"I don't want to see you again."

Den blinks, frozen, unable to comprehend the words. "Yesmine, what--why? What--" but the amber lines on the disc have gone pale. She severed the connection.

He waves a hand over it, trying to reconnect. Yesmine doesn't answer, as if she's turned the disc's function off.

Den can't stop replaying her words, the tone of her voice, the look on her face when Marr' Dana was in the room.

She wouldn't even talk to him. Why wouldn't she talk to him? Maybe he didn't handle the situation perfectly--if only because he owes Marr' Dana for helping him years ago--but for Yesmine to just leave... for her to... to not want to come back...

She doesn't want to come back.

Den can't... he doesn't understand it.

He doesn't understand what he did wrong. She was so angry she was crying.

Does she think he kissed Marr' Dana back? Does she think he wanted her to stay? He needs to talk to her, needs to explain.

But every time he tries to connect, it doesn't go through. She doesn't want to talk to him. She's shutting him out.

She's... leaving him.

She's not coming back.

She doesn't even want to see him again.

Den stands at the counter and stares down at the disc in disbelief. He can't comprehend it. He doesn't want to comprehend it.

Of course she's coming back.

She always comes back.

She's... he wants her to come back. He needs her to come back.

Den slowly sinks into a sitting position on the wood floors, his back to the counter dividing the kitchen from the living room. He stares at the cupboard beneath the sink.

How could she think that he would ever choose Marr' Dana over her? How could she... Den can't breathe.

It's like there's something shattering inside him and he doesn't even know what it is or why.

He can't stop hearing her voice. He tries to think of a way he could have changed it, something he could have done better. If he'd kicked Marr' Dana out from the start instead of trying to be nice. If he'd tried to stop Yesmine from leaving. If he'd...

But he didn't.

He didn't, and she's gone, and she's not coming back. She doesn't want to come back, doesn't want him anymore. He did something wrong.

And he doesn't know how to fix it.

She doesn't want him to fix it.

Den can't breathe.

Just an hour ago they were laughing under the stars in one of his favorite places in all the worlds. Just an hour ago he was thinking that she was so beautiful he couldn't help but kiss her. Just an hour ago... they were fine.

And now she's gone.

Den's head falls back against the counter. He doesn't have the motivation to hold it up anymore. He tries to deny it, tries to tell himself it's just a bad dream.

But that never worked when Enna died.

He can lie to himself all he wants, but Yesmine will still be gone.

He doesn't understand why. Was there something he should have done better? Was there something he could have done?

Is it because he called her a friend? He just didn't know what else to say, when she's never classified them as anything else either. Lover sounded too impersonal.

He's had many lovers.

None of them were Yesmine.

Den feels warmth behind his eyes, though he doesn't cry. He didn't think he could even get this close to it, though, after Enna died.

Something in him is tearing into little bitty pieces and floating away. It's only been a century, and yet he's so attached to her, he can't imagine... he doesn't want to imagine life without her.

But he's going to have to live it.

The future yawns, dark and empty again, like it was before. For a while it had seemed like there was brightness to it, like maybe he'd found something worth living for again.

He supposes he should have known better. The sun has never been kind to him.

It's always the dark, and the cold, and the empty cavern full of nothing but silence.

Den stares at the cupboard, and he doesn't move. He doesn't move for a very, very long time.

Maybe he never moves again.  

End of Story