Falling

"You..." Sumire's corpse-like deep voice sent shivers down Maven's spine after she removed her nanosuit. Glacial winds blew through their still bodies, yet Sumire's rage was enough for her to ignore such a trivial surface-level feeling. Her numb skin and bitter bones were zombie-like to the point of no return. "Maven..." She said, approaching him menacingly while tilting her head to the side. "Or... is that even your real name?"

"What are you talking about?" Maven asked, frozen to the core.

"Because... it sounds like your story's got some holes in it," Sumire accused. "Sure, you purposefully refuse to help Corlean, leading to her deathbed. You somehow knew that I had a father who hurt me and you kept pressuring me to talk about him even though I said no. You know Lucine too well, and everything's just conveniently positive with you. Yeah, you just so happened to have a dad who hurt you too, huh? And those fucking goggles and that hat you're wearing... I'm sure you're innocent here."

"Sumire..." Maven whispered.

"You think I'm fucking stupid?" Sumire yelled. "Because I'm not!"

"Why would I want Corlean dead?!" He yelled back. "I saved her from that sniper soldier!"

There was silence between the two. The winds blew Sumire's black ponytail hair back, and minuscule droplets of snow formed across her tear ducts.

"Who..." Sumire spoke in utter disgust, as her face shriveled up mildly at the sight of Maven. "Who even are you?"

Maven held his breath before he shifted his foot forward. "I..." He stammered. "I can't tell you."

"Oh, fuck off," Sumire said before turning around to walk the other way.

"Wait, I'm serious. I can't!" Maven cried.

Sumire turned back around with her disgusted glare. "Can't!?" She mimicked in a louder tone than Maven's original voice. She moved her face closer to Maven's without losing direct eye contact. "You have some pretty fucking huge balls to tell me that you can't tell the truth." She said without a cold stare. "Why?"

Maven didn't leave eye contact as well. "I need..." He voiced out but failed. "I need some time. I want to tell you, but... I can't right now. I just-"

"Bullshit," Sumire retorted, crossing her arms. "Okay, so you wanna play it that way, huh? Do you think I'm a fucking idiot, hmm? Okay. Sure. Let's play it that way. You have three seconds to tell me the truth about who you are. If I get to zero, then it's goodbye for you," She said. Her eyes began to water, and her lips tucked themselves in utter regret. "You will never see me again."

"God... Sumire, stop!" Maven yelled. "I want to tell you, but I just can't! I just wish you could understand-"

"Three." Sumire's cold voice began.

"Don't do that to me," Maven said. "Don't do this to me right now-"

"Two..."

"Sumire, stop it."

"One..." Sumire's voice was even slower than before with her final countdown.

"Okay!" Maven shouted, gesturing his hands up over his head in utter stress. "I lied!"

Sumire exhaled through her nose and nodded wittingly. "Go on." She continued.

"I... I don't have a father who abused me," Maven's voice faltered as he released the truth. "I made up everything. The dream, the story about Lucine, my experience with... everything I said. I made it all up, is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Is that what I wanted to" Sumire's face shriveled up completely in madness over Maven's obnoxious behavior. She gestured with her left finger and pointed at his face with each statement. "How fucking dare you?! You have no right to be saying shit like that, you hear me!? You. You took advantage of my kindness and my feelings! I opened up to you because I trusted you! But it turned out that you were just pretending to understand me!"

"No, I didn't pretend," Maven clarified. "I do understand you even if my story wasn't true."

Sumire shoved Maven back as her nose began to clog with mucus. "Don't give me that shit!" She yelled. "Just stop it! It's over!"

"It's true," He repeated. "Whether you like it or not, I'm telling the truth on that part. I just-"

"God," Sumire yanked the side of her hair, pacing around in a small circle. "You are seriously acting like the biggest fucking entitled person in the world right now. As if you had the nerve to tell me that you're telling the truth. You even..." Sumire shot him down. "You even lied to me about you loving Lucine!"

"I... I don't..." Maven stammered.

"What are you?!" Sumire screamed.

"I just..."

Sumire scoffed and turned her back once again. "Goodbye." She said without remorse.

"It's you, okay!?" Maven's voice boomed through the air, forcing Sumire to pause in her tracks. "I never loved Lucine! You don't understand."

"Make me understand then," Sumire retorted, turning back around. "Go on. Explain."

"I knew that Corlean was suspicious of me from the start, all right? The fact is... I never spoke a word when I arrived here. I needed to do that, because... I can't tell you about that. I can't, okay?! I was never supposed to say anything. But the more I saw you standing up for yourself, struggling on your own, and fighting other people's battles, the more I got worried and I started to care. I wanted to talk to you. Because you mattered to me after you told me about your life! Your family, your friends, your hobbies, everything! Your feelings!"

"Then fucking say it!" Sumire cried.

"I love you!" Maven yelled.

Those words meant absolutely nothing to Sumire. Her thick hide was impenetrable at the time because of Corlean's death. After being tossed the short end of the stick, her tolerance for utter nonsense was off the charts. Love was nothing to her. A single laugh was all that came out of Sumire's mouth before she disgustingly shook her head. "Wow. Look at you. You finally know how to tell the truth." She said.

Maven remained quiet, looking down at his feet in the disappointment of himself.

"Maybe... you can start by going back where you came from... and learn to stop being a pathological liar," Sumire said, turning around to leave once more. "Because that's all you're good at right now."

"Sumire, wait!"

"I'm done waiting!" Sumire shouted back, mimicking what he had said previously when they traveled to Sitan. "I'm done. You know, you're lucky that you're still alive. I'm giving you a chance to walk away. You stand in front of me again, I'll kill you."

"Sumire..."

"Don't..." Sumire teared up again. "Just don't call me that. Don't... don't talk to me anymore. Just leave me alone..." She said, turning back once more and leaving the snowy mountaintops by herself.

This time, she never turned back. Another obstacle removed, Sumire thought. The validation of her emotions was all that she needed to understand that what she decided was right. All of the clues and lines drawn matched up to the suspiciousness of Maven's acts. One thought was repressed and brought alight once more.

She remembered the night she met Ziko, and how Corlean called her to her private tent. Sufficient evidence was pinpointed directly at the battalion for suspicious activity from the explosion, and Sumire learned to keep her eyes out. Before Corlean perished, she mouthed out a single phrase; "It's Maven." This evidence was enough for Sumire to make her decision.

But after abandoning him, Sumire had another repressed thought stowed away in the darkness. She couldn't understand why he didn't reveal the full truth about himself. And she didn't know how she felt about him.

A single teardrop shed from Sumire's eyes and landed on the snowy pathway. It crystalized and eventually froze into solid. A reflection of Maven's face could be seen minutes later, followed by additional unknown movement.

You lied to me, mother. He never did truly care about me.