The Blueness of a Blue Wild Flower

Chapter XXXI

The light of the stars twinkled through the gaps of the leaves from the arms of the trees that overshadowed and stood at the sides of the dark road forged through the mountains. The engine hummed through the asphalt as the headlights illuminated it. Aside from the engine's voice, there was but the silence of the night and her moon.

The vibrations ran through the cockpit to Aquila's hands holding the wheel. His eyes gently sneaked to the side to see how Euphemia was doing. He was used to her silence, but he still felt uncomfortable around it, like there was something else mixed into it.

Her puffy eyes were at the windows, staring through its tiredness to the trees that blurred as they sped through. She had a hand cupping her chin, as her elbows rested on the door.

"Hey," he said, "you alright?"

She ignored him and pulled her feet up to the seat. She leaned towards the door and had an arm wrap around it as its hand reached to the side of her other arm.

He gently forced a chuckle, "Umm, that was a pretty dumb question, sorry," he tried to ease the situation. "You want to get some ice cream?"

Her silence mixed with the hums of the engine. She rested her chin on the gap between her enclosed knees.

"Are you really planning on not eating ice cream, even the soft and chewy kind?"

She shook her head quietly, "I need just a bit of time to lose the feeling of hating that," she said tonelessly, "or rather hating everything."

He smiled quietly and gave her a mischievous look, "Why do still I get the bloody feeling that it's going to take forever?"

Her eyes moved to the rearview mirror. Her voice seemed lifeless, "Only nothing lasts forever."

"Not even nothing lasts forever in our lives," he said. His words brushed through the wavy strands of her hair through his breath, to her cheek.  " "There's always that one thing that will turn that nothing into something, we just don't see it, or we just choose not to."

"That's a different concept," she answered, "I said that nothing lasts forever, not that there will always be nothing our lives."

He chuckled, "I know, I just tried," he said, "You're still wrong if we use that concept though."

She arched her brow as her eyes moved back to the side.

"The universe lasts forever."

"We don't know that, noone does."

"We might as well assume it is," he said and gave her a smile, "It doesn't give any harm, and we'll all be dead before anyone, or anything, finds out if it isn't anyway."

Her face became annoyingly puzzled. "Then what's the point of trying to know?"

"I'm not an optimist, but at least we know one thing that the universe ending won't kill us," he said with a silvery voice, '"So that's one less of a cause of death for us and possibly a bit more time for our lives."

She rolled her eyes, "You seem different," she said.

"Because I think I have to be, for now."

"And what in the world made you do that?"

His fingers tightened its grip on the wheel. "Because you seem different underneath the familiar silence."

"Maybe I am," she said and looked up to the starry twilight through the moon roof, "Pain might have changed me."

"Don't change too much."

"I was expecting more of something like 'No, don't do that!'" she imitated his accent.