Be Careful What You Wish For
Unfortunately, I don't own Mary Poppins.
He ages and she doesn't and as the years go by he feels more and more a fool for having fallen in love with her in the first place.
He's leaving for the war and she asks him if he could have one wish, what would it be?
"Please don't alter," he says and she smiles sadly at him, knowing that the wish will come true. If she could have a wish then she'd wish the same for now his wish will come true and she will never change, never, even as he ages.
"Can I kiss you?" he asks and she nods, their lips meeting for the first and last time before he leaves.
Five years later he returns and finds her exactly the same. He says he didn't realise that his wish would come true but she nods sadly and then kisses him.
***
Thirty years pass and he's old now. His joints ache in the mornings and when he wakes up next to her he feels a disgusting old man.
"I love you shamelessly," she says to him when he shies away from her touch. He wants to believe her but he can't, not when her youthful hand is resting against his withered one.
People stare at them when they go out in public and that's why they keep to themselves. She doesn't mind the stares because she loves him but he does because he loves her.
***
It's fifty years after his wish when he lays on his deathbed, his still-youthful lover holding his hand. Though he doesn't want to die he can't help but feel relieved she'll be free of him. These past years have been difficult on her though she hasn't said anything, but they've been living together for fifty years now and he knows her as well as he knows himself.
"I'll never love anyone ever again," she says and he closes his eyes in pain, both mental and physical.
"I'll always love you," he replies, and opens her eyes. Her face is hazy through his tears but he knows what she looks like – after all, she hasn't changed for the past half-century.
"I wish..." she begins but bites her tongue. She doesn't want to make a mistake.
"Don't wish anything," he whispers, and with the last of his strength raises her soft hand to his lips. "I love you."
"I love you," she replies and she hears him take his last breath. A single tear slips down her smooth cheek as her heart dies with him.