Work Text:
It’s hard, you know. Watching the person you care for most die, knowing there is nothing you can do. It had become terminal before anyone had even noticed. Watching their fragile body become even more fragile day after day, until they can no longer recognise you when you are there. Humans are so fragile. Fragile creatures with a surprisingly short life expectancy. In this case, shorter than usual. It hits you all of a sudden, the fact that you’re going to lose them. It doesn’t feel real when you first find out, because people survive cancer, right? Not everyone. It takes a while to sink in, and you think you’ve come to terms with it, then it hits you all at once just how little time they have left. You begin to hug them for that second longer, hold their hand more often, and tell them you love them in many different ways as often as you can. You stop making plans for too far the future, hoping to live each of their days to the fullest, before it’s too late, before the fun things have to stop and you have to slow down, and then it all becomes too real too quickly. You begin to take more pictures, to write more things down, in a hope that the memories last longer, before they become stories, because we’re all stories in the end anyway. The affection that you once hated, you begin to accept, and even sometimes crave it. Everyone needs a hug sometimes. Besides, you never know when it may be your last. Stealing glances at them when they aren’t looking, so that your memory of them lasts longer, becomes a regular thing. Visiting places they love and doing their favourite things, all to make their numbered hours count, but some days you just need to rest. Curl up in bed with a book and some tea. You begin to enjoy it, however much you whine about not going on an adventure. After they’re gone, you miss them more than you anticipated, because the holes are visible in both of your hearts.