Fic Title: El amor después del amor/ Love after love
Author: Lena
Email:
Rated: R
Background: Sequel to Better Man. Last part of the Aftermath Trilogy
Disclaimer: I still don't own a single thing related to OTH. Seriously, I don't. I have a new plant, if that counts for anything. I don't own the song "El amor después del amor" by Fito Páez either, although I believe is perfect for this fic.
Thanks to my beloved beta, Raven.
El amor despues del amor
The streets of Tree Hill welcomed the sunset like every single day as she walked by, heading home. She smiled at the feeling of the soft wind caressing her cheek. Her mind and heart imagining that it was him caressing her. From the distance, from wherever it was that he was now.
Suddenly, the memory of him struck her again, as it did from time to time: his going away all those years ago, his silence, his non-existent attempts to contact her.
He had left, and he had never come back. Never.
A tear went down on Haley's cheek… silently, sadly, heart broken. She had tried to move on, to meet someone else.
No one could compare to him. To the image of him she held so closely to her heart, the one that was her companion in lonely nights.
She recalled his imagine every time she sang a song for her music students. She remembered the first time she sang for him in the Café, his smile, his tenderness.
Him.
At the beginning, she could not understand his decision. She was mad, sad, heart broken and she thought that he was running away from her. That he did not love her anymore. That he had lied that rainy morning… lied to her.
She had hated him. She fell apart in tears for days and days, hating him for leaving her, missing every single touch of his fingers on her skin. Every single mark on his body. Every single smirk he used to greet her with.
The anger and bitterness were a poison to her soul, paralyzing her. Until one day she woke up and saw her life passing by as she'd become a bystander of it. That was not her, it had never been.
She rose above her pain and started over, fighting to become what she wanted to be.
It was then when she realized… that he loved her. That his reason to leave had been honest and thoughtful. That he was trying, in his own way, to make things better.
She cried one more time, regretting all that time hating him, falling for him all over again.
El amor después del amor, tal vez,
se parezca a este rayo de sol
y ahora que busqué
y ahora que encontrré
el perfume que lleva el dolor
en la esencia de las almas
en la ausencia del dolor
Ahora se que ya no puedo
vivir sin tu amor
Love after love, perhaps
Looks like this sunbeam
And now that I looked for
And now that I found
The scent that the pain carries
In the essence of the souls
In the absence of pain
Now I know that I cannot
Live without your love
Haley sighed as the soft wind caressed her one more time. On those lonely nights, when the summer was meeting the fall, when the weather was chilly but yet not cold, when the wind was soft but there; on those nights she missed him even more. Because she missed his warm arm around her shoulders in a protective gesture.
All her friends have moved on: they have lives, marriages, love, kids, jobs, the whole package.
She had the job and the house, but she hadn't moved on. She couldn't do it… if she did, she'd be leaving him behind.
She didn't want to leave him behind. Not now, not ever.
Me hice fuerte ahí,
donde nunca vi.
Nadie puede decirme quien soy
yo lo se muy bien, te aprendí a querer
el perfume que lleva el dolor
en la esencia de las almas
dice toda religión
Para mi que es el amor
despues del amor
I grew strong there
Where I've never seen
No one can tell me who I am
I know it very well, I learnt to love you
The scent that the pain carries
In the essence of the souls
Says every religion
For me that is love
After love
As she embraced the melancholy ache that the night was bringing into her she sighed deeply and moved forward on her walk. It was time to get yet another of her lonely, long walks. The ones where she'd take him with in her thoughts.
She slowly started by the docks, remembering their first tutoring session, then moved forward to the place where they had dinner on their disastrous first date, then her old house, when he first kissed her. A tear went down her cheek. Her first kiss… their first kiss.
Tree Hill High School was an image of the past, a symbol of a life slowly eroded as the blue paint and his number were on the entrance rock. All those years ago they thought that happiness could be possible for them.
Deep inside of her, she still did. She still felt like they could make it. That they would make it.
She slowly passed her fingers through the rock and sighed deeply "I miss you, my love" she admitted aloud.
Haley started to move one more time, to the final spot on that memory lane she was walking. The beach looked peaceful and forceful at the same time. Like they were… like what they had been.
She slowly stood in the spot where she took her vows all those years ago, a tear running down her cheek.
"Where are you, Nathan?" she asked to the wind "Happy anniversary"
"I'm here…" A voice came from behind, the one she'd longed for years now, the one she'd dreamed to hear again. She slowly turned around and she saw him standing there, smiling softly at her.
He slowly walked towards her and Haley witnessed his aged face, the marks around his eyes, signs of hard work. Nonetheless, he was still the same…
His eyes were the same. His smile was the same.
"Happy anniversary" he said hesitantly "I know it took me a while and I know I have no right to ask, but I'm back, Hales. I'm finally the type of person you deserve. The one that would not let you down"
"You've never let me down" she replied softly
"Yes, I did… I know I did. And I needed to change that before coming back to you, Hales. Even if it meant that you were not here to come back to…" he trailed off, not wanting to end that phrase.
Haley put her hands on his, noticing how rough they had become and she took them to her face "I'm here. I've always been here, Nathan. It took me a while, but I understood what you meant that morning. And it made me love you even more…"
"Do you love me still? Because I do love you, Haley" he said
"I love you too, Nathan" she replied, her chocolate brown eyes filling with tears of emotion.
Nadie puede y nadie debe vivir sin amor
Nadie puede y nadie debe vivir sin amor
una llave con una llave y esa llave es mi amor
una llave con otra llave y esa llave es tu amor.
No one can and no one should live without love
No one can and no one should live without love
One key with one key and that key is my love
One key with another key and that key is your love
"Don't cry" he said softly "No more tears" and then he leaned in and kissed her, sealing his promise to love her and cherish her, one more time.