Flashback

A Chapter by Jobyn

Memories in the Sky

"You ought to slow down turbo," I giggled as I watched him hop from one wooden pillar to the next, nearly stumbling on that last one. Despite the rugged training clothes hanging onto his cut and bruised body, there was an odd grace to the way he handled his footwork over those thinning platforms. "If you overdo it, you'll pass out in midair and get yourself seriously hurt."

"Heh! Your concern is noted but unnecessary, Lion!" Stiff retorted breathlessly with a grin as he continued stepping higher into the taller and thinner pillars. Droplets of sweat that gleamed in the morning sun bounced off his body with each step he took, and more so when he'd sharply extend his arm to shoot his throwing needles at various obscurely placed targets. "This is cake walk! Literally, I feel like I'm walking on cakes! Hup! Hup! Hup! Happy Birthday! How old am I!? One! Two! Three! Four! Five-" he counted, going up a number with each consecutively higher step.

I sighed, shaking my head helplessly but smiling wide as I listened to his ridiculous voice over. "You're not seriously going to count all the way, are you? Jeez, you're a lot more hyper than usual."

"Nine! Hey! I gotta' train extra hard today to celebrate-- Ten! --my seventeeth birthday! Eleven! Twelve! As of today-- Thirteen! --I'm officially one year stronger-- Fourteen!" He explained, not breaking his little 'birthday climb'.

"Uh, okay... You do realize you don't magically gain everything you've learned the moment you become a year older, right? Please tell me you knew that," I muttered, shaking my head. "Besides, shouldn't you be taking it easy on your birthday?"

"Of course I knew that! Fifteen!" He shouted, starting to wheeze in exhaustion. It was his own fault for starting to count from one after the tenth pillar. "I just meant, like, your age kind of sets that stuff in stone... Right!?"

"Whatever you say, Stiff," I shrugged. "Just come down here already so I can give you this birthday present I've been working on."

"Six...teen! Hoo...! Wait, what? You got me... a present?" He rubbed the sweat off his face with the back of his hand and looked down at me with drowsy eyes from above. "What... is it?"

"Get your butt down here and I'll show you!" I smiled playfully.

"Fine! Just... one more, alright!?" He exclaimed, only able to stand on his right foot's toes because of how thin those last two pillars were. He lowered himself and prepared to jump... But rather than doing so, fell over the side of the pillar like a sack of potatoes. He had fallen unconscious from the exhaustion.

"STIFF!" I shouted. In rapid succession, I quickly made my way up the first few pillars which were closer together. I then leaped off the one I stopped at and caught him in midair, tumbling against the soft grass after landing. It sure wasn't graceful, but it broke his otherwise serious fall. The moron was still out cold, even after that.

I caught my breath as I laid next to him and sighed, turning on my side to face him. "I told you not to push yourself so hard... Stupid," I grumbled, watching him sleep rather peacefully. I smiled helplessly and poked his cheek. "Why don't you ever listen to me, hm? You think I want you to get hurt?"

I sighed once more and decided to let him sleep there for a bit, only because he looked so calm and relaxed. Remembering what I had been telling him before he went and passed out on me, my face became warm. "Well, I guess now is as good a time as ever to give you that birthday present, huh?" I whispered, sitting up and resting my hand on the grass beside him to hold me up over the sleeping moron.

My face became a bit hotter as I tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear and closed my eyes. After that, I leaned forward...

...Happy Birthday.

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