DISCLAIMER: I know that no characters' names are directly mentioned in this prologue, but they will be soon and, as ever, I don't own them or anything else that belongs to WAT.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry, I am just re-posting the Prologue because, as pointed out to me, I typo-ed a couple of times from getting confused after changing my plan mid-writing. Anyway, I will be posting more of this really soon, this is merely a taster of things to come!
She allowed the salty tears to trickle down her cheeks before gruffly rubbing them away again, glad of the fact that no-one was around to see her apparent weakness. In fact, no-one knew that anything was even wrong – they didn't need to and she didn't want them to. She didn't want their sympathy; she just wanted everything to be ok, everything to be how it had been.
She didn't hear him easing the door open and, upon seeing her figure in the dim room, walk over to where she sat staring. She only realised that she was not alone when he put his arm around her. She momentarily glanced up to see whose arm it was before almost apologetically returning to staring out of the window where dark was beginning to triumph over day for another evening.
He didn't say anything, no words seemed appropriate. He had never seen her like this before. She seemed to be holding the tears back but was still visibly shaking. His arm stayed firmly around her shoulders as if a vain attempt at protecting her from whatever it was that was getting to her.
After a few minutes, she turned to him, looking down to avoid eye contact. 'I'm sorry' she said simply, her voice croaky. He took her into a hug, pausing for a few moments to try to find words that could help but failing and causing the room to return to a deafening silence.
They sat there, thinking, simply thinking. She trying to organise the turmoil in her head, him trying to help but not knowing how. 'Cloudy night tonight' she said, still staring out of the window and aware how stupid it seemed to be being discussing the weather. 'Yeah' he mumbled in agreement. 'You won't see many stars out there.' he paused again before speaking thoughtfully. 'But they are there, you know that, right?'
She looked at him strangely, for the first time making eye-contact. 'However many clouds there are, the stars are still there. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean that they aren't there,' he explained.
She couldn't help but force a smile, another first for the evening. 'Yeah, I know.'
'And you know that if you ever want to talk, that I'm here, right?' he pressed on, hoping that she might open up but knowing deep down that she never would.
'Yeah, thanks.'
The sound of silence re-commenced as he got up to leave the room, deliberately slowing at the door in case she suddenly had a change of heart. But he couldn't wait any longer, not without looking either desperate or stupid, with a heart heavy with worry, left her with her thoughts.
She looked up as he left the room, partially glad to have been left alone, partially cursing herself for being so anti-sociable. 'But' she thought 'maybe all this is just the clouds. Maybe there are stars there somewhere.'
While she didn't realise how close the stars were, he didn't realise how thick the cloud was.