For The Drabble Game Challenge (CherylVeronica, "Go away. I don't want you to see me like this.", requested by Jas)

She paints her lips one last time. That red has always been her strength. Now, it's nothing but a reminder of the sins her family has kept hidden. Now, it is not power. It is shame, anger, and pain. She wears it like war paint, like her secret weapon.

She stands at her mother's side when they lay her father in the ground. Maybe part of her wishes that there was another grave, one that she could curl up in and hide forever. She doesn't know what to do anymore. Jason is gone. Her father is a demon, left to return to the darkness he came from. Her mother is cold as ice.

And Cheryl? Cheryl is alone. Nothing left.

…

"Go away!"

"Cheryl, please. You need someone."

"I don't want you to see me like this."

And it isn't as though Veronica is something special. Cheryl hasn't spent time trying to be something beautiful, mysterious, strong for her. Why should she care if Veronica sees her at her weakest? It shouldn't matter.

And yet it does.

"Just talk to me," Veronica insists, and her graceful fingers wrap around Cheryl's wrist, forcing their eyes to meet.

"There's nothing left to talk about," Cheryl whispers, and wipes away the last of the tears.

She's done crying for her family. Maybe they never even deserved her tears at all. Jason, yes. But her father, and those terrible secrets. Her mother, and that tundra that rests in her chest. She will not weep for a family that would never cry for her.

…

She's cold and shaking. Veronica is there. Somehow, Veronica is always there.

"You need someone."

She never seems to stop saying that. Maybe she's right. But Cheryl doesn't know how to cling to anyone. She's spent her whole life building walls, never letting anyone know the secrets to tear them down. Maybe she's forgotten how to escape herself.

Her fingers tangle in dark hair. Yes, she needs someone. Veronica is not that person, but she's warm, and maybe she really does care. Cheryl will take uncertainty any day.

Their lips meet. She isn't in love. Truth be told, she doesn't know how to love. Not really. But this isn't about that.

This about loneliness and pain, about letting go and finding someone to hold, if only for a moment.

Veronica pulls away, and there is no disgust, no anger in her eyes. She understands. Cheryl is lonely, and she'll take anyone if it means silencing those demons for even a second.

"I'll bring you some more coffee," Veronica say gently.

Cheryl pulls the blanket more tightly around her shivering body, her eyes watching the flames dancing in the fireplace, swallowing up the logs within. She was like that once. She could burst into an array of warm colors. She could consume everything in her path and grow brighter.

She'll be like that again one day. She doesn't know how, but she will.