The past and the future are much the same

Hikaru took a step closer, and Mortis felt… almost afraid of this ghost of the past. He represented a fork in his life that had been closed to him. A path that could have been, and he remembered his broken heart and long days staring into the night, waiting for Hikaru to come home to him.


“Lost?” Mortis echoed, feeling a little like a lost child himself. “I don't understand, all this time…?” but it couldn't be true. It couldn't, because then it would mean that Hikaru hadn't left him. That his lover had needed him, and he hadn't been there. His life was a string of lost loved ones and missed connections. Halos leaving had been the final straw, and his heart had shattered. This was almost too much to bear. Mortis was a gentle soul, a hero. He didn't leave his lost loved ones alone in the dark.