A/N: This is for the TRvBRC challenge, dreamed up by Corrupted Lament, 42IstheMeaningofLife and myself. The deadline isn't until the end of May if any of y'all want to participate go ahead!
The title of this is taken from The Beatles song of the same name, and it loosely based on one of my fondest memories of my boyfriend.
She could hear music.
Quiet at first, but when she shut off the entertainment center (she couldn't figure that shit out no matter how many buttons she pushed) it grew in strength and volume.
And none of the usual shit that Tucker blasted- how he could listen to Flo Rida was beyond Tex's comprehension.
Not that Caboose was much better. She wasn't sure whether she or Church would kill him first if they caught him singing along to "The Wheels on the Bus" one more time.
No.
This was guitar music, fast and intense.
Curiosity piqued she followed the sound down the hallway of the base, to the room that Church, Tucker and Caboose shared.
It was empty now, save for one person on the edge of their bunk, bent over and playing with an intensity and love she had never seen before.
Tex leaned up against the doorway, smiling to herself as he brushed away a lock of black hair in annoyance, only to have it bounce back to its original position.
It wasn't anything special; not even a song. Just a mix of notes put together-steel and pick and fingertips moving rapidly.
But it was the way he was hunched over, so lost in that world, of those notes and nothing else. The burdens gone, the person she had first fallen in love with.
Her Leo.
The feelings she had hardened herself to, the ones she had pushed away so long ago were coming back full force, making her dizzy. She exhaled and tried to steady herself against the door frame.
She couldn't.
But she would.
She had stubbornly fought for so long- a battle of wills between the two of them- and loathe as she was to admit she had succumbed.
She loved him.
She always had, no matter how many times she ran, how many times she fucked everyone but him, how far she had pushed him.
She had known, and she had the feeling he knew, too.
She held her breath, wanting the moment to never be broken, to lose herself in that love, in his joy.
But it was, and as soon as he noticed her he promptly messed up, swearing as he did so.
"Way to sneak up on me, bitch," he growled.
She sunk onto the bed next to him, "Shut the fuck up and kiss me."
So he did.
"Tex, don't do this."
The anger in his voice mixed with concern- for her, she knew.
But it was too late. The decision made, the ship taking off.
Omega had once again settled in the recesses of her mind, where he had always made himself comfortable.
Maybe it was that memory that made her fight him off, only for a moment. A memory that she would not allow anyone else to touch, or to take.
That image of him, bent over in his guitar. Of the hours that followed, only to be hidden once again under a veil of contempt and loathing. But a secret- a giddy secret between the two of them- spoken only in the occasional glance, nothing more.
"Goodbye," she said, in the last part of her that she held onto before the AI took hold.
The last moment she would keep to herself, once again basking in the images.
For every memory has its consequences.