Still Waters
Summary: Everyone thinks Cassidy is a pleasant person. Rese knows him better. OneShot.
Warnings: Mildly T-rated for hints on a relationship
Set: story-unrelated, future-fic
Disclaimer: Snowlia claimed Cass, and Jen Kritique claimed Remy… So I am left with Nick? Thanks, but no thanks^^ I own this story, but I don't own the characters or their world. Thousand Thanks to Svetlana to making my life so much more colorful!
He has developed a grade of perfection Rese never will be able to reach.
Even more, he never had to develop it. He was born with it. It's natural.
Children love him, women adore him, and mothers fuss over him. Men grudgingly admit to his skill and ability. Wherever he goes, he is respected and loved.
Cassidy has something that makes everyone like him.
There are no exceptions to the rule. He is polite, and kind, and humorous. He is careful, and never arrogant. He is an excellent hunter, he is quick and able and he bears responsibility remarkably well. Whenever he is in charge of their team, nobody is left out, nobody feels underestimated. Responsibility suits him, contrarily to Rese who hates being responsible for the people precious to her. Sometimes, she thinks teacher has given her the job as joint-leader on purpose but she cannot prove her theory. So, instead, she thinks about her partner.
-V-
People know exactly how to deal with her.
She is emotional and explodes easily, she does not hold back on her strength and she certainly never holds back her opinion. She is easy to deal with because people can predict her reaction. Cass is her opposite: he is impossible to read. People look at him and see a slender, tall man with red-golden hair and a face full of freckles, and his glasses make him seem even more intelligent than he already is. From what they see, they create an image: Friendly, intelligent, helpful, nice, kind.
Sometimes, Rese wants to scream because that´s so obviously not true. Is she the only one who sees how he really is?
He's like the often-praised still water.
Still waters are nice and calm, clear and blue. Everyone likes them. Still waters are treacherously deep, Rese knows, and the depth is impossible to gauge. There are rocks and pointed shards of broken stone one cannot see; dangerous undercurrents and many other unpleasant surprises. The deeper you seek, the colder it becomes. The more you try to see through it, the more remains hidden.
Still waters run deep.
As much as Rese hates to resort to proverbs, this is the only way to describe her oldest friend accurately.
-V-
His politeness hides his sarcasm.
His tongue is sharp and precise and cuts in as well as Rese's. But while she never tries to hide the fact that sometimes, her mouth runs faster than her brain, he can do so very well. Not many people have ever witnessed him talking back ironically, giving sarcastic comments or even resorting to cynics. Rese certainly has. It's her who always finds herself on the receiving end of his brilliant wit and his sharp tongue. He mocks at her whenever there is a possibility. And, of course, whenever nobody else is listening. He makes fun of her pig-headedness, and her stubbornness, and her rash reactions. His words make her blush with anger and embarrassment and make her want to strangle him. He gives sarcastic comments or makes ironic remarks which make her feel like a stupid six-year-old, and when he sees her getting angry, he laughs.
(His words are never deliberately cruel, though. He doesn't want to hurt others.)
His kindness hides his spitefulness.
Whenever Rese screws up, he teases her mercilessly. He can talk about her bad character traits for hours. His intelligence, paired with his gift of observance, grants him the ability to be able to judge every person he sees correctly. Within the blink of an eye, he has found out what bothers her and offers both advice and mockery. He teases her for every little mistake, for major screw-ups and minor damage. And he doesn't stop, even if she threatens to hurt him, because he knows she'll end up being unable to fight him. Even worse: Whenever she is about to explode, he can just step behind her and whisper something into her ear, and she, immediately, will blush deeply and hiss for him to stop. Cassidy loves seeing her squirm underneath the fact that they are lovers, and that he can threaten her with many little things. I'll tell them you talk in your sleep if you don't agree. Rese sometimes wonders if he only is with her because that means he has her firmly in his hand.
(His actions are never deliberately mean, though. Whatever he might not be, he is kind, somehow.)
His humor hides his disgust.
