Bill's viridian eyes watched the eager crowds unloading their bags from taxis, buses, and cars. Each person hugged and kissed their loved ones, others on the phone explaining the rushes of traffic and relentless throngs all headed for their flights. Car horns honked at an almost endless rate and airport security tried its best to direct the automobiles fighting for and leaving parking spaces.

"Bill," his girlfriend Y/N laughed, immediately pulling him back to reality, "I could use your help with these bags, babe! These mobs are nonstop! The faster we get these to the terminal the less we'll have to fight everyone when we say goodbye."

He watched as she piled her bags atop one another. This had been the moment he'd dreaded since she received that email three months ago. It was fair, he thought, for her to want to pursue her career in America. After all Sweden was so limited with its career choices, but it was home and leaving home meant leaving him. They'd argued about the matter several times. It wasn't jealously, nor envy, simply the fear that they would drift and the greatest love he'd ever had would slip away in another country. America: the land of opportunity.

Bill sighed and collected as many bags as he could. They rushed to the terminal, all of her luggage carefully sent through security. He knew as they passed through each process, they were getting closer to parting ways. It hurt him to think this way after seeing the pure excitement this had brought Y/N. He could feel her eagerness and almost every fiber of his being knew that in a sense, she had to do this. She had been dreaming of this moment for years and now she had the opportunity to chase her dreams, but that also meant leaving him in the past, a part of her she didn't care to typically acknowledge. He'd known her for ten years, seven of which they'd spent being irrecoverably and effortlessly in love.

It was complicated and Bill understood the degree in which she had prepared for this moment. After all, why spend eight years in college to simply throw away the chance of finally becoming a professor? But even after every reassurance that she'd come home to visit as frequently as possible, he would continue to succeed in his career. He was an actor, and while it had taken much of his time, not a minute had gone by that he wouldn't think of her. Fame was difficult, but he had been faithful even though girls would thrust themselves upon him, but no one could ever compare to her. She was his everything. That's why he knew this goodbye was going to obliterate him. The hole her absence would leave was certainly bound to destroy his will to carry on, but he knew this was going to make her happiest. That's all that mattered to him: her joy and well being. And if that meant he would endure a pain he did not think possible, he would watch her board that plane.

The two of them approached the gate that led to her flight. Bill held the small suitcase she wanted to keep with her at all costs. He smiled, that had been a gift he got her just weeks prior to setting off for her new life. She took a deep breath staring at the pathway to a whole new world. Bill grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Without thinking she fell into his arms taking in the familiarity in which his scent gave her. It was home, Sweden, and he was her sanctuary. Tears stained Bill's shirt as he held her closer than he ever had, lips resting in an everlasting kiss upon her forehead. Were they really doing this, Bill thought? Were they actually going to break the bond they had? As he held her there in his arms, all the bustle of the airport no longer posed as a distraction, the words he'd been keeping just slipped out.

"Please don't do this. Don't go. Don't leave stay here with me. Choose me."

Her tear stained eyes peered up at him, their melancholic countenances meeting.

"Bill," she began with confusion, "we- we already discussed this."

"I know, I know," he pleaded cupping her hands within his own, "but something in me is screaming if you walk through there and board that plane, we won't..." he hesitated, fighting the tears, "but I don't think we'll last."

Y/N looked down at their hands intertwined so gracefully, the way they should be. Part of her understood he was right, in fact all of her knew that his words bore no inaccuracy. She had been trying to convince herself that they could make it work. Yet she had spent each night after Bill dosed off to researching the probability of long distance relationships. Of the seemingly hundreds she had read, only two couples had shared their stories of success. Y/N was no fool, and while Bill meant the world to her, the distance was barbarous and signified their inevitable demise. She wanted it to work but she also loved her career. For so long she'd chased that dream, worked harder than she thought possible, and now she had the chance to make it come true. Taking Bill with her seemed to be the only unachievable goal at this point. He was an actor and that was his passion. She couldn't take that from him and she wasn't willing to let him uproot his life for her. Both their lives demanded too much. Bill would always be the love of her life, but perhaps their paths had parted ways — a fear that she prayed would not come true.

She peered up as the speakers announced her flight's departure in five minutes. Bill looked at her, fear evident in his broken eyes. All words seemed to escape her as the pressure of this decision weighed heavily upon her shoulders.

"Says something..." he pleaded in a near inaudible murmur.

Her heart shattered seeing him in this state. "Oh, Bill," she cried pulling him close. Their lips longingly collided as he smiled. How he'd changed her mind so easily was beyond him. Bill pulled her tighter into his embrace, head resting in the crook of her neck and a sigh of relief escaping his lungs.

"We'll be fine," she quivered. Bill felt his heart crumble. He didn't change her mind and it hit him that he never would.

He stood back, a sniffle escaping his broken demeanor. Y/N's small hand dolefully took the suitcase from his grasp. The two just stood there in the terminal, the world around them seeming to halt as they took in the last of each other.

"I love you," she desolately spoke. The tears began to well in her eyes. Bill pulled her in for the last hug burying himself within her grasp.

"I love you so much. I love you. I love you. I love you-" he cried. There had been few times she'd seen Bill like this but she knew it meant he was completely and undeniably eradicated. Carefully she hushed him, hands tracing through his locks. Their last kiss was sloppy, sorrowful, but it was perhaps the most intimate one they'd shared. So many emotions ran through it: melancholy, dread, hope, anxiety, fear, and an indisputable proclivity for perpetual love.

Yet time could not stop for them as the moment arrived for Y/N and Bill to part ways. She could feel her shortness of breath upon walking away from him, and it was evident he felt the same. They looked at each other one last time, each knowing that it was quite possibly the last. No words were needed. Both had known the other long enough to deduce the final gaze of love and adoration for the other. Bill watched her turn, the morning sun giving him one last look at her as the gates closed upon her withdrawal.