once upon a time, there was a man who felt nothing.

this man's name is not important, you do not need to know what he looked like or how his voice sounded, just that he felt nothing.

he did not feel the wind that whipped against his cheeks or the sun that beat down on his back or the blisters that bloomed on his hands and feet, only to be hardened into callouses. he did not feel the happiness of the salty smell of the air, or the exquisite sadness of the sea. he did not feel a thing. the touch of another hand was foreign, the gaze of someone's eye was but a distant memory. he was alone. and he felt nothing.

one day, he met another man who was alone. he met a man with golden eyes and a wide smile, and something inside him changed. he started to feel the rough wood against his skin, and the way the water would sting. his cheeks would hurt from smiles that would never end, and his chest would fill up, as if the sea itself was flooding into his heart. he did not have words to give names to what he was feeling, but his golden-eyed man gave him one that he accepted with glee.

Love.

this word fit like a glove on everything that strummed over the man's heartstrings. the feel of someone's hand in his was Love. the shrill cry of the gulls was Love. the clouds and the sun and the wood and the pain and the smiles and the stars were all Love.

and he was Love.

and they were Love.

and days would pass and nights would pass and the golden-eyed man changed every day. his hair grew white, and fine lines appeared and grew around his eyes and his smile. and then he was gone.

and the man was alone.

and the man still felt the wind and the sun and the sea and the sand, but the world was no longer Love. and the man wanted more and the man wanted nothing and the man wanted his golden eyes and the man wished they had never been there at all.

but he got none of these.

and time grew, and the man tried to feel nothing again. and he succeeded.

and the man felt nothing.

nothing except for his dreams of golden eyes and wide smiles and memories of when the world was made of Love.