football imagines [requests open]

pedro neto.

alone together

Separation between any few individuals could be easy when you put a time range on it. A few hours, days, weeks—it didn't matter, really, the time length. Either way—whether long or short—by the end of the day or another, you knew that the one gone would always return to the other. You could miss someone only for their return to fill that void of seclusion. Separation on a simple basis, at least, had its promises and lies. That's why it's almost a custom to greet a returned family member or friend with a hug after a long stay away. It showed your love and care for that person.

But what if separation didn't have a time limit? What if it was without promises? The promises of someone returning to your side? That's where its lies came into play.

Separation, quite lately, played a large role in the relationship between Pedro and Marianna. When the world decided to shut down—through shops, personal interaction with others, transport—for a few months, it left many vulnerable, off-guard and most importantly, alone. It affected everyone and anyone. Family, friends, figures. Some were left alone together with others; some were left together alone with someone; and some—the unfortunate—like Pedro and Marianna were simply left alone, apart and separated by many miles.

Plain and simple, it was difficult for the two. The lockdown made room for separation in their relationship. Though in a fresh relationship, any kind of separation from each other they experienced only and always remained temporary, never ranging towards the idea of permanence. And it's not like their disliking to the lockdown was exaggerated or anything. Due to jobs and separate living, Marianna and Pedro were already restrained from seeing one another. So, of course, knowing that the time limit to separation was blank and unwilling to show did raise frustration.

Transport was the biggest fault of the problem; they couldn't go to visit one another even if they wanted to.

Despite all of this misfortune in their relationship, they thrived through it. They took advantage of the scraps given. Facetime calls were frequent and perhaps daily; activities usually done together were carried out online; late nights awake over the phone. They made the most of what they couldn't have and turned it into something they could have. One had the other and vice versa so for some time, not too long, the two remained content with what they could deal with.

Though the positive was followed by the negative. To ask someone to remain positive in a negative environment wasn't fair or just. Everything that Marianna and Pedro had for one another was only simple fragments of their relationship. Everything they did apart—the facetime calls, daily activities—it was all just a way to fill in the void they missed out on apart, a constant reminder that they were not together. Pictures, videos, facetime calls. They did everything separated as they did so together, but it just wasn't the same. When you mentioned separation, all of it wasn't exactly real. False positivity did little to nothing to rid anyone of still negativity.

Being one did not equal being one and one.

To pretend as if the other was there, right by their side, was not real. I mean facetime calls were indeed real—in real-time—but they also just weren't real. It didn't feel real or enough for them, at least. The most significant parts of Marianna and Pedro, they couldn't have over a facetime call. To touch, to hold, to kiss—they couldn't do that apart. Suddenly, the reality of a relationship became a fantasy. Somethings a couple should have an abundance in they had in a paucity by far too much. All they could really do during such troubling times was wait for the last day of separation.

So they waited, and the day finally came along.

A few months later were Marianna and Pedro given the green light to see one another. Long hugs, charmed kisses; the classic I miss you given and received. To be next to the other; to be in the same room—same space, same house, same postcode—all of it felt a bit unusual at first. To see one another almost felt virtual; that's how they were accustomed to seeing each other over the last while. Though they were quick to grow into their old ways. That's what was wanted, anyway, so they stuck to them once they could grasp ahold of it.

When they returned back to Pedro's place, it was only then when they could touch, hold and kiss each other. Suddenly, there was no need to phone each other; miles apart turned into a few inches away from one another; a phone screen no longer prevented them from doing what they wanted. No daydreaming about the other, no imagining how something would be like if the other was around. Just reality, no fantasy. Nothing was virtual anymore, only real. Marianna and Pedro were real and present for each other all over again.

While condescending and unknowing, separation came to be the holding factor of their relationship. Its methods and notions were quite brutal and reckless, but it served the primal purpose. When in the way of Marianna and Pedro and their relationship, it did no real damage. The effects were present though disruption remained underground and murky. They left one another one day only to return back to each other another day.

The two, at home, were alone together. As one rather than one and one.

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For ntamacks-

I'm probably going to slow down with these updates with the coming days 'cause I'm currently writing another story and I'm tired lol.

Requests are still open though. They'll just come out later than expected.