a/n: 'Eat Life' is a phrase that a close friend of mine used several years ago to depict the passion she had for her existence.

I own nothing.

~ o ~

"So, you really think you can keep up with me?" Coraline said with a merciless smirk, reeling back the black greasy chain on her bicycle, prepared to pedal forward.

Wybie adjusted his mask and helmet all in one, wild thick eyebrows knitting together at her scathing jest. "Of course. Which one of us spends most of their time on a bike?"

"Yeah, a motorized bike, which does all of the work for you."

"Whatever you say, Jonesie." Wybie said flippantly, smiling crookedly as he also put his steel toed boot on his right pedal.

Her snideness was at an all-time high these days. It wasn't something he ever particularly minded, but lately it made him wonder just what was on her mind. Granted he'd never ask something like that, as she'd probably swat him on the head and accuse him of being too touchy feely. Among the dozens of strange habits he had under his belt, no one would ever assume someone of his juvenile age to possess a trait so mature and seasoned as patience, but he did. And Coraline, being the opposite, wouldn't be able to keep it all inside forever. It was like waiting for banana slugs to rise from the sludge of the ground: they came up slowly, but once the tips were visible, they were as good as caught. They sped off, pedaling frantically, youth spinning past their ears in the rivulets of rushing gusts, onto the main road and then the more concealed paths that led into the woods surrounding the Pink Palace. A bead of sweat already trickled down his temple, but he kept pedaling, downright determined to keep up with his audacious cohort. He may not have made it a habit of retaliating her boisterous teasing, but he'd rather hang upside down with his unchanged socks stuffed in his mouth than have her beat him to the top of the mountain.

Wybie risked a sideways glance through his three lensed mask at Coraline, biting his lip in concentration. Her royal blue hair had grown a lot since the first time he met her, and it fanned out behind her like wispy cobalt flames. Eyes the color of richly boiled tea were narrowed in engrossment, delicately freckled forehead glistening with sweat. The evergreens and spruces were but a blur enveloping their fervid riding, a primordial transformation uninterrupted by none other than themselves. Before he knew it, he was panting, but his legs were now numb, so he kept going. Coraline seemed to be feeling the same, but she only glared at him defiantly. He always thought it was funny how time stood still when he was with her, and it rather fascinated him since anything strange and unusual was something special in his eyes.

"Getting tired yet?" She yelled at him, a toothy grin splitting her feminine childish face in half.

"Not a chance!"

His muscles screamed in protest, but one doesn't normally notice something like that when the wind icily licks their face. With the earth beneath them becoming increasingly more vertical, their speed lessened substantially, but their strength pumped out from their vernal legs to climb farther and farther. In the distance he could see the top of the mountain, the sky touching the summit and glimmering softly with white clouds swiftly cruising throughout the wild blue yonder. One last push from his legs and they gave out, but thankfully their uphill ride was at an end and he planted his feet on either side of his bicycle as he leaned over the handlebars, inhaling frantically, exhausted. He remembered how he could be lulled into a false sense of security when it came to climbing mountains, how the way up made one pray for the way down, and vice versa. Glancing up, a drop of sweat falling into his eye and blurring the sight of Coraline, he saw she was panting heavily as well, a long curtain of blue strands falling into her face. Her trademark dragonfly hair clip had slipped slightly, but it miraculously stayed in, the pink rhinestones that hadn't been budged free from years of wear and tear glimmering brightly in the autumn sunlight.

Wybie brought his gloved hand up to his forehead and wiped away a thick film of sweat.

"Looks like...we need...to get in better shape." He heaved and laughed at once, a rather uncomfortable combination.

Coraline snorted. "Speak...for yourself, Wybourne."

She got off her bike and let it fall to the ground carelessly without flipping the kickstand. Wybie flinched as the chain and gears clambered; he took care of his machinery obsessively, religiously, and here she was treating it like yesterday's trash. After a moment he supposed he shouldn't be so judgmental, however. Coraline just valued different things. Much different things. Perhaps that was why he found her so captivating. He liked her different interests, her different ways of doing certain tasks, he documented them like a filing cabinet and kept them for later review. Yes, he guessed that was kind of creepy, but that's just the way he was. Coraline stretched her hands into the air and then rested them on the back of her neck, finally catching her breath. When she thought he couldn't hear her she would always talk to herself about how much she loved the air out here, or how she hated it when other bikers would trample the wildflowers lining the trails. Today didn't seem to be one of those days though, for now she just stared out over the other side of the mountain, nothing but an endless sea of thick deciduous plant life before her.

