Dreamwalker

I love dreams. They put me in mind of stories that need telling. All I need is to find them first. I had an idea of one tonight, thinking back on a dream from Wednesday.

This was my thought:
A boy falls in love with a girl, but his love is unrequited. Some conflict arises and fate throws them together. They go on a long, arduous journey and they come to be friends over the course of it. When they achieve the goal of the journey, they come home. It is wintertime.
Now, my main idea was for the end of the story, because that is what my dream centered around. There are two possible endings. One: the girl is married to the love that she left behind at the beginning, and the boy goes home and cries. Two: the boy and the girl get married, but to his unhappiness because he knows that she does not love him. In this version, her love was killed in the beginning which is why she marries the boy.
I know this is ridiculously simple and completely un-brainstormed, but it felt important to me. I just wanted to throw out an idea for a story of a journey including a boy and a girl in which the ending isn't happy. I am kind of in love with the idea of it.

The last scene:
– after their wedding they are driven home (carriage, of course) –
In the late afternoon light of a winter’s day, he approached the bed. It was crisped over and white, starched and pure in preparation for their first night together. He thought back to all the nights before, sitting at the fire with her, his love, and he began to cry. At the bedside, he fell to his knees and his mouth opened wordlessly in a silent scream. Steps in the corridor went unheard by him. His bride walked through the thresh-hold and saw his form, limp against the blankets, the mattress, the wooden frame. She went to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.
“It will be alright, boy.”
“I know,” he said.
But still, the tears ran on.

Maybe a short story? (Then I could call them "boy" and "girl" which I also like - I don't think I could get away with that in a longer piece.) On the other hand, I kind of like the idea of a book where you invest so much time and emotion into these characters; you desperately want them to fall in love and be happily together, and they just aren't. Because that is life. Am I insane, or is this a good idea?