For Soccer-Gurl: Lars Bender

Flora packed her bags. Walking around the room, picking up clothes, jewelry, etc. she carefully placed it into her suitcases. She could feel his eyes on her as she did so, but she chose to ignore them, and continued to try and pack up all of her belongings in his house. Going to grab the coat she had hanging on the back of the door, her hand was stopped by his own grabbing onto her wrist.

Looking at him carefully, Flora sighed and willed herself not to cry. Lars sent her a pleading look. "You don't have to go, Flora," he stated, still not releasing the hold he had on her wrist. He wasn't holding it insanely tightly but Flora, although she wouldn't admit it, didn't want to lose the sense of his touch.

"I have to go, Lars," Flora sighed. "We both agreed that we needed a break from each other and so I'm going to go take a break for the both of us."

"You think that I would believe that after two weeks, you would come running home and leap into my arms and everything would be as it once was? Just like that? I'm no Einstein, Flora, but I'm not stupid either," Lars replied.

"You were the one that suggested us taking a break in our relationship in the first place," Flora pointed out.

"By take a break, I didn't mean go travel half way around the world like it was nothing for half a month and then just come back so we could reassess our relationship," Lars stated.

"Well, then what did you mean by 'take a break' then, Lars?" Flora asked, staring intensely into Lars' eyes.

"I meant that we just go our separate ways for a day or two and think about our relationship separately, not move half way across the globe."

"I'm not moving, it's a vacation," Flora sighed.

"A vacation that you're not going to return from, Flora. I know you, you get passionate about something and then you never ever want to leave it. You're going to fall in love with this place and I won't be there to drag your ass back onto the plane home. You're going to leave me forever," Lars said, his expression softening after the last sentence.

"I'm not going to leave you forever, Lars. Let me just go on my vacation and then I'll come back and we can get counseling or something to help."

"And I told you that counseling wouldn't help us at all. If you hadn't noticed we aren't the type of people who just sit down and talk about our feelings whenever the urge comes to us. We're the type of people who refuse to talk about their feelings until everything blows up in front of our faces, Flora. That's what happened, that's why we're in this predicament in the first place."

"So counseling would help us, Lars. We can let out all of our feelings in a safe environment and we'll be right back on track. But, I need some time to think about this by myself first," Flora sighed.

"I wouldn't call professing our feelings in front of some nut job counselor a safe environment," Lars replied.

"He's not a nut job. My sister and her husband went to see this guy and look at them now, you wouldn't know that a thing was out of place in their relationship."

"We're not your sister and her husband, Flora. We're different people. We have different likes and dislikes. You can't just compare their results to what ours could be."

"Then if you won't do counseling, I don't know what to do, Lars! I don't know what to do! Tell me what to do so that we can fix this, so that we can act like the happy couple that everyone thinks we are. Just tell me what to do to fix our relationship and I will do it, Lars. I will do it!" Flora exclaimed, tears starting to come to her eyes.

Lars stared at her sadly before releasing her wrist. Their hands dropped to their sides but neither seemed intent on actually moving from the spots they were currently standing in. They just stared at each other, not speaking or moving, just staring at one another. Their legs refused to move on their own, until Lars stepped closer to Flora.

She stared at him, seemingly unchanged by the decrease in distance between the two of them. Lars continued to stare at her until he decided to wrap his arms around Flora and pull her into a hug. "Don't go, please. I'd be lost without you, Flora. I wouldn't know left from right, up from down. I'd forget how to breathe without you around," Lars whispered to Flora. "I don't care what it takes to keep you here, just please stay, I'll do anything and everything to keep you in my arms for the rest of my days."

Flora didn't say anything for a moment, just standing and unmoving from the position she had been in. She was strong willed but her resolve started to crack and splinter. The walls the two of them had built up around themselves slowly crumbled, until Flora wrapped her arms around Lars too. Squeezing tightly, Flora rested her head on Lars' chest as she tried to hold back the tears. "I don't want to leave you, Lars. I wouldn't leave you for anyone or anything," she sighed.

"Then why do you want to travel by yourself for two weeks hall way across the world. Why do you want to leave me if you don't have to?" Lars asked, resting his head on top of Flora's.

"Because I don't know what to do, Lars. I don't know how to fix our relationship, I don't know how we got this bad, this separated. It was just easier to run than to face my problems," Flora admitted.

"You're not alone, Flora, and you never will be until I take my last breath. I love you and I know you love me, so we'll figure this out together, you and me, until the end."

"Until the end," Flora agreed, clutching tightly to Lars shirt. And with that, their agreement stood, and it would forever stand. There were cracks in their relationship, but who didn't have cracks in a good relationship? And they would never be alone, with the other always there to guide and help them, forever.