"I can't." The words were whispered into the still night air.
The other did not retract the gloved hand brushing his cheek. The facial expression did not change in the slightest, only the tightening of grey eyes signaled his voice was heard.
". . . or won't?" Was the quiet challenge.
Blue eyes crystallized at the others stubbornness. He brought his own gloved hand up to smack the offending arm away. The other did not flinch, nor adjust his stance farther away as he would have mere months ago. The anger burned deeper at the knowledge that they had already come so far. Trust had already been laid between them. For two such as themselves the bridges they made were not flimsy wood that would rot and decay with time, not stone that would erode from water and the elements, theirs was a hard unbreakable steel that once it existed. . . could not be removed. Pain flashed in hard blue eyes.
"Don't." He said softly.
The other kept his gaze locked, unwavering as his will.
"Why? Why even bother?" He could hear the shudder buried deep within those even tones.
He felt his mask slip into place and welcomed the relief from the pressure trying to fold his spine. The other noted the change and his lip curled with his own anger. Leather creaked beneath fists that balled up at his audacity, his sheer nerve for daring to retreat in such a way. The hours and days and effort at drawing him out of his shell, the other was right to be furious with him. Cowardly it was. Hurtful. Necessary, the other half of him reminded.
He took a step away from his lover, his eyes guarded chips of ice slashed occasionally with glowing green. A slight breeze ruffled the spikes in his hair and he noticed a strand of brown hair was swept across the scarred face, staring at him with betrayal. He would not apologize. Such a thing between them would be fake, fraudulent of their personalities. They both know this, and yet . . . he wishes he could say those two words and have them mean something.
The other finally glanced away, his posture rigid to glare instead into the Dark Depths. He turned his profile towards him instead. Lashes slowly lowered over dark stormy eyes, a sigh that seems pulled from the edges of his being whispers out of his lean frame.
His blond head tilts waiting . . . how far had they come only to lose? Fates cruel irony was not lost on the two warriors, friends, lovers.
"Don't. . ." The sentence is left hanging.
What did the other want? For him to return if it comes to pass that way? Or to stay away indefinitely? That this be the last time he lays eyes on the other? His other? With no meaning of Light or Dark, Heartless or Nobody. Is such a thing even possible? He could only tell himself it was so, just to lessen this horrible feeling.
He turns his back to the other, unsure if they should part like this. He decides that if the fates let him live, that is when he will choose which context his companion meant. Slow, sure strides take him away and he does not look back. The one left behind turns away and there is agony in that closed gaze. He does not move until the sun starts to lighten the sky.