Disclaimer: ans belongs to someone, but they aren't me.
He used to tell her that there was somewhere else.
Somewhere that wasn't where they stood, where you could eat without stealing and walk without hiding. And she would shake her head. No, she would tell him without our stupid stupid words, without malice and hate. I couldn't live there.
He would look at her, unwavering, unreadable, and she would look away, ashamed for some reason she had yet to discover.
He would stare at her still, long after she had turned away to stare at the sunset, and he would barely whisper something, just loud enough to grab her attention but soft enough to be undecipherable. She would turn, and her cat-eyes would watch him until it was his turn to turn away.
And one day, something in her knew.
Years of training in observation and body language sprung into unconscious action, and a single thought pushed its way into her mind. But she choked it down like bile and vomit, acrid and putrid, and with such force that her throat tasted of blood and stress.
But it was too late.
She blinked, hard and sad, until she couldn't breathe anymore and couldn't see anymore. She made a sound, like something dying and something drowning, something far more animal than she knew, and she broke.
He turned to her, quietly, and she launched into his arms and she cried. Hot and sad and in disrepair, she clutched him like it could make him solid, like it could prevent tomorrow, like it could prevent herself, like it meant something.
"Jinx, I-"
"Tell me I mean something," She spoke, quickly and painfully, sobbing and shaking and slowly, slowly dieing "Tell me I mean something- anything to you!"
And he paused, lost and broken, until…
"You mean everything." He said, in a despondent sort of way, not knowing whether he was lying or not.
She felt herself steady, achingly, and she spoke in an odd and hopeful voice.
"Is there really somewhere else?"
He paused, thinking of nothing and everything.
"Yes. And it's nearly as beautiful as you."
She laughed at this, for no reason at all that she could see, and she kissed him.
"I love you Stone."
(A/N: There was so much there. There was so much that could have been, could have happened. Why?)