An orphan is the sole survivor of a drowned continent. The sea casts him ashore, or fishermen catch him in their nets; they give him water and ask, Where do you come from? But his lips are cracked with salt.
There was a world. I've already begun to forget what it was like.
Naoya wakes in darkness, head pillowed in the crook of Reiji's arm, his own folded in the narrow space between their bodies. His lips brush Reiji's pulse, slow with sleep beneath the skin.
He thinks: I will sleep until he wakes. Then we will both remember, together.