TW: climate anxiety, very brief mentions of war in the middle east and 9/11
The plane was quiet and peaceful. They were flying above an endless sea of clouds. It looked like the softest and coziest duvet that was sheltering the world. It stretched beyond the horizon. Soft cotton candy balls moved before Finn's eyes, one ended and another began like they were creating the most comforting hug for him.
"A penny for your thoughts?" Vera had been observing him for quite a while. Most of the flight, really.
"Just thinking about how we're gonna have to bring our kids here to visit one day," he squeezed her hand, that was holding his, and continued staring out the window.
At once, the iron bird, flying through the sky faster than anything else, felt like the last place on Earth she'd wanted to be. The walls were closing in. Every noise, made by the metal as it was hit by unimaginably unforgiving winds, stabbed a blade through her heart. Over and over again.
How was this something that was happening?
This was a relationship that could've lasted through the centuries, with the timelessness and peace of their love.
They weren't each other's other half. They were two complete humans that elevated each other above worldly problems. They were their own bubble - protecting each other, building each other up; a self-sufficient ecosystem.
"Do you think it would be rude if we never brought them to meet your extended family?" He chuckled as he asked. This was an easy topic for him, saying whatever came to mind, comfortably joking his way through one of the most important decisions in a human's life.
"Why aren't you playing with your doll anymore?" Baby Vera heard her mother ask. "We spent a lot on it, to get you the exact one you wanted. Play!"
Baby Vera was no longer attached to it. Every time she looked at it, she saw a baby that had a terrible life ahead of itself.
'I take care of it, feed it, wash it, sing to it, read it books... But mom and dad are still here. It still hears them scream, still sees what they do to me. It shouldn't be here.'
Later that day, after her parents had gone to work, Baby Vera had sneaked out of the apartment and thrown her doll in a dumpster, far away from the building they lived in, so it would never hear them scream again.
She couldn't move. It felt like the biggest and heaviest hand in the world was pressing her chest into the back of the seat. Her feet were too heavy to even lift off the ground. Her eyelids stuck open. All she could possibly do was sit and endure what the body, that hand came from, would do to her.
Torture her. Remind her of everything she wanted to forget. Everything she wished she had never known.
"The planet is the hottest it's ever been, and it will only get hotter."
"Hole in the ozone layer is growing over the Arctic - it could cause immense radiation, and be fatal for humanity."
"All ice could melt off the icecaps in our lifetime."
"We could be the last generation to experience normal seasons in Europe."
"Hijacked planes smash into the Twin Towers, no survivors have been found yet."
"The USA, the planet's biggest polluter, has not signed the Global Climate Treaty of 1997. They're expected to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, too."
"War in the Middle East 'celebrates' its silver anniversary."
"All our fossil fuels are expected to be depleted by 2060."
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Two Beers Is All It Takes
RomanceThe touch of her lips on his body, light as a feather, was igniting his skin in its wake. Instead of feeling him up and down with her fingers, she did so with her tongue, which elicited shy gasps from Finn every single time. She kissed the side of h...
