Heroism 101

I think they’ve got m’ confused with someone else. *shrugs* Don’t see why, always thought I was pretty distinctive.

…wait, who t’ fuck are you an what the hell are you talkin’ about? Who’s Ant? The hell do I care what you get married for and who’s the Doctor? I already am a doctor, is m’ certificate not enough for you!? Who you marry ain’t my fuckin’ problem. Enjoy your wasted money and divorce papers, happy couple.

Oh relax, ‘Mont, I’ve got junkies comin’ outta my ears. You’ll get your money eventually.

WHATwhatdoyouevensakdjfkshgjdfshgjdfshdjs—-

…Eh? Whats goin’ on? The hell? Where’s Hanna? Why do I feel like I jus’ turned into a cross ‘tween him and a crappy British sci fi star?

…eh, whatever. I need a drink.

“Well. This is ironic.”

The words came out in a whisper, a hoarse, raspy croak. It felt mismatched with the sliver of bright blue that still sought out her face, felt wrong against that glittering flame that she was all too used to.

“Here we always thought I was going to outlast you.”

But even Aidric Carter, so it seemed, couldn’t burn through cataracts.

His hand was clutched in hers, wrinkled and spotted by time, something like knotted wood held her in her still young hands. The contrast seemed impossible, wrong somehow, and that combined with his words only seems to make her angry. She admonishes him, but the words are harsher than she means them to be, and after a few moments of silence her apology echoes through the room. It’s quiet.

Aidric Carter should never be quiet.

But Aidric Carter should not be dying either, because Aidric Carter is supposed to be forever. Aidric Carter is supposed to be ageless, timeless, his laugh and his brightness outlasting her like the sun. He was supposed to have forever— they were supposed to have forever.

He’d waited to tell her because they’d thought they had all the time in the world. It figured that “all the time in the world” had finally decided it had enough.

So he’d fading away and she’s left whiling away years in a matter of days, left watching lines carve into his face and stressful mission after stressful mission finally pile onto him like weights. She watches it pull him down and all she can wonder is if this is what every day was like for him, because if that was the case she couldn’t bear it.

So Aidric Carter lays there, dying in their bed and she’s holding him close because that’s all she can do. He’s fading away and too exhausted to say what she knows he wants to, but still he opens his mouth so she stops him. It’s okay. She knows he’s sorry, sorry it took so long, sorry because it was so unfair, sorry because they should have had so much more and she begs him not to. Not now.

She doesn’t want apologetic Aidric Carter, not now. She doesn’t want a fallen hero. She wants her Aidric, she wants her sun.

“Kiss me?”

The words finally come, soft, quiet, gentle and she complies, kissing him and not caring that his lips are rough and not caring that her own lips taste of bitterness and salt. She kisses him and she feels like she’s taking the last of his light with his breath, taking him in, and all too soon it is over.

The smile left on his face is timeless.