"What are you guys doing up there?" Koyo asked, looking up at the tree where Kazuki and Soushi sat on one of the thicker tree branches. "This tree's next to the cliff, if you climb there the adults are gonna be mad."

Kazuki looked down and waved to him. "Yeah we know, but the view's great. You can see so far into the horizon from here!" He turned back to whatever he had been doing. "And we were just gonna carve our names here."

"Why?" Koyo questioned

"Because me and Kazuki are best friends forever," Soushi cut in on the conversation. "And now this tree knows it and will remember it... What are you doing?" He asked as Koyo started climbing the tree. "Weren't you the one who said the adults would be mad?"

It took a few minutes for Koyo to make it up where the two were, but he looked at their little carving and grinned. "So what, I can totally make it higher than you guys," he claimed. "Just watch, I'll climb all the way up to that branch and carve my name up there..."

Someone standing near the tree overlooking the cliff wasn't what Maya had expected to see after having climbed all the way up, and she dragged herself up the cliff and took another look. "Kazuki? Is that you?" She called to the person standing there. Kazuki turned to look and nodded a little, although considering how the sun was barely up, Maya suspected there was too little light for him to actually see her. "What are you doing here? It's a little dangerous here, because you do know the cliff is right here." She walked closer, realizing Kazuki wouldn't have seen her either way, as his eyes were closed.

"I know," Kazuki replied without opening his eyes. "It's fine. I know this tree and know how close it is to the cliff. This is the one we used to climb when we were kids. There's marks up there somewhere that we cut whenever we made it higher than anyone else."

Maya chuckled. "It is. Do you actually remember who won that silly game?"

Kazuki opened his eyes and looked up, even if he couldn't see. "Oh, I'm pretty sure it was you and Sakura in the end. Just, you never got to carve a mark higher than Koyo's highest attempt, because when you were about to do it, a couple of adults showed up, and we were forbidden to climb this tree ever again because it's dangerous. Think we all got scolded, and we boys got the blame, because you and Sakura totally wouldn't come up with that on your own."

"Well, we didn't," Maya pointed out. "It was Koyo's idea to see who can climb the highest, but you and Minashiro were the first ones to climb this and carve anything there."

A smile rose to Kazuki's face. "You're not going to believe me if I tell you this, but it was actually originally Soushi's idea. He came up with this thing that if we leave our names there, then we'll be as eternal as the island." Maya blinked and stared at him for a moment, then laughed. "See? You can't imagine Soushi coming up with anything that stupid, can you?"

"I can. Maybe," Maya replied. "It was so many years ago, anyway. He just might've, back in the day."

A nice walk to get some peace and quiet for the afternoon brought Kazuki to follow the path leading to the cliffs. That tree was here, he remembered - last time he had walked here, his eyesight had been gone, but he could see now, and it made him wonder if the scenery was still the same.

At first look it was, but as he made it closer to the tree, there was something he hadn't exactly expected to find. "Soushi?" He asked, stopping under the tree and looking up. The sight of Soushi sitting in the tree with his Alvis uniform on was rather comical, Kazuki had to admit, and he smiled. "I'd say this is a pretty rare sight," he said. Taking another look at the tree and the thick branch Soushi was sitting on a few meters up, it suddenly felt like it was way lower than he remembered. "I thought you stopped climbing trees years ago."

Soushi looked down and nodded. "Never mind that," he said as he placed his hand against the tree trunk. "It's just that I remembered there's some... Carvings here? Hmm. Yes, one right here. A silly thought this may be, but I've been away from the island long enough to find remembering tiny details like this fascinating." He ran his fingers over the mark and looked thoughtful. "If you think about it, these have been here for at least ten years, and will probably be here for decades to come."

"I feel a little bad about it now," Kazuki said as he placed his hand against the tree. "When we were kids, it didn't exactly cross my mind back then that what we did would hurt this tree."

"A lasting mark it may be," Soushi pondered. "But I think this tree accepts it. It's a part of it, and this tree will more than likely outlive us, watching over the sea, and with this mark on it, remember us."

"Mmm," Kazuki nodded. He looked up and studied Soushi for a while. "Although?" He asked after a few minutes, a hint of a smirk on his face. "Were you gonna sit there philosophizing about the mark we carved on the tree for... How long exactly?"

There was a moment of silence, then Soushi looked back at him. "Help me down," he ordered, doing his best to not look embarrassed. "And nobody ever hears about this."

Author's notes:

First bit takes place when they were kids, second is before the events of Heaven&Earth, and last one is after Soushi returned, obviously. For tumblr's Fafner Week 2015 Day 2 (10/12) prompt B) The Past -> The Future

- Lady Harken (October 2015)