A/N: I'm back, and this time I'm doing serials! There's going to be 26 stand alone drabble/one shot/flash fiction pieces centered around an object. (Some may be abstract, like this one.) And it's about our favorite homicide detectives: Esposito and Ryan! Some chapters will be VERY OOC, so keep that in mind. R&R if you're excited for Blue Butterfly. (FINALLY.) Yours 'till the wheels fall off ;)

ar·gu·ment/ˈärgyəmənt/

Noun: 1. An exchange of diverging or opposite views, typically a heated or angry one.

Ryan swiped the half empty bottle from his partner's hands and threw it against the wall. The jarring echo of the shattered glass finally seemed to bring him around.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Javier demanded, attempting in vain to push himself up from the table. He swayed for a moment before he sat heavily.

"You don't seem to understand what I'm telling you, Javier," Kevin said, raising his voice to match his partner's, "You're drunk!" Esposito shrugged and crossed his arms like a child. An overgrown, very drunk child.

"So?"

"So you can't keep doing this to yourself, Javi!" Ryan said in desperation, sitting across from him, "I won't let you!" Javier looked away and chewed his bottom lip. Kevin took a shuddering breath and watched the other man think. This could easily go the wrong way, and if it did, he was a goner. Esposito had a good forty pounds on him at the very least. But it had to be done. He wasn't just going to sit around and watch as his partner slowly destroyed himself over the death that he was powerless against preventing.

"But what if I want to?" Javier murmured brokenly, looking away so that Kevin wouldn't see him cry. He reached out across the table and took his partner's hand in his.

"Javi, look at me." He wouldn't.

"Javier."

"What?" Ryan looked down at the table for a moment before they made eye contact again.

"It wasn't your fault." Esposito snatched his hand away and shoved up from the table, this time keeping his balance.

"It was!"

"But don't you-"

"You don't get it!" Javier yelled, desolate, "You don't understand!" he added in an undertone. Ryan stood up and strode over to his partner, eyebrows crinkling in concern.

"Then explain." Esposito pawed at his face awkwardly, trying to erase all evidence of emotion. Kevin took hold of his hands.

"You're going to hurt yourself." Esposito turned away.

"She was pregnant," he whispered, voice a ghost of what it had once been. It was like a blow to the stomach. He hadn't known-

"Javier..." Try as he might, he found that he could offer no words of comfort.

"Kevin," his partner's voice wavered, "What am I...What am I supposed to do?" Wordlessly, Kevin pulled his partner's head to his chest and held onto him as if to keep him from falling apart.