TWS: Partoo!

Disclaimer: Must I need to say it every time?


"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal."
Richard Puz, The Carolinian


Chapter 5.2: True Love Never Dies (Even When The Person Does)

He'll never admit that his health is failing either.

He can barely eat, sleeping is already a form of luxury he can't afford, and he can't do his paperwork for more than 6 hours a day without getting constant headaches.

(He doesn't mention the way his hands shake uncontrollably, nor the idea that being a soldier is the only thing that's giving him a sense of relief. He never does.)

But then, he's never really good at screaming.


Days.

Months.

Years.

The dates never mattered anymore as the months flew past. He says that counting the days meant nothing anymore, and that counting the seconds before your death was like waiting for a bomb to explode. What's worse is that he doesn't even know how many seconds are left before he explodes.

Lexa, Juliette's sister, was the first to know about his condition. He never told her, nor did he need to. The more time they spent together, the more she gradually notices the slight changes in him.

(It was the way she looked at him, the way she acted—with her teal eyes always staring into his green ones, and how she hugged him too much—that made him realize she spent every waking moment together would him as if it would be their last one. The goodbyes exchanged already felt like each would be the last.)

She visits him almost every day and, for hours, they talked about whatever they could: her schooling, her parents, her progressive relationship with James Kent. On some days, when he felt like it, he talked about the life he once had as well, and the things he did to please Anderson, who desired to transform him into the perfect soldier. And on rare occasions, Warner would tell her about Juliette, the girl who changed the world.

It was rather beautiful, actually, when he told tales of the girl who changed the world. He told them as if he were singing a sacred song, a story that only those who live to tell can sing of, each word carefully spoken as if he were holding precious treasures that can never be replaced. He described her in ways that paintings and photographs can't—the color of her eyes and the way she smiled so brightly when he called her "love"—as if the memory of her was carved onto his skin the moment she claimed his heart.

He shows her various pictures that he collected in boxes, but there was one photograph that always stood out the most. A picture of a young woman with brown hair and eyes that are similar to her own. Lexa remembered the beautiful white dress that her sister wore, a small bouquet of white, purple, and yellow flowers on her right hand, and the other locked around the blond young man's arm. Their smiles felt as if the sun had decided to bless these two lovers and touched them with its brightness.

Alexandra's heart constricted. Pictures are never enough.

When Warner sang stories of her, he would close his eyes as him mind painted the picture of a woman in her early twenties, her long silky hair spilling from her shoulders. He would picture her with her arms open for him, a sad smile on her face.

He missed pulling her into his arms and listening as she sang songs that she had heard from the wind.

He missed feeling her soft skin pressed against his, her fingers tracing words and patterns, each mark searing his skin and making him ache.

He missed the times when she kissed him as if the world would run out of air if she hadn't.

He missed loving her.

He missed her.


8 years after Juliette's death, Kenji had been elected as the third president. He dutifully followed the footsteps of his best friend, continuing the path that she had left behind. It had been during his presidential period that great changes had been made. Turning the United States into a ferealized government was one of his most greatest contributions yet.

It was only later, when Warner and Kenji had a celebratory get-together, that Kenji had told him the real story behind everything: everything he had established was all idealized by Juliette herself. Juliette had dreams that ran for miles, and Kenji wanted to make her dreams come true; she gave him things that he always wished for. It was time for him to do the same.

Adam had pursued his dream of continuing education by going to college a year after he had built a new life in another sector, graduating several years after. It was there that he had fallen in love with Emma, a young woman who had dreams of becoming a doctor, who later became his wife. Juliette and Emma had been the closest of friends, and it was thanks to her that Juliette and Adam had finally brought closure to their unresolved issue.

Their wedding took place shortly after Emma finished college. Juliette had been the maid of honor, while Warner and James had been the best men (Adam found it too hard to choose between his brothers, so he went with both).

Now they're happily living together with their two children, Andrew and Juliet.

(Warner thought that they named their youngest child after one of Shakespeare's characters. It wasn't until after Juliet told her favorite uncle that her parents named her after Juliette that Warner hugged his 5-year-old niece and began to let the tears take over him.)

Alexandra, on the other hand, became the new Colonel Chief Regent and leader of Sector 45 after dropping out of college. Her parents had accepted and supported her decisions despite the hesitation in their actions. Juliette had never met her parents in the years that led up to her death, but he was hoping that, wherever she was, she had found it in her heart to forgive them, to let go of the mistakes they had done to her and be happy for her little sister, who grew up to be loved and happy, just like everyone else whose lives she has touched and vice-versa.

Everyone but him.


Warner was the first to notice the ring on Lexi's finger and the nervous/excited smile on James's face.

May 18th, Lexi told him, because she wanted her sister to celebrate that day with them too.

Juliette's birthday


But he dies a month before the wedding. A day before his birthday.

His illness could be cured. He knows that. But never in a day of his life has he asked for it, nor will he ever do so.

He doesn't ask for the painkillers, the therapy, or the cures and surgeries that his own friends offer him. Beg him to accept.

He wants to feel the pain of it all, because, for once, it's the only thing that's making him feel so alive. It's the only thing that keeps him awake; knowing that pain exists exists for a reason.

(Knowing that he's one step closer to spending a lifetime with her. With them.)

If there will come a time when his wish would be granted, he hoped it would be soon.


His last memory is that of a beautiful young woman with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She smiles, eyes gleaming, and it reminds him of a smile that he used to see often, a smile that often calmed his heart and freed him from countless nightmares.

A smile that he once loved, and loves still.

It is only when he whispers her name that he sees a small girl standing firmly beside her mother. The young girl looks at him, shy and unsure of what to do, before she calls him the one thing that he's never heard in his life.

She calls him "daddy", and that is what truly brings him to tears.

The woman takes his hand in hers and helps him up, out of the bed, and to the place where he truly belongs. With his wife and child.

Along the way, he tells her of his life after her passing. He tells her of what became their friends, his moments of loneliness and desperation, and of the girl—a girl who was fierce and brave and loving. A girl who changed his life, just like how her sister did.


The heart monitor beeps, and sounds of grief and relief echoes in the hospital room.

Grief, for the loss of a man who has lost himself.

Relief, for the man who will finally be with the people he loves the most.


Aaron Warner is a 30 year old man who has never married after Juliette. And now he's sitting alone, half out of his own mind, in a local bar.

Most men that come here drown themselves in anger, sorrow, or boredom. Some drink for the sake of mourning over wasted opportunities, while some drink for the sake of drinking.

He was there for neither of those things.

Aaron Warner was there not because he's lost his mind and his heart to his own sorrows, nor because he's lost his love for her; It was never because he had fallen out of love.

He drinks to forget.

He drinks in honor of her. In honor of what could've been.

But it's only half the truth—

—because before he could even order a drink, a young girl with brown hair and blue-green eyes comes into the bar, takes him by the arm and pulls him out, away from loneliness.

He realizes that, in the end, she was always there to save him when he unknowingly needed it.

(Just like how a certain girl saved him even when she never knew how to save herself.)

In the end, he dies with a solemn smile on his face.

In the end, he is happy.


A/n: I need a drink.

I wasn't expecting to finish this terrible piece, actually. I felt like part 1 was already a good story itself, but then I felt guilty for not giving a satisfying ending...so I decided to make this little nugget.

Well, at least they're happy now...

It's time to start with a new chapter. This time I'm doing the "Juliette is pregnant and Warner faints a lot" thing.

Also, I'm currently accepting requests and such. You can PM me here, send me a review, or ask me on aaron-warner, my tumblr blog. Thanks!