Hidden Meanings

To See Him Smile [Jaxita]

"Jax-kun! Jax-kun!"

He turned at his nickname, eyes resting on the blue-haired girl that flung herself at him.

Ashita glanced up at him, her eyes twinkling as she smiled softly. "Come back soon, okay?"

"Yes, Mom," Wistern retorted from off to the spouses' left. He rolled his eyes as Ashita swatted at his shoulder playfully, but was unable to stop the grin that spread out on his face.

Jaxson rested a hand on his wife's head, reaching out to brush the silver ring encircling her ring-finger. "Soon," he promised, pecking her cheek lightly. "Shinji's awaiting."

Ashita's mint-green eyes flicked to the lean figure that stood on the ship, his dark hair whipping around his face in the wind.

"Wait."

After he took a step forward, Jaxson glanced behind him as Wistern kept trotting forward. She had a death-grip on his sleeve, earnestly looking up into his face.

"Smile for me."

Those simple words made his lips twitch up in an amused smile- there was no need to force it. "I love you," he whispered, before turning one last time to leave.

*SIXTEEN MONTHS LATER*

"And the two Marines who had set out to find Moriah have not returned. Matsuno Shinji and Rixen Jaxson were aboard that ship, along with Silvers Wistern. No trace of them has been found."

Ashita turned off the TV, moving her worried expression to the window. Each time she heard her husband's name, a image flashed through her mind, seared there by will.

"Come back."

OOO

Ashita let her head drop, tucking it close to her chest as she curled into a ball.

After nearly eighteen and a half years, her memory of Jaxson's smile had slowly faded, chipped away by time.

She released a single sob, withdrawing tighter into her ball.

"I-I just...want to...see...y-your smile...one last...time..."

A/N~

What do you think?

Short, I know.