Do you believe in a prediction?

"Here, take this bucket and fill it up with more water. We need water for the moat." A young toddler a bucket at Tao. He grabbed it in his chubby hands, having difficulty hoisting it up.

"Alright, Kris. I'll be back in a second." Tao smiled and carefully walked down to the edge of the dull ocean. His mother had always told him to be careful of the ocean, since if you didn't watch it carefully enough it could sweep you out to sea, and you'd never go home again. Keeping a steady eye on the ocean, Tao filled up the pink, plastic bucket with the murky sea water and with both hands, grabbed the feeble handle, and gave it a huge tug upwards. It barely moved, it was too heavy. Tao tried once more, grasping the handle with both hands, he took a deep breath and-

Snap!

The flimsy handle snapped off the ruined bucket and with a crash, the salty sea water splashed all over Tao's shirt and soaked back into the soft sand. Tao stood there for a second, dazed over the loss of the broken bucket and his soiled shirt. Frigid and wet, Tao began to sob. "Kris, Kris!"

Kris, who was working on the sandcastle's draw bridge, quickly hurried over to his friend's side after hearing his cries, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I-I was trying to carry the bucket back up to you, but-but the handle broke and I got all wet!" Tao cried, wiping his eyes with his sand covered arms.

Kris pet the boy's head as if he was an abandoned kitten, "Don't cry! My mommy brought buckets too! I'll go get one from her and we can both carry the water back. You just stay here." Kris smiled before running up the sand dune, kicking sand all the way, as he went to go retrieve a second bucket from his mother.

Tao sat down in the sand, tears still falling down his cheeks. He was facing the ocean, since he couldn't turn his back on it, and tried to calm down. He hadn't noticed it at first, but the ocean looked beautiful, therapeutic even. The crying boy concentrated on the waves that kissed the shore, how it was pulled back, and quickly pushed back, sticking to the sand like a pair of lovers about to be torn away from each other forever. But even then, the wet sand still remained, showing that even though the waves were gone, they had been there, leaving a damp trail of water.

Tao let out a sigh and turned slightly to his right, to observe the wide stretch of shore that led right down the rocky cliffs, where teenagers liked to jump from in the summer. Right now, it was the beginning of autumn, but luckily on this particularly cloudy day, it was still rather humid. Tao got up, brushed off his sandy shorts and began to walk down the beach a little, looking down at the imprints of his tiny feet get filled like pools of water by the waves.

One step, squish. Two steps, squish. Three steps, squish. Tao counted the amount of footsteps he made in the soft, squishy sand, while keeping his eyes up, looking at the rocky cliffs. Suddenly he felt something that wasn't sand, it was crunchy. He looked down and was surprised to find a ragged old notebook. He quickly picked it up before the waves could wash it away and bring the object into the ocean. He tried to read the small words written on the cover, but they had washed off long ago. It was thin. It was bound with one dirty red string, and the paper was yellow and crinkly, some torn. It obviously had gone through a lot of water damage, but yet it was completely dry, even though Tao had just pulled it out of the ocean.

"Hey Kris, Kris! Over here! I found something!" Tao waved his little arms furiously at his friend as he saw him reappear down the sand dune, swinging a metal green bucket, with a strong secure handle.

Kris sensed Tao's excitement and quickly ran the rest of the way down, and over to Tao's side.

"Yeah? What is it?" Kris asked, equally as excited. "A notebook?" Kris squinted, trying to decipher the miniscule words. "Where did you find this?" Tao pointed at the ocean. "The ocean?" Kris ran his fingers along the edges, it was bone dry.

"I know I probably sound crazy," Tao shrugged, "but I was walking down the beach and I found it right here!" He pointed down at the wet sand his feet were under.

Kris sat down on the sand and Tao sat besides to him. With the notebook in his lap, he gently opened the first page. Surprisingly, the writing in there was perfectly legible, as if it had been written on the water damaged paper. It was written neatly in bright red ink. As Tao and Kris used what limited reading skills young toddlers possessed, they began to read the lines.

It was not long before they realized these were predictions.

Kris ran his small finger along one of the many lines in the notebook. "Tao look! This word says 'award', right? It says when I'm fifteen, I'll win an award for one of my paintings! Isn't that great?" Kris said enthusiastically, nearly jumping up and down in his seat form excitement.

