(A/N: Drabble request for Niou x Suzume, originally posted to the TCAFS tumblr.)

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There is a boy that hangs out on the corner by the arcade.

There are also littered cigarette butts and beer bottle fragments, crushed beneath the feet of apathetic passerby. There are children that rush past like the years of laughter and innocence that the boy has once known.

There is a girl that walks past the corner by the arcade. Occasionally, the girl lingers. She drops her half-smoked cigarette to the ground where it joins many, and smudges it out with the heel of her foot. She exhales, and absently fingers her nose stud.

The boy watches her. She looks at him. Their eyes meet briefly. His eyes are cold, like shards of ice. Hers are as hot as fire.

This meeting is not their last. The days continue to pass.

She notices that he bleached his hair.

He notices that she has a new tattoo on her shoulder.

She notices a new scar on his cheek.

He notices her bleeding knuckles.

It goes on.

They never speak. Speaking would accomplish nothing. Instead, they seek only this. For a brief interlude of time, they can find someone to understand.

She wonders how much longer it will be till he ends up like the passerby she so despises - coldness of the passing car lights and unfeeling eyes. He wonders how long it will be before before her passion is stamped out, like the remnants of cigarette butts underneath his feet - the dying flickers of a flame.

Until.

The girl walks past one day, her breath short, her eyes red-rimmed. Her jaw is locked with ugly resolve, the kind that twists your stomach into a thousand knots. She's made a difficult decision. One that changes everything.

The boy meets her gaze, and in that moment, he knows that she will not come back. He wants to laugh, because that's all people do, isn't that right. They'll all leave.

Perhaps that's how it has to be. Perhaps neither of them can be saved.

.

There is a boy who hangs out on the corner by the arcade. He sees, but does not ask.

There is a girl who walks past the corner by the arcade. She keeps walking, because she has no more answers to give.