Chapter Text
Let me just hold you this night,
On what may be our last.
Let me find some answers
In the curve of your body,
Fitting perfectly against mine,
Like a beautiful echo of before.
Let your breathing lull me to sleep,
Calm the restless whirling of my mind.
Let me find some tender truth
Under the crimson glow of my racing heart,
This false moon,
In the look in your steadfast gaze,
Beloved.
Beloved .
I think that word holds you
As truly as your own name,
In the depths of my soul,
As though both have always belonged there,
Since the moment I first saw you,
Maybe even before.
My beautiful, kind, stalwart friend,
My Northern Star,
My heart.
You called me from across Exandria,
Beloved, but I would have come even from
The Hells themselves, to be by your side again.
Let me fall asleep to the sound of your breathing,
To the rise and fall of your chest against mine.
Let me dream of tomorrow, let me dream
Of a lifetime of tomorrows, with you in my arms.
Let me dream that we have time, that we survive,
That there’s a moment of quiet, when the dust
Settles, and we’re both, by some miracle, alive,
And there’s a chance to pull you close,
Before our friends steal us away into the rush
Of the future, and I am braver and guiltless,
And I have just a second to take your hand,
And hold your gaze, and tell you this:
I love you. I’ve loved you all this time.
I am content to hold you, my love,
Just to hold you in my arms, for tonight.
But if we live through tomorrow,
I think I will need more. My heart
Calls across the void to yours, even now,
Entangled in each other as we are,
One half of a duet ever aching
For your vines and blooms, reaching back,
Like the stones that kept me tethered to you
As I wandered ever further from the heart
I left with you; those stones that brought me
Home to your side, when you needed me most,
And when I needed you just as much.
Let me leave my doubts at the door,
My guilt, my shame, my responsibilities
In the hall of this spectral tower, until the dawn
Pulls us from this moment of suspended peace,
Until we once more must face this world,
This moon, this pantheon, this Vanguard,
Who want to drag me from your side
And send me spinning back into my grief,
My anger at these gods and would-be gods.
Let me forget the sight of you falling in battle,
Let me forget the memory of your screams
In the dark, that haunt my nightmares.
Give me tonight. Maybe tomorrow will hurt less.