A/N: This title happens to come from an album of the same name, which happens to be an EPIC album. And the penultimate song happens to be a song that I based another of my Fanfiction stories on… Note that story was about half a page to a page away from being finished but I gave up. I'll probably finish that last bit, post it, and then post a re-write of it. Anyway, so this is the dramatic, complicated version of Olivia and Fidelio's relationship to the lyrics of Maroon 5; heartbreak, cheating, and a lot of Fido/Livvie. These won't be in chronological order, so it may be confusing, because I'm doing these to the order of the songs on the CD. When I finish writing it (I tend to write my A/N's before the actual story), I'll write the order that it
Disclaimer: Jenny Nimmo owns Charlie Bone. Maroon 5 owns these songs… and technically the title too. Wow, don't I feel like a fail?
I. If I Never See Your Face Again
This was bad. As in, this was really, really, bad. It was so, so, so wrong, and he should've ran the first chance he got.
But hey; she was leaving tomorrow (or, more accurately, in eleven hours) and she already swore she'd never come back. It was now or never, he'd wanted to do this for years, so why not go for it? It's not like this was what he planned on doing.
"Livvie, we need to talk," he told the brunette. She'd left her hair natural, wanted to leave everyone with a last impression of someone simple, so that they could look back on every other memory and laugh at the absurdity of it. It was her way of making sure that they remembered her.
Not that she'd admit it. Fidelio just knew Olivia Felicity Vertigo that well.
"Sure, Fido; what's up?" Olivia asked, sprawled down on the couch. It had been her going-away party, at her house, and he'd kindly stayed back to help clean up. They'd just finished, and it was around two AM. Well, his parents probably wouldn't mind too much. And hers were out of town, meeting her at whatever place she was going to the next day.
Fidelio stayed where he was, quiet, trying to figure out how he would tell her this. It was his last chance and he needed to let out, now, otherwise he'd live the rest of life wondering what if. He just wished he'd planned this out better.
"Fidelio?" She asked, sitting up properly. He looked up and she patted the spot next to her. He took it, distractedly.
"Fidelio?" She repeated, "What did you –"
"I love you," he blurted out. She sat there, frozen, "I should've told you sooner, but I was afraid, and this is my last chance and I can't keep being so scared of what you're going to say, and honestly, if you hate me after, I think that'll be okay because you said it yourself, you're never coming back –"
That was all he could get out. After all, Olivia was kind of kissing him with a passion that he didn't think she was capable of (and it's Olivia), so he didn't really have the chance to go on.
He really only thought that he'd tell her, she's cry and tell him she was sorry that she didn't love him back and kick him out and he was going to be miserable for the rest of his life. That's what he prepared himself for, anyway. So really, it was bad.
She was leaving tomorrow and he knows now that he's going to go through a terrible withdrawal syndrome thing because he's as high as a kite right now and she's giggling happily and telling him he's oh so terrible for not telling her sooner and they just can't keep their hands off of each other. He realized right then just how much he needed her.
She was leaving tomorrow.
This was bad.
II. Makes Me Wonder
She promised she'd come back.
She told him she would, but she didn't bother to mention where, or how, or when. And it hurt, in the strangest way. Everyday, Fidelio expects her back, but she's never there, because she's not coming back. He's not sure if he cares anymore. That's when the phone rings.
He groggily picks it up, and (though he's been up since five AM), tiredly mumbles "What?"
"Good morning to you, Fidelio. Nice to hear from you. I'm doing lovely, thanks for asking. And yourself?"
"Oh, shut up, Olivia. It's too early in the morning for you to be cheerful."
"… It's almost twelve."
"… Right."
He can hear her sigh. "You were thinking about her again, weren't you?"
He nods, before realizing she can't see him. "Yeah."
"Fido…"
"Don't start with me…"
"This isn't healthy for you…"
"Please don't…"
"I understand this is hard for you, but…"
"Olivia, please…"
"I don't think you ever really cared for her."
That stops him dead. "What?"
"Where is she, Fidelio? She's not with you. It's been three months. And you know what? Unless you make yourself remember, you've been living just fine without her. She said she'll come back; well, she lied. And you caught her, and you know it. You're not hurt; you just force yourself to be that way, because you think you should. But you don't have to. You can move on, because guess what, Fidelio. You honestly never cared."
