“You have really big hands,” she whispered softly.
“And yours are really tiny,” he whispered back.
He twisted their fingers together above their heads and let their hands fall to the grass between them.
“I love you,” he sighed.
Their eyes closed at the same time, as if it had been planned to happen that way.
“Do you think it’ll hurt, when the world ends?” she wondered quietly.
“Maybe,” he murmured. “I think it’ll mostly just be really bright and really loud.”
“Will the whole solar system be wiped out when the sun explodes?”
“Who knows? We should have gone to Mars with everyone else when we had the chance,” he muttered, obviously angry that his life was about to end.
“But it would have taken most of our lives to get there and I like it better on Earth,” she mumbled sadly. “It’s so pretty here.”
“We’re on a teensy weensy grass island ‘cause the rest of the planet is underwater,” he pointed out sarcastically, looking away from her watery eyes and out at the bloodred horizon.
The sun was dark, almost black. The remaining scientists that stayed on Earth predicted that it would keep getting darker and darker until it blew up in a bright white light. It was supposed to blow up any minute. After all, it had been in existence for almost nine hundred billion years. It was bound to die sometime.
“Are you mad at me that we’re going to die?” she asked timidly, afraid of his fickle temper.
He sighed wearily.
“I’m not mad at you,” he assured her gently. “I’m happier than I can possibly be that I’m at least going to die with you.”
“Are you scared?” she whispered, looking up at the black mass that was the sun as well.
“Not really,” he told her quietly. “Are you?”
“Terrified,” she admitted. “I’m afraid it’ll hurt so much.”
“Hey, I’m here for you,” he said tenderly.
She nodded tearfully and he pressed his lips to her cold ones before going back to staring into her eyes.
They were silent from then. They barely moved. The only thing he did was pull her into his arms in an effort to keep her safe and not make it hurt so much when the black mass of sun grew and turned gradually into a blinding white color. It expanded until it was all they could see.
There was no sound. There was only the white. It was all around them. It was burning hot. She wanted to scream in agony but held it in, determined to be strong for her last moments of life.
And then it was over. With a flash of white light the world ended. Each and every cell was decimated and the world and everything living in it ceased to exist.
Every record of love was obliterated. Every kiss, every touch. Every word. Every heart.
Gone.
The end.