It doesn't start in fireworks and flame and running into a brick wall.

It doesn't start slow, or creeping and spreading throughout their limbs until it's seamless and part of them.

It does however, start,

With a knock on the door.

The lettering is aged, but just the same as last time. It brings back a memory he's tried very hard to forget. Because she'd asked him to...

She opens the door; immediately taken aback at his presence.

"Harvey? What are you...everything okay?" Donna asks, frowning.

She's covered in soft fluffy fabrics and her hair is light and wispy in a ponytail. So contrasting from the angular imposing form she wears in her nine to five.

She pauses, waiting a second longer, just for him.

"Twelve years ago," He begins,

"Harvey-" She objects, his name falling out in a groan as she rolls her eyes.

But he's quick. And he has it all together. Rehearsed, even.

"I...was the one who screwed it up." He says.

It quickly catches her attention on a knife edge.

"For the first time in my life, I regret, asking you to come to the firm."

"Harvey, we...it was a good decision." She defends.

"I should have...fought for you. For what we could have been."

"Harvey, it's in the past."

"It's not. You know it's not. I wish it was, but the fact is...I was selfish and I...I let you go." He says. A thought follows, and he steps forward, ignoring the fact that her back straightens in response to the movement. "And worse than that...I kept you around because I couldn't bare to lose you but I wasn't willing to put being with you above my career. And I expected you to always be there when...all I had to do was tell you how I felt about you. At the time, part me even thought we could have both."

"Harvey," She protests, wincing.

"I know. Your rule."

"It's there for a reason, Harvey."

"I thought you'd break it for me." He admits. There's so much honesty and simplicity in his words that any facade on her expression is wiped clean, laying bare just how late his words are.

He knows it. And so does she.

"You could have given me a reason to." She adds. "Instead you,"

"Chose work." He nods, interrupting. "You know that if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today. In any sense of the word."

"I know." She smiles, her glazed eyes shining in that self-satisfied way that they tend to do.

He smiles too, the need to roll his eyes pressing on his whim. He sighs, revelling in her.

"So?" She says, her shoulders lifting.

"Goodnight Donna." He says, smirking as he turns his back to her.

"What...that's it?" She says suddenly, her large eyes widening.

"For now," He says over his shoulder, throwing her a smile as he walks down the hall.

It lasts the entire walk home.

A marker for the future...

Theirs.

xXx