Hiraeth (on hold)

Lilac

She arrives at the airport with no one to welcome her. Maine didn't really know what she'd gotten herself into. She didn't really know what exactly she was trying to achieve, or find out. All Maine thought of was that she needed to get away from everything, from everyone.

She didn't tell anyone of what her plans exactly were in New Zealand, heck, she didn't even have a plan at all. She was just to arrive there, and figure it out as she went.

"Hi, are you alright?" a man in uniform asks her. "You look a little lost," he continued.

"Oh, um. I was just wanting to know where I can get a taxi," Maine explains, even though it was just a spur of the moment decision.

"Where are you headed off to?"

"I-Um. I actually don't know," Maine says in defeat.

"Well, do you have a place you're staying in?"

"No, sir."

"Geez, we have a bit of a problem don't we?"

"I don't know what to do," Maine says, her voice cracking.

"Don't you worry. We have a hotel right across the road. Just go in there and they'll be able to assist you."

Maine starts to walk over to the hotel and mentally asks herself why she was being so emotional. The simple act of asking around for the nearest accomodation, completely slipped her mind. She clearly wasn't thinking right, and it made her question what she was doing in New Zealand in the first place.

The hotel was thankfully able to accommodate her. She enters the room, plops herself onto the bed, and before she knew it, she was sound asleep.

-

How am I even going to get started looking for her, Alden thinks.

They have just announced that the plane will be landing soon, and it just hit him that he has no clue of Maine's whereabouts.

What if Maine wasn't in New Zealand after all? What if it was just an alibi so that no one would start looking for her?

However he's already here, he'a already committed.

The plane lands and after waiting for a short while they start to allow passengers to get off the plane. He follows the direction to immigration, with his hand luggage by his side. Soon he reaches a carved gateway (tomokanga), and the intricate design mesmerized him. Aside from this he also went through a walkway aligned with speakers that projected the sounds of birds tweeting and ocean waves crashing.

He wanted to spend more time there but the sight of the immigration booths brought him back to his mission.

He finishes the whole process and makes his way through the exit. The automatic doors opened and the heat welcomed his skin. He was about to take a step until he realised that he didn't really know where he was going.

He took a seat on the concrete and prepared himself to give up. It was only when he remembered the crashing sounds of waves that he decided to take a leap of faith regarding her whereabouts.

He runs towards an attendant and his actions surprised the man that he was approaching.

"Sir, where is the nearest beach and how do I get there?"

"You know, a girl asked me the same question about an hour ago."

"Really? Was she around this tall?" Alden asked and motioned to his chin.

"Yes."

"Was this her?" Alden asked another question whilst showing the attendant a picture of Maine on his phone.

"Oh, you know her. Yes, that's her!"

"Where did she go, Sir?"

-

He walks along the shore of Mission Bay, defeated as he still hasn't caught sight of her with nearly an hour of searching. It was getting late, and he was tired because of the long, sleepless, flight that he had.

He kicks at the sand, as he stares towards the water. It was calm. There weren't any raging waves. He thought hat if only his situation was the same as the waves, he would appreciate it more.

"Ah!" a female voice cries out.

Alden stares down at the direction of the voice and sees a petite body swiping away the sand that he had just kicked onto her dress.

"Maine?"

Before she even looked up, she already recognized the voice. It was the voice that gave her peace, and made sense of everything, but it was also the voice that sent her where she is now.

She didn't even get to wipe her tears when she stood up to face him. That's why his look of relief turned into worry as he saw her tear-stained cheeks.

"Maine. What's wrong?"

As if it was a knee-jerk reaction, she hugged him as tight as she could. She sobbed into his shoulder, and this sent his arms flying around her body to try and alleviate any pain that she may be feeling.

Maine abruptly stops crying, Alden feels this and raises his head to look down on her. She pulls away a little, but not so much that it was going to make any of them break their hugs.

She looks up to meet his eyes, but Alden couldn't figure out what they were trying to say.

He wanted to try something, but he knew that it could either make or break whatever it is they had.

He breaks away from her gaze, looks quickly to her lips, and looks back at her eyes. She didn't seem to have a violent reaction, nor any reaction for that matter.

Alden does it again, but this time, he proceeds to get closer to her face.

He does it over and over as if he had already rehearsed it, until the unexpected happened.

Maine took his face with both of her hands and closed the gap between them.

An oncoming wave started to build up behind them, and it was only then that it finally met the shore.

-

A/N: I know the 'alon' analogy's pretty overused in this fandom, but I just love it so much 😍