Another Possibility: The Future and the Past Falling in Love

[Complete, ready to binge OvO]

Mubara Zhe is a peculiar child. He has no moral judgments about people, but he does judge actions as good or evil.

He might save an evil person, or kill a good one.

Until the day he turned sixteen.

Mubara Zhe seemed to have a dream, a dream in which he met his future self.

"So this is what my past self was like." The gray-haired man, nearly a head taller than him and bearing an uncanny resemblance to him, pulled him into his arms with practiced ease. "...So cute."

Their experiences were not the same. Mubara Zhe had never saved a man named Karasuma Renya, nor had he lost fragments of his past memories as a result of undergoing experiments.

"Many of my past partners have taught me one thing. Since we're the same person, we should have the same tastes..." A calloused fingertip slowly traced upward along his spine, sending a shiver through him. A hint of seriousness entered those matching silver-gray eyes. "Want to give it a try?"

"Can I say no?" Whether or not they had lost their memories, the two of them had remarkably similar personalities.

"I'd advise you not to say no. After all, we're the same person."

The future fell in love with another possibility of the past. If it was himself, he would surely accept every part of him.

"Though, if you count the years, I'm already over 130." Negroni stood at the edge of the rooftop and pointed toward the moon. "But when my ability stopped me from aging, I was only twenty-two."

"So I'm an ageless twenty-two forever."

"But Xiao Zhe is only seventeen this year, and the boss was born just two years ago." Somehow, the conversation had taken this turn, but Mubara Zhe still asked earnestly, puzzled. "Who's the boss?"

"Mori Rintaro. He'll become the boss we admire most in the future."

With every dream, past and future meet.

"Xiao Zhe, would you like to stay?" Negroni gently asked the other version of himself.

"I have one last use for the pages in my book." It was a lie. If he wanted, he could use all the remaining pages for himself.

"..." Mubara Zhe saw through the lie, of course. He couldn't deceive himself. "You could come to my side, too. After all, we're not technically in the same world."

They only needed to use the pages to create a passage between the two worlds.

Negroni, forever twenty-two, invited eighteen-year-old Mubara Zhe to stay.

...He wasn't completely turned down.

Theme: Love and being loved