Her alarm whistles next to her bed and begrudgingly she wakes up. She resets the clock and sighs. As she gets dressed, she thinks of him; his shaggy blonde hair; the blueness of his eyes, likes she's drowning in the ocean; the Scottish lilt to his voice and the way he smiled. She finishes buttoning up her blue tunic on her dress, and pulls her thick brown hair into a high pony tail. She sighs and goes down to breakfast.
His head falls against the side of the helicarrier and he sighs. "What am I doing here?" he thinks, "I'm just a bloody engineer, what am I doing fighting a war?" He runs his hand over his head, disappointed to find soft short bristles, instead of long thick strands. He thinks of her, the exact shade of her chocolate brown eyes; the way she blushes; the way she said his name in a honey-toned voice. He opens his eyes and they are back at base.
She sits at her desk in the study that used to be theirs. The room bright, full of books and experiments, but still unnervingly empty without him. She looks out of the magnificent glass window, down onto the front path. She brushes her, now short, locks out of her face, puts her head down and continues with her work.
Alarms ring through base as they are attacked. Blindly he stumbles his way to safety and out of the tumultuous battle. He turns to find a row of dead slumped haphazardly in the corridor. He blinks, sighs and carries on. He runs to the nearest mode of transport, a black-grey motorcycle, and hops on as nimbly as he can, with the weight of his work strapped to his back. Soon.
Tears fall and blind her vision as she reads the telegram. MIA, it says. Just a nice way of saying dead, she thinks.
He walks up the front path, filthy, exhausted, the straps of his bag cutting into his shoulders.
The doorbell rings and she wipes away the tears as best as she can.
He watches as the bright red door opens and his heart leaps in his chest.
"Leo?" she asks, fresh tears forming in her eyes, disbelief in her voice. "Yeah Jem. Yeah, it's me." he says, taking her into his arms and embracing her.
"Days to come stand in front of us like a row of burning candles"
C.P. Cavafy