Chapter Text
They all knew the end was near. After the children had said their final goodbyes, they discreetly stood aside to give them the space to spend his final moments together. Making her way to the head of the bed, she ignored the way her knees creaked as she folded her legs underneath her. She gently settled his head in his lap like she used to when they were first married and used to sit like that and talk about anything and everything.
“A lot has happened, didn’t it?” she gently stroked his head while the other held his hand, grounding the both of them.
His intermittent gasps for life weighed on her heart but she did her best to keep her tone light as she continued.
“There were sad times…” She felt like that was the understatement of a century. Even after his final match with the incarnation of light and everything from his professional boxing career was wrapped up, life didn’t pull its punches. It felt like there were moments in life when the fight still continued. Once one round ended, they barely had time to catch their breaths before the next one was called.
“…angry times…” Yes, notwithstanding their love for each other, there were time where they got mad at each other. Sometimes their angry clouded their eyes from perceiving that love and they unintentionally hurt each other. Only now, she regretted the lost time where she let her heart be shut off because of those feelings. Only now, he regretted how he physically and emotionally isolated himself; fearing what would happen if he came to close to the ones he loved while angry.
“… times full of laughter…” She fondly reminisced on the first time she’d heard his laugh. It was more like a low chuckle at some of the children’s antics. She’d almost missed it, but was fortunate enough to catch his soft smile and belatedly connected it with the noise she had just heard. She was embarrassed that she had gotten so emotional at the time to the point of crying. He had look at her curiously and all she could do was wrap her arms around his shoulders, overwhelmed by how far he’d come since she’d first met him. He in turn loved how the longer they were together, the more he could hear her laughter. It wasn’t particularly musical, but the sounds which were a few decibels off from becoming shrill, still wrapped his ears with their familiar tones.
“…times where we stayed up all night worrying…” They had worried about the meeting with the other monster. They had worried about the orphanage finances. They had worried about the orphanage children. They had worried about their own children. There were times when one of them would awake in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat and fears that the nightmare of their past would somehow come to back to haunt their present; they were times when they were worried that the peace that they were experiencing was a cruel delusion before the true nightmare started.
“…and times full of happiness.” Despite the fears, the worries and the suffering they faced, they were happy. Throughout their experiences, their ups and downs, his shuddering final breaths…
“It was all so precious.” She gripped his hand as firmly as her feeble strength would allow, before she delivered the final words he would ever hear in this life.
“I was happy to be with you,” her voice was barely above a whisper at this point but he heard it all. He felt it all as his mind wandered down a similar path of reminiscence through her words.
And suddenly it was still, there was no more struggle. It was a few moments before the grief spilled out of her eyes, yet strangely enough, there was peace in her heart. There would be no more sorrow or pain for him; no more cause for tears. As she thought this, she slowly closed the lids of the vacant eyes. Her lips, once plump with youth, now weathered with age, came slowly down upon his brow in a final send off.
“Good-bye my love.”