Love is friendship that has caught on fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. - Ann Landers
He is a creature of habit. Instilled in him are decades of diligent training and regiment. Abiding to those in need. Adhering to all that is right and justice. He is what people strive for, perfection. However she is the complete opposite, a creature of poison. Years of war torn childhood filled to brim with pain for pleasure, bitter for sweet. Numbing herself from the world. She abides to those who pay more. Adheres to those who are meant to disappear from existence. She is what people fear. Yet, they follow one another. Yet they defied the odds. How can two beings so diverse in every way possible fall hopelessly for one another?
To him, she is a puzzle he must solve. Nothing will satisfy his thirst more, than to know more about her. To her, he is something to prove. Prove to him, herself, the world. Show them that she is capable of more.
Unraveling each thread he reveals the cracks, her flaws, her fears. Not wanting anything more than to heal her. To show her that she is more than what she believes. To make her senses ignite, to make her whole once more. He will fix her. Mirroring each other, she too realizes that the hero in all his glory is only human as well. She finds the chinks in his armor, the hidden ugly scars, and the thoughts that have been long casted away. She has found them all. Not wanting to turn a blind eye towards them, she nurtures him. Providing him with the support that he so desperately needs. Because out of all the people in the world she truly knows what it is like to barricade oneself behind a wall, to lock everything away. She will shield him.
A relationship of symbiosis transcends into a symphony of compassion and understanding. With each step they grow. Every touch, every word, every gesture, every glance, everything holds meaning. To the outside world it may only seem like stolen glimpses or blatant words, but the true meaning of them all lies within each other. She does not need to vocalize her affection for him constantly. There are other means that she utilizes. Now whenever she does say it, the intentions behind it engulfs his heart. Searing her signature within his very being. He does not need to tell her about her beauty. Simple touches alone sends messages exceeding the limit of verbal communication. His fingers leaves burning trails along her skin, his kisses speak of devotion to her and only her, what cannot be communicated through sound resonates with touch.
But it is not always perfect, nothing ever is. Nightmares continuously plague their minds. As remainders to them of what they chose not to remember, to relive. Some nights she finds him utterly paralyzed in his sleep as if the death that was suppose to consume him in the past has now come to rep the benefits of it. He on the other hand would wake up to her screaming and thrashing about angrily. To fight is to live, to live is to fight; words that have buried its way into her soul, resurfacing every moment when she feels fear.
In these fragile moments they realize how much they need each other. To become the anchor for one another. Grounding them back to reality, casting away the demons of themselves. Vulnerability is a frightening thing. To see each other hurt, scared, and desperate only brings about an even firmer resolve of yes. Yes I do understand, yes it was only a dream, yes I will never leave you, yes I am real, and yes…I love you.