note: inspired by the killers and naruto gaiden and feelings.
runaways
Falling in love is easy, she thinks. It's picking yourself up that's hard.
-x-
He fell in love slowly, he thinks. He was halfway in before he even knew.
He's been running ever since.
-x-
She watches her child play in the sandbox, her beautiful baby with big dreams and dark eyes. Like his eyes, she thinks, so familiar that her breath sometimes catches in her chest and she has to choke down the sadness like bitter medicine.
Her baby calls her name, and she smiles, running away from the dark thoughts, turning towards the light instead.
Because that's what she does.
Like she always does.
-x-
He swore on the head of his unborn child that he would take care of them. The three of them. Family, he thinks. The word is precious and fragile and too much to fathom, too bright and brilliant and painful. So he runs, turning towards the dark instead.
Because that's what he does.
Like he always does.
-x-
Why can't you stay, she begs. Stay for her. Stay for us. Please.
Why do you always run away?
You've always been running, and I've always been chasing after you so for once in your life, why can't you just stay?
He swallows.
I can't.
And then he's gone.
I'll come back. I'm not letting go.
His promises stay with her longer than he does.
-x-
Sometimes he comes in the middle of the night, arriving like a cloud across the moon. A dark interruption in the light of their lives.
While they sleep, he roams the halls of the house that they built –
she built, he corrects himself –
like a stumbling ghost, haunting both of their lives.
He stares at the pictures on the walls, at the images of himself plastered there. A stranger stares back.
The walls are full of pictures of them too. Pink and green and red and black, with some orange thrown in here and there.
The picture of their wedding day – she, radiant, beautiful, eyes full of love and life and hope.
He knows this girl. He loves this girl and her too green eyes.
[Suddenly he remembers tired eyes, bloodshot from crying. Words garbled by tears, but one ringing clear: Stay.]
You took that from her, a voice whispers in his head. It's in your blood.
And he runs.
I can't settle in these walls.
-x-
I can't sleep with empty words. I can't raise a daughter on promises and could-have-beens. We can't keep waiting for tomorrow. I'm not going to let you run away.
-x-
This is the one thing I can choose, he thinks. You can't lose what you never had.
Theirs is not a great romance, she thinks. They've got time, but that's not much. No point in trying to fight it.
They've always been runaways.
thanks for reading.