Stories of Love

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She stood outside the gate, waiting solemnly. Her eyes rummaged through the crowds that were coming out. The plane was supposed to have landed just now.

Her heart was beating faster and faster by the second, creating a dubstep feeling inside that she couldn't control.

Her eyes were wet as she failed to keep the tears inside. Refusing to look so weak when he saw her but then crumbling down yearning for his embrace.

She had cried her eyes out worrying about him every single time she set her eyes on tv news.

She hated war. She hated to watch him go, letting him into whatever hard obstacle waiting at the battlefield, many that would risked--and had risked--his life. But she knew duty was duty. And it was also her duty to understand.

It was her duty to always support him.

Even the calls were rare. Of course, there was once for the whole year that she had gotten none of a single news, nor calls, from him. And that was when she was in labor, fearing for her own baby's and the father's safety at once, screaming out in pain alone in the house. Yes, she was giving birth alone, waiting and wincing as every contraction passed her by minutes by minutes before the midwife came to guide through the birthing process.

It was only at that time that she couldn't handle being by herself without him. She had screamed for him to be here, to not be gone to someplace where he could get killed, to be alright.

Now she had a relieved tears pouring down her eyes as she watched him being escorted out of the gate into her direction. He was back.

He was back.

Her hero was finally back in her arms.

She didn't miss his left arm missing, a price of being the protector. To sacrifice. And that came to be bound to pain.

As she had looked into his eyes right at that second.

He looked so lost when he was searching for her everywhere, his eyes desperately screening through every direction. His brown eyes looked so tired that she felt it hard not to engulf him in a hug and let him rest his scarred soul. Let it mend. Let it heal.

She could barely recognize the escorte beside him, attention fully directed to him. And when he sprint to her, she drew out her arms as wide she could as he then wrapped her into a hug.

They were so lost into each other that they didn't realized their embrace was lasting more than ten minutes. Him refusing to let go, breathing her in and kissing her as he missed so. And she was still unable to keep her emotion at stack, hence she was crying her eyes out soaking his uniform.

The escorte had cleared their throat to send them both back to earth.

She gave him a small smile of sorry and looked up to the brown eyes of her hero, who looked back at her.

"Damage report, Sir?"

She squeezed him as if to relieve his pain and sore, tired, abused body.

"None," he had replied with a voice so relieved that she almost wanted to point out his missing arm as a sign of being not okay, as she realized after then that he was finally okay to be back here. "None now that I have you back."

"No."

She looked him with such intense eyes that spoke hundreds lost words that was kept for years that they had been apart, "I finally have you back."

The escorte had left them to be back and there they were left alone with each other.

And they walked back home together in peace.

...........

"You're not sleeping?"

She asked him when she found him up sitting beside their child's crib in the middle of the night.

He just shook his head saying nothing, but she knew it was because of the nightmares. It had been three days and she had found him talking and crying in his sleep more often than not, haunted by the death and horror that clouded him for the past three years.

She looked at him with a sad look. Sad that she wasn't able to completely erased it to stop his pain. She knew it wasn't her fault but she couldn't help feeling sorry.

She walked to him, reaching his back, moving her hands to massage his sore back. Sore but not the ones that still bruised at some parts.

"I'm sorry."

He looked back up to her. "What for?"

"I don't know." She slowly smiled a sad smile.

He leaned back to her with a sigh and she waited to listen. This was the gesture he made when he tried to open up to her. He would leaned to her, expecting her to catch him there and support him as she always does. And when he felt relaxed enough, he would share her his pain little by little.

They would always share each other's pain, because that's what it meant to be the other's half. She would be his shoulder, as he would be hers.

"I can't imagine what his life would be like if he was there."

There. She understood what there that he meant. The war.

"I couldn't imagine if it was him who was there. If it was you." She felt him trembled in her arms as she hugged him from behind in silence, giving support. "There's too many horror. Even child, women, were the ones who were targeted. Endless massacre everyday."

"And he was just ten year old. He was only ten! And I couldn't even save him in the end, even with my arm at a price. It should have been me."

Her tears had ran down at his words, matching his. She hugged him tighter as she began to tremble herself.

"He didn't deserve it. He was only defending his land, his home, his people. He was only ten! God--"

She squeezed his arms in attempt to calm him down, to make him knew she was here to give him strenght and support.

"I know, I know," she said, shuushing him to relax his trembling body. She continued, "Nobody deserved it. Especially him."

His hands--one still with fingers while the other chugged off--snaked to her hands around him as his eyes focused solemnly on his son, sleeping soundly inside his crib. Not even realizing the tension soaring from his parents.

"I wished I could help more," he whispered weakly. His emotion drained.

"You did more than you could."

And she accompanied him throughout the night, brushing his hair slowly as he began to succumb into a sleep. Hopefully not this the nightmare.

.............

"Fatheer--"

He halted as he heard his son calling him from the porch. He turned around in time to catch his son sprinting to hug him.

He smiled.

"Did you really have to go?"

He nodded yes, "Duty called."

His son gave him one last squeeze before releasing him quite uncertainly.

He eyed her too for the last time. He knew it was the last.

He hopped into the car and left his house to go back to the base. His vacation had ended and he had to leave his home. His wife and son. Home.

He was ready. And he swore to not let what happened last time happened again. He won't let anymore of innocent souls be killed for wrongs that they never did.

..............

Again she let him go, hoping everytime and always letting him back home again anytime.

Even if in the end he never did.