A Single Footprint in the Snow (19)
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN: HE WAS BROKEN
The entire apartment is swathed in darkness. He doesn't turn on the lights. Nino huddles in the center of the bed with his eyes closed but not sleeping.
For the past hours he's been thinking in circles. He's been living a dream. Perhaps the other Nino and Aiba had not been in love. Perhaps they were better off as friends. Perhaps their getting together and deciding to marry, after so many years being friends, had been a mistake. Aiba's reaction to him that first morning and afterwards can only have been from his shock. Aiba only feels friendship for him.
Nino thinks he must be a fool to have believed everything just because someone else said it. He remembers the way Aiba had smiled at the woman. He can almost feel Aiba's gentle fingers when he touched the sleeve of her shirt; the shirt that was actually Aiba's. What he had witnessed can only be truer than any words.
Finally at dawn Nino falls asleep and remembers that Aiba told him, "I love you."
His sleep is deep and uninterrupted except for the muffled sobs of a young boy echoing in the numbing darkness.
Nino wakes in the late afternoon. The curtains are drawn, but daylight filters in and defines the corner of his bedroom. The nightmares of the night has flown away. He blinks sleepily, feeling both languid and listless.
He hears the sound of even breathing that are not his own. He notices that Aiba is asleep beside him, on top of the blankets as if he had thrown himself haphazardly down and fallen unconscious. He must have come in the late morning, after Nino fell asleep. Nino had not heard him.
Silently, Nino studies his face. The lines of fatigue on Aiba's countenance remains while he's resting; shadows of spots under his eyes and cheeks. Dark lashes that turn a beautiful light brown at the touch of sunlight. Pale lips that are perfectly shaped. Already a scraggly beard marks his chin. Aiba Masaki is not perfect, but together he is wholesome.
This is the person that the other Nino forgot. Despite everything he thought before, Aiba is someone Nino doesn't want to lose.
Nino tentatively touch his fingertips to Aiba's closed eyelids. Aiba's eyes flutter open. His vision is fogged over with exhaustion, but he registers Nino watching him. With a heavy hand, he grasps Nino's fingers.
"I'm sorry," he murmurs. For many, many things.
Nino knows all along that his previous doubts are untrue. Aiba loves the other Nino. The woman from yesterday night is no one; only a misunderstanding. He figures the crying boy in his dream must not have been himself. It couldn't have been, from either past or present.
"I trust you," he says.
* *
TWENTY
NINETEEN: HE WAS BROKEN
The entire apartment is swathed in darkness. He doesn't turn on the lights. Nino huddles in the center of the bed with his eyes closed but not sleeping.
For the past hours he's been thinking in circles. He's been living a dream. Perhaps the other Nino and Aiba had not been in love. Perhaps they were better off as friends. Perhaps their getting together and deciding to marry, after so many years being friends, had been a mistake. Aiba's reaction to him that first morning and afterwards can only have been from his shock. Aiba only feels friendship for him.
Nino thinks he must be a fool to have believed everything just because someone else said it. He remembers the way Aiba had smiled at the woman. He can almost feel Aiba's gentle fingers when he touched the sleeve of her shirt; the shirt that was actually Aiba's. What he had witnessed can only be truer than any words.
Finally at dawn Nino falls asleep and remembers that Aiba told him, "I love you."
His sleep is deep and uninterrupted except for the muffled sobs of a young boy echoing in the numbing darkness.
Nino wakes in the late afternoon. The curtains are drawn, but daylight filters in and defines the corner of his bedroom. The nightmares of the night has flown away. He blinks sleepily, feeling both languid and listless.
He hears the sound of even breathing that are not his own. He notices that Aiba is asleep beside him, on top of the blankets as if he had thrown himself haphazardly down and fallen unconscious. He must have come in the late morning, after Nino fell asleep. Nino had not heard him.
Silently, Nino studies his face. The lines of fatigue on Aiba's countenance remains while he's resting; shadows of spots under his eyes and cheeks. Dark lashes that turn a beautiful light brown at the touch of sunlight. Pale lips that are perfectly shaped. Already a scraggly beard marks his chin. Aiba Masaki is not perfect, but together he is wholesome.
This is the person that the other Nino forgot. Despite everything he thought before, Aiba is someone Nino doesn't want to lose.
Nino tentatively touch his fingertips to Aiba's closed eyelids. Aiba's eyes flutter open. His vision is fogged over with exhaustion, but he registers Nino watching him. With a heavy hand, he grasps Nino's fingers.
"I'm sorry," he murmurs. For many, many things.
Nino knows all along that his previous doubts are untrue. Aiba loves the other Nino. The woman from yesterday night is no one; only a misunderstanding. He figures the crying boy in his dream must not have been himself. It couldn't have been, from either past or present.
"I trust you," he says.
* *
TWENTY