A/N: Written for an impromptu 1 word 1 sentence challenge in the CoAi Discord server. Not enough time to think over or edit. All CoAi.

Parallax: The apparent offset of a foreground object against the background when your perspective changes. Astronomers directly calculate the distance to a nearby star by measuring its incredibly small positional changes (its parallax) as Earth orbits the Sun.

Warnings: [Squints] tw: blood

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1. Seek

And for years to come, he'll seek for speckles of her in the faces of strangers— for a familiar shade of strawberry blonde, or a hint of sarcasm in darker irises; but they'll never be her, and he wonders if the vacancy in his heart will ever be filled again.

2. Past

She walks past him with a cynical smile, a plan to leave home and his mangled heart in her back pocket.

3. Short

He's short of words— honestly, he can't tell if this is a practical joke on her part or these are, indeed, Valentine's chocolates.

4. Reflection

He circles his arms around her waist as he leans down to leave a trail of ticklish kisses along her neck, and she finds it hard to look convincing when she glares back at him through their reflection, her toothbrush awkwardly placed inside her mouth as she fights the urge to smile.

5. Coffee

"I-I'm sorry," The cute barista stammers, looking slightly panicked as he mistakes her coffee order for the third time that week, "Sorry, you're—" his face suddenly turns bright red for no apparent reason and, looking sideways for a split of a second, sinks his teeth into his bottom lip, both apologetic and mortified, "...You're awfully distracting."

6. Sun

But flying too close to the sun will melt her wings, and she tells herself that she's much too of a dead star to be craving her own orbit.

7. Breathtaking

Breathtakingly beautiful were perhaps the last words Shinichi would use to describe the sight of a girl soaked in somebody else's blood— but there she was, Miyano Shiho walking towards him with a gun in one hand and her FBI badge on the other, a deadly glare on her face as she placed both into his hands and announced, "I'm taking the month off, boss."

8. Movie

He feels the weight of her head fall into his shoulders half-way through the movie and, smiling softly, presses his side against the top of her strawberry curls.

9. Hands

The warmth of his hands finds hers through her pockets and take over the tiny space.

10. Laugh

It's a curious thing, how her laugh seems to compose a symphony at the rhythm of his heartbeat.

11. Stand

She's grateful that Agase's firm grip is there to support her as she walks down the aisle with shaky knees, and when she sees him standing there by the altar, his hand nervously fixing a perfect red rose on his pocket, she realizes that this is where fairy tales endings truly begin.

12. Horizon

He draws a line with his finger along the horizon, pointing at an indistinctive spot besides the setting sun, "Then we'll run away again, somewhere they can't find us."

13. Energy

Ah, she shouldn't have wasted her energy trying to reason with him— now it backfires terribly as she finds herself wrapped in his embrace and too exhausted to ask him to let her go.

14. Hero

Heroes were meant to save helpless damsels in distress, not ruined them.

15. Vision

She's a vision of shades of red overlapped— her hair and lips and the color she bleeds, crimson and scarlet mixing with speckles of plum, the color he sees when she's gone.

16. Collect

But he's not done breaking her heart, and she's not done collecting the broken pieces— after all, what's a heart good for when incomplete like this?

17. Story

And she wonders why every story and him and her must unequivocally lead to a tragic ending.

18. Leaves

Auburn leaves crumble at his feet as he runs— faster, faster… she must be here somewhere, alive (please be alive!), and he will find her before death does.

19. Target

And it's extremely suspicious, really— how he conveniently seem to target and have a complete background research of every guy she'd ever shown a slight consideration on dating, ever.

20. Photograph

He takes his sweet time to trace her face with his eyes and learn her every feature by memory— inch by inch, he imprints the image of her in his mind like a photograph.

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A/N: I'll be smashing some old 1W1S prompts I did in the past and posting in this fic as part of a (unrelated) collection.

SHAMELESS PROPAGANDA TIME:

If you want to join the CoAi server the link is in my profile!

Also I wrote a smut fic last week and yikes me, did you hate it or what cuz like [cricket sounds]