The Dent in the Wall
by Trish
Edited: June 29, 2006
Original AN's: I had a sub in Math class so there was fourty five minutes to kill. This is a pretty pathetic piece of literature, but I think the world needs more Karshie, don't you?
There she is, there she is.
Don't lose your head now, Karsh. She's just a girl. A girl you happen to be in love with, sure, but she doesn't know that.
What she doesn't know can't hurt you.
Man, she sure is pretty.
No, Karsh! Bad Karsh! Resist the temptation! She's not yours. She wouldn't want you anyway. Just focus on protecting her.
You're her friend, her ally, her bodyguard, her personal doormat if she wants, but you're not hers. She doesn't love you. She could only ever love Dario... Even if he's dead; even if he's been dead for years.
She's got that other Dario too; that Dario from Serge's world. No matter where you are, Karsh, Dario's always the one who's gonna hold her heart. I guess even death can't keep the two of them apart.
Riddel...
Why couldn't it be me?
SLAM
"This sucks!"
Karsh nursed his bruised and swelling knuckles, wincing at the dent they'd made in the hallway wall. Fargo would be beyond pissed... Ah well, he could always blame it on Zoah spiking one of his volleyballs out of bounds.
Muttering and shaking his head, Karsh started down the hall, giving Riddel's door one last, longing glance. Sure that she would never even notice he'd been standing there, he retreated to his own room.
The second he'd walked out of sight, Riddel's sapphire and snake-covered head popped out of the doorway of her room. Her face twisted in confusion as she surveyed the empty hallway. Karsh was almost always standing guard at the top of the stairwell, probably out of some personal obligation he'd forced on himself after the incident with Dario. But he wasn't now, which both surprised and disappointed her.
Riddel's indigo eyes widened at the sight of a large dent in the wall near her door. She studied it for a second before calling over her shoulder, "Marcy, Karsh was just throwing a fit out here. Do you have any idea what was bothering him?"
The blonde girl rolled her eyes, obviously more fascinated with the string she had her fingers tied up in than with her fellow Deva, "Like, I have no idea what Karsh's crisis is. And who, like, cares anyway? It's always something with him."
Riddel took Marcy's lack of concern as a sign that a frustrated Karsh was nothing to lose sleep over. Not that she could help it. She and Karsh had been together since childhood, and while they'd never been that close he still meant a great deal to her.
She took one last calculating look at the damaged wall before returning to her room and closing the door.
I based this on what Riddel says on the S.S. Invincible when she's joined your team.