A/N: Other than the obvious Coach & Tami OTP, Tyra/Tim is my main OTP for this show. They fight like cats and dogs, of course, but they get each other. And all of their interaction is perfect.

Sia's 1000 Forms of Fear was my soundtrack while writing this. It's perfect for Tyra, I think.

It hurts so much more than she wants it to.

Anybody but her.

See, Lyla doesn't love Tim. Lyla doesn't really want him, either. She wants his eyes and his mouth and his hands, wants him to worship the ground she walks on.

And he does, which is the worst part of it all. Tyra has spent half her life having it out with Tim Riggins, and she knows him, wants—well, has wanted, anyway—him for who he is, even if it drives her straight up a wall and down again at the same time.

She remembers when they were ten, when Lyla, unscraped knees and printed dresses, grabbed Jason Street's hand and announced that they were getting married. She dashed off, Jay in tow, and Tim and Tyra stood scuffing circles in the dust.

"You want…" Tyra began, because she was Lyla's shadow then, awkward and too tall for her age and not sure how to fit in. That was before Lyla cut her out, before she grew a spine.

And got real hot, incidentally. Just in case anyone was asking.

She remembers Tim's eyes, sending goosebumps down her arms, even though she didn't know why then. He didn't say a word, and he didn't have to.

They took Tim's pellet gun out that day and lined beer bottles up along the fence, popping them off and swearing good-naturedly at each other until one of the neighbor ladies came out and yelled a fair piece at them.

They weren't two for playing at being married, then or ever again. They understood each other about that, in a way that Street and Lyla never had to, growing up in perfect families.

White trash, that's what we are, she used to say to Tim, when they weren't fighting, and he would laugh, low and lazy, and kiss her.

Lyla doesn't want Tim for who he is, especially not now when her good girl image has gotten all smashed to crap.

Tyra doesn't always want Tim, but when she does it's for the right reasons (she thinks) and even when she doesn't want Tim, she does love him.

She won't tell him. Won't let those words leave her lips, maybe ever. Everything that she's learned from growing up in her Mama's house has made her damn cynical. She's not giving that away easy, or maybe to anyone.

But Tyra loves Tim, always has and always will, even if she buttons it down into oblivion and they curse each other out of their lives for good.

It might be for good, really. She doesn't like what that future would hold. Screaming matches, not enough money, too much to drink. Kids. Good-looking and unmotivated, smart-mouthed and hazel-eyed. At least, if they got it all from Tim.

Tyra can't let herself want that future, at least not right now. Maybe she'll want it again someday, when it's too late to hurt anyone.

But for now, it does hurt, and she hates Lyla Garrity with a burning passion.

Lyla's gone and taken Tim this time, letting him fall where Tyra can't catch him.

Anybody but her.

It's like they're ten years old all over again, except this time Tyra is left alone, scuffing circles in the dust.