Disclaimer: I own nothing, even if my last name is similar to Marie Lu's.
End of the World
by: Evelynhunters
She looks over at him. The chain is hanging loosely, leaving little imprints in the skin of his neck. A drop of sweat makes a path down to the side of his jaw from his forehead. He unconsciously bites the inside of his lip as he stares at the screen with a dead focus. His eyes flicking around the edges, almost making sure he doesn't miss anything.
She feels something, in the bottom of her stomach, the lining of her ribs, the angry thump of her heart as it beats without permission. She peaks at him from the corner of her eyes as he stares numbly at the screen.
She watches as he watches June Iparis being kissed by the Elector. She understands how much he must be hurting right now. It doesn't matter that she could see the blood drain from June's face, doesn't matter June tenses up before almost reluctantly leaning in. All that matters is how Day's face fall, as if the world was ending.
Tess decides then, right then and there, that June Iparis will always hurt Day, whether she means to or not. Day is her everything, and she is not sure that she could leave someone who is the world to her outside to dry when that same person had taken her in. She realizes June Iparis will be the destruction and demolishment of everything.
A shame, too, because she liked June when they had first met. A girl, not unlike her and not unlike him. She could have even put up with the fact of how Day's eyes first lit up. She might have even let June Iparis be the destruction of everything.
If she hadn't turn out to be a republic agent.
One day, he is going to get himself killed and it will be June's fault. June had killed his mother as much as the commander. She had killed John as much as the soldiers. She was never like her or Day. June never was poor, never understood the want, the desperate want for food and warmth and family and maybe someone who will be your everything. June has only ever gotten, and Day has only ever want, and Tess...Tess has only patched him up and send him to die.
The thing is, June has never been so close and then watched it all wash away by someone who is smarter, stronger, prettier, better than you. She has never stood for years watching him with his lopsided grin and messy hair and his 'cousin's and girls he has kissed and snuggling on his jacket and hearing his voice when he speaks and being kissed on the cheek and rushing up to him as he walks up to you with blood everywhere and dragging him barely alive to a room from a stranger and feel protected when he's near and cry when the first time in years he left you.
She looks at him again, as he stands up and turns around, staggering as if he can't bear to watch any longer. Tess hopes, beyond all the noise and chatter in the room and beyond all hope, that Day will forget about June Iparis one day and along with it, his pain. Even if the price was to leave him and move forward on her own.
They're fighting, and in the midst of it she can't even feel anymore. She's screaming at him, and he screams back. They have never fought in the years they've known each other. She beats at his worst fears, at her worst fears, at his weaknesses, at his family, at June.
She's desperately trying to make him understand. June Iparis is trouble, and June Iparis will destroy the everything. June Iparis is the reason why his family is dead. She struggles to make the connection clear for him.
June Iparis will be the one to break his heart.
She looks at him from the doorway, knowing she cannot unsay what she means and he won't take back a thing. A wall that wasn't there before now stands between them, made up of words and lies and hurt. Something has broke between them, one that won't be fixed and the sharp edges and remains remind them of what they are now.
Allies. Patriots. Soon to be assassins. Killers.
She searches his face, for a shred of the boy that was there before June Iparis. She can no longer find him, and she hates that her heart is still thumping wildly against her permission, but tears sting at the corners of her eyes.
She wonders what his face will look like when she leaves. If his expression will look like the one he wears now, like the world is ending and he's lost everything.
The assassination attempt has failed, and she can see a girl with a black ponytail being grabbed at the wrist by a boy with shiny, golden hair.
He has betrayed the patriots, he has betrayed them, betrayed her, exactly as Baxter had warned. She can no longer see the boy who reached out for her the first time they met. Then again, she isn't the girl in the dumpster anymore either.
He would've chose June, she realized, when she asked him who he would've chosen to save.
It's not as if she's jealous. Well, she is, but not in the way that she let it clouds her judgement. She can see clearly, so clearly, too clearly, the golden boy and the perfect girl imprinted in her head, and she uses that brightness to light up her decision.
This boy, this new, shiny, golden boy is no longer her Day, no longer her family, her everything. She has the patriots now, because Day has June and she has nothing left. She cannot save him from the horrible addiction that is June Iparis.
Tess looks at him, and Day looks at Tess. He says to her, "Come on, Tess. We don't have much time."
She looks at his outstretched hand, and even in the dark she can see the boy who walks in the light next to the girl who is the prodigy, and she realizes that, no, they don't have much time at all.
And his face looks exactly like she predicted, a look of loss and guilt and sadness and anger. Like the world has ended. And in a way, she suppose it has.
The End
AN/ I wrote and posted this a year ago under a different account I unfortunately forgot the passcode to... Whoops. I was looking around in my folders and found this, my very first fanfic! I decided to post this again under this account. Hope you all enjoyed!