She had been driven over the edge by her parents and could no longer bring herself to handle their relentless pressure and impossible expectations. Even with contact only being limited to phone calls and emails, they still found ways to coerce, threaten, and belittle her for even the smallest of infractions against their desires for her.

So, she was done with it all. She left in the middle of a college class, rode the bus all the way back to the city she once called home, and walked her way to the one person she respected, loved, and adored above anyone or anything else in the world. Over the years she'd been away trying to meet her parent's expectations while forging some spirit of independence for herself, her deepest regret was the fact that she hadn't seen him or even heard from him in so long.

Words couldn't describe what she felt when she finally saw him for the first time in so long, walking home from school across a bridge. Whatever the emotion was, it was a contradictive crossing between immeasurable happiness and complete sadness. Gone was the boy she grew up watching over... and there before her was a young man, handsome as she dreamed him to be. But her heart was torn asunder when she noticed the stress and anxiety his body language unveiled, looking even worse than she once did. In her eyes, he was visibly hurting and in dire need of her. She raised a hand to call out to him but the words died in her throat when she saw him collapse against the railing, overwhelmed by whatever had transpired that day and unable to hold on after shouldering his burden for so long. Immediately, she was upon him and checking his unconscious form over.

Instinct drove her alone from there, accentuated by a quiet whispered declaration to his ear, "I've got you." She carried him to someplace else, to someplace their old lives couldn't find them, where they could simply exist without the world or the cruel people who inhabited it punishing them for every failure and every success.

When she found that faraway place, she first laid him onto a warm and cozy bed and draped a blanket over him with a kiss to his forehead. Then she went shopping with the credit card her parents gave to her so long ago, her final insult to them as she bought clothes and necessities to provide for him and herself. Finally, she returned to their home away from home and made all the necessary preparations to begin their new lives.

When he awoke, dinner was cooked and set nearby while she sat on the bed just next to him, reading a magazine while humming to herself, "I wonder if I'd look sexy in clothes like these..." When she went to pinch a small flab on the side of her waist, she noticed his open eyes and she was positively glowing with barely restrained happiness and relief.

"Hey," she murmured to him, "It's been a while, huh? How're you feeling?"