Title: solid ground
Summary: so try it, why don't you? and if it doesn't work out, well, it's not like you're capable of hurting even more. \ George/Angelina \ oneshot \ all lowercase \ drabble
Pairing: George/Angelina
Disclaimer: disclaimed!
.o.
he was your twin.
that's what's stopping you. it's a stupid reason, really. she's everything you ever wanted; smart, charming, funny, beautiful. or she was anyways.
she loved him.
did she though? she never said she did and he never said he loved her either. he told you everything. you'd know if he loved her. unless he saw through your stupid little lies.
when he asked her out the first time, he asked you before if it was okay. you told him it was fine. that was the first time you ever lied to him, and it was worse than lying to yourself. it put you on a tight rope a thousand feet from the ground and for the first time ever, you were afraid of falling.
he couldn't ever know that you lied to him and so the subsequent lies stacked up like bricks into a wall. and you, you stupidly trying-to-be-freaking-perfect idiot, you cast a lovely little spell on that wall so he'd never see it. but then you learned something.
you learned that invisible does not mean intangible, that things you can't see you can still touch, feel, hear. you hit that wall. you hit that wall dozens of times, the both of you, on opposite sides. you'd shy away from it, steer him in the other direction, but you're sure he noticed. on cold nights, you can still feel his curiosity and disappointment.
three long years you held on to that wall, adding brick after brick till it was terribly, terribly tall. but what goes up must come down and in one swift motion, down it went.
"i broke up with angie george."
he told you may 1st of 1998. when he said those six fateful words, your invisibilty spell came flying off that wall faster than a nimbus two thousand. you had tried to add more bricks to your wall that day, but he saw through it. he had just smiled and said "alright georgie. you don't love her. but you will."
and he died the very next day. later, you'd wonder if he knew, somehow. had some kind of premonition. but when he died, he didn't give you the time to admit to the wall you'd built. you could have dismantled it together, piece by piece but he left you and so the walls came tumbling down.
and so now she sits in front of you, a warm mug of coffee clutched in her hands, her question hanging in the air.
"well george, are you willing put up a fight?"
a few years ago, there'd have been no debate. you were a fighter then. but then the war happened and it took the fight right out of you. two years out of that monstrous time and you're still holding on, letting the sadness and pain linger. letting the last few bricks remain.
so try it, why don't you? and if it doesn't work out, well, it's not like you're capable of hurting even more.
"alright."
you whisper finally, and she nods. "pick me up tomorrow night at six, and have dinner reservation made somewhere." she tells you and is gone, her half full coffee mug sitting on the table is the only indication that she ever took the time to come to your dingy old flat.
but with your whisper, something changed. the wall fell down, and you felt your feet touch solid ground again for the first time in five whole years. you're off that tightrope and now you can think clearly because you don't have to worry about keeping your balance anymore. she's your solid ground.