salute [h.s]

chapter 35 - harry's pov

His eyes were wet with tears when he opened them once more so that her figure blurred above him, just flashes of red that swam in his vision. He could hear her crying, painful sobs that ripped from her chest and felt like a knife wound to his own each time he heard them.

She wouldn't say it. She wouldn't say the three words he wanted to hear more than anything and it hurt worse than the pain in his chest, worse than the throbbing in his abdomen or the echoing beat of his pulse in his ears as everything around him began to get hazy. She was too keen on him staying with her to realize that he was slipping away and this might be her last chance to say the words that they'd always felt but never spoken.

"Please, petal," he said, his voice sounding garbled as blood filled his mouth with each breath, "say it back."

"Oh god, Harry, of course I love you. I love you so much it hurts." She sucked in a ragged breath as her hand pressed down harder on his chest, as if she was reminding him that she was still there and, for the time being, so was he.

When her lips touched down on his forehead, cool against his hot skin, he let a blissful sigh slip from his lips. He blinked to clear his vision so that when he looked up at her this time, he got a clearer image of his petal, his angel, the girl who had saved him. Though her eyes were wet with tears, her cheeks were flushed, and there was a smear of red blood along the side of her face, she was still beautiful, more beautiful than any woman he'd ever seen in his life. And he was pretty sure it was because of the love that shone through, that glimmered so brightly in her eyes as she looked at him and tenderly wiped away his tears.

"You can't leave me like this," she said, her voice barely a whisper, "you can't. I don't know what to do without you. You're it for me."

He was her home; she was his. He'd never love another woman in his life the way he loved Piper Stone and it gave him peace knowing that she'd always have a special place in her heart for him, no matter what came next.

"You're it for me too," he managed to stammer out as his eyelids finally won the battle against his will and began to flutter shut. He tried so desperately to keep them open, to get one last look at Piper before his heart finally gave out or his lungs filled with too much blood to keep breathing. He could feel it, could feel death creeping over him and winding around him, trapping him in an unbreakable hold. This was one battle he couldn't fight his way out of.

Piper was screaming and crying but the words didn't make sense. He felt her hands on him, shaking him, trying to pull him back from death's clutches and keep him with her. But it wasn't working. He felt like he was sinking, slowly submerging until the water was an immovable pressure on his chest and it filled all his senses until they were dulled and useless. With each passing second, he felt more and more disconnected with the world, with his body – with himself.

He forced himself to speak, to get out the words that he wanted Piper to always remember, the ones that would help make this less painful and ones she could remember fondly, knowing they were absolutely and irrevocably true. He sucked in a breath, one that rattled in his lungs as the blood bubbled within them, and stuttered out his last words.

"L-love you, p-petal."

He hoped she knew that when he said that, when he said that he loved her, it meant forever.

Because he'd never stop loving Piper Stone. Not even after he'd taken his last breath.