Alright, sorry for the long break there. I sliced the tip of my finger off with one of those gnarly serrated knives making salad. Hopefully I didn't eat the elusive fingertip. Longer next time.

Warren let Kat dig her fingers into his bicep when she saw the ear- no matter how fake he tried to tell her it was, she was so scared. He let her rest her head on his shoulder, let her breathe on his neck. He finished the beer himself, let himself rest his head on top of hers on his shoulder. Drunk, he struggled to remember what had happened less than an hour earlier… he- he hadn't kissed her, had he? Oh, shit. She was so much… more, than she seemed. So much greater than the sum of her parts- oh, would Mr. Baths love to hear that now; he'd only failed geometry twice, and all…

He wanted her to know that he loved her too, and Layla, and even Will. He wanted her to know that he understood that she meant love, that she wasn't in love with him, but he was definitely in like with her. In like with the beautiful, insecure girl who's eyes slanted just a fraction too much to look entirely human; who's lips didn't smile often enough to make it count. Her eyes opened, then, and she looked at him through slit lids and her eyes were dark and her hair was dark and her skin was pale, so pale she looked dragged from the depths of the ocean with the serpentine curls the heavy-lidded nocturnal eyes.

"It's raining," she said quietly, stretching with a slight hum. He gave her a quizzical glance.

"No, it's not." Her eyes flicked from Warren to the window. She shrugged.

"Well, it will. Soon, I can smell it." Sure enough, if they stopped to listen, tiny plops issued from the alley outside of Warren's window. Rain. "Don't you love the rain?" Kat's voice was significantly more alert now, and tinged with… excitement, almost.

"No. Shouldn't you hate the rain?" She looked puzzled. "The whole cat thing…" She shook her head, opening his window- frowning as the wood stuck, swelling in the damp, and stuck her head out into the heavy air. Tendrils of hair clung to her face as she turned to Warren, somewhat waterlogged curls stuck to her arms, still in a tank top after she took off his jacket.

"Come on," Warren looked up from his hands to find Kat looking at him expectantly, hands braced on her hips. As Warren didn't move to join her, she sighed, and stepped towards him. A thin, cold hand- nearly as large as his, Jesus- made it's way into Warren's, pulling up and out and they were at the window, then, and Kat hoisted on leg through- then another, and she bent backwards, shimmying, there- out. Warren hesitated, watching her as he prepared to follow. The rain seriously cramped his pyro tendencies. Kat giggled, none of the rasping laugh he usually heard. Her giggle seemed to echo in the short space between his building and the one beside it, a chirping giggle, a child's laugh. She stuck her tongue out as she looked up at the sky, tasting for raindrops as he'd done as a child. He stuck his head out of the window, biceps bunching as he prepared to lift himself up, when Kat stopped him, long thin fingers on his shoulder, holding and pushing and grasping.

"Wait. We need music." Warren rolled his own eyes, exasperated even as he turned back, back towards his somewhat dilapidated stereo. He picked up a CD from the third stack, hands clean as he carefully set the disc into the stereo. A lone chord reverberated through the dim apartment and out into the more than dim alley.

"Liars? Nice. You always surprise me." She twirled, spun like a top with her arms outstretched, open face tipped up to the unresponsive night. "It's not cloudy," she said, "you can see the stars even though it's raining."

"How do I surprise you?" Kat looked at Warren, her thoroughly soaked her a nearly-straight black sheet around her face, over her chest, her arms. She thought before replying.

"You just…. You're not what I thought you were. You… you like the library, you watch Blue Velvet. You love the same music as I do and the same books. I just never would have thought that you and I would have… Would have so much in common, I guess. I mean- people look at you, and they see a brooding, tortured artist bad boy with a clichéd heart of gold that only they can bring out type thing- the freshman girls, at least. People look at me, they see a possibly albino freakishly overbearing and unnecessarily silent girl with strangely large hands. Every time I look at you, or talk to you, you never stop looking different to me. That's all." That's all? As if it wasn't everything. Kat looked uncomfortable as she met Warren's ever steady gaze. She'd sat down beside him, on the first step of the fire escape off of his landing- if you could call it a landing. She jumped up, he craned his neck to follow her movement.

"Dance with me?" She asked.

"I don't dance." His voice was flat, and yet still… she cupped the back of his neck with a hand as she crouched next to him. He wanted to shiver under her touch. He wanted to reach up and take her hand in his own. He didn't.

"I love this song. How can it get any better than "The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack" in the rain with moi?" He snorted at the flippant currant in her voice, but let himself be pulled to his feet, with no small effort on her part, and let her wrap slightly knobby wrists around his neck, though he let his arms hang limp and remained stubbornly motionless as she swayed against him. Kat surprised him, standing on tiptoe to whisper up into his ear "Please?" And he found her hands on his, guiding them over her back, and they rested on the slight swell that was her hips, and he found himself pushing close to her as she pressed herself to him, head resting against his shoulder. And they danced, hair wet and wild, eyes bright, mouths twitching to hide smiles and then her mouth twitching, teeth exposed as they bit her bottom lip- and it was too much for him, and he leaned down down down and his lips were on hers, covering them overlapping being covered. And when she pressed her hands palm-first against his chest- warm, hot even- she leaned back and he frowned, but her smile smoothed the furrows above his eyebrows. They danced so trusting in each other so high up in the air.

I won't run far

I can always be found

If you need me

I can always be found

If you want me to stay

I will stay by your side

I won't run far

I can always be found,

I will stay by your side

And I want you to find me

So I'll stay by your side…