This Is Life

This was different. This was one hundred percent different than before, and he hated it. It was empty and frightening and a mistake.

"This isn't a conversation about us being over," he had told her. "It's just... an ellipsis. I'm worried that if I don't find out what's wrong with me, if I don't land on my own two feet, then I'll just mess this up, and I can't do this. You're too important."

She was trembling the slightest bit, and she had looked away from his face. She was crying.

He thought about her. He thought about her as he kissed her good-bye and tore himself away from a person he didn't know he'd see again. Even as he jogged to the terminal and boarded his plane, she was on his mind, and he couldn't get her out. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, both inside and out, and he was positive that he had thought or said that a million times. She wanted to help him, she wanted to go through life with him and no one else.

And this unbelievable creature... this gift to the world... was his.

And he was letting it go.

---

He shouldn't be running so fast. If his doctors knew, they'd flip a shit.

He breathed, feeling the sweat forming on his brow, and he looked around. She wasn't there. She was supposed to be, he had only been gone ten minutes or so. Why wasn't she there?

Huffing, he ran up the escalator and headed back to the terminal. Why was he running that way? Did he really think she would be there? Why in hell would she be there? She probably ran away with tears streaming down her pretty-

There. There she was.

Risa stood in a glass telephone booth, sobbing, looking out the large window at the plane that was taking off; the plane he was supposed to be on. He was overwhelmed with relief when he strode over and opened the door. She turned and blinked at him, confused.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a broken voice.

He took her hands in his and took a split second to admire their delicacy. "Do you remember that idea I had about going away and finding myself?"

"The ellipsis?" she clarified, her voice cracking as she choked a bit. He pulled her out of the booth and they stood in the empty terminal.

He spoke quickly. "Yes, the ellipsis. It's dumb. It's really dumb. It's an awful idea and I'm not going to do it. Because this is life and-and not a movie... and I'm in love with you, Risa." He took a moment to look at her as she sniffed and smiled, but only a little because she was just as confused as he was. "And I'm really messed up right now, and I have a lot of things that I need to work on, but I don't want to waste anymore of my life without you in it. Right?" She nodded. "And I want to do this. I mean, we have to, right?"

"Yeah." Risa was laughing a little now and nodding her head. "Yes! Yes, we have to!"

They smiled at each other, focusing in on what was happening in that moment, right then.

"... So what do we do?" He asked for a response he knew he wasn't really going to get. She just shook her head and shrugged.

"... What do we do?" He was greeted by silence, and the two of them could only stare

Then he was closing his eyes and soaking her in, letting his arms wrap about her waist as her hands became tangled in his hair, the spark flying between them almost uncontrollable.

This was good. This didn't happen often. And while everything else was messed up, and the two had their own problems, and they were living in a world full of struggles, they had each other.

They had each other.