A/N: DANIEL. COME BAAAAAACK! -sobs-
Summary: He said it because it was true. Because he meant it. Because she was going to die and he'd never get another chance.
Cyclical
I love you.
He rolled those words over and over in his head, wondering if there was ever going to be another way or time to say it. Strange, the way those words could just come out when you weren't think. Strange indeed. They lived on his tongue, he suspected, made real by leaving his mouth open too long during times when he was going to say them, but didn't have the guts. And now that they were all going to die, it seemed to be the most important thing he'd ever said. In his entire life.
She only stared. What had he expected? She was beautiful and perfect and could never feel the same way.
But he could try.
A weak smile was all he could give her later. Because that was all he had. There wasn't any more to offer her.
"You could have said something else," she said.
"I said it...because I meant it."
And then they pulled him away from her. And she was there, with nothing but the shadow he left behind.
What would she think of him later, he wondered. What would she say when she saw him again? The last woman he'd loved was dying. And he was too much of a coward to do anything about it. But Charlotte...she was dying too, wasn't she? Was this the bitter cycle he and the women he loved were meant to play out? The pitiful pain of love that was too much for him and then the emptiness of death? Or the stench of hatred and lies and coverups?
It was all too much for one person, he reasoned. One person should never have to do this. It's just too much. Too much.
Too much, he thought to himself.
Life was too much. In the end, it was all anyone could do -- just live their lives. He reasoned with himself that living was the problem here. That maybe their death's would be more pleasant.
But she was perfect. Death was too vulgar for her. Too crude. Too much.
Too much.