A/N: "When She Loved Me" by Sarah McLachlan is oh so completely to blame here. I'm not the first to do this, I know, but here's my take on it.
Always
He is so happy now that he's finally found her. He can't imagine, won't imagine life without her and his hands over hers and his promise he would rather die than break.
He tells her that he'll never see her get hurt. That he's here to protect her now, and he will be here.
Always.
Always will be here.
She smiles and holds him like she loves him.
---
Every hour they've ever spent together lives within his heart.
But she's been forgetting things lately, been slipping up because of fears she has, of nightmares with scythes and knives and her blood-red dress staining the floor red, red, red.
He holds her close and vows to make all the nightmares go away.
She smiles, hopeful, and holds him like she loves him.
---
She sleeps, but when she does she is still very unhappy.
She sleeps on nothing but empty dreams.
He stays by her every waking hour, holds her close.
She can feel his breath.
He's holding her like he loves her.
Only one day he realizes the truth.
He's holding her because he loves her.
---
He waits for the day when she will say I will always love you.
He waits and waits.
It doesn't feel like the day is coming.
He's never been one for waiting, but he knows it's there. He can feel it. And he's never wrong.
---
One day he asks her if she's afraid.
She says I am, I am, everything's so scary here and I don't like it. Everything's so scary. I don't like it and I want to be free.
He says he'll set her free someday.
She smiles and holds him like she loves him, but, maybe for the first time, he realizes it's just a game.
She isn't holding him because she really loves him.
She's holding him because it's the pretty lie he wants to hear.
---
It feels like years go by. Nothing changes for him. He is still the same.
But she is drifting away, holding her paper dreams close, holding her real hero close.
The other boy. Holding Sora close.
Still he waits for the day when she will say I will always love you.
Still he waits for the day when she will hold him because she loves him.
Not like she loves him.
But because she loves him.
Still he waits, and waits, and waits.
---
Even now, even half-dead and with darkness coming close and with his eyes rolling and his blood evaporating and Real Thing condescending above him, even now he wants Naminé to come to him and say I will always love you.
Maybe it's a lie.
But it's the pretty lie he wants to hear.
The pretty lie he wants to hear just once more, just one more time.
Please, he needs the lie one more time, before—
Before the world goes black.
---