[Gurren Lagann] Travel Light
Title: Travel Light
Fandom: Gurren Lagann
Pairing: Simon/Nia
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 775
Notes: Written for a kinkmeme prompt. AU ending.
Summary: The ring and a will to be with Simon keep Nia anchored in this world, but neither she nor Simon are meant to stay in one place.
Simon and Nia had journeys to prepare for. They did not make love the night of the wedding. They had done that already, after all, and now was the time for new things. Instead, they packed.
"We must only take what we can carry," Nia said as she wrapped up her bundle. She had chosen her favorite cooking pot, a good sharp kitchen knife, and some gardening tools to bring along. "I do not wish to be weighed down."
"We wouldn't be weighed down," Simon said. He was packing a simple drill--nothing like the Core Drill he'd given up after the wedding--and some changes of clothing. "That's the problem. Everyone would offer to carry our stuff."
"No!" Nia shook her head firmly. "Our stuff must be carried by ourselves! We have come this far on the power of everyone's wishes. But from now on, we will only be Simon and Nia."
Simon reached for her hand. "We're already Simon and Nia," he said. "We just have to keep being that way while the world changes around us."
They fell silent. They knew that for anyone else, that would be no trouble. But for Nia, it was an ordeal. Her body was not meant to exist in this world. Only one anchor sustained it. She looked down at it now: the ring encircling her finger, its green gem not quite glowing with the light of the setting sun. Wherever she went, the love within that ring reminded her of who she was, just as it had held her will and her spirit when the Anti-Spirals had tried to eliminate her.
"Simon," she said, "I do not know how much the world can change before I can no longer hold onto it."
He folded his hand over hers. "It doesn't matter," he said. "A month, a year, ten years. I'll take every minute and be happy. We both will."
She looked up at him. "And you will always believe that I am Nia. Will you not?"
"Of course I will!" Simon grinned fiercely. "Any time you need it, I'll say it. Who the hell do you think you are? You're Nia, the woman I saved the world for!"
She giggled. "Thank you, Simon! Please let me remind you sometimes that you are Simon the Digger, not just Simon who saved the world for Nia. The day will come when that is all you will be."
He smiled. "I'll face that day when it comes." He let go of her hand and stepped back. "Are you ready to go, Nia?"
"No," she said. "Not yet. For you have suggested a very silly thing!"
Simon blinked, then scratched his head.
She gestured down at the wedding dress she still wore, then at her hair as it tumbled freely now that her veil had been removed, reaching down past her knees. "We will be recognized. That is not how it should be." She knelt down to pick something up from her bundle. It was the kitchen knife. Frowning in fierce concentration, she gathered up her hair at the nape of her neck and sliced the knife through it. Shimmering strands fell all around her. She put down the knife, then stood up again. Her body glittered out into pixels, then reassembled, and now she was wearing a simple white shift.
Behind her, the great mass of shorn hair quietly turned into pixels and vanished. "There," Nia said. "There is less of me to remember, and less for other people to recognize. Let us begin our travels, Simon."
"We'll see the whole world," Simon said.
"No," Nia said. "There is too much world for us to see. But we will see enough, and then you will continue."
"All right," Simon said. Without saying anything more, he put his hand on her newly bare neck and tipped her head up so she could kiss him.
They left on a simple dirt road, one that had fallen out of use since the great highways had begun to open out of Kamina City. The dust stirred up around their feet--Nia's as well, even if she was not entirely real. Over the years that followed, they would grow used to dust. They would grow used to eating and sleeping outdoors. And slowly, the people around them would grow used to treating them as just another young couple traveling with few possessions along the roads of the world. They would forget that this simple man with an ordinary face and the sweet woman who wore a wide-brimmed white hat to shadow strange eyes were anything else.
Simon and Nia liked it that way.
Fandom: Gurren Lagann
Pairing: Simon/Nia
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 775
Notes: Written for a kinkmeme prompt. AU ending.
Summary: The ring and a will to be with Simon keep Nia anchored in this world, but neither she nor Simon are meant to stay in one place.
Simon and Nia had journeys to prepare for. They did not make love the night of the wedding. They had done that already, after all, and now was the time for new things. Instead, they packed.
"We must only take what we can carry," Nia said as she wrapped up her bundle. She had chosen her favorite cooking pot, a good sharp kitchen knife, and some gardening tools to bring along. "I do not wish to be weighed down."
"We wouldn't be weighed down," Simon said. He was packing a simple drill--nothing like the Core Drill he'd given up after the wedding--and some changes of clothing. "That's the problem. Everyone would offer to carry our stuff."
"No!" Nia shook her head firmly. "Our stuff must be carried by ourselves! We have come this far on the power of everyone's wishes. But from now on, we will only be Simon and Nia."
Simon reached for her hand. "We're already Simon and Nia," he said. "We just have to keep being that way while the world changes around us."
They fell silent. They knew that for anyone else, that would be no trouble. But for Nia, it was an ordeal. Her body was not meant to exist in this world. Only one anchor sustained it. She looked down at it now: the ring encircling her finger, its green gem not quite glowing with the light of the setting sun. Wherever she went, the love within that ring reminded her of who she was, just as it had held her will and her spirit when the Anti-Spirals had tried to eliminate her.
"Simon," she said, "I do not know how much the world can change before I can no longer hold onto it."
He folded his hand over hers. "It doesn't matter," he said. "A month, a year, ten years. I'll take every minute and be happy. We both will."
She looked up at him. "And you will always believe that I am Nia. Will you not?"
"Of course I will!" Simon grinned fiercely. "Any time you need it, I'll say it. Who the hell do you think you are? You're Nia, the woman I saved the world for!"
She giggled. "Thank you, Simon! Please let me remind you sometimes that you are Simon the Digger, not just Simon who saved the world for Nia. The day will come when that is all you will be."
He smiled. "I'll face that day when it comes." He let go of her hand and stepped back. "Are you ready to go, Nia?"
"No," she said. "Not yet. For you have suggested a very silly thing!"
Simon blinked, then scratched his head.
She gestured down at the wedding dress she still wore, then at her hair as it tumbled freely now that her veil had been removed, reaching down past her knees. "We will be recognized. That is not how it should be." She knelt down to pick something up from her bundle. It was the kitchen knife. Frowning in fierce concentration, she gathered up her hair at the nape of her neck and sliced the knife through it. Shimmering strands fell all around her. She put down the knife, then stood up again. Her body glittered out into pixels, then reassembled, and now she was wearing a simple white shift.
Behind her, the great mass of shorn hair quietly turned into pixels and vanished. "There," Nia said. "There is less of me to remember, and less for other people to recognize. Let us begin our travels, Simon."
"We'll see the whole world," Simon said.
"No," Nia said. "There is too much world for us to see. But we will see enough, and then you will continue."
"All right," Simon said. Without saying anything more, he put his hand on her newly bare neck and tipped her head up so she could kiss him.
They left on a simple dirt road, one that had fallen out of use since the great highways had begun to open out of Kamina City. The dust stirred up around their feet--Nia's as well, even if she was not entirely real. Over the years that followed, they would grow used to dust. They would grow used to eating and sleeping outdoors. And slowly, the people around them would grow used to treating them as just another young couple traveling with few possessions along the roads of the world. They would forget that this simple man with an ordinary face and the sweet woman who wore a wide-brimmed white hat to shadow strange eyes were anything else.
Simon and Nia liked it that way.