The paper of the last letter crinkled noisily as she folded it back up, but the sound didn't faze her. It may have been the stormy skies or the disturbing things Mark had expressed so far, but a heavy ceiling of depression started to weigh down on her normally happy spirit. Alisa had felt this way when the incident had first occurred, but she had been able to recover quickly, no knowledge of what her lover was writing every day, the emotions that were eating at him bit by bit. She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath of the damp ocean air before taking out the next letter.
My dearest Alisa,
I guess it would've been good to mention that that was water I had spilled (who on earth thought it would be a good idea to make English have proper phrases like "that that" in it? Idiots.)
Alisa smiled at his tangent, able to picture Mark actually saying something like that. It was good for her to see that not all of his odd humor had been completely drained from him at this point.
Oh yeah, I knew you would probably over think it or something, the way that you always do. I used to find that cute about you, you know that? Oh wait, I forgot that I'm supposed to be figuring out how to hate you. Going on like this isn't going to help I guess. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, I swear I haven't been drinking. Not at all. It's not like I'd get drunk after the woman who helped to dry me out broke my heart and stomped on it. No sir, not at all.
She pursed her lips, knowing the way he lied, the way he got happy when he was tipsy and the way he still had enough inhibitions to not slur his words or even come off as drunk. The slight curve to the letters and odd slant to the words on page really gave it away to her though.
One of the things that had initially turned Nathan away from letting Alisa have much contact with the farmer had been his drinking problem. She had to admit that was something she found not so admirable about him at first, but with her thought process—that everyone who needs help should be helped—she reached out to him. It took a while, but she had managed to tear him away from the wretched drink that she was adamantly vocal about how it ruined lives and made good people do bad things. She knew that every now and again he would drink a beer with his friends, but her infatuation with him had clouded her better judgment.
Your vows, your vows! her mind had shouted at her every day that she had grown closer to the man. It wasn't just her celibacy, but that she was not to have deep connections to those who purposefully took place in potentially immoral activities like drinking. She had pushed the thoughts aside and by the time everything had come crashing down it was too late for a change of mind.
And even now, reading his drunken musings, she couldn't help but be a little bit comforted by his carefree, non-angered words, despite where they had stemmed from. The stark change from the depression and gloom made her shamefully happy.
The unfortunate part about this was that in her gladness she had relaxed more than she should have and the letter was ripped from hands by a sudden gust of wind, much stronger than the spray of salt that the boat's speed had been causing.
"No!" she almost screamed as she chased the flying paper between the rows of empty benches. She hadn't even noticed the large box of envelopes go flying from her lap, now spilled at Nathan's feet. As long as that small ray of sunshine in the midst of the darkness didn't leave her, she would be fine. Unfortunately, just as she made her way to the very edge of the railing, the paper danced along her fingertips and was gone.
Emptiness filled her chest and Alisa just stood there for what seemed like a long time, silently mourning what she couldn't help but feel was one of Mark's only non-disheartening letters to her.
A/N: Truthfully, I am not at all happy with this one, but I felt like it would be good to flesh out Mark's flaws a little more than I have so far. Giving him (or any HM character that is) an alcohol problem gives fake characters in a happy video game slightly more realistic problems. And it's not just the drinking, but that he has serious dependency issues all the way around. That usually seems to be the stereotypical case for the female characters so I thought I'd switch things around. Yeah.
Anyhoo, reviews or even concrit would be greatly appreciated, so please feel free to express any thoughts.