-Luke-
The first time we met was during a war. I was an orphan then and I just wanted to hide away from the gunfire surrounding me. From the same gunfire that killed my parents. But then I saw you. You were kneeling beside your mother's dead body and you were crying, the soldiers already visible in the distance. I knew I couldn't leave you behind. I knew I had to keep you safe so I took you away before they could find you.
You hated me for making you leave her. But you still followed me everywhere and I became your protector. Or at least I tried to be. You grew to love me and I loved you. I kept you safe for as long as I could, but even then our lives were cut short. I was no match for the bombs that fell from the sky. And all I could do in the end was hold your hand in mine, feeling the life leave your body the way my life left mine.
Our second lifetime together, I met you in a hospital. I'd broken my leg and I saw you sitting outside. I recognized you. I sat beside you and introduced myself, happy that you were with me again. You had lung cancer, but the treatment was helping you get better. We went on dates after my leg healed and we fell in love again. I was with you every time you had to go to chemo, I held you when you vomited because of what it was doing to your body, I cried tears of joy when you told me you were getting released.
I went to see you and to go home with you, flowers in hand and a smile on my face. I walked into your room to find your mother crying and I swear I felt my heart break because I knew. She told me that something had gone wrong over night. You'd started wheezing and coughing up blood, scaring everyone. They called the doctors and you went into immediate surgery. They were too late. Just like that, I'd lost you again. I couldn't keep you safe again.
The third time we met, things were so different between us. That time we didn't grow together. You became a detective that stood for justice and I became a crime lord. I was so focused on surviving in the cruel world that I forgot about you until you found me and called me by my name. Standing on the other side of your gun forced me to realize how wrong I'd been to take the easy way, I felt so ashamed for letting you down. We'd never been on opposing sides before. I'm sorry I became a bad person.
I couldn't look at you again. I wasn't worthy anymore. But when my men aimed their guns at you and I couldn't stop it, I did the only thing I could to try to make it up to you. For the first time, I got to protect you even if I was part of the reason you were in that mess. I took the bullets for you and I accepted them as my punishment for letting you down. With my final dying breath, I begged you for forgiveness. But I left you first this time, I never heard your reply.
The next life we were born as women. We grew up together and we were happy, but that happiness blinded us to the cruelness of the world. On our way home from school one afternoon, these men showed up from nowhere. They took us and I couldn't do anything about it. They were aiming at you and I couldn't take that. I dragged their attention to me in hopes that you could escape. Perhaps I was too full of myself, I couldn't protect you properly again and they shot me while you stayed alive. I prayed to every god out there that I could forget what they did to you as I died. I prayed that I could forget your screams and the way you cried helplessly, hating myself for leaving you alone at their mercy.
My wish was granted and the next and final time we met, I didn't remember you and you didn't remember me. I grew up as a demigod, a son of Hermes, and you were the son of Poseidon. I was angry at my father for abandoning me and I chose the wrong side again. I pushed you away. I betrayed you and left you to die. I disappointed you again. I didn't deserve you but you still loved me.
You begged me to return. I didn't listen and by the time I remembered you, you didn't believe me anymore. Losing you this time was more devastating than the rest because for the first time in our existences, I didn't lose you to death. We were both still alive, still in love, but I couldn't get close to you anymore. I had to watch as you fell in love with the daughter of Athena and my own grief was used against me. I became his host and I nearly killed you. In a moment of panic, I was able to stop him from driving the scythe through you and instead I flung it away. I asked you for the dagger I'd given her and you gave it to me, pain in your eyes.
Then I asked you if you still loved me as I bled out, somehow knowing that it would be the last time I ever saw you. Somehow knowing that would be the last time you held me in your arms. It was the same way I knew it was a lie when you told me you did.
