The Beach, Dusk, Friday

[dark_slippy_thing]

It was a nice evening.

No, really, it was. And that is why Valentine was standing on the beach, contemplating pebbles with little zigzag faces drawn onto them in pencil.

Okay, fine. He was juggling the pebbles. That's what jugglers do, after all.

And perhaps he was also kicking the sand into a pile so that it somewhat resembled a sandcastle. What of it?


(For Namine.)

Comments

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé laughed, feeling the wind blow her hair out of her face, and hugged her knees, letting her sketchpad fall out of her lap and to the sand below.

"Can you make them go the opposite direction?" she asked, her tone carefree.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I absolutely can!" Valentine wasn't boasting at all, really. Much. After all, this was his livelihood. He was rather secure in the notion that he was quite good at it. (If nothing else, he was positive that he was better than the flaming-pie juggling act that had been at the circus, and so he was inclined to think that so far as juggling went, he was quite possibly invincible. Especially when there were pretty girls about asking him to do more.)
Quite happily, he changed the direction that the pebbles were moving without so much as a pause.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Oh, my!" She clapped her hands quickly, laughing again. "That's terribly impressive, you know."

She watched the pebbles soar, fluidly, and beamed. "Now go back the other way again? Please?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine was all too happy to oblige.

"You'd think you'd never seen someone juggle small stones before," he said pleasantly, looking her way with a smile. "Just so long as you don't suggest I try the same with sharp objects, I actually appreciate the practice, mind you. It's been far too long without an audience, you know."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"I feel privileged to be your audience this evening," she laughed. "It seems almost decadent, having my own personal entertainer. As if I'm a dignitary or royal of some kind."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"You didn't know?" Valentine's voice was full of mock surprise and he couldn't help but grin. "You, my friend, are a Very Important Woman."

He caught all the pebbles in his hands and bent forward in a sweeping bow, motioning to the heap of sand at his feet. "You have a sandcastle."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Someone ought to have told me," she said, feigning surprise. "How pleasant. Now I have an excuse to toss my opinions about as if they should matter."

Naminé eyed the sandcastle. "Although I fear my sandcastle is less than a triumph of architecture. It is rather a shame. I happen to know a very important man, you see, and he has a tower."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Had a tower, really," Valentine corrected, quickly, but politely. "And I'll have you know that your sandcastle is the finest sandcastle that I've ever made with my left foot while juggling. It's something to be proud of, indeed."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Then I am sorry I did not draw your tower with you," she said softly. "It would have been difficult, as I've never seen it. And that's rather a special honor, I must say. A particular one. I'm sure no one else has the like of it."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"It was one of a kind, if not stubborn and argumentative..." Valentine walked over to her and took a seat for himself there in the sand. "I think any attempt to recreate any of it would result in something similar, but it never would be quite the same. And... I think I'm alright with that."
It was odd how, whenever he was around her, he could say things like that and mean them. This surprised even him somewhat. "Onward and upward," he said, an actual smile on his lips.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Then we shall leave the tower be," she said serenely. "You are, of course, welcome to share my sand castle, should you like."

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine smiled and nodded slightly, inching a little closer and ever so casually (no, really, it was casually) slipping his arm around her shoulders.
"I think I should like to share your sandcastle, yes," he decided.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"It's very good that we get on, then," Naminé smiled, possibly leaning in just a bit. "If we didn't, it would be rather unfortunate, being crammed in such close quarters."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Especially given that it's really just a solid wall with no rooms in it," Valentine agreed with a chuckle, possibly leaning right back just a little as well. "I wonder where we'll keep the dragons?"

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé shook her head. "You know, if I had a nickel for every time I've said that ..."

She moved her sketchbook to the other side, so that she could lean in just a touch closer with out bumping into it.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Perhaps," Valentine mused, leaning in a touch closer still. After all, it was difficult to limit oneself to just a single touch, wasn't it? "Perhaps we could just keep them on the roof. And if we're any good at digging, we could always live under the sandcastle. Unless the tide sweeps it away. They do that, I hear..."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"We'll just make a new one, then," she said simply, and closed the distance to his mouth from hers.

[dark_slippy_thing]

And in that moment, Valentine could think of nothing he enjoyed more than making sandcastles with a certain someone at sunset, and everything that went along with that particular activity.
Maybe they could just build sandcastles together for the rest of their lives...
He ran his arms down her back and held on to her at the waist as though perhaps he was afraid she might slip away. One never could be too sure.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"So impermanent, sand castles," she mused softly, her eyes dancing. "You make a new one just to have it wash away again. Endless cycle."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Hopefully," Valentine said, his eyes always less expressive but the smile toying at his lips saying it all for him, "finer things in life than sandcastles are far less temporary."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"One should hope," she said, considering it. "But maybe there's something to be said for sand castles. Not being too attached to the structure, letting it wash away so that you rebuild again."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I suppose so," Valentine said, musing that over. "And I imagine that if you keep rebuilding, eventually your ability to make them again will improve, and perhaps sooner or later you'll come up with a way to make a sandcastle that's even more structurally sound." He laughed faintly to himself. "Or you'll eventually find a foundation that won't be so constantly beaten on by the tides."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"It's sand," Naminé said softly. "I think it's supposed to fall apart. Maybe it doesn't like order. Just wants to go back to being grains, lying there waiting for whoever stumbles upon them."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"If that's the case," Valentine replied, his own tone going quiet, "then art really does imitate life."
Which imitates art. Or is art.
Either way, it's bloody fragile, damn it.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé leaned over a bit to rest her head against his shoulder. "I suppose the real trick is not fighting it," she said.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine let his own cheek rest against the top of her head and he did his best to mask a soft, thoughtful little sigh. "Or perhaps the trick is simply surviving it," he mused.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"I don't believe I'm very good at romantic conversations," Naminé said softly.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I think that might make two of us," Valentine confessed. "But it was off to a rather good start, if I do say so myself."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé laughed at that. "It was, wasn't it? You were juggling and telling me I was very important, and one does like to feel important, I must say."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"And I daresay that it is good to be reminded now and again as well," Valentine agreed with a chuckle. "And I stand by whay I said, you know. You are very important. Even if sandcastles can be so very fleeting."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"I'm not, you know," she said softly. "But it's very nice of you to say so."