon his chest, ripped it off, flipping it, and then held it at a reading distance. Immediately, the girl placed her small hands over the text, as she turned back to the look at the soldier. “We could be here forever, you know? You and me. Remember how you felt?” she asked with a grin of innocence, one that slightly motioned Shiro to forget about every problem on his mind.

"Please...stop. What are you...doing...what? Stop...!"

The loner recognized the fear that emitted from the faint murmur that seemed to come from the distance creek. The analyst put it all together at that moment as his concern to feel the warmth he had felt with the artisan had completely taken over, to know that Rina was safe and not afraid. He pulled away from the girl, revealing the letters upon his dog tags.

-tuokcalB”

“You can’t put me in a box, Fear.”

The once sincere grin of the beautiful girl’s face twisted into a coy smile, her purple eyes flashing into a vibrant yellow. “We can do this the hard way,” the sinister voice of the heartless within muttered out of the girl’s lips. Suddenly, a blade emerged from her chest abruptly, causing the girl that was possessed by Fear to spatter blood over the man. Shiro gasped in pure shock, feeling a heavy weight in his chest, as a single tear rolled down his eye. Then it all faded away into darkness. Shiro didn’t understand why he felt so hurt and even a sensation of guilt. He had never met the girl before, but she felt so real.

---

“Can you feel it, Blackout? Can you feel the vigor channeling through us…?” the whispers amongst the dark echoed as triumphant streaks of gold started to flash violently as Shiro’s vision came into place. He could see his amber armored nemesis vibrating with pleasure as tendrils of a violet hazed figure surged into Fear’s figure. The man could feel it, and he could feel it’s strength. It felt good, but all too familiar.

“No! Rina!” Shiro yelled, scrambling himself up to his feet and stumbling into a charge at his parasite. He tackled the golden armored being and then it all faded into white.

---

Blackout opened his eyes to see the closed ones of Rina’s, their lips still locked together. Gasping for air as it felt Shiro hadn’t breathed for a millennium, Shiro collapsed backwards from their embrace into the couch, panting. The intellect believed to be good at words at times, but he had no words for this situation. He was feeling a convoluted entanglement of emotions that could not be put into words. “I’m sorry,” he muttered between breaths, attempting to connect his eyes with Rina once again. “I don’t understand what happened.”

We're only here for just a moment in the light

One day it shines for us the next we're in the night

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS

so say the word and I'll be running back to find you

a thousand armies won't stop me, I'll break through

What was the darkness that crept beneath the soldier’s skin? Shiro could feel the urge from Fear within to reply itself. Was there a simple way to answer? The intellect’s mind ran, pushing the heartless’ thoughts back and attempting to formulate an answer. Once achieved, Shiro opened his mouth to answer but then a breath of silence escaped his lips at the sight of how afraid Rina was of him. He was almost speechless. Sure, people were afraid of the heartless and any public eye, that would spot him, would catch a shiver of fear. However, nobody knew the soldier first and then met the monster; not until Rina. Blackout was traveling uncharted waters with her. “I have a heartless; a parasite that resides in me,” he started to explain, his eyes peering towards the couch to avoid what he may see in the artisan’s eyes. “I don’t know if it is a part of me or… If it's a curse from my past life. When I woke in Traverse Town, when I’d think, I could hear its whispers; and I was branded just like the rest of them.”

Upon hearing Rina’s concern for why his darkness longed for her, Shiro paused and thought, reaching up to the back of his head, scratching it in confusion. It sent the intellect through a cycle of hindsight, playing out the events in his head to put his thoughts into words. “When I stopped it, it was in an embrace with you; well not you, but something more. I could feel it’s strength, and I believe the heartless wanted to bask in it. I’m sorry that I didn’t stop it sooner,” the soldier apologized, getting himself to his feet from the couch slowly. His eyes then connected with hers. “I should see myself out, shouldn’t I?”

It was at that moment, he couldn’t decide how to proceed. He felt so exposed and didn’t know how to register what he was feeling. He just knew that the girl he had just met was afraid, and if removing his presence from the situation would alter that; he’d do it.

I'll soar the endless skies for only one sight

of your starlight

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS