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There was a man standing at the water's edge.
Harry, a haunted man of remarkable achievement, stood alone on the beach, gazing over the Azure water with his morose scarlet windows to his soul. His tawny hair danced lightly in the ocean breeze. He tried to deny the stirrings in his heart, resting his cheek against one hand as heclacked the heels of his dusky boots together. The sun glinted off of his sorrel shoulders and a pair of French vermillion formal pants. His hair was woven into a light brown braid, complementing his sorrowful ochre visage. A sepia growth of hair adorned his chin. He stood, awaiting his love.
They had known each other since they were children. They had spent time together so often that, despite all differences, others often mistook them as siblings. However, it was not until recently that they had recognized their feelings for each other. From then on, Harry was sometimes needy and close, but then suddenly cold and fearful. Dean tried his best to hide his pain, but it was plain in his globes. That was how it was to this very day.
"Harry ," Dean said simply with a beaming grin. His chartreuse windows to his soul complimented his caramel locks, brushing against his ears, belying his burning heart. He was dressed in his usual everyday clothes. He was light brown and sturdily built. A prominent scar stood out on his russet skin. As Harry drew nearer, he caught a note of Dean's familiar scent, a mixture of earthiness and sourness that was uniquely his. His orbs softened. It always reminded him of the time they shared.
"Dean. I feared you might not come," Harry whispered.
Dean's eyes widened. "Of course I came!"
Harry shook his head. "Everyone else abandoned me."
"That's awful," Dean mumbled. "I swear I won't." He affectionately reached out to him, and carefully he wrapped his fingers in his. With that, they began to walk along the beach. As they proceeded tenderly down the shoreline, Harry 's spheres mused over the doubts that haunted him, trailing him like a mournful shadow. His lips softly parted from the confessions that welled up in his throat, only to be swallowed back in grim defiance. Harry struggled to keep together his fragile composure.
"I'm... glad I was able to see you today," Harry whispered, steadying his tremulous voice. "While I still have you here, that is..."
A faint blush tinged Dean cheeks; he turned his face away with a nervous laugh.
"Heh, me too, Harry !" Dean didn't pick up the hint of foreboding in Harry 's tone. "Uh...so... what's on your mind?"
Despite the enthusiasm in Dean's reply and his grin, Harry 's heart sank like their feet in the ocean-kissed sand. What would Dean think about him? Would he recoil in disgust? In fear? In ridicule?
But Dean was different from the rest. Under that charming, outgoing exterior, there was a truly kind heart. Harry had previously known nothing but loneliness and isolation until Dean came into his life and filled it with his warmth. Although duty and obligation bound Harry, with Dean by his side, he could abandon her anxieties during those precious moments they spent together.
Harry shook his bowed head slightly at the thought. He was lying to him; Harry wasn't worthy of his kindness. Harry was ... Nothing but an outcast. A freak. Abandoned goods. Inextricably tied to the burden of commitment. Harry was undeserving
Before Harry could notice and dam the impending flood, a bit of dampness flecked and darkened the sand at their feet. Tears were rolling down his cheeks in soft rivulets, like hot bullets. Then came the sobs, breathless and soft as the dark bile in his heart came to a boil and bubbled up in the form of quiet, trembling whimpers.
"Hey! Hey now," Dean murmured, pulling Harry close to his chest. "What's the matter?"
Harry pulled away and gazed into Dean's concerned windows to his soul. The affable gaiety those deep kiwi-colored globes once held had since given way to tender distress.
"It's nothing. Please do not trouble yourself."
Harry cast his troubled visage aside and fought back the welling tears, glinting gold as they caught the light off the heavens' sympathetic glow. The ocean rolled and sighed with his shuddering breaths, and the flocks of seabirds overhead sung their lament. A newfound resolve set itself in Dean's eyes, and he pulled Harry close.
"That's nonsense," he murmured comfortingly, slowly stroking Harry 's upper back. "You've got to tell me what's going on."
"I...I could never do that to you, Dean. There's something about me you don't know, and I fear it's... it's too much to bear."
"Come on. What could be so bad that you wouldn't tell me?" Dean attempted to cheer Harry up with a reassuring smile.
"I'm afraid the answer might terrify you."
"Is... is that all?" Dean stammered.
"I've already been alone once, and I don't think I could stand it again!"
"But you won't be! You have me, don't you?"
"There's something that may be... keeping us apart."
"How bad could it be?"
Though comforting, the kindness in Dean's reassurances only aggravated Harry 's grief.
"Act as nonchalant as you please, then!" Harry sobbed louder than he had intended to. "It's horrible all the same!"
"Well, whatever it is, I don't care!" Dean shouted defiantly. "We'll bear it together!"
The sudden firmness, yet gentleness in Dean's voice drew a slight gasp from Harry 's lips. Dean truly cared... for a person like him. He shook his head, another wave of racking sobs overcoming him.
After a few moments, they found themselves walking down the beach again. Harry couldn't stop thinking about his other oath. It plagued him endlessly -- while he was far from Dean and while he was near. It threatened to consume him. When Harry had let the faintest hints slip in the moments before, it had already taken so much of his will.
With concern, Dean turned his incorrigible pools toward Harry . "Harry ? What's wrong?"
"Dean... it's..."
And at that moment everything came together, all of the magic and the hurt that had been building that day, and he locked his depths with his and whispered, "You can tell me."
It was like a floodgate burst, or some barrier of fear had been struck down. Harry shook his head and everything came out at once. "Dean... I love you. But I love my country, too. I swore to serve her, and I... I worry that I cannot love both. What if I were made to choose? What then? I... I don't want to put you in danger, Dean. And I don't want to put either of you second.... But still... I love you. I just don't know what to do, and it hurts, Dean."
Dean listened silently and solemnly. At last, when all the words had left Harry and he was at a loss for words, Dean reached out to him and took a deep breath to whisper back, "Harry ... that's awful. It wish that weren't how it is. I wish I could say more. Harry ...." Harry 's eyes began to burn, and he abruptly pulled Dean into a fierce embrace. Dean's orbs widened at first, but then he too felt overwhelmed by emotion and succumbed to the warmth of Harry 's touch.
"You," Harry whispered, his breath hot on Dean's ear. "As long as you're here, I... I can make it."They held each other as tears trickled down cheeks and dripped onto the shifting sands to be carried away into the sea. With time and soothing embraces, their pain dissipated into a mist swept out by the ocean breeze and into the setting sun.
They basked in each other's quiet companionship for a few moments. "Look... it's the sunset."
Harry lifted his head at Dean's words to behold the dying sun's peach radiance. "Mm."
After a moment of silence, Dean took Harry 's hands in his and said quietly and seriously, "Harry, I need to say something. Without you, I would be the sea without the moon -- the moon without the sun -- I... I mean, what I mean to say is..."
"Dean," he breathed in response. "I'm... I'm not that special."
"You are," Dean insisted, sounding almost hurt. "I'm not lying."
"I don't mean to say you're lying. Just that... never mind. Dean... you're... precious to me as well."
Dean brought their clasped hands to his lips. "Then... so long as you will it, we will never be parted."
Harry sighed with contentment and brought Dean closer. He gazed at the beautiful honey-colored rays of the falling sun, thinking about everything that had transpired on this day and all that would pass between them.
"I love you, Dean."
"I love you too, Harry ."
Their lips met, and light brown strands met blonde ones, aflame in the dying light. The sand was their witness and the rumbling ocean their approving audience, and Dean, his eternally faithful lover. Harry thought to himself that nothing had ever been so perfect for him as this.