"Yeah! That's really great." Tao smiled back, truly happy that his friend's love for finger painting would someday morph into something so much greater. "Maybe towards the end here, it'll say that you'll become a famous painter." Tao tried to flip to the back of the notebook but Kris's hand quickly stopped him.

"Not so fast, Tao. We need to read this one line at a time, we shouldn't jump to conclusions without knowing what led up to it."

The panda eyed boy pouted, "I hate it when you talk all grown up like Mama, Kris."

"Okay, okay. Sorry. But we don't even know if these predictions are true. I mean the stuff that supposedly already happened was so early that we can't remember it. Maybe it's best if we just toss it back into the ocean..."

"No, don't!" Tao grabbed Kris's raised arm, prepared to rid them of the mysterious notebook forever. "Let's just keep it for fun, alright?"

Kris lowered his arm and glanced at the notebook once more, "I guess just for fun would be okay...but we shouldn't let this notebook get the best of us! It isn't good to know too much about the future."

"Agreed." Tao nodded.

Kris stood up from the ground and offered Tao his hand, who took it and rose from the sand as well. "Here, you keep it." Kris said, holding the book out to Tao.
"No, no." Tao said, pushing it back to Kris. "You keep it. You'd take better care of it anyway. I'd probably spill juice on it or something."

"If you say so." Kris said, holding the notebook close to his chest, "I'll put it in my toy box for us to read when we're older. I think then we'd be able to understand it more."

"But how old?"

"I don't know...How about thirteen?"

The little boy nodded, "Yeah! I hope I can wait until then!"

"I hope so too! I wouldn't want you ripping up my toy box trying to find it!" Kris joked, giving a cute giggle to Tao.

"Tao, Kris!" Tao's mother called over a sand dune, "It's time to go!"

"Coming mama!" Tao called back, before picking up the unused green bucket Kris had retrieved and running back up the dune, arm in arm with Kris.

Tao couldn't wait until he was thirteen. He wanted to know everything about his future. But there was one thing he was still confused by. That second he turned to middle of the notebook before Kris stopped him, one line caught his eye. Something he hoped would be erased from his young mind.

December 21st, 2012: Kris perishes in fire.

-

The years ticked by like seconds, and the notebook soon became forgotten, buried underneath so many achievements, memories and well basically, Kris's old toys. Although the two boys didn't know it yet, every prediction in that notebook had become surprisingly true. From every test score, to every play date, it was all written in that little, thin book. And little did they know, the notebook even predicted when the boys would find it again.

"Kris, Kris! I know that award is great and all. I'm truly am proud of you, but it's been a week. Will you please clean your room?! I'm tired of seeing paint and canvases splattered everywhere. We made the old office room your new studio, so would you please transfer that stuff into your new studio?" Kris's mother sighed at her fifteen year old son.

"Okay, okay mom. Tao, mind helping me?" The blonde boy shot another dazzling smile and the other, who nodded. Nobody could say no to Kris.

They ran up the stairs and stopped at Kris's white door, which he had splatter painted with Tao when they were ten. Kris unlocked the door and opened it with a magnificent swing. The smell of turpentine and fresh paint quickly hit Tao and made him feel like he was really one with Kris. "Wow."

"Really, Tao? All you can say is 'wow'?" Kris grinned.

The walls were covered with old tarp, and there were canvases leaned against every inch of wall. Paint stained towels lay in a clump on a small table, and bottles of empty paint cluttered the floor. It truly was an artist's studio and no one could deny it.

Kris wiped his hands, which were always stained with paint these days, on one of the soiled towels and threw it back into the clump. "I'm thinking first we should move this old toy box. We can donate whatever toys are in it to charity, and move the box down into the studio, I can use it to store stuff." Kris tore the tarp that was covering it away, bringing up a cloud of dust. It was as if the toy box hadn't been opened in years.

Tao coughed and fanned away some of the dust. He picked up an empty cardboard box, "We can put the toys in here."

"Great. I'll just run and put some of these canvases in the studio, so there will be more room to move the toy box out." He replied, already gathering a few large canvases in his arms.

"Okay, need any help with those?"

"Nope, nope. I'm fine!" Kris said, holding up a canvas that had escaped from his arms with his foot and quickly returning it back to it's proper place.

Tao laughed, "Alright. I'll just start on packing these toys into the box."

Kris gave a quick nod, and escaped from the room. Tao turned back towards the old toy box. A flood of memories hit him as the sunlight gently fell on the old box, dust dancing in the rays. The black haired boy, opened the lid, which had since become very light and immediately began gently packing the old stuffed animals and action figures into the cardboard box. It was almost sad, packing the little amount of toys left away. They had played and loved every single doll and action figure in this toy box deeply. Tao felt sad seeing them go.

As Tao packed away the last blonde haired rag doll, something caught his eye. It was a notebook, with water damaged pages, tiny words faded beyond readability and it was tied all up with a thin red string. "Kris, Kris!" Tao yelled as he fished the notebook out of the bottom of the toy box. "Kris, Kris, come quick!"

Kris quickly ran back into his room upon hearing his friend's cries, "What is it? What is it Ta-" He stopped in his tracks at the sight of the object in the other's hands. "The notebook..."

"F-From when we were kids...that we promised to read once we turned thirteen. It's been here the whole time...can you believe that?" Tao said, stuttering. Both of the boy's eyes were wide like saucers, as if they had just found a gun they had once used to kill someone.

Kris laid a hand on Tao's shaking hand and gently pried it from his friend's shaky ones. "Don't worry, Tao. It's just a stupid little notebook. I mean it's not like it could really predict our future." Kris said scoffing as he flipped through the first pages of the thin, crinkly notebook. But both boys were still scared, for now they knew what power it truly held.

"The award...the test scores...everything was written in there, Kris. And all of it came true...can't you see? That notebook really has our whole entire life written out in front of us." Tao plopped down on Kris's bed, still in shock. "It even knows when we're going to die."

"Tao, stop talking like that..." Kris said, sitting next to him with the notebook in his lap. "Yes, I have to admit, everything in here is surprisingly correct, but let's use this to our advantage, yes?" Kris rubbed Tao's back gently. "Don't think so negatively."

The distressed young boy sighed, "Whatever...you keep it. I honestly don't want anything to do with that horrible thing." Tao stood up from the bed. "Let's just finish moving the rest of your things." He said half-heartedly.

Kris silently agreed and laid the notebook back down on the bed, "Let's move the toy box first. You take that end and I'll take this one."

-

"Is Kris not here today?" The teacher scanned the small high school classroom, squinting if she missed anything.

"No...he's not." Tao replied in a tiny voice. "His mother phoned me this morning to tell me."

"He's been missing an awful lot of school days. That's just not good at all." She adjusted her silver rimmed glasses before marking Kris absent with the black ballpoint pen. "Tao, would you please drop off his homework today? I don't think it would be good for him to get behind on his studies."

"Sure, it won't be a problem, teacher." He replied.

The teacher began her lesson and Tao started to stare out the window. The same day kept playing in his head, the day they rediscovered the notebook beneath all those worn out toys. Ever since that day, Tao always wondered if things would be any different if he had simply thrown the notebook in the trash instead of showing it to Kris. But he panicked, the notebook frightened him, and he needed Kris there to comfort him. However, he had gotten the exact opposite of what he had hoped for. That notebook needed to go away, disappear, vanish, anything! It wasn't good to know anything about your future, even if it was just a single test score.

"Mr. Huang...Mr. Huang!" The teacher raised her strong voice and Tao snapped out of his daydream.

"Ah- yes teacher?" He simply answered with a slight startle.

"Here is Mr. Wu's homework, tell him to get it back to me ASAP." She placed a small stack of white papers on Tao's empty desk. "Oh, and when you see him, could you just check on him?"

"Huh?" Tao asked, packing Kris's homework into his green school bag.

"Oh just check on him to make sure he's okay. It's just, a young boy like him shouldn't be missing so many school days. It seems pretty suspicious to me, and I don't believe he is the one to skip school like that." She said, concern showing as she spoke.

"He isn't. I'll make sure to check on him, thank you." Tao gathered up his belongings and waved the teacher goodbye before leaving.

Walking home was a drag, he had to take a small detour to reach the blonde boy's house, and he really wasn't looking forward to facing him as well. He prayed that Ms. Wu would be home to take her son's homework, and there would be no need for an encounter with him.

The orange sun had already began to set, and Tao tried to focus on kicking a grey rock down the quiet empty sidewalk. He was flabbergasted when the small pebble struck Kris's front steps. Even when Tao wasn't even paying attention to the path he was walking down, it still led him down to Kris's house.

