Tu Es Ma Lumière

146 - Separation *Modern*

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Prompt - Frary in airport.

Inspiration - 

"Paris, London, Tokyo
There's just one thing that I gotta do
(Hello, tuck you in every night on the phone)
(Hello, tuck you in every night on the phone)
And I can hardly take another goodbye
Babe, it won't be long
You're the one that I'm waiting on"

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"Are you sure I can't get you to change your mind?" Mary asks her longtime boyfriend sadly, clinging to his hand. Francis looks from the large screen in the airport to his girlfriend. He smiles sadly at her, reaching over to brush a lock of hair from her face.

"No." he says softly. "Mary, I-" he sighs. "you know this has nothing to do with us, right? Not because of anything you've done or haven't given me. It's just-" he sighs again, licking his lips in regret as Mary lowers her head sadly. "with the scare a couple months ago, I realised I've just grown tired of-"

"What?" she cuts in. "Me?" her voice breaks.

"Not at all, my love." he says softly. "Don't ever think it. Mary, you know how sick I was with meningitis as a kid. And with the relapse scare not that long ago, I realised how much I missed my home. My family in France, the life I had there."

And you choose it over the life you've made with me in Scotland, Mary thinks, biting her lip harshly. "Bu-but-" she stumbles over her words. "Francis, the school term is in a couple weeks. And we'll be snowed under with uni work and shit like that. I-I'll never see you anymore." she whispers. "Being with you through all of college, living together with Kenna'n Bash, seeing you every day. Waking up in your arms, to not seeing you at all. I don't know if I can handle it." she admits.

Francis sighs sadly, pushing the side of his finger against Mary's chin. He makes her look at him. "I know you don't like this. I know my decision hurts you, but the uni I picked is in France, we talked about this-" fought, more like. "last year. It makes sense to go back, and the scare we had is all the more reason to go home. Mary, I'm sorry that this hurts you, the last thing I want to do is hurt you. The last thing in the world, but I need to go home, Mary. Please understand that."

"It feels like before." she whispers hoarsely. They'd been together since they were twelve, but a spat caused by separation when they were fifteen had caused a brief separation for a few weeks. Devastated, Mary turned to Bash for comfort, whilst Francis dallied with Olivia. They were over before it began, and Kenna was happy with Bash now. Had been since they were sixteen, but they were eighteen now. They were adults, and they had to face the changes in their relationship like the adults they had grown into. "When I didn't have you. How dark it was when you weren't with me. To be without you now, when I need you the most, I can't-" she whispers, her voice trailing off. It was true, she did need Francis. With her mother getting sicker by the day thanks to liver failure -a decade and a half of alcoholism after James died and all that- and going to uni in autumn, Mary didn't know if she could handle this on her own. Francis leaving her was the icing on the cake.

"I'm not breaking up with you, stupid. We've done the long distance thing before, when you were here and I was there. And we managed that, and we can manage this now. People do it all the time, Mary. I promise you, I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me, Stuart." he attempts to crack a joke. Mary doesn't smile, barely returns his kiss, looking up at the ceiling when his flight is announced.

"I love you, Mary Stuart."

Another kiss, and he's gone.

Mary stares at his retreating form, biting back the tears, not knowing when she'd ever see him again.