"You're awfully quiet. Too many bugs clogging your throat?" Wybie said, coming to her side and playfully poking her neck.

She pursed her lips, swatting his hand away. "Just because I don't run my mouth as much as you do doesn't mean I swallowed a bunch of wasps."

"Alright, jeez." Wybie exclaimed, crossing his index fingers in the shape of an ex, holding them towards her like she was an evil spirit. "God, what's your problem? I mean, I know you're snarky, but lately you're just...just..."

"Just what." She asked. It was that deadly tone of voice, one that she didn't use unless she was really angry or really sad.

"Completely pissed off!" He finished abruptly, shortly, suddenly wincing at the realization of what he just said. "I mean...since when did I have to walk on eggshells around you? I thought you were supposed to be fun to argue with, but you have me cowering in fear, y'know?"

One of her thin eyebrows quirked ever so slightly, her lips giving the smallest of smirks. "Cowering in fear, huh? That doesn't sound as bad as you make it out to be."

Wybie chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head, matted and woven tightly like steel wool. In all honesty this strange conversation skirted along the edges of awkwardness, something he normally didn't mind as someone who often asked people to take pictures of him doing odd and hilariously absurd things. But life was nearly almost water off a duck's back, and he shrugged, shaking his head gently creased with a demure smile. He defused her sour temper by stepping back and taking a good look at their surroundings, thick humid air licking his skin in wisping curls of brumous moisture. The wilderness was a place where he truly felt at home. Here, trees didn't have eyes that wandered, the insects didn't whisper painful things as he passed them by, and he didn't feel as if he stuck out like a sore thumb. Sticking his tongue out exaggeratedly as the heat sent one final wave over his body, he shed his black raincoat, only to reveal a black t-shirt in its wake. Probably not the wisest choice I've ever made. Out of the confines of the backpack he had strapped to the end of his bike he pulled out his camera and handed it to Coraline, smiling, without saying a word telling his headstrong companion that yes, she would indeed have to take pictures just like all the other times. She sighed haughtily, but took the case anyway, pulling the camera out and putting the strap attached to it around her neck. Meanwhile, Wybie had already gone to work, scouring the ground for evidence of his favorite organisms, which varied from large spiders to slimy insects of which he had of course memorized the Latin scientific terms.

This had gone on for a good ten minutes. Coraline sat on a boulder, watching her quirky friend crawl around in the dirt getting filthy before becoming mockingly irritated.

"Goodness, don't you know when to stop? Simmer down or else I'll pounce on you Calvin and Hobbes style." She jibed, tea colored eyes narrowed in playful lethality.

"Ahhh...nothing like a fantastic dirt bath to top off the day." Wybie said, rolling to his back in the patch of dirt, staring upward into the expanse of the sky eclipsed by the thick evergreen trees. "You should come join me down here. That rock seems to be going further up your butt and making you ornery."

In a surprising gesture, only a few pregnant seconds passed as he heard her quietly creep down from her lonely perch to sit next to him, far less relaxed in her posture but receding from her bad attitude. He didn't say anything for quite some time, simply listened to the crickets chirping in the distance and the soft rushing noise that reverberated from between the pine needles and aspen leaves. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Coraline quietly grab a nearby twig and draw inexplicable shapes in the dirt, emanating a strange withdrawn ambiance that didn't match up with her true personality in the least.

"What's the matter?" Wybie asked, his voice thick and slightly awkward as he swallowed audibly. This sort of thing was definitely not his forte, but he did his best to remain at least semi composed.

"I don't expect you to understand, but some of us have a firm grasp on what's real and what isn't." In any other context, it would have been seen as an insult, a hissing sting aimed for his own oddities, but her voice held no childish venom. In fact, it sounded empty, and he didn't like it.

"True...I've always been rather cooped up in the weirdness of my own head." He admitted, praying that she would go on.

"When I first moved here, even though it was like I was removed from my own head...I still felt so grounded. But I wished for something more to take me away from this dreary place."

Wybie didn't know exactly what had happened to her that had the entire Pink Palace in such a shaken state; she never ever went into details, and what she did tell him stretched the confines of even his overactive imagination. It wasn't that he didn't believe her, in fact he was proof that fantastic things beyond perception happened every single day, but whatever it was, it truly scarred her, even if she wasn't willing to admit it.

"Not sure what you're trying to say." He said, nervously shrugging one shoulder against the grimy surface of the ground.

"Look, sometimes things happen and it really changes your opinion on how you look at life." She replied irritably, restively scratching her bangs out of her face, which was blushing furiously.