The schoolboy adjusted his uniform, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell. He shifted in place and fiddled with his fingers nervously as the noise of the ring resounded in the house. The lock made an unlocking click and the large wooden door swung open.

"Oh it's you."

Tao looked up from his feet, Kris was standing there. "Hi Kris. I brought you your homework." Tao attempted to fish it out of his cluttered black backpack, wanting to be in and out of Kris's sight as fast as possible.

"Just come in, I'll make you something to eat. You must be tired from a long day at school."

"No-No, really it's fine! I should be getting home anyway." Tao was digging into his backpack for his dear life in hope he could find the homework, throw it at Kris, and run as fast as he could away from the accursed house.
"Please, I insist. Plus you brought my homework for me anyway." Kris made a small smile with his lips, while his tired eyes wandered back into the house.

Tao felt oddly drawn to those pink soft lips. He quickly stumbled out of his sneakers and closed the front door behind him. "Is your mother not home?"

"Yeah. She's at work, she'll be home in a few hours. Do you want something to drink?" Kris asked, leading Tao into the kitchen.

"Water is fine." Tao replied, taking a seat at the dining table in the kitchen. It had been a while since he had been here. He ran his finger across the smooth, light colored wood and remembered how he and Kris had sat here every day, eating chocolate chip cookies all those years ago.

The seventeen year old boy placed a glass of water in front of his spaced out friend, "Tao? Is there anything you'd like to eat? My mom baked some cookies yesterday."

"No thank you. I'm not hungry." Tao ped his backpack and immediately found Kris's homework. He smirked, of course fate would let him find the homework instantly inside Kris's house but not on his front steps. Stupid fate. "Here is your homework." He placed the papers on the table in front of Kris.

"Thanks." Kris took a seat next to Tao and began to glance through the papers.

"Are you sick?"

"Huh?"

"Your eyes, it looks like you've been up all night."

"Oh yeah huh?" Kris chuckled and organized the homework papers. "I was up all night reading that notebook."

"You're still reading that?" His voice was low, as if he was telling a horrible secret.

"Of course. Every little thing that will happen to us is written in that notebook. Even though it appears to only be a few pages, once you open it and get reading, it's more like billions. Want to know something funny?"

"What?!" Tao asked annoyed, but Kris didn't seem to notice his annoyance at all.

"That notebook never says anything about us finding the notebook or reading it. Nothing about the notebook at all. It's like as if this notebook was written for someone else, or someone. Well, more like this was a book written about us."

"Maybe it's for the best that nothing in there is about the notebook."

"Why would it be for the best?" Kris asked, shocked anyone would say something ill about the notebook. "This notebook holds such great power that we have been blessed to receive." His tired eyes were wide, and he was looking right into Tao's teary ones.

"That's just it Kris! You're so obsessed with this notebook! Nothing good will come out of this at all! I should have just thrown it away when I found it at the bottom of the toy box..."

"What are you talking about, Tao?! Why are you suddenly bringing up all the negative things about this notebook?! You never, ever seemed to be against me having this notebook, ever since we were kids! Remember? I had to take care of the ing notebook because you were too scared to!" He was standing up now, his arms spread out, and his white palms wide open. There wasn't a speck of paint on those hands, not like when he was fifteen.

"You've stopped painting." Tao said calmly, his eyes focused on Kris's hands, looking for just a flake of something colorful.

"What?" Kris asked annoyed, glaring at Tao who refused to look him in the eyes. "I thought we were talking about the notebook here, and you decide to bring up my painting?"

"Because you love to paint, remember?! When we were fifteen, you won that huge painting award for that picture of fruit or whatever it was." Tao closed his eyes and tried to remember the day at the beach when they were kids, when they first found the tragic notebook. "When you found out you won, you were ecstatic. I remember...I remember I tried to flip past a few pages to see if you had become a professional painter, but you stopped me."

"I don't remember any of that."

"Well, do you remember if the stupid notebook told you you'd give up your love of painting? That ever since last year your paintings have become cold and lifeless?! That it always seem your paintings lack passion and always seem so damn lonely and empty?!" Tao yelled, his piercing almost black eyes were staring right at Kris's fierce glare.

Kris was speechless, after what seemed like hours of them gawking at each other, Kris finally opened his mouth to speak, "Glad to hear you think I've turned into some monster." He looked down at the hardwood floors in shame.

