Authors Notes: A drabble, that's all, really. Done in the random break I found I had...
"Did you know I loved you once?" he whispered in her ear, tickling her neck with his stubble.
She laughed, a loud and boundless laugh, the one that had haunted his ears for years. "You made it pretty obvious to, well, the entire world, darling. They still can't get that declaration off the forth corridor wall…"
She looked up at him, her eyes as always jovial, amused and daring. Whirling, enough to make him lightheaded when she was in a mood like this. "But did you believe me?" he pressed, "Did you ever think it could be true? We were so young…"
She didn't meet him this time, he could tell she was going to skip round the topic, find something to distract him, charm him, divert him… She usually managed to succeed; her lips were hard to resist when they brushed against yours. But not this time, he promised, this time it's important.
"James," she said, smiling delicately, "How could I ever doubt you?" It was sincere, affectionate; the innocence time had taken from her voice returned for just that line. She put her head into his lap, like they had used to do by the lake in the days when life was life and to be lived and gallant responsibilities for the older and wiser. She breathed with him, life itself as they inhaled and exhaled in time. He let his fingers linger on her neck, let himself relax, let himself be drowned in her, like they'd used to do. It used to be that presence was gold and kisses diamonds. But when the world's falling, tumbling into disarray, suddenly there's always something more important, something that needs attention, something to pull you away.
But he wasn't going to be pulled away today. Today she was his and he was hers and that was all that mattered. It was selfish, inadequate, weak even… The world needed them and they knew it. But for one more day in the sun, he thought, one more day of peace. And then he slowly drifted asleep, his hand tightly clasped by a loved one.
It would be the last day he ever spent like that. The last day he was ever truly free.
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