He didn't get a call, didn't have any sort of prior heads up from her or the facility, so when he comes home after a long day at the station and opens the door to his house, walks in to see his wife on the couch like nothing's happened, smiling and yelling 'surprise', he doesn't know what to think ... other than - yeah, the fact that he is surprised to see her.
She goes to hug and kiss him and he reciprocates, hugs and kisses her back when she meticulously wraps her lithe body around him.
"Did you miss me?"
He lies through his teeth and says that he did because he can't tell her that it had been a pleasant almost five week break away from her.
"But you sure your better?"
"Yes, Sarawat. They wouldn't let me out if I wasn't."
"Then, why wasn't I informed? I could've gone and picked you up."
____________________
"Tine, I'm —"
____________________
The room is spinning. There's a light show in here, sounds and colours all on delay, reaching his mind a few seconds too late. Every blink feels like a strobe light. Every movement is a stop-motion animation.
On. Off. On. Off.
Tine hadn't had gotten this blitzed in — God, he can't even remember. It's been a while. It's been too long. The thought makes him laugh, the sound bubbling up from somewhere deep in his chest cavity, coming out of his mouth echoing and strange. It bounces around the halls of their library, loud and discordant. It startles him, knocks him off his feet, but he doesn't fall.
Tine's never been a big drinker. Oh, he drinks. But it's always been a more Sarawat thing to do. Not when they were in college, though. He drank but not like how he does now.
He drinks these days — drinks when he opens his mouth to speak, after his wife catches him yelling at the blank wall again, he drinks with the prickling feeling of the devil's eyes on his back, raising the fine hairs there and making him sick.
He drink. He drinks to forget. Like Sarawat said. He understands what that means now.
But yeah, Tine drinks these days ... a lot more than usual and maybe or maybe not, it has something to do with Sarawat when he FaceTimed him or maybe, it's that he just so badly wants to get back with Sarawat and knows that he can't. Not after everything that's happened.
Maybe.
Definitely.
They can't. They shouldn't.
"Whoa. I think you've had enough, Tine?"
And it's his wife, his wife's voice and his wife's hands, strong and sure. His wife's arms hauling him back to his feet when he starts to list to the side, slumping like a puppet with his strings cut.
His wife deposits him in a chair, swearing, muttering things like weigh a fucking tonne and getting too old for this shit.
Tine blinks owlishly up at her.
It makes so much sense in this moment. It makes too much sense and not enough. Of course his wife is here — where else would she be? Of course she's here, catching Tine, keeping him safe, just like always. And yet, it's strange — strange in the way everything is, just now. In that, how? And why? And who could ever?
He's staring, so he sees his wife's mouth do something complicated, mobile lips twisting down as she peers closer, getting right into Tine's face.
"You alright there, Tine?"
YOU ARE READING
Don't Leave Me
Fanfiction"I missed you. When you were gone I felt like dying. I couldn't smile. Couldn't live happily. I became the most miserable person in the world. I couldn't love anyone like I loved you. If people talked to me about fate, I'd laugh in their face. That...
