Road To You

I was born a fool on the run
I've broken hearts and lost at love
There's not one thing I would change or undo
Cause all my life's been a road to you

Mathias stared out of the bus window, only half taking in the scenery of the city that he was in now. He had never been an overly restless person and yet something had told him to just... go. In the end, he had trusted his instincts and he had done so. There was a bag in his lap, a duffle bag overhead and he was headed for... hell, he didn't know. He had just bought a ticket to a place that had felt right. He had scarcely glanced at the name or the ticket since. He had plugged in his headphones, music distracting him from some of his thoughts and from the looks and whispers of others. It was a lie to say that he had grown used to these things. That he would ever. He might have come to acknowledge that they would always happen, but that didn't mean he liked it and that he accepted the fact that people would do it. Listening to music was one good way to at least distract himself so that he didn't get angry all over again - at life, at strangers, at himself.

Slowly, he allowed his eyes to focus more on his surroundings as they changed just a tiny bit. It was enough to bring him back from where he had gone. Their speed was slowing down. As he glanced out of the window, he could catch sight of what was obviously the station for this town. This was it. Last stop on his ticket. Why had he bothered to come here? Just a change of scenery? He knew it was something. It had to be. He'd never had this urge, felt this deep gut feeling before. But what? He wished he knew. It had been hell trying to explain it to other people. Would he find something here or would he end up catching the next bus back home? Or to the next stop that felt likely? He guessed time would tell and it was a bit too late to be having second thoughts. At the very least, he could say he'd visited this city now.

The bus worked its way into the station, into the spot assigned for it, and then people began standing, pulling down their luggage, gathering up their trash. Mathias waited. It was only polite. He would take longer than most of them. When a majority of the passengers had made their way off the bus or towards the front, he slowly stood from the seat and winced at the stiffness in the entire right side of his body. Sitting for long periods of time never did him any good. He reached up with his left hand and pulled his bag down to him, catching the side of it with his right once it was low enough for him to be able to reach. He slung it over his left shoulder and his other bag over his right. He made his slow way up the aisle. Now the tricky part. He was stiff from the trip. His right leg and right arm weren't the same as they once were and now his balance was different because of his bags. Slowly, painstakingly, he took the steps of the bus one at a time, doing his best to adjust and to not fall flat on his face. Finally he made it down and off, feeling the sweat beading on his forehead as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Well, he was here. And now what? He had followed that small feeling all the way across city lines for hours, hadn't he? He might as well follow it a little further. He made his way out of the bus station, limping a bit more than he would have liked but that was to be expected after hours on a bus. He could have gotten his cane out but... something said no. Maybe it was the fact that he had spent most of the ride ignoring the stares of others and he didn't want to incur more. It would only sour things, dampen his mood so much that he might not be able to find whatever it was that he was supposed to find. So he resolutely set off, taking a bit longer than he might have normally but making a fairly steady pace for the most part. He didn't bother to think too hard about where he was going. He just followed that vague feeling.

He walked for about half an hour, knowing that much longer and he was going to push himself to the brink. He would have to find a place to sit down soon. As he thought that, he glanced to the side at a small restaurant. It was a cheery looking place, small but with a homey feel to it. He briefly considered going inside, something said yes strongly, but Mathias hesitated. He didn't think he could handle a restaurant right now. He was too raw and unsettled. If people stared at him, which they inevitably would, he didn't know what he would do; he might lose his temper or he might just lose his control on his emotions and find tears pouring down his face. Neither seemed very much like something he wanted to deal with right at this moment. He took a hesitant step away, still feeling like he should go within and warring with himself. It was as he took that step that someone barreled into his shoulder before continuing onwards. It wasn't a cruel thing, it wasn't someone who was trying to attack him. Mathias recognized the sound of harried steps and a phone conversation that sounded like it wasn't going well at all for the man that had run into him. Unfortunately, Mathias' balance had never quite been the same after the accident and he was already awkwardly balanced with the way that his bags were hanging off of him. He teetered for a second before he lost his footing and crashed down onto the sidewalk hard with a quick gasp of pain.

For a moment, all he could do was sit there. The man was long gone, probably hadn't even realized he had done anything other than bump into someone else. There was no one else around on the street. He was going to have to get up on his own and some days that was not an easy task. Today was going to be one of those days. He took in a deep breath, shifting his legs, wincing at the tightness of his muscles in his right leg. This was going to be more difficult than he had thought. He shifted his hands to press against the hard, rough concrete, fingers digging in against it a little. He was startled at the sound of shoes on the pavement and the sound of a voice, thickly accented but still speaking in coherent English. "Are you all right? I saw what happened."

A hand shifted into his line of sight. Mathias hesitated for a second, and only because he was debating on whether or not he should use his right arm or his left to try and pull himself up. He reached out with his right hand and grasped the hand of the man that was offering it to him. That was when he looked up. His warm, brown eye met the cool gray ones of the man that was leaning over him with his arm extended, their hands entwined. What felt like an electrical surge coursed through Mathias, stealing his breath. His eye widened, there was a hitching noise as he tried to breathe properly and his heart slammed against his chest so hard that he was certain that it was going to stop working any moment, that he would just fall over dead here on the sidewalk. At least he would die knowing that he had found what he was supposed to. His mind filled with memories that were both there and were not, things that were truth and yet he hardly could believe them. Mostly he was filled with a knowing that was so strong it almost sickened him simply because of the way it punched him deep in the gut with recognition and want.

From the look on the other man's face, he was feeling exactly the same way. The grip on his hand tightened and, for a moment, he saw those gray eyes move from his own (with some difficulty, it seemed) and they did the exact thing that Mathias hated, that he never wanted to see; they traveled to his eye patch, to the shape of the cane sticking out prominently in his bag, to the slight scars on his arm. But then those gray eyes moved back to take in him and as Mathias watched they filled with tears. The man crashed down onto his knees so hard that Mathias winced and then strong, strange, familiar arms wrapped around him tightly as he felt the other man's chest heave, could feel the wetness of tears drop down onto his shirt. "It's you! I don't... I don't know you, but it's you. I've waited and now..."

"And now I'm here," Mathias said gently, moving his left arm up to circle around the other man. He could feel his own eye filling with unshed tears. "My name is Mathias."

"Camillo."

"Well, it's nice to meet you again for the first time, Camillo."

Today is the way to forever
I made a map to find you when you're alone
Wherever we've been don't matter
We're this close to home