Fly
By starstruck
She wasn't going to go down there with the rest of them, but he convinced her to go with him. He brought a picnic, and they laughed, and ate, and talked, and were friends.
A bug bit him, and she was worried, but then it bit her too, and she felt fine.
**
They went back, and she felt sick, so sick, and she couldn't stay awake any longer.
**
She woke up, and her doctor said she was very sick, but she knew that. Her doctor said he didn't know what to do, but that he would try to help her.
**
She woke up, back down there, with him. She felt fine. Her doctor called her and told her there was nothing they could do.
**
They left them behind, her and him, because if they took her and him with them, she would die, and he would die too. They left them many things, so they wouldn't be sad, but she couldn't help it.
They had left her behind.
There had to be another choice.
**
She asked him to call her by her first name. He made a sly comment, making her smile.
Inside, he danced.
**
He made her life easier, so much easier, but she wasn't sure she liked it. She wanted to, but she couldn't.
**
She hung on to her old life desperately, and wondered how he could let go so freely.
He tried to make her let go too, but she only let go when she had no other choice.
**
He told her what he felt, in oh so many words. The beauty of it all made her cry. He was a poet, and she could only wonder where a warrior had found such inner beauty.
She wished she could be like him.
**
She decided that maybe – maybe he had stolen her heart.
And when she realized this, she knew that he had had it all along.
**
She was happy, happier than she'd ever been, because he was there, and she was allowed to love him. She wished everything had always been as easy, and she had always felt so free.
Only it wasn't easy, because she couldn't tell him.
**
They called and said they could save them, and they were coming back.
Only she didn't want to go with them anymore.
**
She wondered how words that only days ago would have made her heart leap with joy could make her heart sink so now.
**
She wanted so much to tell him, as he had told her, but she couldn't any more.
She wasn't allowed to, because they were coming back.
**
She said goodbye to her new favorite places, and her new life.
She said goodbye to her newfound freedom.
**
They were all so happy to see her and him, and she wished she could be happy to see them too.
She wished for their sake.
For her sake, she wished they had never come.
**
He pretended nothing ever happened, and it broke her heart.
But it broke her heart more when she had to pretend nothing had ever happened.
**
She buried her memories of her time with him, so that she could go on.
Someday, she would remember her happiness.
Then she could fly again.