Chapter Text
An indicator flips from blue to red.
"I like to think that we'd find each other in every lifetime."
/
A golden-haired prince steps on the wide deck of a sailing ship, looking around curiously. The sailors shout to each other in a foreign language. He startles when a slight figure drops from the sky, swinging on the ropes of the sails along the main mast to land lightly on the deck. Bright eyes glance at him and wink cheekily.
His heart thumps hard in his chest.
They share no common language, but on the warm nights they end up sitting beside each other to watch the stars.
The prince learns that the boy is the boatswain's apprentice, but for now is regulated to topman, being the smallest and quickest of the crew.
(They kiss, once, and the prince cannot tell if the taste of salt is from the sea air or his own tears.)
The ship makes port and he can feel the topman's eyes on him as he disembarks. The prince doesn't turn back.
The greeting party from his betrothed's family is waiting for him as he steps onto the new land.
/
A misspelled email address lands in an unexpected inbox on the other side of the world.
A correspondence starts up, tentative at first, then regularly, becoming part of the fabric of life.
Years pass exchanging information, feeling lucky to have found the other in the most unlikely circumstances.
A crisis breaks out in the country at one end of the world.
An email bounces back to the other.
An email bounces back to the other.
An email bounces back to the other.
An email.... is typed and retyped and retyped and....
An email is saved to drafts with the hope of someday.
/
Two strangers meet eyes across the crowded train car. They smile.
/
In a coffee shop, one man turns around too fast and spills his drink all over the other.
They laugh it off and sit together for hours instead over fresh drinks.
They shyly make plans to meet again.
/
Two strangers meet eyes across an aisle.
A smiling bride steps between them and the groom snaps his eyes back to where they should be.
/
"Finding isn't the same as keeping."