Just a short piece I shared with one of my forums a couple months ago. Stumbled upon it earlier today and thought I'd share it here :) Enjoy
Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution (c) Marvel Comics
"You shouldn't have come here, Lance."
The rain pounded hard onto the streets. A dark, lifeless grey painted the sky, and the air was cold and tasted bitter. In a flash, his mind took him back to the rainy afternoons that they had spent together, the ones that consisted of horror movies (and the occassional chick flick) and freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. He remembered the way she would sometimes squirm out of his embrace for a moment and walk over to the window to watch the raindrops race on the glass.
"When I was little," she'd say. "I used to hate the rain. How it'd make the place all muddy, how it'd trap me inside whenever I wanted to go out to play. Whenever I decided to sulk about it my mom would pick me up and make me sit on her lap, then say that I outta be more sensitive, because-"
"The sky was crying," he'd finish for her. "That must be the billionth time you've told that story, at least."
Then she'd smile, everytime. "See, you do pay attention."
He wondered if she remembered that, those little moments. The ones that were seemingly insignificant to him back then, until now. There were still so many things he wanted to say to her. So many unanswered questions, so many things left unspoken. For a split second, Lance Alvers wanted to ask her about all of them. Instead, he swallowed his words.
She was right, as she always was. He knew he shouldn't have come. "I know."
Her eyes bore into his, and he allowed himself to get lost in them once again. To remember the touch of her skin, the sound of her laugh, the taste of her lips. His heart ached, yearned for her. Some silly girl in his Chemistry class that he was still in love with, after all this time.
I'm sorry, he wanted to tell her, over and over.
I'm sorry
I'm sorry
I'm sorry
They were just two stupid words yet he couldn't bring himself to say them. And so the two of them simply stood. Two strangers. That's all they were now. All that was left.
God, she's beautiful.
He watched as her hair dampened from the rain, the way she shivered because of the cold. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her like he once had, but he couldn't. He was shaken himself. And he hated himself for it.
"Goodbye, Lance," she whispered, just loudly enough for him to hear. And the trance was broken.
Before he could process what happened, Katherine Pryde was already halfway down the street. She was gone now, but her words still hung in the air, breaking his heart instead of being washed away in the rain.
Goodbye.
