"Ophelia…Ophelia…Hamlet's lover, she was. Did she kill herself, or was it just an accident, a slip of a madwoman? The world will never know. Maybe I'll commit suicide. But what would you do if I died? Would you just move on to the next girl? Or would you be so overcome with grief, with missing me, that you would rather be alone for the rest of your life? I would certainly hope it'd be the latter. That I would actually have touched one person in my life…that it wasn't in vain. Do you know what I mean? Oh don't answer that, of course you don't. You don't and you never will. I never will. No one will ever fucking know because every single fucking person in the world's life is in vain. You can commit your life to charity and helping the poor, but there will always be more fucking poor people in the end! You can never cure this earth of its problems, they're boundless, endless! Why do we even try? We're all going to fucking die in the end, so why do we live? Nothing we do will make a difference. Nothing we do will change anything. We're a pathetic, hopeless, miserable species that knows too much for its own fucking good. We should all just die out!"

Her voice at this point had reached a loud shout, starting out as a mindless mumble progressing to a harsh whisper and now finally this. She paused and stared at the boy sitting from her on her bed and then immediately began an insane laughter, a half cackle, half giggle. And she didn't stop. She just sat there, knees hugged into her chest as she rocked back and forth.

"I think we need to get you a hobby, Phee."

She paused and looked up at him with an 'I dare you to say that again to me' look in her eyes.

"Do you now?"

"Yes, I do. You have way to much time on your hands."

"Ah, and what solution is it that you propose, exactly?"

"Marriage, to me. Be my wife and you'll no longer have to think about the world and all its endless problems."

"Hmm, a tempting offer to be sure, my love." She crawled over to him. "But did you ever think that I might enjoy thinking about this fucked up earth?"

Her eyes still held that crazed, challenging look as they stared into his own. He sighed.

"You're impossible, you know that?"

She laughed again, a normal laugh this time, and settled back into his arms.

"Mmmm, yea. I do. But there's just something irresistible about that now isn't there?"

"Unfortunately yes, though I do sometimes wonder how I'm so goddamn in love with you."

"It could be my charm, my looks, the fact that I actually have a brain unlike those other bimbos. It might be that I'm a tease, or maybe…just maybe…the other side of me, the one that asks the questions about the human race and how fucking screwed up it is. Adds a little bit of mystery, you know?"

"Ah yes, that little element of the unknown. Will she one day crack and become one of those crazy homeless people on the side of the road who yell about the apocalypse and all that? Only time will tell."

She chuckled.

"I knew you'd see it my way."

"Sweetheart, in your eyes there is no other way."

"Well yes, but then again there is always the stray person who tries to argue with me. And then…well lets just say this sweetheart will suddenly stop being so sweet."

"I am refraining from saying 'but darling when are you ever sweet?'"

"Good, if you did you'd be sleeping somewhere else tonight."

He laughed, stirring a few golden hairs.

"Ophelia Rose Wilkinson…" he mumbled and kissed the top of her head. "Maybe someday soon it'll be Ophelia Rose Black."

She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the side of his neck, her fingers intertwining with his around her stomach.

"Maybe it will, Regalus, just maybe it will."