Zero Fanfiction: With the Light

The light of the Plasma Spark Tower reaches every corner of the Land of Light, but it cannot reach certain places. By a flower bed in the central plaza, a black-haired boy crouches alone, drawing meaningless lines in the dirt with his finger. In an apartment building, a girl with a ponytail sits alone at the dining table, putting the extra dishes and chopsticks back in the cupboard.

Xingye is fourteen. Her parents died on a mission. Zero is five and has never had a family for as long as he can remember. One child has lost her past, the other has never had one. They should have been like stars on different orbits, passing each other unnoticed in the vast crowds of the Land of Light.

But Xingye sat down on the bench beside the plaza. She offered him half a tube of nutritional supplement and asked, "Are you hungry?"

This wasn't adoption, rescue, or pity. It was one lonely child recognizing another and saying, "If you don't have anywhere to eat, come to my place. Cooking for one more person won't break the bank."

Later, Zero moved into the long-vacant guest room. He brought only a few old clothes and several energy-fruit twigs he'd broken off in his grandmother's yard. He put them in an old bottle on the windowsill. Someone ready to leave at any moment wouldn't grow plants. In the clumsiest, most stubborn way, he was putting down roots in this home.

Their life together was as calm as still water. They prepared vegetables together and washed dishes together. Zero learned to clutch a stone when thunder rumbled instead of bolting for the door. Xingye learned to say, "Come in," when someone waited on the steps for her to come home.