They all know the world isn't a perfect place. They all know there are deep abysses of cruelty, hate and anger among the creatures of the night as well as the humans. But while few of them firmly believe there is something good left in every creature, Cassidy sees the scum and the dirt among them. He sees the werewolves that kidnap children and torture them by eating them alive. The demons that break the pact to hunt down humans because they think it is fun. Humans – hunters – aren't any better. There are those who'd do anything to become hunters, and he has witnessed and stood enough cruelty, mockery and hate to know the darkness in a person's heart. Those beings are vermin, not worth the air they breathe. He holds back, though. Rese guesses he does so because one of them being full of hate is enough. Still, sometimes, when it's only the two of them out, hunting, she can see the look he gives their opponents.
(His dislike doesn't cloud his vision of reality, though. He knows pretty well that there are good creatures among the bad.)
His ability to shift between characters is his first gift.
-V-
Living with Cassidy is a balance act between screaming in frustration and laughing.
It's like there are two persons hidden underneath his smooth tan and behind his sea-green eyes: The first is nice and pleasant, the second one mocking and ironic. Most people only get to know the friendly side, the perfect hunter. Rese knows his other side, as well. Still waters run deep, she thinks, and wonders why she, even though she hates being confronted by his other side, still is fascinated beyond reason. At first sight, they are a perfect match, her being rash, unfriendly and emotional and him being calm, kind and rational. Whenever she wonders what people would say if they knew him as well as she does, he laughs – irony – and teases her, deep thinking doesn't suit you. When she gets angry, he becomes friendly again. His moods follow in such short intervals that she cannot follow and becomes irritated, and when he laughs even more, she leaves the room in a huff. Or she tries to, because he wraps his arms around her and whispers something into her ear, and the closeness of his body to hers makes her shiver. His words make her blush; and his breath and his lips in her hair and on her skin are elevating.
That's Cass's second gift.
(It's hers, but it never works as perfectly as it does with him.)
-V-
Whenever he touches her, she can feel what he is feeling, whenever he kisses her, she can listen to his thoughts.
It is scary, at first, and then overwhelming. His finger tips barely touch her skin, but she can feel the electric current running between the two of them. Every gesture, every touch lets her know what he feels. His kisses are drugs, and once she has tried, she wants more. They have been friends for a long time, and hunting partners, and as such, she has fought him often enough to know him as well as she knows herself. She knows the little tricks he uses to win and his speed when it comes to transferring new tactics to reality, to realize newly learned moves. She knows his strong arms, and his lean figure – she knows his body as well as she knows hers.
Now, she gets to know it in an entirely different way, and she is amazed by how much she still can discover. Every scar, every muscle is new to her when he touches her like that. Even a short, unintentional brush of his hand against her arm, his shoulder against her shoulder, suddenly makes her dizzy. Memories flood back; feelings and thoughts threaten to overwhelm her when she does not expect them to. What makes it worse is his smirk when he sees her blush, and when he touches her on purpose so she can feel the amusement and the laughter bubbling up inside of him even though his face remains straight and controlled. But then, not only those things cross over, but his memories of every second they spent together and again, she is overwhelmed by the intensity of their connection. It takes everything she has not to run from the room while others are present.
(Or to throw herself at him instead.)
His kisses are similar, hot and passionate and both teasing and demanding.
Whenever she's in a room with him, it's hard to concentrate. When he touches her, it's almost impossible to withstand, but she manages, somehow. When he kisses her, her brain shuts down.
Cassidy fills her entire being and she cannot think of anything else. She can feel his lips on hers, his hands on her bare shoulders, his body so close so close to hers. The feelings she catches from him multiply the heat; increase the crazy need of feeling him that close exponentially. She's glad she's the only one who's able to sense emotions. If he would, too, it would mean the emotions he felt from her would increase his feelings, which, again, would multiply hers, and it most likely would kill them both. But as it is, she is stunned by the depth of his emotions every time he touches her, and amazed by the intensity of her own feelings when she responds.
-V-
It feels like addiction.
Maybe it is addiction, because she feels like she cannot breathe, she cannot live without him anymore.
-V-
Still waters run deep.
She hasn't asked him to treat her like he does. She hasn't asked him to show her those sides of his character he hasn't shown anyone before. But somehow, she feels pride at the thought that she is the only one who knows him the way he really is – who knows both his sides, the kind and polite and the rude and ironic one. Since she has known him, the selfish wish of being the only one to know him like that has grown and grown, until she couldn't stand it anymore. He belongs to her; and to her only.
She is the only one who has ventured into his calm waters and found his darker side, his hidden being. And she loves him even more for it.
He is as imperfect as she is.