Disclaimer: Everything but the plot belongs to Cornelia Funke. Story named and based after a song from a band called "30 Seconds From Mars".

Authors Note: I haven't written in Inkheart fanfic in a long time, so bare with me if I have forgotten a few things. Like usual for me I am going to write a Meggie/Dustfinger, because even though I love Meggie/Farid to death, there just aren't enough Meggie/Dustfinger stories floating around and I like abnormal pairings. Story is going to be set when Meggie is about nineteen, after Inkdeath and with Dustfinger alive and kicking back in the Inkworld.

Warning: There is some dark themes and adult content here.

Summary: Meggie is on the brink of losing her sanity. She has given up so much, fought for so long and she isn't sure she can anymore. Meggie/Dustfinger one-shot.

The Kill

What if I wanted to break
Laugh it all off in your face
What would you do? (Oh, oh)

Meggie stared at Dustfinger as he laughed along with Mo and Resa, feeling almost like she wanted to laugh hysterically to make him see her. She hated the fact that she had fallen for Dustfinger and as a consequence had to see her own mother as competition. It was maddening enough that Dustfinger had Roxanne, but the looks that he sometimes gave her mother made her feel like she was going to completely lose it.

He probably wouldn't even notice me then, Meggie thought bitterly as she looked down at her hands and continued to try and swallow the food on her plate. As magical as the Inkworld had once been to her, she felt like she was already getting sick of it. She supposed it had more to do with the fact that Dustfinger was here more than anything else.

"Excuse me," Meggie said as she stood up from the dinner table and made her way up to the room before anyone could say anything. She didn't care to see any of their reactions, she much imagined that she was painted into the wall for everyone except Mo. Sometimes it felt like he was the only one that saw her anymore.

As she climbed up the stairs to her room and thew herself on her bed, she wondered how she had screwed up her life so royally. It seemed like only yesterday she had been madly in love with Farid, timidly exploring love, however, it had become so frustrating to be stunted in a child's relationship. She supposed that she had simply grown out of her first love. It wasn't like it was something that had happened overnight. However, it had progressed slowly since she was seventeen, when Dustfinger finally came back.

Somehow, the fire-breather had awakened in her a fire that had never been there before and at first she didn't understand. But slowly, it seemed that she understood. His eyes burned her and made the skin on her neck flush. There was something, that... was just different, and she supposed it was not only because she had grown into every bit as a woman as Roxanne and Resa were. There was so much more to it than that.

What if I fell to the floor
Couldn't take all this anymore
What would you do, do, do?

In the course of a year, she had spent a lot of time with Farid and Dustfinger, working the streets, dancing in colorful skirts while the fire-breathers made the flames dance along side her. Around her.

She didn't know if Farid could see it, but she knew that he must have felt that something was off, because that was when the fights started. Yet, despite all the time they had passed and all their hardships, they couldn't leave each other. Meggie suspected that she felt that if she left her childhood love behind, that she was leaving behind so much more. However, she didn't think that she continue on this way.

For the past several months, sneaking out in the darkness and meeting with Dustfinger so they could make love under the stars... she didn't understand how it had gotten to that point. It started with harmless flirting and somehow that evolved to something much more passionate and not so light anymore. It became an addiction, and she felt every bit the shameful addict when she was around Farid. Her heart broke for him as she wondered if he still loved her, that she was doing him the greatest of all injustices. However, it was impossible to stop.

Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with you

Meggie wondered if she had misunderstood. Had he really whispered to her that he loved her, or was that just the whisper on a distant wind that caressed her ear while his hands entangled themselves in her blond curls as he hovered over her and pushed his manhood inside her. Groaning at the thought, Meggie rolled onto her side and rolled into the fetal position. She couldn't believe that she was still torturing herself over this. Dustfinger had a big heart, he loved everyone, how could she expect for him to love her more. How could she make him be his only love?

"Meggie, are you all right?" she heard his voice suddenly through her door as he lightly knocked on it. Quickly sitting up as her thoughts were suddenly interrupted, Meggie stared at the door in horror as her heart thundered horribly in her chest, almost as though she were scared that he may have heard her thoughts.

"Yes I'm fine," Meggie called out. She hadn't seen very much of Dustfinger of late. She supposed that she could understand why they were avoiding each other, after there last encounter.

"May I come in?" he asked through the door, his voice almost pleading. Meggie felt her accelerated heart-rate increase even more as her eyes widened. Grimacing for a moment, Meggie wondered if she was going to have a heart attack. She wasn't sure whether she could face him yet without breaking down. Closing her eyes, she wished that he would simply end her tortured existence already by telling her that he felt nothing at all for her and was just toying with her. But she knew he would never say it, and that she would never turn him away of her own free will.

