Missing her comes in waves. And tonight, he's drowning. He sat on the front porch of his home, nursing his scotch. Just like every night, this was his new normal.
How did this happen?
The same unanswered question he'd been asking himself for the past year. He still didn't have an answer. Today had just been another day of trying to get by without her.
He pulled a folded envelope that he'd kept in his pocket since he'd received it. She'd written him once upon her return to the states. He must've read and re-read the letter a thousand times. And each time, he'd fight the urge to run to her. He wasn't comfortable being that vulnerable.
He ran his fingers across the return address on the envelope and took another sip of his scotch. Under normal circumstances, he was level headed. But not tonight. Tonight, every ounce of self control he had, every single hesitation...gone. He was done fighting it. Done trying to convince himself that it would never work, that they were too different. He didn't want the picturesque idea of what love was supposed to be...he wanted her. He wanted what love is.
And that's how he ended up here...standing on a sidewalk, looking at a small white house with blue shutters as the sun rose behind him.
He inhaled sharply as he walked to the door and knocked. He stood there for what seemed an eternity until, there she was.
She stood there, with millions of memories flashing in her mind...flooded with emotion.
"H-Hawkeye?"
He spoke to her...no words necessary. His lips crashed onto hers with such a combustive force, it was like watching every star in the universe being born all at once. This kiss could've set the world on fire. Every emotion, every feeling being poured into this kiss.
In every scenario, in every lifetime, in every reality...he would choose her...and just like that, they knew everything was going to be alright.