Disclaimer: I don't own Person of Interest or the Characters
A/N: Based on the Broken Iris song A New Hope
One of them was always going to be standing there, he had known that and he had prepared for it.
But it was never going to be him.
He had run dozens of scenarios, and it wouldn't be him, never him. Yet here he was standing in a cemetery, staring at a stone. A stone where his best friend should have been standing with that awful quizzical look that rarely left his face when they were together.
He loved that look, the tone of his voice that accompanied it.
For a moment his gaze left the stone and found the rose in his hand. To others the rose would have been thought of as traditional, maybe even boring, but he knew it to be much more. A rose was traditional, yes, but it was also beautiful, dangerous, layered…
The cool wind relentlessly assaulted him, what surprised him the most was the fact that he could still feel it at all. It was a cruel reminder that he was still there, still alive, alone.
He hadn't thought it possible but as he stood there he realized how unaware he was of how very deep his feelings were for the other man.
He had known that he loved him and he had never been given a chance to question whether or not the feelings were reciprocated, it was made quite clear that they were.
His hands began to shake, he had hated those hands, been ashamed of them, all they had done and all they were capable of. But when he had taken those hands in his, when he had touched them…
He had never been so grateful for those hands.
Why was this happening? Why wasn't he there? Why couldn't he save him?
What was he supposed to do?
They were supposed to have forever.
He had saved his life and he had never once asked for a thank you, without him he would never have survived for this long. And as much as he wanted to leave the world, as much as he was done, he could never wish to have not met him.
But what was he supposed to do now?
He looked at the stone, "I love you"
And for the first time, Harold didn't say it back.