Tao inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm down his racing heart. His beating heart felt like he had just run a marathon. "I don't think you're a monster, Kris. Just give me the notebook, we can destroy it, and then everything will be back to normal. It's just the notebook, Kris. It's not you. It'll never be." His eyes turned kind and defenseless, and he managed a weak smile. The young boy stood up and walked over to his troubled friend. Placing a hand on his shoulder, he whispered in a soft voice, "I never did stop caring about you. Even when your mom would call me so late at night, distressed over what was happening to her son, I never thought you were crazy."

Kris quickly turned around and embraced the other, "Thank you, Tao. And did you know, that I was in love with you?"

"Did the notebook predict you would say that?" Tao asked, hoping Kris could not feel his heart beating in his own chest.

"No." He could detect a grin in Kris's voice. "I'm not that far yet. But there's another secret I need to tell you."

"Oh? And what might that be?"

"I'm still in love with you."

"And I have a secret too...I'm in love with you. Now did the notebook say I would say that or not?"

"Who cares what the notebook says."

-

The small shed smelled of turpentine and fresh paint. The plaster walls were painted white and an old grey tarp covered the hardwood. A table and bowl of fruit were positioned under a window. Kris wiped his paint covered hands on an old rag and picked up a canvas.

"I call this one 'A Summer's Adventure'." He smiled, showing the canvas bearing a blue ocean, a light brown sandy beach, and two little boys facing the ocean to his beloved.

Tao smiled and covered his mouth with his hand in shock, "I-Is that us? That day we found the-"

"Piece of paper? Yes." The notebook had become nothing but a piece of paper to them now. However they both decided not to destroy it, instead they kept it locked in an old wooden jewelry box on the fireplace of Kris's house.

After Tao helped Kris conquer his obsession with the notebook, he returned to school, excelled in it, and got a job so he could better support his mother and his new boyfriend. With the money he had saved for himself, he ended up buying purchasing a small, and rather unshed like shed to put in his large backyard. He moved everything out of the old office room and into his new shed studio.

"It's really pretty." Tao smiled, looking at the painting.

"It's still missing something though...something I think I'm very close to finally being able to contribute to everything I paint."

Tao nodded, "That's good!" He set the painting back against the wall. "Hm, you don't paint portraits of people, do you?"

"Well yeah, I guess I don't."

"Why not?"

Kris shrugged, "Don't know. I think it's because I never knew who to paint."

"Why don't you paint me?" Tao asked enthusiastically, taking a seat on the couch.

Kris nodded, "Yeah, yeah I think I can do that." He pulled up an easel and placed a new fresh canvas on it. He gathered up a few paints and a pencil and began to make a rough sketch first. Sitting on the couch bored Tao, but he didn't want to talk and distract his boyfriend. It wasn't long until he found himself fast asleep.

-

The sound of sirens filled Tao's ears and he awoke with a start. "K-Kris?" He glanced around the dark studio but it was empty. Outside he could see something bright and orange consuming Kris's house. It was a fire.

"Kris!" Tao ran out of the studio and the heat from the fire immediately hit his face. He glanced at his watch, it was 8 P.M. His mother wouldn't be home for another hour, which meant the only other person who could be in the house was Kris. "Kris!" Tao shouted again before dashing into the burning building.

"Kris?! Kris?! Where are you?!" Tao yelled as he ran into what once was the kitchen. Through his tear,s he could see images of two young boys running through the house, shooting foam dart guns at each other and laughing.

"Tao? Tao is that you?" It was Kris, his voice was hoarse and he was coughing badly.

"Oh my god, Kris!" Tao finally spotted the man, pinned under a burning wooden beam. He grabbed his arms and tried to wrench him free, not wanting to touch the burning wood.

"It's no use, Tao." Kris had already given up. "Just leave me and get out of here." He turned his head up to look into Tao's tear filled eyes.

"No...No. It's okay, alright? Just hold on a little longer, I heard the fire engines coming! It won't be long. I'll stay with you until then." There was a loud crash and part of the collapsed just inches from them. Tao screamed.

"Get out now, Tao!" Kris yelled, still hacking. "If you stay here you'll die!"

"No, no. We can both live!" Tao grabbed the hot beam in both hands, the wood digging into his skin and the beam burning his hands. He attempted to lift it but it was hopeless. This was a beam that was used to support the house. Now, it's going against the two. It weighed more then both Tao and Kris combined.

