HALCYON

ATSUI

It was extremely hot, on October 6, 2019.
At 5:45 pm.
He wore a gray pullover, but I only saw it once at his door because, as soon as he felt how hot it really was, he pulled it over his head for the second time that day.

It complimented his skin ,

Is that why he bought it ?

I had barely started to sweat when he first hugged me.
It was a very warm hug.
In hugs like those, when we were in the sun, I couldn't tell which burned me more.
We left his porch and we walked to the park nearby.
There, at the park sat a seesaw that he once broke the left side of trying to lift me higher, even though I weighed more than him.
An old pair of swings also sat there, which we chose as our designated spot.
He sat, and I immediately went to push him.

He liked the idea of flying.

He swung higher and higher.

I had to back up,
to let him come down.

He insisted that it was my turn, but when he saw that I had tripped backing up from the swing, he apologized and reached out his hand.

His hand was dirty from the swing but,

It was cool on my skin under the sun.

He helped me sweep the grass off my pants leg, and we laughed at the green stain left on the faded blue jeans.We held hands as we walked to the seesaw.

I didn't mind at all when he held my hand.

Not even on a hot day like that.

"Jace, it's still broken. Look, this thing is barely holding on." He said with a faux angry tone, shaking the damaged left seat.

"Foreal? It is? I didn't notice." I said sarcastically as I widened my eyes in fake realization.

It was an inside joke almost, to point out the obvious with him. We always joked like that, and it never failed to entertain us both. It was nice to have someone that I didn't have to try to hard to entertain.

"Look, you're holding my hand." I said, as I mocked his previous tone but, my voice sounded anything but angry. 

"No look, you're holding MY hand."

He put emphasis on the word my to make it seem like I was the one who initiated the hand holding-even though I was sure that neither of us knew who it was exactly that bent their fingers first, him or me.

This started a debate between us, it was about who was holding whose hand.
I'd considered it a draw when we both gradually stopped caring enough to say  whether it was him or me.
We could spend so much time, joking about the smallest things.

It was easy for us to pay attention to things,
especially things that didn't even matter much.

"If it's me, you're lucky I actually quite like holding your hand."
I grumbled as I wiped my face a bit, the sun had slightly got to me.

I looked at Jace who was close to me and I took a moment to admire his features in the sun's glow.
His olive skin looked shiny with sweat, and his jet black hair that stopped right below his jaw looked slightly damp with sweat as well.

It really was a hot day.

"Getting hot Jace?" He questioned abruptly, as he gave me a curious glance.

My eyes blinked twice at this as I took his words the opposite direction I knew he was headed with them.

"Woahh, you're dirty minded."

I glanced over at him, and I purposely rubbed my neck in guilt-which conformed his observation.

"You said it not me." I shrugged.

He shook his head playfully and I waited a second for him to respond.
He didn't though, he just lifted his index finger and tapped my palm that was already pressed against his.
He didn't even trip over the sweat that was evidently there.
I took a moment and just stared at him.

He simpered,

and he looked young with a sweaty face.

I could already see his tan coming in.

He wore sunscreen but, the lotion was not even all the way rubbed in near his ears, and I could see a bit of it shining against his hairline.

I was surprised he hadn't gotten sunburned.

I wanted to ruffle his hair but I didn't for two reasons.
One being that, his hair was clearly sweaty, and the second being the fact that I didn't want us to stop holding hands.
I was fine just admiring him like that, him and his not all the way rubbed in sunscreen.

A sight to sore eyes, definitely.

We went back to the swings because he refused to let me do anything else at the park before I was pushed by him.

He always made sure to return the favors I did for him.

Not that I considered pushing him a favor, he was just like that.
I wasn't that big of a fan of flying like he was.
That's probably why I did not swing quite as high as he did.
He pushed me the best he could but, we both knew I wasn't even moving my legs.
He knew this yet he still kept pushing me as hard as he could.
I told him that it was better if I was the one pushing him and he just smiled when I got out of the wing seat and walked behind it to where he was.

We switched places and it felt like we spent more than a hour at that swing.
We didn't care about how long we took, even though the sky had shown us just how long we had.

Just swinging and talking was alright with him, with us.

The sun glared hard at this before it started to set.

We eventually stopped and he walked me home.

It was a nice walk and our hands felt glued in conjunction.

How could I ever sense
such warmth again.