A/N: This is another random word prompt which is a little bit different but hopefully you all enjoy it. Let me know!
Chapter 17: Wilting
His mind flashed back to her terrifying body, muscles tensing in her legs as she waved her giant tessen at his enemy to protect him. Back to the feel of her body on his the first time they'd ever been together. Back to the thumping kicks coming from her distended belly as he tried to hug her to sleep in her pregnancy. Back to a few years ago, going for walks as a somewhat elderly couple with their grandchildren.
Her body looked so frail now, lying thinner and smaller in their bed and propped up with pillows. He himself had aged considerably too, but his beautiful wife had lost a lot of her robust body to illness. She still was beautiful though, he thought to himself, as he smiled softly at her, watching her unique eyes skim over the pages of her book. He spent a lot of time these days just watching her, soaking in all of the things she did and the way she looked during them. As she would sit reading, watching programs, tending to her plants, whatever it was, he would simply observe her with a new passion; not the same hormone-driven passion he had once viewed her with, but the passion with which stargazers watch the night sky. He wanted to commit every expression she ever had to memory before that was all he had of her.
They had known this was coming for a while; the couple had aged gracefully into their seventies with no problems until this one came. And when it did, doctors had given them almost a year of forewarning. They couldn't complain about the amount of time they got to spend together; it really had been the ideal life.
Still, it was difficult to watch someone he knew to once be so gloriously young, so bold and brash and uncaring about danger to now be bound to these few rooms. They had even moved their bedroom downstairs to avoid stair-climbing in these final few months. At first she had insisted he stay in their old bedroom – sleeping alone from now would make the transition much easier after she was gone – but after him joining her downstairs on account of them both being unable to sleep without the presence of the other for the first week, he had just permanently moved down with her.
"I love you." She squeezed his hand in hers and brought it to her lips, breaking him out of his reverie. She was looking at him from behind her book, smiling with a gentle smile that had only become so soft with age. They both looked down at their intertwined hands, their scratched wedding bands showing their unending connection to each other.
She could almost laugh at how much they had both changed over the years. Their affection had grown from the flirty, witty back and forth of teenagers into a love strong enough to overcome the distance between their villages. It even grew into enough to last through a child, new houses, new jobs, new difficulties each day. With each step of the way their love had changed form to accommodate their stages of life. She smiled fondly reminiscing about those days where they had been so nervous around each other, and so uncertain of what their relationship was. He was now her most trusted friend, her confidant and her rock. She couldn't imagine what her life would have been like without him. Certainly, much worse.
There had been a time where she had not wanted him to ever see her like this; fragile and old. She would never even show him the weakness of her having a cold in their younger days. Now, she couldn't imagine who else she would want to come with her to her appointments, giving her medicines when she forgot, holding her hand when she was receiving bad news. In truth, she would have wanted to do this for him. She didn't want to bear the thought of him going through these things with no one to help. Of course, Shikadai was a good child who would undoubtedly take care of his father but still. Whenever he needed nursing back to health, she should have been the one he could trust.
He leaned over in their bed and kissed her temple delicately. He had a sadness in his eyes these days that she so wanted to remove but knew she couldn't. She wished things were different some days. But then again, they had already had everything they could've wanted and more. At this point, any days spent together were the cherry on the icing on the cake. They had created a beautiful life together and she could ask for nothing more.
She felt her heart break when she saw a tear silently fall from her husband's eye. Immediately she put down her book and wiped it with her idle hand.
"Don't look at me like that," she said with a calm firmness, something she had learnt over time. In her youth she would have shouted these things at him but not anymore. "Come on, none of this crybaby rubbish again. I thought we'd outgrown that."
"I'm okay, really, don't worry about me," he said softly, almost as if he would break into a pool of tears if he said it any louder.
"I know you are. We've been through worse. And I'm not gone yet." She laughed trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah," he whispered idly as her placed his other hand on hers as well. "I love you too. I really love you."
She sighed as she placed her head against his shoulder. "When did we get so sappy, huh?" she said with a cracked voice as she also fought back tears.
She enjoyed the feel of his chest rumbling and he chuckled deeply. "Probably when we got old enough to realise life's too short to keep your feelings secret."
She smiled up at him before doing their usual ritual of kissing his cheek goodnight. He snaked his arm around her waist as she fell asleep, the exhaustion of fighting her illness taking over her body. Someday, he would no longer have this. Someday he would have to confront the idea of a life without Temari. But today was not that day, he thought to himself as he nestled in to sleep next to his wife once again.