fictionalized | fanfic; to the end

Title: To the End
Series: Snow White and Seven Dwarfs
Character(s): Shirayuki, Takeru, mentions of various others.
Warnings: None.
Summary: It's been eighty-seven years since then.

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To the End

—

Eighty-seven years, zero days. The eighty-seventh anniversary, and likely the last for one of them.

It's a clear day, as it was back then. No smoke adorns the sky, however—only the clouds, drifting by. The sun shines down on the two of them, the air crisp in a way that can only be found in the morning when all is peaceful. That said, neither of them expect any disturbance in this place, where few have reason to visit. No one else but them do.

Thirteen small, wooden poles are raised here, the ribbons tied around them fluttering in the wind. A fourteenth will be joining them sooner or later; today is not that day, though. For now, there are only thirteen, each one having been added throughout the years.

The grass crumples beneath her wheelchair as he pushes her along. A few moments of silence pass, before he speaks.

"Are you lonely?"

Shirayuki turns her head to look at him, a light smile on her face.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that, Takeru?"

He smiles back, letting out a quiet laugh. Then, he looks at the poles. As for what he's thinking about, Shirayuki can take a guess.

Souichi and Souji were the first to go. It wasn't a surprise to anyone, least of all them—both had known from the beginning that they couldn't be saved, and such was their fate. In the end, the time limit on their bodies was reached, and the two passed away together, as they'd wanted. They were happy, everyone knew. They'd accomplished everything they set out to during their too-short lives, and so they'd died content.

Akane was the last to go, taken by the same illness that had claimed his mother. Takeru and Shirayuki had been with him to the end, and on his deathbed, he'd told them this:

"It's unfair," he said, "that a doctor would outlive most of his patients.

"But... I'm glad to have met everyone."

He offered them a weak smile, before turning to Shirayuki.

"Take care of him, Chibi-chan," he said, still calling her by the name that he'd given her so many years ago. He'd told her once before, that no matter how much time passed, she'd always be a little girl to him.

"He's right," Takeru had said back then, before suddenly lifting an adolescent Shirayuki into the air as she let out a cry of surprise. "I can still carry you like this, after all!"

But the truth is that, so long after that moment and so long after Akane's death, Shirayuki is no longer a little girl. Her body has grown, has aged—and meanwhile, Takeru has remained in stasis, as Shirayuki herself had once before. It's the fate that she passed onto him.

"It's no problem," he said when she'd brought it up once. "People have always been telling me that I look young for my age, and now it's really true, haha!"

However, though he laughed it off, Shirayuki knew then—still knows now—that it couldn't be easy. Although Fujimaru had ultimately died relatively young, the ill health brought by the poison that still wracked his body eventually taking its toll, he (as was obvious) still aged. Takeru once remarked, without thinking, that it was strange, watching someone who was the same age as him grow while he didn't. Shirayuki hadn't missed the remark.

And so, here they are now. Eighty-seven years have passed since their victory. Shirayuki is now an elderly woman, her body finally able to give its due to time, while Takeru hasn't changed at all since that day.

He places a hand on her shoulder—his right hand, faint heat pulsing from underneath the bandages (a fashion choice that he'd apparently never outgrown). Again, he smiles, though there's a sad touch to it.

"Do you miss them?" he asks. Shirayuki nods.

"All the time."

Amagiya, Izumi, Tama, Ken, everyone—all of their friends (family) who have since left this world.

"Me too," Takeru admits. This time, there's no smile on Shirayuki's face as she looks up at him.

"That's why I should be the one asking if you're lonely, Takeru." It's only the two of them now. However, while Takeru will remain here forever, Shirayuki knows that her time is approaching.

Takeru's hand leaves her shoulder, as he steps around until he's standing beside her wheelchair, gazing at the poles that stand for each of their deceased friends. Finally, he looks at her again, his expression more somber than before.

"... Yeah," he says, before smiling once more. "It's fine, though. As long as Tokyo is still standing, I won't ever be alone or run out of things to do. I mean, it's up to me to watch over this city, right?"

Even as he speaks, though, the tears start to form at his eyes. Once he's done, they begin to fall, as he furiously wipes at them. In the end, it doesn't matter what he says; his actions betray him.

Reaching up, Shirayuki places a hand on his arm.

"Don't cry, Takeru. Smile."

Takeru drops his arm, his eyes wet. Sure enough, though, he's smiling.

"Big bro said the exact same thing to me once," he says. "A long, long time ago, when our mom and dad died."

"I got it from you," Shirayuki tells him. "And you, from him."

"I probably wouldn't have been able to make it through everything without it," Takeru says, laughing lightly. "Things were really tough, weren't they?"

Shirayuki nods. "But we made it. And everyone was happy to the end, weren't they?"

"Yeah. Well, Pervy Glasses was only happy 'cause of you, though."

Remembering the man who'd looked after her so fervently, Shirayuki laughs fondly. "I think he secretly became fond of all of you as well, even if he never admitted it."

"Maybe of big bro, at least," Takeru agrees. "And even Ryuuichi eventually lightened up and started smiling. Big bro and Souichi worked hard on him."

"While we and Ken were busy with Fujimaru," Shirayuki recalls. "Remember when he collapsed because he hadn't slept for three days?"

"Haha, yeah! We had to carry him to the clinic and left him at Akane-chan's mercy, didn't we?" Takeru says. "Akane-chan wouldn't let him leave or do any work until he'd rested and he was so grumpy over the entire thing!"

"I remember crying at him."

"Yeah, that's why he finally relented, I think." Takeru gently knocks on the pole belonging to Fujimaru. "He's probably grumbling at us from the afterlife right now."

"Then Ken's probably pacifying him," Shirayuki quips, prompting a laugh from Takeru.

"Those two never changed at all."

Shirayuki falls silent at that, again reminded of someone else who never changed either. Takeru apparently notices, pausing before he walks to the front of Shirayuki's wheelchair. There, he drops to his knees, as he grasps Shirayuki's hands, holding them together with his own.

"I told you, Shirayuki," he says, smiling. "And I'll say it again: it's fine. I've never regretted the choice we made back then. I've never regretted becoming the next holder of the original. I'm glad—you gave me the power to save my brother at that moment. To save everyone. That's all I wanted then, and it's all I want now."

This time, it's Shirayuki's turn to start crying, as Takeru removes a hand to wipe away her tears.

"Thank you, Shirayuki. You're right: I'll be lonely once you finally leave too. But I'll still have the memories that I made with everyone. And most importantly..."

He lets go of her hands, looking at the scene around them. The blue sky, the morning sun, the clouds drifting by, the green grass, the markers of their lost family—he gazes at them, before turning back to Shirayuki with a content smile.

"I have the peace that we fought for, and everyone was happy to the very end. Even if there's no end for me anymore... that just means that I get to be happy forever, right? Because that's what lasts for eternity: not that old hag's experiment, but happiness."

Again, Takeru grasps Shirayuki's hands, not unlike how she once did, many years ago when she saved his life.

"So don't cry, Shirayuki. Smile. Be happy until the end."

At that, she finally manages a smile back—before mustering up what little strength she has in her body and suddenly pushing herself forward for a hug.

"I am," she says into his chest, as he hugs her back. "So thank you, Takeru."

For the last eighty-seven years, and for however many days lie ahead until she becomes the fourteenth pole to stand here.

Thank you, to this boy who hasn't changed a bit while she's grown old—who took the burden of immortality from her.

To all their friends who made their victory possible, and to all their friends that came after.

To all of them, who lived with uncertain futures but nevertheless smiled until the end.

Thank you, because this is what lasts for eternity.