Awaited
Inspiration: Diego Torres's "Penelope" and Naya Rivera's versatility—because she's whom I usually picture as my Leah.
Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer created Edward and Leah, but she done messed up when it came to pairings. Enter me – the eternal, non-canon matchmaker – and we've got ourselves a lil' emo drabble.
Leah Clearwater
Sitting on a bench, Leah smiles longingly, remembering the day when she sat in the same bench almost ten years ago.
Ten years ago… It feels like a lifetime. Many things can happen in that time, and they did.
Leah practiced every day until she perfected her adage step in ballet class, but she soon quit because Leah didn't do it passionately, and she truly believed in doing everything with her heart.
She filled many sketchbooks with moments that she captured in charcoal. Sometimes Leah conjured the images, others she drew from memory, but most were instants of someone's life as she observed them around the park that she practically resided in.
Many times, Leah drew a specific set of crinkly eyes that no longer smolder for her. She also painted them in varying shades of green once she learned how to paint with watercolors. Those are the paintings that she keeps stored in a box and only brings out on rainy days when she feels lonely.
Those days are few and far between but existent nonetheless.
Because Leah is a joyful woman, so she's always surrounded by friends, but not by the person that she wants – the man she yearns for the most.
No, he's gone. And Leah waited for him, but she did so futilely. He never came back despite his promises.
"I'll only be gone for a year," he said. "I'll be back before you know it."
During that year, Leah lived each day hastily, never truly enjoying it as she awaited his return. When it passed, and he didn't come back, Leah was heartbroken. She should have seen it coming since he never contacted her once he'd left.
But love makes us blind to such imperative actions. It happens even to the best of us.
And so she would come back to this bench, in the same park, to reminisce about the day they met.
During those visits, she would write poems that birthed from her pain—making it tangible and forever alive. Once those lines of despair were written in her notebook, they were usually accompanied by an illustration of her words. She still carries those tales in her black, worn backpack, and reads them over and over again from time to time.
She does everything in her power to stop the unbearable ache that accompanies the thoughts of her lost lover.
Because recalling the way he used to smile is painful.
And memorializing the way his kisses felt against her lips is torturous.
Yet what is mostly hurtful is reminiscing the way their bodies intertwined to become one.
No, she cannot think of that.
Anything that slightly reminds her of him is blocked out.
So now, as she hears Edward calling her name, she ignores it and tries to temper down any flicker of hope that it might be actually happening, because his voice is just the same as she remembers it.
"Leah, baby, why won't you look at me?" he says, desperate.
She looks to her side and sees him sitting there.
"Please tell me that I'm not losing my mind—that you're actually here and this is not a figment of my imagination," Leah begs.
Edward turns, facing her as he takes her hands and wraps his around them. Leaning his forehead against hers, he whispers the truth, "Of course I'm here, just like I promised I would be."
"But you've been gone for so long…" Leah murmurs.
A sigh escapes past Edward's lips before they connect to Leah's temple in a chaste kiss. "It might feel that way, but it's only been a year, Leah-lee."
"It's felt like ten," she exhales. "Promise me you'll never go away again."
"Not if I can help it," he appeases. "Now, let's get out of here, shall we? I want us to reunite properly."
Leah chuckles, smiling at him. "You really are back."
A/N: Okay, so I may have gotten a little carried away with this drabble, but in the original song, "Edward" comes back when it's too late since his beloved has gone mad and doesn't recognize him anymore. Yeah, so not doing that to Leah.
Any-who, I hope you liked it. See you next time! ;)