A short story that I think ended up being decent.


Black, White, and gray.

He clutched the white fox tightly against his chest, closing his eyes as their two heartbeats slowly harmonized into one euphonic rhythm. As the wind whispered through the endless slope of grass, it met two lone canid silhouettes lying on the hill's summit, against the base of a grand cherry blossom tree. One's back to the other's chest, black paws holding white, they seemed to be softly frozen in time, which was only noticeable to them by the snowy pink petals that choreographically danced and intertwined before their downcast eyes and the bright burning sun slowly dimming everything as it dipped below the horizon, sucking back all the colors of the day.

Both figures remained motionless except for the occasional teardrop that strayed from the corner of the black fox's eyes, dampening the tip of the white fox's right ear. As the sun's crown lingered on the horizon, the black fox's muzzle disrupted the silence with a funereal voice.

"This final week with you...seemed over in the blink of an eye. But in that one blink, I seem to have caught a glimpse of heaven."

The white fox nuzzled against the black's chest. Nothing needed to be said. They both knew that when one felt and voiced something, the other felt and thought the same.

"I promise. I'll go to the ends of the Earth. To the ends of the Universe. If I haven't found it, I'll go further. I promise. I'll find a way to bring you back to me. Even if there isn't one...I will find a way."

As the sun's light continued its everlasting patrol, a curtain of monotonous gray slowly drew towards them, smothering the wind in its path. When it closed against the Sakura, the branches drooped with a silent bleakness, the petals withered and collapsed under the heavy gray air. The curtain continued, descending past the black fox's ears, down his head, halfway down his neck, where it encountered the white fox's ear tips. It slowed while trailing down the white figure, almost as if obstructed by the fox's presence, which diffused into millions of multicolored light crystals that elegantly rose and sifted through the atmosphere, making their way back to the sun.

As the curtain reached the white fox's feet, it continued in its melancholic path, leaving the black fox clutching his empty chest as if desperately searching for something that had been lost there. The torrents of repressed tears, with nothing in their way, dampened the black fox's fur.