Shourtney AU - Loving So Hard (Mature)

#100 - My World

Slivers of incandescent light streamed through the shimmering window, casting its yellow haze around the small white room. Impenetrable silence filled the void, shallow breaths the only sound.

A pair of frail bodies lay pressed together, their wrinkled foreheads unmoving, not daring to pull away from the other even for a second. Hands intertwined at waist level, their fingers brushed lightly, ensuring the other knew of their remaining presence. Neither had much time, if any, left. That was okay. They were together. That's all that had ever mattered.

"Courtney," Shayne rasped.

The delicate figure peered upwards into his eyes, her emerald greens as bright as always, his ice blues still ablaze with passion. Her formerly bright blonde hair now white and thin, his previously dirty blonde locks even whiter and thinner.

"Yes?" she managed, tears slipping the lids.

"I love you. So much. Thank you for this life. I owe you everything," the old man struggled, wheezing at the end.

Courtney inhaled shakily, desperately pressing her face to her soulmate's, wracked sobs shuddering her form.

She wept, "I wish we had more time, Shayne. I love you too much for this to end so soon."

The slender old man chuckled, "Life's unfair like that..."

Courtney pressed herself further into him, wishing to simply melt into his embrace and conjoin into one mass. She wished to return to their youthful lives.

"...but we had our time," Shayne finished bravely, kissing his wife's forehead yet again.

The somber statement somehow comforted Courtney. This wasn't the last time they'd see each other. They both knew that. Their love was too strong for any outcome other than a shared eternity.

"You're my world, Shayne. You know that, don't you?" Courtney asked quietly.

Shayne grinned, before kissing her reassuringly, "Yeah. Yeah I know."

Courtney thought back to her shared life with her partner, stemming from a football match so long ago. Their two children, adored by many and brilliant in every way. Smosh, that old, weird, strange, wonderful thing that reunited them and provided them with a home, a life with one another. Friendships. Shayne sacrificing his role on 'The Goldbergs' just to be with her and Skylar. Countless stories they told their grandchildren.

She reminisced about Shayne's old notion of them loving each other forever, and his refusal to say 'Till death do us part' at their wedding. Courtney loved that. She loved him. Ever so much. And he was right. This wasn't the end. Just an intermission. A brief interruption to their love. But not a conclusion.

"I'll see you up there," Shayne croaked, smiling feebly and thinking her thoughts, aware of their slowing heart rates.

Courtney laughed, holding her husband close, "See you up there."