getting_better

Shiho had fought hard because she couldn't bear to lose this world. Because she hated bullies. Because she loved this place. There was no other possible choice in her heart and she had thrown herself into it, using her psychometry to pilot mecha with uncanny precision.

And they had won. Against all odds, they had won.

The prism is cool in her hand, the edges hard. It's a way back, it's... a connection at the very least because she knows what the two of them would choose.

She has to go back to her home, to her life back there and she had to... she had to find him. She grips the prism, nearly crashing into a Prismal but knowing without a doubt where he could be.

She barely sees the big hole through the apartment, the gravel littering the hallway as she pushes the door open, catching her breath as she stares from the bags to him.

"Sam..."

There was no need to look her way to know how she reacted to the scene before her. He tossed his prism a few times before standing to walk towards the very hole that was once their living room and part of the balcony.

"...Well, this is a huge mess." He says exasperated, gesturing widely to the hole and the scenery beyond before putting his hands on his waist.

"I mean it's nice that we won but, half the city is on the floor and the other half is about to fall to the floor, and I don't know if you noticed but we have a bit of a hole in the wall." He shakes his head and sighs. "Forget rebuilding, best to just....move out. Yeah?"

Edited 2020-12-25 15:21 (UTC)

Shiho doesn't know whether she should laugh or cry when she sees him and then hears the first words from his mouth. When she first arrived here she'd never thought that he'd be so dear to her and yet in this moment she can't look away.

"...Move out, huh."

She toes some of the rubble out of the way before she follows him to the newly, permanently renovated balcony, letting the cool breeze run through her hair.

"...Did you have a place in mind?"

He takes a slow breath, deep and long, then leans along the remains of the railing whilst still gazing out into the horizon.

"A few ideas, yeah. They are completely out of the way though and there's..." He paused taking another breath. "...there's guarantee things we'll settle very smoothly."

He paused and closed his eyes as a gentle breeze kissed their cheeks.

"...You're not coming with me, visiting, or even taking a glimpse of my world. I'm not going to let you." The first time he's ever used those words with an implication of authority, though given it is his world who better to have authority over it. "You know what it's like. It's no place for you."

[Shiho won't deny it hurts when he tells her she can't come with him, that he had to go back to a place so dangerous.

Just as she won't deny the fact that it makes her mad to hear him speak to her like this, taking charge and making decisions she'd like to make on her own. She doesn't look at him at first, brows furrowed as she looks over the ruined city

Maybe his home... really couldn't be a place for her.]

Which is why she turns to him with a sad smile.

"If you.... really think that... then I guess I'll have no choice but to listen, right?"

And in another universe Minamoto feels a chill. Shiho, listening? Shiho saying that there was no helping it??

She lets her gaze drift away again, eyes lowered before she brightens up as she turns the full force of her "you goofed, let me tell you the ways in which you did" smile on him.

"But it's fine if I go back and bring a friend or five with me though, isn't it? If I'm not going by myself~"

He knew this was going to be a hard conversation, that she was going to be mad and that she was going to try something. And it was all going according to plan. This is, after all, the most important op he planned out.

"No. It's not. That place is hell. A second one, probably even the one to end them all." He shifted, hand quietly slipping into his inner breast pocket while he moved, and sighed at the thought as if he were annoyed by the mention of the world.

"The population in my world used to be seven billion. When the Calamity happened, it was reduced to three billion in the span of four months. Four months. Do you have any idea what kind of force it would take to do that?" He does. It's horrible.

"If you think I'm going to let you, let alone five others, take a single step into that world-" He turned to her, the first time since they started talking. Calm, expression neutral, but eyes focused. "-then think again."

Edited 2021-01-05 09:33 (UTC)

What makes her angry is that he's shutting her out just like that, telling her he wouldn't let her, protecting her without a chance to let her protect him.

Shiho's lips press together in a bid to not cry, hands balling up before she looks away.

"I don't need your permission."

"That's true. You don't." Sam says nodding looking away. "And I can already imagine one of said friends is Kaoru and - honestly - I'd be hard pressed to even try to stop her, let alone three others who - I can only assume - have psychic abilities too." He mouths the word 'yikes' as his mind starts to imagine the different possibilities and the different ways he could take them down. Or try to.

