Only a little longer, he told himself, wait a little longer and she'll be here. To say goodbye. Everything about him was poised in waiting for her appearance. Waiting for the tickle of rosebud shampoo in the air, or the soft chime of imperial-gold bracelets. He folded a final pair of socks and snapped the clasps of his suitcase closed, his fingers stroking the burlap, buying the time until he had to leave. As always, waiting for his princess to arrive and to hug him from behind, to look into his eyes and tell him she'd be sad to see him go, and maybe she'd even write him once or twice.
With the aftermath being so horrible, though, he couldn't help but wonder if she wasn't hiding somewhere in her rooms in the towers of the castle floors above him. This suspicion was soon erased with the short snaps of her fists against the side of his open door. He turned slowly and smiled, although his eyes were tired and it didn't reach as it used to.
She glanced quickly at the bag and frowned, but the expression passed and she smiled, too, nodding at the couch for him to sit after her. Grinding his teeth, he looked away from the soft curve of her back and breasts. In the years they had been friends, traveling, protecting each other, each in their own strange ways, she had grown from a child to a woman, each year her body curving more and more elegantly. This he had been trying to ignore, as he was, in the end, frightened of her brother.
Lips pursing, she slid her hand gently into his. "You're leaving soon. Now?" she asked, her eyes flicking once again to the bag of his clothes. He nodded and stood back up, pulling on a loose thread on his sleeve. "I knew you would leave. Ever since I first heard your name." She laughed ruefully and his eyes shot back up to meet hers.
Already, she had stood back up and turned her back on him. "You want to know how I know, right?" He kept his lips shut tight against the barrage of questions that he would have attacked her with. Why wasn't she coming with him? "It's your name." He forced himself not to grab her by her shoulders and shake her. Why? How was his name important? Why wasn't she coming with him? "Ever since I heard your name, I knew." He gritted his teeth. "If you mix the letters up, then it says sayonara."
She left him, standing in his room, his jaw dropped in disbelief, his arms slack, his mind anything but. This really was it.
She was really gone this time.
Author's Note: This is short on purpose. I do have an idea for something of a second chapter, or a short followup, but I'm fairly certain it'll ruin the simplicity. So unless I magically get six-billion viewers on my first day, all begging for more, I'll leave it at this.