Those Three Little Words

(I'm not really sure I am happy with this, so expect some editing later on. My other story is still in the works so i haven't given up on it!)

Just three little words that when said apart from each other or with other words don't even compare as to when they are said together.

They are just three little words after all. Simple words, with simple meanings that when combined become complex and full of meaning.
These words are ones that you have never thought to hear in your lifetime.

The reality of hearing those three little words from the man who stands before you, hits you hard and fast. They leave you breathless and dizzy.

You dreamt of hearing them, would wake up tangled in sheets, sweaty and gasping for air. You would repeat them soundlessly over and over, and as the hold of sleep would leave you quaking with wakefulness, the need for a cold shower and a stiff drink to calm your nerves would arise.

Three little words was all it took to show you that the world could give you all and at the same time take away everything you ever thought to be true. You want to cry, to demand he take them back.

It's childish, but you pinch yourself under your arm, its hurts and the situation remains. You can feel your mouth begin to form the words, but bite your tongue until you taste the tang of blood. If you don't say them you can pretend the man before you never did.

In your line of work, words such as these destroy people. In your life those three little words have made you deaf to all else. They have consumed you to your very soul, threatening to overwhelm you.

You know the man before you is still speaking, you can feel his hands holding on to you, shaking you to gain your attention, but nothing else mattered save for those three little words.

When he finally comes into focus and you are able to gain some sense, you look at him in disbelief. This can't be true you think.

Certainly he has not said what you think he said. The older man would never say such a thing. It had to be a joke.

So you shake your head in denial. Tell him to take them back. Say he didn't mean those three little words.

You don't want to believe them, but this man doesn't joke around about anything, much less something as important as those three little words.

It can't be true, no...he couldn't...wouldn't. The dizziness is back, the room spinning and it's suddenly to hot for comfort. You lean on him because at this moment despite him daring to say those three little words to you, he is all that you have at the moment. And even though you still want to deny the truth behind them, you can see it in his eyes. The way the bore into you, willing you to believe him, almost desperate for you to except them with as much dignity as you can gather.

Because people like you do not cry, they do not lie to each other even if they do all others, and most importantly they do not allow something like those three little words to destroy them.

So when he sits you down, kneels before you and in a gesture almost to kind, to familiar repeats those three little words in a hushed whisper. You do what you must and you believe him.

You are after all Reno. A Turk. And just because some one has finally said those three little words to you, you will take them and bury them deep to where they cannot touch you.

You look him in the eyes, let all of the emotions you feel at the moment flicker in their depths once before pushing them away and ask him kindly to repeat those three little words one last time.

He sighs with acceptance. He understands your request and will not deny you the truth.

You wait with bated breath and hope for one brief second they will change into any other three little words. But they don't.

"Rude is dead."