She can't focus, heart heavy, vision blurry, hands shaking. He's beautiful and she loves him and now he's back, really back, standing in front of her, with that cold, metallic expression she remembers, clearly.
"I thought you were gone forever." She's staring up at him with that look in her eyes, like he can save her (and he has to look away, he just can't save her).
"I thought you'd walked away from everything, because I failed." She says, not looking up. And god, he'd missed her (missed this, these awkward interchanges that hint at a truth he'll deny).
That's why he returned, because he missed her.
He missed those innocent sapphire eyes. He missed the shadow of her, that trailed him from Hoenn to Kanto (where the girl named Soul who'd dragged him back down this path with her innocent eyes , so much like May's), then from Kanto to Sinnoh (leaving the bed and easy warmth of Sinnoh's champion), and now the real girl is in front of him, gazing up at him like she loves him.
(he loves her, in his cold way- but she is warm.)
He'd missed her more than words can described. But he can't bring himself to say so.
(his silence will not protect him)
"I thought I'd destroyed the only thing that ever mattered to me." She steps closer, not touching but close enough to hear his heart. Thump thump thump.
(they're really quite separate, even after everything)
"Don't say that." He rasps out, in need of something, anything to say. He touches her face (he can't help it) running his hand down the pane of her cheek.
"I waited for you to come, but you didn't."
"Why would you think that."She smile is one of resignation, with the lines bunching on her forehead. She looks old, other that her seventeen years.
(with that, she's done fighting for them- champions know where to cut their losses)
He regrets it. The words consign in the base of his throat, but there is nothing. The damage is done.
(he will grieve her till the end of his days
she will never know)
.
she is too good, too young, too innocent and they simply cannot be.
fin