HELLO FANFICTION BUDDIES!

Ahem. Sorry for the caps lock abuse.

I haven't been on fanfiction in forever...I mean, I've been reading, but I haven't been writing or using the forums much at all, so...yeah.

Uh, just a warning: this is REALLY different than all of my other writings so far. All of my stuff before now has been light-hearted and happy and cute and romantic and all that and this is...deep.

I needed to write it all out on paper, but didn't want to take the time to express my feelings through a really long story.

So here's a kind of depressing one-shot about Jill and Skye. But it has a happy ending. :)

ENJOY!

Inseperable

"Do you love me?" I asked.

He gazed at me, his green eyes boring straight into mine. They seemed to search way deep down into my soul, which sounded so incredibly cheesy but was so true.

Then, he nodded, slowly and surely, his eyes not leaving mine.

"Yes," Skye replied. "I love you."

He reached out to me, pulling me closer to his body. I nestled closer to his chest, and let my breathing slow down. The only thing that dared to make a noise in the still, fall air was a lonely cricket, chirping a short, sweet melody that seemed to wrap itself around my bones, filling them with warmth. I let out a long sigh, and stared into the water of the Goddess Spring, which Skye and I were sitting by.

That night we were both quieter than other nights. I'm not sure why. A fire raged inside of me, begging to be let out, to be able to ask the questions I wanted to, but I refrained. For now, I just wanted to sit in the silence and be able to think.

Was it possible that Skye truly loved me? Me, of all people? Not Muffy, the girl with the stunning looks? Not Celia, the shy sweetheart of the valley? Not Nami, the mysterious and interesting explorer? Why me, of all people? I was plain and boring, definitely not pretty, and certainly not the nicest person on the earth.

He could have any girl he wanted. He was the charmer of the valley.

Yet despite all of this, for some reason, Skye chose me. He had admitted it a season ago, at the very end of Summer. And things had been going fine for us, until I started thinking too deeply.

As I always did.

My thoughts, that was what ruined countless relationships. Relationships with friends, family members, and even Mason, the boy I thought I'd never leave. I thought I loved him. How wrong I was.

But I started thinking about the reasons Skye could have to forget about me, to find someone prettier, someone better. And though every day, he told me that he loved me, and he certainly showed it, some alarm inside of me still blared every time he looked at me with those emerald eyes. The warning would course through my veins, and as much as I wanted it to go away, it wouldn't. It was a reflex; something I couldn't control.

I looked up at the stars, which seemed to float daintily in the cool autumn air. I wondered if what Skye said was true. Could he really see what was written in the stars? Was the fact that we had met and fallen in love really fate? If so, what was our future supposed to be like? Was this going to turn into something real, or was I going to waste my time and simply end up hurt again?

Skye suddenly lifted his hand to rub my hair. I turned my head so that I could see his face. He was looking down at me with concern. It was then that I realized he wasn't the one being quiet: I was. And because of this, he dared not ask any questions or bother me until he was certain I was ready to talk. He knew better.

"What's wrong, beautiful?"

Well, maybe not tonight.

I hesitated before replying, "Nothing."

He stared at me, his eyes penetrating me, scrutinizing my face for the tiniest detail of a lie. He must have found it, because he then said, "Yes, there is something wrong. Please, Jill, my love, talk to me. I'm here for you, you know that."

Yes, he was here for me. He always had been, and claimed he always would be. But could I really tell him what the problem was when he was the source of it? When he was the reason the problem existed in the first place?

Or was it my fault? I didn't have to love him. I could have rejected him, left us both broken and wanting nothing more than to be loved by the other. But would that have been for the better, or would I have been even more in despair and sad than I was now? And besides that, wasn't this problem my fault? If I didn't think so deeply then maybe I wouldn't worry about the small details that left me wondering.

I realized I hadn't replied to his previous rant about the problem. I sighed, caved in, and whispered, "You don't love me."

This caught him off guard.

