I watched Vampire Diaries recently and this was inspired by the whole doppelganger thing which runs through the series.
Do you still remember?
When their eyes met, it was across the span of ages.
He knew this woman. He had known her before. Loved her before and he knew with a heavy, solid, without a doubt feeling, that he would love her again.
The small second between the lifting and the falling of her lashes as she blinked, he glimpsed a deluge of images that were shocking in their absolute clarity. Her frightened face, not her own and yet the one that housed her soul, huddled along a muddy embankment with tears in her eyes. There was her courage, shining through as she bravely lifted her face to the crowd of raucous onlookers and allowed the noose to be slipped around her neck, she ignored the taunts and accusations while she calmly awaited her execution.
There was her voice, low and sweet, as she sang to him while he had laid bleeding to death on a battlefield in her arms. There was her spirit, beautiful and unquenchable, as she allowed him to spin her around a dance floor in the depths of a ship on a collision course with destiny.
Lifetimes upon lifetimes that they had known each other, felt each other, touched the other's lives in a way that no other could. And countless more, where they did not get the chance to meet, where they were nothing more than a ghost of a whisper in each other's dreams, to be forgotten with the morning.
Names, faces, destinies...all varying and yet, none of it mattered now, none of it, other than the fact that they had found each other once again.
The only difference was, this time they had remembered what came before.
That face: the face before him now, had been haunting his dreams since he was a child. He had always wondered who she was, and why his subconscious felt the need to manifest her just as it always did.
And now Jack Dawson know.
She blinked at him, innocently enough behind the wire frames of her glasses, and lifted the mug to her lips. He could see the questions in her eyes. She wanted to know why he was staring. She didn't feel threatened quite yet, seeing as they were in a public place and at separate tables. But she was edgy underneath his scrutiny. She blinked those gorgeous green eyes, the ones he knew so well, that he had looked into so many times and yet, they robbed the breath from him.
He smiled and offered a name, and after a moment she gave him hers. It was a beautiful name and he told her so. She responded with a roll of her beautiful green eyes, but he could tell he had pleased her, if just a tiny bit. Laugh lines crinkled around her eyes, and her mouth turned up at the corners, a dimple appearing in one cheek.
He suddenly wanted to kiss her. He wanted to crush her against him and devour her mouth until the need for oxygen overcame their need for each other. He wanted to tell her everything; for every word to spill out, ages and ages that they had loved and lost each other. He needed it to be different, this time, it had to be.
She looked slightly wary, as though she was able to read his mind, and was wondering at the desperation layering his every thought. She's so beautiful.
Every face, every time, she is always so beautiful. Because she was his. His soulmate.
But, they were cursed. Or it seemed.
Did meeting her in this life mean that another tragedy awaited?
Had they met in lifetimes, loved in lifetimes, without tragedy?
He didn't know. He couldn't remember.
He took a deep, cleansing breath. Time to step forward and embrace their fate once more.
"I know you," he whispered soft.
She lifted her mug to her soft parted lips; taking a sip and swallowed her coffee. Her eyes, suddenly serious, gazed unblinking into his.
"Yes," she said. "You do."
He felt a mixture of joy and confusion wash over him.
"I remember," she said, quietly.
Of course.
He tried to control the shaking of his hands.
Of course. If he could remember, why shouldn't she?
"I've been waiting for you," she whispered.
His mouth felt dry. For a moment, he was speechless. Finally, a word forced itself from his throat, barely above a whisper. "Forever."
She gave a nod. She seemed dry, almost analytical, in the midst of such an unforgettable realisation. But then, he was always the passionate one. But, she was fiery too. Her temper...her love...
Out of nowhere, long ago, steam-drenched images filtered through his head; them, another them, loving each other in the backseat of a Renault, her damp red curls clinging to her face and neck as she pulled his head down for a long, breathless kiss...
She set her mug carefully on the table, and stood, weaving around tables and chairs until she reached his side. Instead of sitting, she chose to stand before him, gazing solemnly at his face, as though searching for all the lives which they had known before.
At last, she spoke to him, directly.
"I don't want to lose you."
Again, he wanted to touch her, to kiss her-the need was even stronger than before,
"I don't want to lose you," she repeated, her voice still low, but strong. "Not this time."
He took a breath, letting it out slowly. "Me neither.''
"Oh.'' Her voice was mild, but her eyes sparked with a multitude of emotions.
They stared at each other for a minute.
He had yet to touch her.
Did they curse each other with love? It was entirely possible. Tragedy seemed to befall them whenever they met. Death followed revelation in short order. At least, that seemed to be the trend.
As though she sensed the direction of his thoughts, she gave a gentle shake of her head. "There's no way we can know."
He reached out at last, taking her small, soft hand in his own and he squeezed it, gently. "I guess," he said, slowly, "all we can do...is live."
The smile that split her face was brilliant and by far the most beautiful thing which he had ever seen.
At least in a hundred years.
"Do you trust me?" he asked, the words speaking themselves. A last vestige of a past life, perhaps. One last remnant from a love affair, in another time, cut tragically short.
Her hand tightened around his, and she nodded.
"I trust you."
When their eyes met, it spanned across the ages...
But now, as he stood and placed a hand against the small of her back, steering her out of the modern cafe...centuries past was discarded, and it was only them.
Fate brought them together once again. But, they could only pray that this time it would remain.