I looked at the clock. 9:42. Three minutes until Tobias would get here. I sat on my windowsill and gazed out of the window, watching for a red-tailed hawk with intelligent eyes. At 9:45 exactly, I saw Tobias flying towards my house. I smiled, opening my window and allowing him to fly in and land softly on my bed. I shut the window as he demorphed, smiling when I saw his messy brown mop of hair. He demorphed with a smile on his face. We tried to smile every time we were together, simply because we didn't have enough time to be sad. He could morph and demorph to stay longer, but for some reason, we never considered that. Maybe we enjoyed torturing ourselves - I honestly don't know.
"Tobias…" I sighed, collapsing into his arms. He wrapped his arms around me, kissing my forehead and burying his nose in my strawberry-scented hair. I could feel my body start to shake with my sobs. Be strong, Rachel.
"I thought we agreed not to cry." Tobias said gently, the smile still on his face, lifting my chin and brushing my tears away.
"I can't help it, Tobias…I miss you. I miss you so much. I'm so sick of this…These two-hour meetings. I want to be with you…I don't want to see you for only two hours a night. I want to be able to go to formal dances with you. I want to be able to go out to dinner with you. I want to be able to be your girlfriend. But I can't. I can't be your girlfriend, because everyone thinks you're dead. Everyone thinks you're DEAD, Tobias. All I want is for you to be alive…To magically come back. To go back to school, where I can walk down the hallways holding your hand. We all miss you, Tobias. You're a part of our group. But I'm the only one who's in love with you. God, Tobias, I love you. I love you so much." I stopped talking for a moment, shocked at the emotions that were spilling out of my mouth. My tears had stopped long before, but I had managed to get out of Tobias' arms. He was sitting on my bed now, staring up at me in shock. I collapsed into another fit of tears, and crawled into his lap.
"Shh…" Tobias hushed me. "It's okay, Rachel. I'm here now, you know. Who cares if we can't be together more often?"
"…I care, Tobias. I love you, and I want to show that love to everyone." I said, curling up in his lap.
Tobias lifted my chin and brought his lips to mine. "I love you, Rachel. And believe me, if it was possible, I would stay with you forever. God, I love you. You know that." I could see the tears in his eyes, threatening to spill over.
"You know…There is a way." I suggested after a hesitation.
Tobias' eyes widened. "You mean stay in morph for more than two hours?" I nodded. "Then I'm just stuck where I began. I'd be even more useless as a human than I was as a hawk. At least now I can morph again. You know I love you, Rachel, but our war is probably a lot more important. I'm willing to sacrifice our happiness for the protection of the world…I don't know about you."
I knew Tobias was right. He was usually right. He always made so much sense. I kissed him again, the tears pouring freely down my face now.
I felt Tobias shake me gently. "Rachel…Wake up." He whispered to me, leaning close, his lips brushing my cheek. I opened my eyes. I fell asleep? I looked at the clock. 11:40. Only five minutes. I sighed.
"Are you coming back tomorrow night?" I asked.
"Of course I am." He held my face in his hands and looked me in the eye. "I love you, Rachel. And don't you forget it." He kissed me quickly before starting to morph back to his red-tailed hawk body. I opened the window and he nipped my finger affectionately before flying out into the black sky.