He shoves the thoughts out of his head, they wouldn't lead to anywhere good anyway, and continues. "You're still not going though, no matter what." A beat. "The 'how' is what currently eludes me."

Shiho wants to be very petty about all this and if she cared less about him she would be. He's never been the type to just shut her out like this, giving her no options.

'You make me feel human again,' he had said. 'I love you,' he had said.

She crosses her arms around herself, hands squeezing at her elbows. "....Why... are you acting like this?"

"Because...I want to make it abundantly clear that no one is going to step foot in that hellscape. Not you -" He pauses. "- or me."

He takes out the prism and rolls it between his fingers, looking at it with a mixture of sadness and resolve.

"...Do you remember when we were suddenly flung ten years into the future? I do. And when I'm by myself I can't stop thinking about it."

Shiho had opened her mouth and absolutely intended to argue with him about stepping foot in whatever hellscape he found himself in. Both feet! Wherever he went, she wanted to go.

That was the plan, anyway.

But then he follows up with the rest and she stops, mouth open before she closes it, brain still trying to catch up to all of this. He wasn't going?

And now they're back to ten years in their future? The future where they'd gotten married? She swallows, nervous all of a sudden as she has a good guess where this might be going.

"Who... who would forget something like that? ....Wh-What about it?"

That's a first, but not unexpected give the way he was behaving.

"If I said I didn't think about that time I'd be lying. I think about it a lot, maybe too much. But I can't help it. It was nice being, well, me. And that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for you. At least, that's what I believe."

Memories of his life with Shiho flood his mind and the faintest smile appeared on his lips before vanishing just as quickly as he looks over the ruined landscape.

"But then all this happened, and I was reminded how my life is....war. And chaos. And death. Things that...followed me from my world. So I got mad, and lost it. Took it out on everything and anything that fell into my sight. Good thing too I suppose, things were nasty and I needed every ounce of the fight in me to survive. And while we won, I felt I lost.....I lost the chance of...a life beyond what I made for myself." There was no war in their memories of that time, no decisive climactic battle. "...It was like I lost someone else again."

Memories of themselves ten years in the future tends to be one of those things that sneaks up on her, usually when she holds onto him though even she can say for sure whether those thoughts come from him or from her. She remembers the feeling of bliss, of a happy life lived with him.

He's always said that she makes him human, and she sees it in the way she can make him smile, make him blush. And she won't deny that she's scared of what might happen when she has to leave, where he'd go, how long it would take her to find him again no matter the fact that she intends to go to him as quickly as she can. That is, after all, the kind of girl she had been raised to be. Her first thought is always to find a solution and to never give up.

"...It doesn't have to be."

War, chaos, death... and she doesn't want that for him.

"I'm still here and so are you... even though we might not have the exact same thing as we had in those memories... it doesn't mean we can't have something just as good. Better, even."

"I'm glad you think so." He takes a large breath exhales quickly as he tucks the prism away. "Because I'm not satisfied by those memories anymore."

He pushes himself off the bettered railing and walked to her

"That future is gone and there's nothing I can do make it come back. But in a way that's good, because from now on I intend to make a life better than those memories." He takes her hand, palms and fingers rough with callouses but steady and calm, and in his mind flashed a white ring with a large diamond with a row of smaller diamonds on both sides.

"Brighter, warmer, happier." With his other hand he retrieved a small black box. "A better life for you and me."

Her eyes go to the little box, and then widen as he holds her hand. Her mind is empty aside from that one image from his of a ring. She can't help looking into the thought in his mind, of the size of the ring, if he was serious, of when he'd got it, how long he'd had it and really, if he was truly serious even as one hand comes up to her mouth in shock.

For once in her life she doesn't know what to say with all her wishes and thoughts crowding it all out. She wants that new future, to make his life, their lives better, to create new memories.

"S-Sam..."

But she can't help herself, eyes tearing up and unable to hide the way her gaze trembles.

Edited 2021-01-24 06:06 (UTC)

He was serious. This is the most serious he's ever been in his entire life. It wasn't easy hiding he had found the ring one day on his way home from work, immediately recognizing it through the jewelers window, and it was harder to save it from the cruel of fate of destruction when the chaos started. What was easy though, once the ring was in his dusty hands, was deciding what to do with it.

