Fate POV
My job is a little frustrating, at times. I'm blamed for a lot. People curse my name. I suppose, considering what I do, I deserve some of that hate. Some, but not all. The happy endings are my responsibility, too. The lovers kiss, the serendipitous chance meeting, the happily ever after. I make them happen. But generally, Fate gets dragged out and over coals when bad things happen. Fatal. Ill-fated. Bad luck.
Most people come under my hands once, twice if they're lucky. The only exception I've seen in my existence is a pair of lovers who never seem to find the happy ending they wish for. In their first life, they were called Romeo and Juliet. These days, they're a legend. Their names are twined together in the minds of people as perfect lovers, and they are idealised and wished for. But truly, they barely knew each other then. They were so young, so innocent, so carefree and headstrong. Until I came into the picture, I suppose they would have found true happily ever after in each other, but the powers larger than I moved me to keep the girl asleep a little longer, the boy to drive the hand into himself just as the girl began to wake, and her despair drove the rest. But, instead of the two being lost in the paths beyond my control, they drifted back through my realm and were reborn.
In the beginning, I thought little of it. They were not the first to have passed through twice, and certainly would not be the last. But, in that lifetime, they once again followed the path of love and loss and death, they still returned through my domain. Curious. It was an unprecedented return, of more than once. And as they were reborn once more, their lives once again traced their now-familiar path.
Birth. Meetings. Love. Death. And repeat.
Over and over. More times than I ever imagined possible, the lovers met and fell in sync with one another, retracing their lives like clockwork. I grew accustomed to their presence in my realm, and soon I barely noticed their retrace. New lives began and ended, but theirs went on. The girl kept most memories. The boy remembered when they kissed. And that kiss was always the beginning of their end, the catalyst for their return to me. After watching them for so long, I began to wonder whether I could influence their path. Once, I crossed their paths early in their lives. The pattern was shorter, but it still remained.
Birth. Meeting. Love. Death.
I've tried to keep their paths separate. But the paths jump and twist until once again they meet side by side and cross to a dead end. This time, I want to try to keep them alive after they kiss and meet and part. If I cross their paths twice, will they survive?