Skye knew that I had self-confidence and trust problems. That was one of the first things he learned about me, the first night at the spring. It was easy to figure out, anyway. It was one of the most depressing nights of my life. I wasn't normally like this, or how I was then, but when I was, my words could manage to make a grown man cry.

But Skye didn't know that I doubted his love for me. Well, maybe he did. Maybe he noticed how I sometimes seemed afraid when he touched me or stared at me intently after we had joked around so carelessly for the past few seconds. I pondered this for a moment, when he suddenly replied.

"Yes, I do, Jill." His voice had dropped to a whisper, as if anything louder than that would have caused him to cry. "I love you so much. Why have you ever doubted it?"

So he did know.

I sighed, and replied, "I don't know. I think...I think it's because you're so perfect. I mean, you have a few flaws, like you steal and stuff, but other than that...you're amazing. And I'm me. But there are so many better girls out there. Why don't you love them?"

He paused, looked up at the spring, and replied, "To me, you are perfect. There's no one better than you."

I willed my body to believe him. Please, I thought to myself. Please listen! He's telling the truth!

But something inside of me seemed to say otherwise. He didn't really love me.

He couldn't.

Could he?

Tears rushed to my eyes. I blinked furiously, trying to push them back, but it made me feel worse. He noticed my sudden intake of breath, and pulled me even closer to him as I cried softly.

"Oh, Jill," he whispered. "I wish that I could explain to you how much I love you. But I can't. Love is abstract. You have to feel it. You can't hearit from someone's words."

"But I can't...I can't feel it..." I whispered through hiccups.

It was true. Sometimes, for a moment, I thought that I could feel his love. It came rushing off of him in waves, strong as a rock and steady as a heartbeat. But then it was gone within the second, a fragment of history, nothing more, nothing less. And I forgot what it felt like.

"How can I prove to you how I feel?" He asked. "I'll do anything."

I stayed quiet. The tears had disappeared. Why had I even cried in the first place? What a silly think to cry about.

And yet my heart screamed otherwise.

What a legitimate thing to cry about.

Skye pulled me closer, running his hand through my hair, rubbing my back. I felt pathetic. How could he ever love me? How could anyone ever love someone who cries every five seconds? How could he possibly love me, even though I doubted his love for me so much? How could he stand it? How long would he deal with it?

I couldn't tell if it was a heartbeat or a lifetime later when Skye whispered, "I think that over time, you'll feel it, Jill. Please don't give up. Please don't stop loving me before then."

"Never," I murmured. "I will never stop loving you. And that's the scary thing. Because what if someday you grow impatient? And you want to find someone else?"

"There will never be anyone else," he said. I couldn't bring myself to believe him. "I would wait a thousand years for you, Jill. There is no one else."

I waited for him to say more. He didn't.

Then, I focused on bringing my breathing back to normal.

What a pathetic person I was.

And then, the next thing he said totally contradicted me.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered. "You truly are the Princess of the Stars."

I shook my head into his chest.

"And you're kind. You're funny. You're understanding, loving, intelligent, optimistic. You are so wonderful and you are you. And I wouldn't want you any other way, Jill. Please stay with me. Please let go of every doubtful thought you have of this relationship. Jill, this will last forever. I will never, ever leave you. I can't stress that enough."

I didn't reply.

Skye and I lay there under the stars for the rest of the night. Surprisingly, I didn't grow cold. His body was warm and comforting, and I realized how tired I was after a while. He never stopped rubbing my hair or back.

I fell asleep and had dreams of us together, for the rest of our lives.

I wondered if it was even possible.

The two of us. Inseparable.

But the next morning, when I woke up in his arms, his green eyes staring at mine, the answer came to me.

Yes.

Somehow, some way...it was.

The truth was in his eyes.

He loved me.

...eh. I kind of hate this. But I think I needed to write it. I dunno...I've always wondered why Skye would choose Jill, of all girls in the valley.

And then I mixed some of my own feelings into it about my life and VOILA.

A slightly melancholy fanfiction.

Well, expect something better and maybe happier next time, folks.

Happy writing! :)