A/N: Characters aren't mine, sadly enough. Some sort of credit is to be given to Toastuh, whose poem inspired this piece.
It never ceases to capture my attention. To grab me by the collar and thrust me forward until I'm watching with unending patience. Doesn't matter what I'm doing. When she sleeps, I can't help but watch. The worry fades from her face as she slumbers and the way she looks... I can't stop myself.
Now, as I watch her, I can't help but think as well. Will this peaceful look only visit her at night when she closes her eyes to dream? Will there ever be a time that I will see this bliss in her waking hours?
You know what I would like? A chance to turn back. To return to the way things used to be. To a walk on the docks with Gwen's warm hand in mine, a smile upon both our faces because nothing could ever be better and nothing could ever go wrong. To a dream that showed of things to come and not of things that I would never know. To a day without sadness.
But that is my own fault.
I chose my path. I walk down it every day, closer and closer to the end, around bends and over creeks and fallen trees and sometimes I climb mountains. Then I stand on the top and I survey the land I'm walking through only to see never ending trees surrounding me, the paths below covered by foliage. Am I never to know what might have been?
Perhaps only more beautiful than the sight of her sleeping is her eyes when she first awakes. Sounds silly and cliche, but that's the way life goes sometimes. I love to see a smile on her face when she notices me watching and the feel of that good morning kiss soft on my lips as I close my eyes and greet my day.
That chance to turn back is always greatest when I get to watch her wake. I don't know how, as she's not Gwen and we've never walked down a dock together with my lingers laced through hers. Neither of us have living dreams and day after day, we walk into a world of grief and strife and a seemingly unending struggle to just survive.
But when I see her open those beautiful eyes, I think that maybe, just maybe, if I work hard enough, if I think about it hard enough, I can go back. I can do all those things and not have to worry about the future.
Maybe, just maybe, this is good enough.
Maybe.
Just maybe.