A/N: A new one-shot! Sad...merry xmas!

Romeo, O, Romeo

He was always keen on keeping secrets. Never one to tell what was eating away at him inside, slowly corroding his sense of self, his love for life, his world he longed to leave behind. I didn’t find out where his bruises cam from until, well, I got some, too.

I held his hand as we ran, sweat and tears mixing with dirt and blood stains on our shirts. I glanced at him every so often, seeing the terror in his eyes. He remained quiet, his heavy panting a shaky sound in the chill of the night. I wanted to stop, wanted to just collapse on the damp earth and hold him as he cried. I wanted him to finally let it out, let the pain fall from his lids.

The trees outstretched like skeletal fingers scraped against my face. Our bruises and battle scars ached as our legs took as far as they could. We felt heavy and cold, alone and numb. We were always numb.

It had been only a year since our lives crossed paths. We slowly became intertwined in a passionate affair, hiding our kisses of passion from prying eyes, holding each other in the night when all else seemed so wrong and we were the only thing we had that seemed right.
I had never felt so filled with passion for anyone before. He was the first, and I knew he’d be the last.

No one, not my family, not his drunken father with beads of anger and red cheeks, understood how to boys could love so deeply.
“It’s not love! It’s sickness!” My mother would yell late into the evening, leaving me to weep into my pillow and wish I was with him.

I was out of breath, wheezing, aching, exhausted. I didn’t know where we were running; the moonlit shroud of dead trees seemed familiar but so distant in my memories. His fists came down upon us both. Strong, drunk, angry fists. I held him, laid firmly on top of my love to cover him from the blows dealt by his father. I could feel bones crap, blood vessels snapping under the weight of that man’s hatred.

We both cried. We tried to fall away, to numb our minds and bodies from the beating.

We played dead.

And then we ran.

And now, as we trudged through the darkened woods with our hands keeping us together, I knew what would become of our love.
My muscles burned. My mind raced; this world just couldn’t handle the love we had. It couldn’t give us a toast at our make-believe wedding. It couldn’t hug us and tell us how happy it was of our newfound love for one another. No, all this world could do was beat and burn, cut and scorn, tear every shred of hope we had left until we had nothing…nothing but purple bruises, tears, and a shattered reflection of what was hopefully to become a life full of warm nights, tender kisses, and sweet passion.

“I..can’t…go..on,” he cried, falling to his knees in a rocky, wet ditch. The chill bit at our limbs as we fell together, our grasps tightly holding onto one another.

“I wish…I wish we could go on…I wish we-,” He poured out his final pain onto my lap. My tears rolled down my face.
I loved him.

And there was no better time to finally take that plunge so we could spend eternity with each other.“Baby…,” He whispered, reaching into his pocket.

“Yes, love, “I whisper back, calming my mind and trying to grasp what was about to occur.

“What do you think lies beyond this world? It has to be better than this. We have to be able to love each other there”

“It is better, love. It’s a place of no judgment. No name calling, no hatred. It’s a beautiful plane of sweet summer grass and morning skies. Of permanent sunshine and unfaltering acceptance. It’s only there, my love, where we can finally kiss and not hide. It’s only there where our love will never hurt us again. It’s only there where we can find a life we only dreamt of...”

With a swift exhale, I hurt the bottle rattle. I could feel his fear in his skin as it shook against my chest. That bottle could finally give us an end to the torment we could never cease.

Taking the bottle from his hand, I laid him down as he cried for the last time into the night. Through my cracked, bloodied lips, I swallowed the rest of the white pills, a bitter, powdery taste caking inside my mouth.

I laid back as I tossed the empty bottle, wrapped my arms around him, and thought of the life that was to come.

And when everything faded, as his warm skin tingled and went out…

We found what we had been looking for.