â I said that I would come back soon. â
"You did. Of course you did. I..." He feels silly now, in retrospect. It is not impossible that she had closed her mind to the cacophony of human voices, his but one among the mortal fray. Is that why she had not responded to his panicked calls for her? Not because she was leaving, gone, but simply to quiet the noise. And her not being there when he woke, not an intentional disappearing. Not a desire to put space between them, to distance herself. Too much and never enough. A line of blood drawn across a beautiful finger in the style of a wedding ring.
The beach as the sun made it's descent. The absence of her, startling and confusing. And he could not find her, not his fledgling. Her mind ever quieted in her escape, from him. She loved him but not enough to stay. But that's not this. That's not now. He blinks at her, as she takes his face in her hands and tells him it's ok. She came back. She was always going to come back. "I'm sorry," he whispers. People leave, he wants to say. I thought maybe I made you leave. Her eyes search his, and he lifts his hands to hers, nodding slowly.
Just a day, back in time for the sun to tease orange and pink. They're both tired, drawn to the sleep that is threatening to overwhelm, but his emotions did so instead. Panic, anxiety, fear. And then, relief. Surprise, to see her. He thought he might never see her again. "The note, I didn't see it. I'm sorry," he says again, and drops his hands to wrap his arms around her slight frame and crush her to his body.