"It's useless...I knew this would happen. Now just go and leave me." Kris's face was solemn as the house began to collapse around them.

"Then we'll die together." Tao whispered, holding onto Kris's soft, paint splattered hands in his hot, black burning ones.

"No, Tao. You won't die here. Leave now...for that is my last wish."

Tao was choking on black smoke, and his tears obscured his vision.

"I love you, Tao."

"I love you, Kris." Tao got down on his aching stomach and they pressed their soft lips together. The whole world seemed to stand still despite the chaos going around them, and Tao prayed they could stay like this forever. But finally, Kris released his lips from him.

"Now go. You still have the rest of your life ahead of you." Kris smiled. "Don't worry, you won't die here."

They let go of their hands and Tao used all his strength to back away from Kris, who's shirt was nearly completely on fire, but yet the man pinned under the beam still looked so strong. "Just like in the..."

"...notebook." Kris finished Tao's sentence. "I finished it just now. And I found out that you won't die here, you won't die for a long time. But I...I will die here."

Tao tried to scream, "No, it's not true!" but the entire rest of the ceiling collapsed onto Kris, and in front of Tao, separating him from Kris who was being crushed by the burning ceiling.

"Kris! Kris!" Tao screamed and cried. A fireman found Tao clawing at the ceiling and quickly began to pull him away. "No, let me go! Kris, Kris!" He cried, choking on his sobs. He struggled to get free, but the smoke was getting the best of him and he felt dizzy and powerless. The fireman strapped an oxygen mask on him and quickly ran out of the burning building. "Kris...Kris..." Tao whispered, "Don't leave me alone."

-

"All clear." A fireman called as soon as they had confirmed the house fire was completely put out. "It's best not to go in and check for anything that might have survived the fire." The man said to Ms. Wu, who was still in shock over the house fire and the loss of her son.

Tao sat on the cold green grass, wrapped in a blanket. He had refused to tell the firemen how the fire started, since he didn't know, and he refused to look at the medical examiners as they brought Kris out of the ashes of the house in a black body bag. Everything seemed so unreal, too tragic. But this is reality.

A small breeze picked up, blowing some of the grey ash Tao's way. A small burnt piece of paper landed at his feet. It was a crinkly, yellowing piece of paper that appeared to have undergone a lot of water damage. There was writing on it, which appeared to have undergone no water damage. It was written in red ink with messy handwriting Tao knew could only belong to his beloved, Kris.

December 21st, 2012: You don't have to say anything, I know exactly what you're thinking. I felt if I told you everything, it would alter my destiny to die today...but there is one thing I'd like to tell you. From now on and on you'll have many, many regrets, you'll get hurt again and again, and you'll cry more and more. But if you waste your life looking back at all of this, you'll get a terrible illness one day and wish it could all end. So pretend none of this ever happened, and surely I'll be happy. Go Tao, for today is the first day of the rest of you life.

Tao burst into hysterical crying and the firemen rushed over to attempt to comfort him, but Tao was long over the loss of Kris, because under his note's request, none of that never happened. He was crying because he, himself had been such a fool.

-

The shed Kris had bought as his new studio had undergone no damage, and everything had been undisturbed. Tao took a deep breath and opened the door to the shed. The smell of fresh paint hit him, and bowl of fruit Kris had just finished painting were now beginning to brown and rot, but the smell of paint overpowered the fruit's light fragrance.

Tao sighed and began to empty the shed of the blank, unused canvases, and materials. There weren't many paintings left in here, as it appeared Kris had put them all outside the shed just before the fire started, when Tao was asleep on the couch. Tao grabbed some canvases that were leaned up against the wall, with their backs to Tao. He picked up the canvases and nearly dropped them. The canvases were paintings, but not the usual paintings Kris usually drew of nothing. They were portraits, portraits of Tao.

There was one of him as a child, one of him crying, one of him smiling, and one of him day dreaming in class. There were so many of him. And the most recent, that was still a little wet was him curled up, asleep on the couch. These paintings didn't lack anything. They were different, they seemed complete. It was then that Tao knew what his paintings used to lack. They were lacking a part of Kris's heart. 

Tao gathered up the canvases in his arms and walked outside to get some fresh air. He looked up at the cloudless blue sky. "No matter where we are...it's the same sky, isn't it?" Tao smiled, talking up to the Heavens. Because it was true, it was the same sky.

The same still blue sky.