An emotion I've been struck with for a long while now has formed into a short story. It's still a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy the draft.

[hr]

"Fear. What is it?" the woman tilted her head to look at the man whose arm she laid across. 
"Fear... it's a limiting feeling. It grasps what you are afraid of, and uses it against you." he answered back, staring at her the same.
"Can you control it?"
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes?"
"Yes."
"Huh..." she resigned to watch the cloudy skies above them. 

"What do you do?"
"Do what?"
"About the fear." questioned the girl. She grabbed his hand, an aged and calloused hand, starting to draw silly shapes. "What do you do when you're being controlled by it?"
"Nothing." he sighed in resignation.
"Nothing?" she stopped, looking at him incredulously. "There's always something you can do, like, I don't know but-"
He hushed her with a finger on her lips. "You do nothing, but observe. Observe and learn." He laid his hand under his head. "Understand what fear it is, and attempt to conquer it. So you can control it for the 'sometimes'."
The woman nodded her head in understanding. 

A quiet moment between them passed, a heavy and warm breeze, heralding a storm beyond the horizon. "Have you ever had a moment when you couldn't understand it?" she piped up in curiousity, again, drawing simple shapes across his palms. 
"Of course." he huffed in a small smile. "I'm not invincible. I'm not strong. I'm still human."
"What do you do then?"
"I keep trying. If that doesn't work, then-" he closed his hands around her fingers, causing her to squeal and giggle in surprise. He smiled with a gentle gaze. "I try to focus on other things that make me less fearful."

"Then, why are we here again?" 
"... I'm trying to understand this fear."
"What's to be afraid of here?"
"A lot." he said, still looking at his arm, the place where it still felt warm. 
"Why don't you focus on other things?"
"Fear keeps me here. Its grip is pretty strong." he chuckled in empty humour. "Then tell me, why don't you fear it?"

The voice paused for a moment, as if to think about her words. 
"Because... we were never meant to be here. I can't fear what I already know I will lose." 
The man gritted his teeth. "You never lost me, I was there by your side, the entire time."
"Then why the fear?"
"You [i]feared[/i] me first." his voice started to raise into an angry whisper. He was feeling annoyed by the constant questioning, so he turned to his to see her, only to come face to an empty blur. The skies were gone, and all that was left was a darkness, a humanoid shaped light, and him illuminated by it.
"No..." she began, a quiet whisper, filling up but also suffocating the void. "I feared that you saw an idea of me." 

(wip)