ᖴI᙭ᗩTIOᑎ

YOᑌ ᔕᗰEᒪᒪEᗪ GOOᗪ

Blood pounded in your ears, the chance of being discovered by your dearly beloved growing with each passing second. The air seemed to still and tense around your body, squeezing you tighter and becoming more suffocating every moment while leisured footsteps landed by your hiding place.

     You peeked out for only a millisecond, desperately looking for a way out of your current situation. The storage room in which you'd stuffed your body had a single door facing the front of the gas station- a place you'd found yourself in while on your usual afternoon rounds of trailing your one and only object of obsession.

     Looking out from the barely open door, you scanned the rest of...well, whatever you could see. Lighting was dim due to storm clouds gathering over the Uncanny Valley in which you resided, limiting your vision. Not to mention that peeking through a crack in a door wasn't the greatest of vantage points.

     Despite all that, you could still recognize the partial silhouette belonging to your favorite skrunkly person. Your mind began drift as soon as they came into sight, something akin to a hallmark movie montage starting to play in your active imagination, scenes of a wedding and Christmas and ki-

    'Oh what I would give just to be a few inches closer...' You thought dreamily, putting a bit more of your body weight on the door so you could admire your adorable rat.

     Unfortunately, with this change in position came your first mistake: slipping on a conveniently placed banana peel that had been thrown onto the storage room floor.

     Your full weight crashed down onto the door you had been leaning on and it flew open with a loud "BANG!", quickly catching the attention of not only your beloved but also every other shopper.

     This is when you made your second mistake.

     It should be said that 10 minutes ago you hadn't even considered ever being in this situation, and as such, you'd made the extremely risky decision of jumping into a spot that you knew Doe frequented when walking through this gas station.

     In your own defense, it was a split second decision you had hastily made when seeing him walk through the front doors, perhaps if you'd been given some time to think about it then you wouldn't be here- but alas, now not only had you made a ruckus in the store, but you had also fallen onto your one and only love, both hands planted firmly by his head as he stared, wide-eyed, at your blank face. The two of you froze in shock, noses almost close enough to touch.

     You were on top of John Doe.

     You were on top of John Doe?

     You were on top of John Doe.

     Oh.

     Oh no.

     " . . . " Doe began to sweat at the close contact with another being and you just barely missed the nervous contorting of his dark t-shirt while you went through all the stages of grief.

     " . . . " You didn't know what to say. You were still too shocked and out of it to form a legitimate sentence. So what you intended to say, ("Oh my goodness I'm so sorry, I was just looking for some milk and seem to have tripped, my sincerest apologies!" [posh accent included]) really came out as:

     "I-I-I was looking for your nose in the- uh- and it tripped an-and I'm an apology so I'll go now my sincerest bye-"

     You scrambled up from your compromising position above Doe's beautiful face and booked it out of the store as fast as physically possible, leaving behind a flustered and greatly confused eldritch being.

     The walking restraining order remained on the ground for a few moments longer, his limbs sprawled out on the cold, hard floor. A lock of hair twitched on his head and snapped him out of his daze, bringing him back to the real world. His vision was drawn to an older woman who had clearly seen the entire ordeal. She approached him, offering him a hand and helping him back to his feet before patting him gently on the back.

     "That's quite a tumble you took dear, you may want to put together an ice pack for the nasty bump on your head."

     Doe gave the woman a small, bashful smile and simply nodded his head before brushing himself off and continuing on with his day of silently roaming the grounds in which his former obsession used to spend the majority of their time. He was pulling at strings at this point, the only remnants of their existence came in the form of a small name tag with the word "You" typed on it in bold letters and a broken alarm he had stolen from their apartment.

     Despite the lack of progress in his search these past few weeks, he pushed on in hopes that something else might show up- something that could convince him that You still existed somewhere and would eventually return to him, but deep down inside he had already realized the truth.

     He never never never should've let them get anywhere near...that man...much less allow them to take him up on the sale he had pitched oh so many times. Doe's mistake was his hesitation- perhaps if he had come a day earlier and swooped You back to his residence then he wouldn't be in this situation. Or perhaps if he hadn't broken into their apartment and left them a heartfelt gift on their kitchen floor (which he was sure You was going to love just as much as he love love loved them) then they wouldn't have been so paranoid and as willing to change housing.

     You had been the only thing he lived for, his one and only goal, the one he watched over each and every day, morning to night. Now that they were gone...well...it was as if his life's purpose had been stripped from his very being. He zoned back in on his task, continuing the search he knew would be fruitless but couldn't seem to stop himself from embarking on. What else did he have?

     His mind drifted back to the day's earlier events, a light blush spreading across his pale cheeks from the thought of such close contact with another person. Not even You had ever been that close.

     Actually, now that he had the time to really think about it, where had you fallen from in the first place? While it was very possible he had just been so engulfed in his search that he didn't notice your presence, he found it odd how you had simply appeared out of nowhere. You were only human, right?

     He decided it was just a lapse in his own memory and turned back to what he had been doing, but the curiosity silently grew in the back of his mind.

YOᑌ ᔕᗰEᒪᒪEᗪ GOOᗪ