Beyond Love

Had they not met

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day~!

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A gentle hush cloaked the land. The faint bells of Christmas could be heard in the distance.

Warm lights from every house lit up the small town, as the pale moon hung—alone—in the sky. An existence crossed the street. A small, tiny; almost insignificant being.

He breathed in the freezing night air, hearing the weak beat of his heart tremble like the crushed wings of a bird. Still, he held his sister's gloveless hand—sharing the tearing bite of winter.

"Cold," She whined, feet aching. Hungry. Lost.

The boy forced a smile.

He told her that he'd find them somewhere to rest—soon, by nightfall.

She pointed out that it was already night. And that was all she could say.

The boy with the black checkered scarf laughed faintly; almost inaudible in this big, scary world.

He agreed.

For he, too—thought it too late.

They crossed the street hand in hand, and passed a mother with her daughter; who looked just slightly younger than the boy himself.

They met eyes for a brief second, and the boy—Xander—thought that she was, at least, going to wish him a merry Christmas.

It would have made his day a little better;

For it had been quite lonely indeed.

"Mom, they aren't wearing any gloves," The girl tugged on her mother's sleeve, pointing at Xander and his sister, Giselle.

He felt a pang of embarrassment in the abyss of his heart, and moved to block Giselle from her view. His sister didn't deserve to hear such words.

"Don't look at them, dear. It's rude."

Was it, really?

Xander began to wonder if that was the real reason why her mother didn't want the girl to look at them. Perhaps they were too miserable a state to look at. Perhaps she thought them far too pitiful.

At that moment, Xander wished someone would take them away.

Didn't they say that angels appeared on Christmas?

If so—where were they?

He walked faster, tugging his sister along.

His stomach made a strange noise, and he suppressed the yearning like he did a few hours before his mother's funeral. And after—when he had heard his father call the social workers to take his sister away.

And now; when he decided to take her with him instead, and perhaps...run to somewhere else.