Disclaimer: I don't own Elsword
And When We Turn Back
Elesis is drinking orange juice on their worn sofa when Ain brings it up.
It's a hot saturday in July, too hot to move. Her thighs are plastered sweatily on the soft leather, and the cicadas outside buzz in tandem with the low hum of the tv, lulling her into a daze beneath the feeble gasps of the air conditioner.
"Let's end this," Ain says abruptly, leaning against the doorway of the living room. He doesn't even look at her, eyes stuck on his phone and fingers flying across the surface.
"Ok," she replies without much thinking. All of that's been done already.
Ain disappears back into his room as she tips the glass against her lips again, finishing the last of the lukewarm juice.
Before she falls asleep, she wonders why they'd let it drag out for so long when it was clear that their relationship was way past its time.
(Later, when she blinks awake blearily and finds that there's a pillow tucked under her head and a light blanket guarding her from the slight chill of the evening, Elesis imagines that this is exactly why.)
No one could've predicted that they'd end up like this.
If she remembers correctly, there were bets running about how long they'd last, the longest being a year.
Well here they were, five years later and four overdue, giving each other awkward, obligatory hugs at the airport.
"Thanks." Ain clears his throat, opens his mouth, thinks better of it and closes it again.
Elesis smiles stiffly, waving as the airport attendants call him up for boarding. He holds out his passport and his ticket and disappears into the tunnel.
A lady by the window stands up to leave, and Elesis takes her seat. The patchy clouds in the morning had cleared up, leaving behind a few blurry white streaks. Workers are loading the luggage into the plane's stomach by a moving belt. One of the suitcases is dark green, possibly with a turquoise tag on it and she wonders if it's Ain's.
Elesis doesn't know how long she stays there, counting the planes that take off, but as she's about to leave, Ain's plane rumbles to life. He's probably already settled in first class, sound asleep. Or he could be awake and gazing out the window and imagining that she's looking back at him, though that's probably nothing more than her own wishful thinking. One sided looking has always been lonely.
It could've been both of them on that plane.
Elesis could be sitting beside Ain right now, with their hands laced together just because they were a couple and they wanted to. It could've been them flying out on vacation to Okinawa, to Cairo, to Santorini. Anywhere. She could be hearing the thundering of the engines, feeling the tug of defying gravity in her feet and the pops of her ears during takeoff, but she is here instead, with her forehead pressed to tinted glass, feet planted firmly on the patterned carpet, scrutinizing her ex's plane.
It's sad, Elesis thinks, walking away while dodging a few latecomers. She and Ain had had something, and to watch it rise into the air and dissipate with the exhaust fumes of a plane leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.
But at least there is a taste.
She much rather take that than have nothing left at all.
END.1
A/N: ...not another one
I'm actually working on two little side projects instead of my "main" fics right now. Meaning not little at all. Sorry!
Thanks for reading!