These Things We Have in Common

III.

car-crash hearts

I'm not your puzzle -

(he whispers sideways and hissing, voice entrancingly low, desperation tinging the edges.)

I've already got you figured out -

(her voice is so assured, so quick that he grinds his teeth against it. isn't she just perfect-)

Is that what you think?

(he turns, fast and quick, and for just that moment he is in control, bigger and stronger and sleek, the kind of quicksilver she'd never be.)

I know it.

(her voice falters for the first time, the first time there's a crack in that sweet, slick drawl.)

You think you're so perfect.

(his words are trying to be bitter, but all she can see is the softness of blonde hair and feel the closeness of warm arms.)

You're think you're so cool. So tough.

(fast. hard. sharp. words like punches. Of course she doesn't pull her punches.)

You think you're such a rebel, so different.

(he's closer, closer, closer but those words sting.)

You think you know me.

(spitting the words - )

( - at the same time, blow for blow.)

I don't need you.

(her words, low and quick, and fierce, until her eyes hit his, warmth crackling through his veins, sudden and burning.)

I don't need you either.

(half-hearted, she thinks, part of the game, step-by-step.)

Then go.

(bluffing, maybe? he hopes, he hopes - )

After you, princess.

(relief, sweet, sweet relief at his quirked eyebrow, the attempt to level the playing field. he's stock-still, so close and she-)

(-is sweet-smelling and tensed under his arm, and suddenly very, very present and he-)

(-is somehow closer and closer, until she gasps and-)

(-falters. And he reels back with the sudden realization that he is too close and she is too intoxicating and that hate was never what he meant.)

Backpedaling down the corridor, they are every inch the same, caught up in the teenaged wasteland, a vortex of rebels and outcasts.

And this dance will tug them closer and closer and closer until they -

- crash.

long live the car-crash hearts.

---

Thriller - Fall Out Boy

Thus end the Scorpius/Rose character studies for this little artsy three-shot! I'd love if you could r&r - and any opinions, should I try to expand them up to a full story? I'm not sure when I'll have the time (...or the energy.)