Wybie sat up slowly, crossing one ankle over the other. "I guess I can understand that. You are kind of rigid when it comes to your ways."

She shot him a deathly glare.

"And I say that in the most affectionate way possible." He added quickly.

Coraline sighed in frustration, shaking her head and looking elsewhere, and he felt bad how she was trying to explain how she felt about the whole ordeal and here he was being a apologetically unresponsive. At least they both had the inability to have a normal discussion in common.

"I don't feel like I have the right to be mad at my parents anymore, and I don't know about you but going into puberty not being able to get mad at my parents is maddening."

"And why don't you feel like you can get mad at your parents?"

She hesitated, like her breath was stuck in her throat at the question. "Because I almost lost them."

Grimacing, he exhaled slowly, as though he were afraid something as such was going to be mentioned. It wasn't something he himself liked to remember either. "I don't have my parents at all...I know how you feel."

Turning her azure head to look at him, her expression shimmered with a strange feminine sympathy that he could not help but find particularly endearing. He averted his eyes, glad his skin was dark enough to hide the blush steadily creeping up his neck.

"There always was that niggling feeling in the back of my head of knowing why you live with your grandmother..."

Wybie sighed again, nodding his head. It was her form of an apology, her way of acknowledging his own losses. She was smart like that, never apologizing and offering pity where it didn't belong. But he wasn't sure whether or not she wanted the same courtesy. It certainly didn't seem like she wanted any embellished commiseration.

"Look Jonesie," He said, puffing one cheek and blowing the air from pursed lips. "I don't know exactly what happened when you first moved here, and you don't have to tell me. But you gotta keep living your life without being so angry all the time. I mean don't get me wrong I love your piss and vinegar as much as the next person, but you just have to accept the things that happen to you eventually. If you keep being traumatized about it, it'll never go away."

Before she had time to reply to his counsel, both sets of eyes darted to a branch hanging above them, a familiar black tail and set of crooked onyx whiskers casting shadows. The cat licked himself contentedly, occasionally swatting at stone flies wandering too close to his button nose.

"I can only imagine what you went through..." Wybie said, his gaze falling upon her once again. "Though I'm guessing it probably should have landed you in therapy. Kudos."

"Ch." Coraline scoffed, lips curling into a disgusted sneer. "I didn't want to give that monster the satisfaction. Besides..."

She reached over and punched him hard in the arm. Wybie's jaw fell open, his face scrunched as he gripped his scrawny bicep in pain.

"You make a pretty good shrink." She said triumphantly.

His eye twitched. "Ow..."

"Aw c'mon, grow a pair."

"Are you gonna hit those too?" Wybie exclaimed, rubbing his arm tenderly, knowing that any punch from Coraline Jones would lead to a hefty bruise.

Smiling mischievously, she lifted her chin in a tease of superiority. "I can always kiss it to make it feel better."

"Swear to god, Coraline." He sighed, marveling at how it was one of the few times he used her actual name, and correctly at that. His hand reached up and scratched his head awkwardly, feeling that same old blush stain his dark cheeks once more. "And between the two of us, people say I'm the weird one."

"Funnily enough I've learned that it's not that you're weirder, you're just not very good at hiding it like I am." She said, this time smiling so wide that all of her pearly teeth showed for the world to see.

"Listen, I know I said you don't have to." Wybie began. "But will you ever tell me what really happened?"

"It's really not something I like to remember, and I think I've had enough angst about it for one day. Today's been really great so far, and I don't want to spoil it."

He conceded. "Fair enough."

A breeze rustled the trees, their branching moaning a gentle tune of alleviation, fluttering Wybie's matted locks as well as her own silky sapphire tresses that delicately licked the pale skin of her freckled cheeks.

"Maybe some day." She said softly. "I'm still coming to terms with it myself, after all."

"If it's taken this long for someone as defiant as you, I'm guessing it'll take a little while."

Before she could fire a comeback in exchange for his quip, he sighed complacently, smiling as he leaned his head against his hands folded behind his neck. "Don't worry about it. I'm patient."

Just like that, the mood of uncomfortable unearthed diggings disappeared slightly, and they were just two youths basking in the overcast beauty of nature. The crickets continued their melodies while the wind howled a soft solace, the sunlight peeking out from between holes in the clouds above. They were young, the years weren't on their side in the physical sense, but the both of them were adults in the sense that they had their fair share of bitterness, and could find the strength within themselves to laugh about it. For the first time in ages the peace noticeably returned between them, the strenuous constriction of their relationship easing out like a gentle breath finally released.