1991

He stacked his boxes slowly, wanting to delay the time he had left here. A look around the place however, told him that that was rather impossible since his mother had been here earlier, merticulessly cleaning up every odds and ends. He sighed. This room was the place where he had slept for the past fifteen years. Having to leave made him feel unsettled. But that wasn't the reason he didn't want to leave.

A knock resounded upon the door, ripping him from his thoughts.

"Come in," he called.

Instead of his mother (whom he thought had come to nag at him once more), Sydney walked in. Without a word, she started helpping lift the boxes up and bringing them out to the moving van. They didn't need to establish eye contact, for they wanted to cherish this last moment between them.

When the last box had been uploaded, he turned back to look at her. He had something to tell her, but before he could do so, his mother yelled for him.

"Julian, we have to go!"

He smiled sadly at Sydney, sadness playing about his face. He enveloped her in his arms.

"Promise me you'll write, JuJu," she sniffled into his shoulder.

He smiled at the use of his childhood name, the one Sydney had used when she first met him and couldn't pronouce his proper name.

/flashback/

"Julian."

"Ju-, Ju-, JuJu?"

"Julian." It was said firmly, for he did not like nicknames.

"JuJu." This one was stubborn. And he knew he couldn't do anything to change that.

So he said with resignation, "JuJu."

/end flashback/

"'Course I will," he said, patting her comfortingly on the back. Trying to make her laugh, he added, "You'll kill me if I don't"

She laughed shortly through her tears before sobering again. Then she stepped back from him.

"So...I guess this is goodbye," she implored.

He nodded quickly, neginning to feel the procklings of tears at the corner of his eyes. Not wanting her to see him crying, he swiftly turned and walked briskly to the awaiting car. Turning for one last wave, he got into it before his mother started the car and drove off. He watched the figure of Sydney get smaller and smaller in the distance till she was nothing more than a small dot. He softly breathed a sigh of regret.

He never told her he loved her.

0 0 0 0 0

By now, the tears streamed down her face like a broken dam, She mentally chided herself for not being brave enough to tell hem. And now he was gone.

She never told him she loved him.

A/N: Just in case, Sark and Sydney met when they were four. And they were neighbours, for those who still don't know.