Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist, no matter how much I wish I did.
A/N: This was just a little something I whipped up for a Valentine's Day event that Mentalist-Fans ran over on deviantART. It's pretty much an anti-Valentine's fic and is totally angsty. But I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Reviews and crits are very much appreciated and welcomed with open arms - Thank you!
You've never really liked Valentine's Day. You just don't really see the point of it, giving gifts to someone to show them how much you love them. If you really loved that person, you'd show them that you loved them on a regular basis anyway.
Over the last few years though, you've come to hate it. Seeing all the love-struck couples flitting around the streets. Getting Valentines from the men in the office. It just serves as a reminder of what you don't have. Because there's only one man you'll ever want to be your Valentine, and there's no way you'll ever get him.
The man you want has been twisted and bent out of shape by his quest for revenge, and, even if he was still the same man as before, he will always be stuck in the past. He will always live in his memories of his wife and child and the wrong that was done to them. He will always blame himself for their deaths. He will continue to chase down the man who killed them until the last of his humanity dwindles and turns to dust.
I love you. He said it to you once, in the heat of the moment. Just as you were about to fake your own death. But he'll never mean it. Not really. Or if he ever does mean it, you won't be able to accept it.
You can't stand the thought that it will happen all over again. It's not that you're afraid to die. No, death doesn't scare you. But if he was to lose someone else he loved... You don't even want to think what it might do to him. You can't let him go through that again. Instead you'll continue to hate Valentine's Day and you'll continue to love him until the day he loves you back.
The day he loves you back, well, you'll burn that bridge when you come to it.
