Work Text:
I. Songbird
Laughter. A cavern of rocks and ruin, and in the center, we laugh. A symphony I’ve unknowingly ached for for so long, a tone I could only dream of.
Columns of chipped stone, remnants of a past long forgotten. Her hazel eyes meet mine, an overflowing ocean of bottomless desire, the same incompleteness that seeks to engulf me.
Swirling. Mixing. Falling into each other. A stormy sea of two halves, finally complete.
Her lips on mine, a sensation I’ve never known, a fire that sears my skin and brands my soul. A scar that burns me, a heat I never want to lose. A pain I never want to stop.
Oh, a life meant for others. Isn’t that what we’re meant to be?
Finally, time.
Time to relax, time to find peace, time to love. Love her as I so desperately want to love myself.
A songbird, free to soar within my heart, her voice a song that rings in my head.
I feel a pull.
“We need to go,” they say.
But I don’t want to go. Not now, not ever. Here, I am happy.
I am whole.
II. Dreamland
The world fades to white, her melody now a wave of noiseless grinding, ethereal static that deafens and stifles. I reach out, but I find myself grabbing empty air. The dark ceiling, cackling back at me. The void of my heart staring back in amusement.
Take me back, I beseech. I never wanted to let go, I say. I yearn for her, the girl I’ll never get to meet, my other half that I’ll never get to love.
Loss. Fleeting and infinite, filling and overwhelming.
And as I lay in the deep, dark, night once more, I know.
She isn’t real. Never was. Never will be.
III. Closure
She was perfect. Skinnier. Smiled more. Jet-black hair and the rounded glasses I've always wanted to wear. Everything I’ve wanted and everything I’ve wanted to be.
Made for me, by myself. My perfect other half, the last piece in my puzzle. And yet, something I can never have. Somebody I’ll never even see.
Loved me like my closest friend. Knew me like only I could. Understood me because she was me.
Those fleeting moments we spent, insignificant seconds that weren’t even real. And yet we’ve been together a lifetime. One we’ve lived together, one and the same person.
Meant for each other, and never meant to be.
IV. Epilogue
I’ll never forget you.
Real or not, I don’t think I can forget you.
This road I walk, we walk together.