There's a silence before Olivia quietly says, "We're meeting up at the Pet's Café at around four. I just wanted to remind you."
He thinks she's about to hang up, so Fidelio quickly speaks up. "I might be late. But I'll be there."
There's a pause, and then she says, "Okay. Bye, Fidelio."
"Bye, Livvie."
Sometime within a half hour later, he tells Mimi to wake him up around three-thirty if he falls asleep, and by half-past noon, he's out like a light on his bed.
And before he knows it, Mimi's shaking him, telling him it's almost quarter-to four and he thanks her before waiting for her to leave and just laying in his bed. He tries to think about her, and he feels nothing. That's how it hurt strangely. He made it hurt when it never really did at all.
Olivia's right; maybe her never actually cared about the two of them at all.
III. Little Of Your Time
They both lay on the bed, facing away from each other. The skirt of her mid-calf length dress was hitched to her knee and his tie was loose around his neck. His blazer and her sweater were tossed in the corner of the room. She sighed.
"You should get going."
He nods, but doesn't move. "Uh huh."
"No, really. We shouldn't have been doing this in the first place."
"Right." He's still lying exactly where he is.
"It was a mistake, Fidelio; a really bad one. I have a boyfriend. I can't go around making out with other guys whenever I have a fight with him."
"Okay."
Olivia sits up, still facing away from him, and this is when she begins trying to convince herself. "And it's not like this is going to become a habit. It's a one time thing. And after all, I once thought I loved you. That's why I chose you. Well, that, and you gave me a ride home. But still. This isn't going to happen again. It's not. It can't."
He gets up, walks to her, looking her dead in the eye. "Fine," he tells her, "It's a really bad mistake. And yeah, you have a boyfriend, so you shouldn't go making out with the first guy that walks by whenever you get angry with him. And this," he gestures to the two of them, his eyes not leaving hers, "won't be a habit. And it won't happen again, because it can't. But there's one thing I don't believe from that."
Her eyes widen and she knows what he's about to say.
"You still love me."
She opens her mouth to protest and she can't do it. Not when he was staring her down the way he was. "And you're scared, too, because you're not supposed to be. But you know what? I don't give a damn. I love you, Olivia, and I know you're going to deny it and say that it was teenage hormones or something, but I know what I felt then and what I feel now and you came back from wherever the hell you went of to with an entourage and hanging off the arm of some idiot you're too good for. And you know what? I'm not saying I'm good enough for you, but I can do better than him."
She's verging on tears. He's expecting her to say, "That's not fair, Fidelio. It's been five years. We were eighteen when I left. It can't have been love," like he said she would've, but he gets something totally different.
"Why'd you wait? Practically every girl you've ever been with left you and said they'd be back and they never came. And every time you gave up eventually. Why didn't you give up on me?"
"Because I knew you were coming back."
"I told you I wouldn't."
"I knew."
Olivia's crying now, and she hates it. He sits beside her on the bed and wipes her tears away with his thumb while she tries to compose herself. "I don't want you to be the other guy. I want you to be the guy. But I can't let you. Not right now."
Fidelio smiles cheekily. "I can be the other guy for just tonight."
She laughs, before breaking down again. "I feel utterly terrible. Hell, I feel worse than terrible, but I don't even know a word for that. I'm cheating on him, and I swore I would never do that to anyone, but it's you and I can't…"
"Shh…" he tells her, holding her. She lets herself be embraced, missing that night before she left and she mumbles, "I love you. And I'm sick of denying it you, to everyone, to myself. I'm telling him tomorrow, in the morning, right when I wake up. But right now, I need you. Just, don't leave."
A/N: This is probably going to be another "That One Night" where I'm not entirely happy with this, and I'll come back to edit it and it'll probably take forever for me too. And I'm posting this around 2:30 in the morning because I'm still up doing History homework, and I'm pulling an all-nighter and I want this posted now so that when I come home from school, I can just sleep into Saturday, even though it'll be bad for me. Oh well. Besides, it's over 1,000 words, even without author's notes, so it's still in guidelines. Wooot!
Word Count: 1, 562
Posted at: Sometime between 2:00 – 3:00 AM
- May :)