His Last Love [BxB] COMPLETED

One Last Note

One Last Note

Dear Leonardo,

I have written this letter many times. And every time I burn it and watch the flames turn you to ash. You say I am your last love, well, you are mine.

Love. I love my wife, I do. She is a beautiful, kind person, and I have her to thank for my lovely children. And so if I love her, then I surely never loved you. How could that have been love? That hurricane? A thousand knives to the heart would have hurt less.

And yet, how sad it is, that I would choose you over her, a million times. If I could go back and make you stay, I would. A million times. And if I had known we were only given that moment, I would have said those words. A million times.

You said I would thank you for that day, when you said goodbye. And I do. Not because I was better off without you, but because only after you left did I know what I had lost.

I am yours, for eternity.

Charlie sets the pen down. He rereads the letter. Closes his eyes. Breathes in the smoke sifting over from the fire crackling in the hearth. Christmas time. He still doesn't like the holiday much, although his kids try to convince him otherwise.

It has been a year since Leonardo passed away. He went to the funeral, not able to say no to a formality, even after all these years. Leonardo would have laughed at that.

He doesn't need to write the letter now. It's just habit. He's written it so many times, the words form in his mind before the pen has even written them. Even after they met up again after decades had passed―that cold winter's day by the river―Charlie still writes the letter.

But this letter is different. Somehow, he knows it. The ink shines in the dim glow of the candles which flicker towards him, mocking him. Maybe this letter is different, because it will be his last.

Charlie lifts the letter and hovers a corner over the flame.