I bowed, and with a twirl of my hand, I said "My leige, I present to you this gift," and held the keychain out to him.

At this, someone at the front of the pub looked over... and totally misinterpreted my stupid little stunt for something very different. They shouted, "Say 'I do'!" and so the rest of the pub of course looked over at us, thinking I was proposing to David.

At this, my cheeks flushed - what had been a funny little game now turned into a great lot of public humiliation. I was just being an idiot, nothing more. But luckily, David saved me.

He took the keychain, put the metal ring part around his finger, and shouted out "I do! I do!" While fanning his face with his hands dramatically. I couldn't help but burst into laughter, still on my knees, before he pulled me up and wrapped his arms around me as the three of us laughed senselessly. The rest of the pub had already gone back to their own business.

Oh, how good a little bit of normal fun could be.

***

David and I walked Melanie home and said our goodbyes, and then started making our way back to my place. I hadn't even thought about it until now, but I haven't seen my mum or brother in months, and yet she saw me only this morning. That's bound to be confusing. Let alone, I needed to figure out a way to sneak David inside my room for the night.

We were just walking along the sidewalk, and listening to the sounds of bustling modern city life. god, it felt good to be normal again. I love the 70s, heck I had dreamed of living there my whole life, but those months had taught me a hard lesson in growing up. Taught me how much I loved London and 2017.

Now that it was just the two of us, I felt David and I needed to set a few things straight as it had been a rather bumpy ride the last time we saw each other. I smiled at him and pulled him closer, his arm wrapping around my back as we walked along.

"So... David. You know, you're looking a lot better," I said.

"I feel a lot better. All because of you."

"David, no it wasn't just me. I was there for you when you needed me - as the universe intended. It is you that got yourself out of there. To smashing Berlin with, I'm guessing, a certain Iggy Pop."

He looked at me perplexed and was going to ask how I knew that before he realised, "Shit, yeah. You know more about me than I do. It sounds funny, you know, I kinda forget you're from the future sometimes. And that you know every detail of my life."

I could see it was hard for him, us being so far apart in space and time, and so replied, "David, it's ok. The main thing is that I know you. The real you - more than any of the biographies I used to read."

He chuckled a bit, and cheekily asked, "Hence your knowledge on all that stuff about Diamond Dogs at the trivia?"

That was a tiny bit embarrassing. You see, I wouldn't have gone on a big rampage about my Bowie knowledge if I knew the man himself was in the room with me. Hiding my humiliation I grinned, "Well, as your supposed 'wife' how could I not know?"

And with that he burst into full-on laughter, and I could see a glint of emotion and happiness in his eyes that I hadn't seen for a very long time. Whatever he was doing in Berlin had obviously brightened both his spirits and his health, and I couldn't be any more happy for him.

I only wished I could have been there to help.

David suddenly pulled away from our embrace, and I was confused for a moment before he walked over to the streetlamp and gripped it with a gloved hand. He promptly swung around the lampost, singing out "Please be mine... share my life... stay with me... be my wife!"

I could tell he was joking, but some part of me really did wish he meant those words.

I pushed away the thought and chuckled, "My beloved husband, what are you doing now?" He ran back over to me and gave me a peck on the cheek before wrapping his hands once again around me.

"And Florence," he looked into my eyes and lifted up my chin with his finger, "Though I'm being silly now, know that I never forgot my promise to you. Never. Every day since you left has been a day I could prove that I will keep that promise and get better. Every day in Berlin has been a shit show, but every day slightly better than the last. I know I'm not perfect, and I'll never be, but I actually feel like I have some grip of reality again."

At that, I started choking up with tears and pulled him into an embrace. I leant up and kissed him for what seemed like forever. Tears were running down my face as we kissed and he brushed them away with his thumb.

When we eventually finished, I went to speak, "David, I... I..."

But he vanished before I could finish my sentence, and all that was left was the faint lingering feeling of his lips on mine.

"I love you," I whispered, to nobody at all.

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