He would be lonely. That he knew.

Even if companionship was common, even if they who claim to befriend him, love him, hate him, they would leave eventually.

He didn't chase them away, nor did they die.

They merely left him because they found something else worthy of their time. Of their lives.

He likened himself to a lighthouse, always there, always helping people find their way in life, but oh so lonely. Once sailors found their way, found their next destination, they left. Like Calypso, except he had never fallen in love and he wasn't alone, only lonely.

So when that... impossible girl came along, he was surprised that she stayed with him.

They usually left after a few months, when they found their significant other, when life split them apart or when they simply grew tired of him. But not her.

Unlike the continuous companionship followed by the inevitable loneliness he experienced, she came randomly, when he least expects her. But her presence was comforting, as she always came back.

Is this what it feels like to have a true friend? One who would listen to him, instead of him listening to them. One who would help him instead of him helping them?

She was like any other he had helped. She was lost, blind to the path of life and considered suicide. She had lost her father and her only friend. She was betrayed, and forced to betray.

While her scenario that was dealt to her was... questionable, he did what he did best. He befriended her, he comforted her, he helped her raise her own beaten, battered self and revitalise it with motivation. She had left a day after he finally persuaded her to live her life to the best to her ability.

He said that, but he was silently hoping that she'll stay with him, that she'll remember him and come back one day. But he thought that, like all he had helped, she would forget him. Eventually. Completely.

Two days later, she returned with tales about her new life. It wasn't that surprising, for they would always return after a few days before they stopped coming to him all together. After regaling her tale, he expected her to tell another one or leave. Like all others.

Instead, she asked him how was his life.

It came as a shock.

Someone cared about him enough to ask him about his life.

He felt out of place. He had never experienced such a feeling of... fullness and elation before. Or maybe he did, but it had been too long for him to remember. Was this what they called happiness? Joy?

So he told her his life story, how people around him seem to leave him after a period of time and never contacted him. Even those he met on a daily basis could ignore him when they were beside the other.

She seemed to understand, and listened to him raptly, and had at one point placed her hand over his to comfort him when he broke down crying after realising just how empty he felt before.

But, she had to leave. They always did.

The next day, he cried even harder, feeling that she wouldn't come. His first true friend. She didn't return.

But the third day after her first return, she returned yet again.

And again after two days.

And again after three days.

And again after a day.

And again after five days.

And every time she returned, she had gifts for him, from her impossible 'adventures'. A vial of pulsating black liquid she had so boldy claimed to be the strongest organism alive, a necklace with a silver pendent of a birdnest hanging on it which contrasted her brooch which had a bird on it, a fedora supposedly from a 'hard-boiled' detective who fought crime in a city that had windmills that never stopped and more.

Each item was kept with fervor, except the necklace. That he wore on him daily, to remind himself that he had a true friend in this world. One that declared him to be 'her personal light house, her star amongst stars'.

Her name, was Elizabeth Dewitt.

The Songbird who would always leave the Lighthouse, but it would always return no matter what.