Dragons and ponies (by TexMurphy)
"I doesn't even seem that long since we first met." The old pain of happiness crossed the face of the grim figure. "Don't think I don't know how you felt... at first I mean." While his features were corrupted, his eyes still carried a lingering breath. A wind rose from the trees and flicked fallen leaves against his feet.
"You never told me, but I knew. You thought you could hide things from me, but you never could. I could always read you." He gazed up at the sky. It was grey. It had been grey for such a long time. The clouds were faces and they spoke his memories, but he wasn't ready to confront them. Not yet.
"You never needed to tell me I was an fool – I was." His eyes returned to the beaten ground and clenched his hands. "I think I must have said so many stupid things back then. It's a wonder I didn't push you away forever."
"But you were there. And when the others left you stayed. And then when..." He paused to compose himself; a solitary figure in a field of icy, broken dirt. "Then when I finally told you..." He was beginning to stumble through his words. Even if he'd playing it over a hundred times, it never quite came out the way he wanted. But it had to be right today.
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "When I finally told you and... and you said you felt the same... I'm not lying when I say that was the best moment of my life. Even now. It was so alive that night. You were so alive." The dead ground seemed to rise up. Maybe it wouldn't stop. Maybe it would consume him. Maybe he wanted it to.
He felt a steely tear escape from him, its icy trail burned, pulling him from the past. "I said I'd come back, you know. I didn't always keep to my word, and I know you won't ever let me forget. But let it stand for the record that I definitely kept this one. I did come back."
"You always did spend too much time thinking about what others said. Yes... yes, okay, they did have some good reasons, I can accept that – you don't have to tell me I'm stubborn. I know."
"'Dragons and ponies – it'll never work' you once said they told you - in confidence of course. I told you nothing bad would happen, that I wouldn't let it. But maybe I was young then too. 'He'll outlive you', they said."
His decrepit hand flinched back from the faceless, unmarked mound. "They were right. I did outlive you. I outlived you all."
.
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Yes, I know I've been off the scene for a while. I also never thought I'd be writing a fic for this, but I wanted to give something back to a supportive community, and this is the only way I think I can. I know it's short, but I think that's the point. Perhaps if people like it I may do more, I don't know.