"Before I met you I believed that my life was only to be devoted to the war, to mankind and the struggle to resist the End. I was ready to die at any moment as long as it was for the cause. But I was wrong. I wasn't ready to die, because I didn't know how to live. I didn't know how much of life I had missed, and the little bits that I did know, I buried deep inside because they were too bright, and too painful to remember.

Pain is- was, the one certainty in my life and I thought I had experienced the worst of it time and time again, but nothing prepared me for the thought of living in a world without you. That is....too painful."

His squeezed her hand tighter as he clutched the box, swallowed, closing his eyes to drown the spike of pain and fear at the thought of being without her.

"So I won't live in that world." He looked at her, eyes resolute and certain and filled with more love and affection for than ever before while a warm smile drew itself on his face.

"Shiho, you showed me what it was like to live - not as Bishop, not as soldier - but as me. You made want to dig up those bright memories I locked away and face them head on, the sorrow, the regret, and the warmth and fondness each one carried. You brought me back from the dead. You made me human. You made me fear death, made me ready to live. Really live. And now, I'm ready to live that life...by your side."

He takes a knee, his gaze never wavering but heart racing more than ever as he opens the box and reveals the ring inside, shimmering the light.

"Sannomiya Shiho...will you marry me?"

Shiho feels the tears fall as he speaks, as she sifts through his memories, the glimmer of the ring in the window, his dusty fingers holding onto it as the city fell.

She knows relief makes her cry. And she knows now that happiness can make her cry too. Before this, before him she had no idea and now too many emotions are coming to her at once: sadness for what he had been before meeting her and a resolute hope that she would and could protect him. Her hand squeezes his then goes to her heart, holding tight as he opens the box to show the now-familiar ring with its glittering band of metal and diamonds.

There's no hesitation from her even if her voice is a little choked, "Of course!"

A heavy relieved sigh left his lips while his smile grew from ear to ear and tears welled up in his eyes.

Rising to his feet, he took the ring from its velvet cushion and slipped it on her finger with shaky hands. It wasn't his nerves or fear but the feelings of joy and bliss so overwhelming that there were no words could come close to capturing this moment.

He could only smile and cry while he looked at the ring around her finger then at her face, the scene now forever engraved in his mind, then moved closer and pulled her into a long and tight embrace.

"I love you. I love you so much. I promise, I'll make you happy." He says between the heavy and overjoyed sobs.

They're both crying at this point, holding each other in the ruins of their apartment but this is them walking towards a brand new future and she clings to him, one hand soothing over his back even as she's blinking tears from her own eyes.

The ring has a satisfying, familiar weight on her finger and she clenches her hand a little, holding onto his shirt.

"I love you too. I love you-"

She leans in, kisses his cheek and then buries her face against his neck, holding on tighter.

Her embrace is warm, warmer than it's ever been as he starts to laugh from all of the emotions, even lifting her up just a bit for a short time. He feels like a kid on Christmas morning - even happier he might claim - because he's just claimed his ticket to paradise.

"I'm sorry." He says pulling away while brushing his tears away. "I know you were mad there for a second. I thought it'd be good to get that conversation out of the way first."

He may pay for that later, but he'll gladly accept whatever she may throw at him.

Edited 2021-01-28 15:44 (UTC)

Shiho can feel her own heart becoming lighter as he lifts her off her feet and she can't help giggling against his shoulder. It's his happiness feeding into hers and it is warm and bright. It feels like everything is going to be okay and she reaches up to brush away any of the tears he missed, following them with soft kisses.

"...It's okay. It's a conversation we had to have, right? I was worried about you."

But now that the conversation is done, now that she knows he's coming with her all things can be forgiven.

"Sorry to worry you." The smile won't fade, probably not for a long while. His cheeks may cramp and cease before he stops smiling.

"But now, I'll make sure you won't have to worry about me like that again - " A beat, cheeks turning a shade of red. " - Honey."

How long has he wanted say that? When did he even realize he wanted to call someone that? Who cares? It's happening, and that's all that matters.

Shiho's hands move to his face, framing that bright smile and matching it with one of her own. She's not sure when she'll stop smiling either at this point.

"Honey?"

Laughing warmly, she leans back a little just so she can lean in and bump her forehead against his.

"...does that mean I should start calling you... Darling?"

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1/2 prepare for trouble

2/2 and make it double with a change of formatting

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