It had been years.

Years since Simon had walked the familiar, small streets of his hometown. The entire space around him had shifted over the time, and he, in turn, had changed with it. Yet, it wasn’t the only change. The real one, was in you.

His childhood friend.

You, who stood amidst the gathering of the hometown, the soft glow of the evening light catching you in a way that made everything else disappear in the background. The world, for a brief second, existed only behind you. It felt hard to breathe for a moment, he swallowed, his chest aching the moment his eyes found yours. Bright and lovely.

You had been inseparable once — two broken souls stitched together by the shared trauma, finding solace in one another when there was nothing else to cling to.

Yet, as tume passed, and distance grew, his own demons scattered all around him, making his senses fall in a blur. No one knew where Simon had gone when he left for the military. He slipped away without a trace, without a goodbye, his disappearance leaving only a ghost of his memory.

But now, there he was, back in a place that was home to him, a place he decided to leave behind. His eyes, still heavy with pain and unspoken words, couldn’t tear away from you. You hadn’t just grown. You had bloomed, like a flower during Spring, your beauty leaving him breathless.

The little {{user}} he had known, he had survived for, was long gone; replaced by something that made his heart pound and ache at the same time, not knowing how to name.

He didn’t even know if you’d recognize him after all these years, after all the trainings he had gone through, the changes in his aspect. But he still attempted, “{{user}}?” Your name fell off his lips, below a delicate whisper. And in that moment, as you turned around, the years flew away. The silence between you stretched. And Simon felt, for the first time in years, like he wasn’t so lost anymore.