Not When You're Angry

Author: Knowhere

Rating: Pg-13

Disclaimer: Nothing.

AN: Important, please read…

I know a lot of you are chomping at the bit for an update on Lux and/or Gradual. To be honest, I've started the next chapter on both, but it will be a while until I finish. I really can't be anymore specific due to the flurry of work that I'm facing.

However, what I am willing to do to tide people over is...

I've played with this idea on and off but have not done anything yet. If I opened and moderated a forum specifically to answer questions in character and as the author from each specific story, how many would be willing to subscribe/read/participate?

In this forum, I can also post little tid bits of paragraphs that I have that never fully made it into a full story. It's not exactly a role playing thing, but I'm sure some have questions for my characters depending on the story. Or maybe a story ended and you were hoping that I would write a certain scene. For instance, I know I got tons of requests about the "phone call" scene after the lastest chapter of Lux.

That way, I can write here and there, work on my stories, but not have readers waiting for such a long time for something to read.

Email/PM if you would be interested.

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This story is just a very small drabble…nothing much. Just something I thought wasn't really addressed before. I've done some 'fight' stories, but I thought…well, sometimes the resolution to a problem isn't so quick, even when the problem seems so trivial.

Summary: Literati. Not every fight, big or small, can resolve itself so quickly. AU.

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Whoever uttered the moronic phrase, 'You're beautiful when you're angry' obviously never imagined someone like my Rory. Not that I would admit this under even the most horrific of tortures, but she's really not the kind of woman. When we fight, we fight. It's healthy though. We're not one of those couples who are constantly suppressing everything, we're not like a pressurized bottle that's threatening to explode. But one thing I'm glad of, when we fight, we get over it. Issues resolved and we try our best not to bring it up in the future. We learned our lesson early on in our relationship. When we finally got back together, years down the road, we learned that if we kept on digging up the past in fights, we would never really get over it. So, one day, we just sat down and fought about everything we were upset with in the past. All those past hurts when we were kids, the tears that she shed but I wasn't there to witness, the anger I felt but was never able to express, we talked and yelled about it all. In the end, it paid off. We finally apologized to each other and tried our best to let go of the past. Plus, the makeup sex was the best we'd ever had…

We already had our makeup sex earlier in the evening about this particular fight. This morning I drank the last of the milk and stuck the empty carton back into the fridge. She shuffled into the kitchen fifteen minutes later and exploded. She didn't have milk for her coffee and certainly nothing for her cereal. I winced and apologized but apparently my tone of voice was left lacking. It then proceeded to be about my lack of keeping things organized and my lazy tendency of shoving the empty milk and juice containers back in when I should be throwing them away. Then I countered with the fact that she almost does the same thing because she leaves just the tiniest bit remaining so that I'll be the one who gets stuck with throwing away containers. By the time we left for work, she was fuming and I was pretending not to notice. But later in the day when I realized that the fight was totally unnecessary, I showed up at her office with sandwiches, two child-sized boxes of milk, and a cookie as an apology. She melted instantly and promised to be home early so that we could make up officially.

We did. In that lazy, take-the-time-to-explore, kinda way. We spent a good chunk of it just making out on our sofa. So much so that I think she left a hickey on the side of my neck. And another one dangerously close to my buddy, south of the equator. Just the thought makes me hard and I wanna laugh my ass off.

I see her standing in front of the bathroom mirror, her nose wrinkled as she scrubs off her makeup with a cotton ball. I smile, knowing that she's examining the freckles on her face. She swears that they're a curse. But I love them. They're like tiny constellations that map out Rory to me. Trace them and it turns her on. With a feather touch, the little cluster of freckles at the top of her thighs could rank at the top of her erogenous zones.

Leaning on the bathroom door, I cross my arms and watch her. "You about ready for bed?"

She pauses. "Yeah."

I go over to the bed to peel back the covers. "So, my book thing is this Thursday. Six."

"Jess, why didn't you tell me earlier? That's in two days."

I shrug. "What's the big deal? You always go to my release parties."

She pads over to the bed with her hands on her hips. Uh oh, never a good sign. "But I already have plans. Mom's coming up into the city and we were going to a spa, have dinner, see a show or something. I haven't seen her in a couple months."

"Rory, this is the official release of my book. It's held by the publisher."

"I realize that. But I already have plans."

I scrunch my forehead. "Cancel them. It's just your mom."

Her eyes widen. "Just my mom?"

I wince. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that she would understand if you had to cancel, that's all."

"Jess, it's not fair to cancel on my mom like this. We've been planning this for a few weeks. I've told you."

"Well, I didn't know it was going to be this Thursday."

She paces. "If you told me the date of your party, we wouldn't have this problem, now would we?"

"Ror, are we really fighting about this? We just ended one."

She holds her hands up in surrender. "Jess, you never change! If this party is so important, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

I can't help but raise my voice as well. "Of course this is important! You know how long I've been working on this book. How could you even think about not being there?"

She blows out a heavy breath. "I'm going to be there, I just think you're being really inconsiderate by not telling me. Now I have to call mom and cancel on her."

"What's the big deal?" I'm confused. "You just said you'd come."

"The big deal is that you didn't tell me."

"But you knew it was coming up. This is my third book."

She pinches the bridge of her nose. "You're not listening. I'm upset at the idea that you didn't tell me. That you expected me to just drop everything and show up. I don't like being taken for granted."

"I don't take you for granted."

"Oh no? Then why didn't you tell me? You assumed that I would come, didn't you?"

I frown. "Of course I assumed you'd come. You're my wife, why wouldn't you be there? Don't you want to come?"

"Yes, I want to come. But that's not the point."

I throw up my hands. "Well, what is the point? We're talking in circles here."

"The point is that you take me for granted."

"We're married." I wince once those words escape. No woman wants to hear that. Even I know that. "I didn't mean that. I just meant to say that we're married, so shouldn't I assume that you'd be somewhere that's important to me? I mean, I come to your office parties without you asking."

"But I let you know ahead of time."

"It just sounds ridiculous to have to schedule me into your calendar, doesn't it?"

She sighs. "Jess, look, it's late. We're obviously tired. Can we just talk about it tomorrow?"

"Sure, whatever."

Coming over to her side of the bed, she rubs her face but gets in silently. Tucking her body under the covers I watch her roll on her side, away from me. "Night."

I close my eyes. "Yeah." Switching off the lamp, I wish we hadn't had this disagreement tonight. But no relationship is perfect, right? At least she didn't make me sleep on the couch. I think about how just earlier today we had made up and how we got into things again tonight. A good thing is ruined so fast.

I think back to the stupid phrase. Who actually likes it when their partner is angry? I shake my head. Rory gets red really quickly, both in blushes and in anger. And to be honest, it's not a pretty sight. She also has this habit of taking a protective stance, as if it would guard her from some invisible foe. I never really understood that. It is, however, easy to read her body language once she's upset. And it's also easy to know when I've gotten back into her good graces because her body will visibly relax.

But now when I look over at her back, even in the pale moonlight I can make out the tense shoulders and the tight way she's curled the comforter over her. I sigh and look up at the ceiling. Maybe tomorrow we'll make up…

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AN: Told ya, it wasn't much. I just like the idea of not having the fight resolve more than anything.

Please give me some feedback on the forum question. I just thought it would be a fun thing between me and readers.