Opening her eyes, Meggie took in a deep breath and opened her eyes. "Yes, come in," Meggie said, her voice cracking at the end and causing her to clear her throat. She watched the door anxiously as she latch turned and her eyes caught Dustfinger's and once more she felt her hear rate speed up as he stared at her with concern written all over his scarred face, causing her heart to clench. She knew that he loved her, and that she was being pessimistically silly about the entire thin, however, she couldn't take it anymore. Hadn't that been why she had tried to end things with him the last time they were alone together?

What if I wanted to fight
Beg for the rest of my life
What would you do?

It had been yet another dark night, however the warm summer breeze as always caressed their moist and exposed skin. However, there was a subtle difference in the passionate air that surrounded them as it was tainted by her ire. "I just can't take this anymore, I'm tired of all this sneaking around," Meggie said as she pulled the white tunic over her head and secured her red skirt around herself. "I'm done with this entire morbid affair!"

"Meggie... I don't know what you want from me. I have given you all that I have..." Dustfinger started, his eyes burning with pain. She could see them gleaming at her as a strange kind of panic crossed his face, one that he was trying to contain by maintaining a quiet and somber timber to his tone of voice. Meggie couldn't bare to look at his face. She couldn't believe that any of it was sincere. He had been playing with her for too long for her to believe that he could possibly love her for herself and not for who he could picture her being. She wasn't her mother!

"I want you!" Meggie yelled angrily as tears sprung in her eyes as she whirled around and glared at him. He flinched for a moment, however, other than that he didn't bat a lash. She supposed that he was waiting for her to continue her tirade before trying to speak to her a little more reasonably. "I want all of you. I want you to want me for who I am and not because I look like my mother. I want you to give me, every part of you that Roxanne has. I want you by my side and not anyone else's!"

"Meggie, but what we have is perfect and there is nothing between Roxanne and I anymore. You don't want what Roxanne does because all we have together are arguments," Dustfinger said, frowning as he spoke reasonably and rose on his knees, leaning towards to Meggie who was breathing heavily as she continued to sit next to him. His pants were already secure around him and his stomach was bare as he leaned towards her. "Is that what you want from me? From us?"

"I don't care who I have to fight, so long as you are by my side," Meggie whispered as she turned away from him. The truth was that she was tired of fighting, but she didn't mind so much if it was with Dustfinger if it meant she could keep him to herself. "But you don't want me. I bet you think of Resa every time we are together," she continued miserably.

"Is that what you think?" he asked, and she could hear the sudden fury in his voice. Looking up, she could see that he was angry as he stared at her incredulously. "Meggie, you are the one that is tied to Farid. You are asking more from me, when I have nothing more to give. You already have everything that I can give you. You are the one that hasn't given her all. DO you think it was easy for me to betray Farid, just because I couldn't stand to be apart from you? Do you think that I don't go mad with jealousy every time that I see you together. I want you all for myself, I want to sleep with you by my side, I don't want this either," he said, motioning to the forest around us and the dirt beneath his kneed. "But I can't ask you to leave him because you deserve more than me."

You say you wanted more
What are you waiting for?
I'm not running from you (from you)

"What do you want?" Meggie asked gently, pushing away the thoughts of their previous encounter. He had taken off after saying that bit, leaving her there, sitting n the dirt alone. She hadn't understood why he had suddenly taken off like that, but she hadn't had the energy to follow him at that moment. So she had merely sat there, thought she didn't know for how long.

"I talked to Farid today, and I just... wanted to see if you were fine," Dustfinger replied as he stepped lightly into the room and leaned against the door, watching her closely. Meggie turned away as she thought about breaking up with Farid. For the most part, he seemed to understand that their relationship had run its course and it was best to part before they hated each other. However, she felt that he was perhaps a bit more hurt about it than she was. She guessed that he still had some hope for the future. Or perhaps he had sensed that there was someone else. Meggie wasn't sure.

Meggie merely nodded as she looked at him. For a long moment, there was silence as she sat on her bed and stared at the coarse material that covered it. However, before she could think of anything else to say, she found Dustfinger saying that he should probably go. Looking up sharply, she stared at him with a furrowed brow and pain coursing through her. "Wait..." Meggi said, trying to push through her cloud of confussion. "I did this for us. Don't you ... you said you wanted more from me."

"I do... but do you really think now is the best time, Meggie?" he asked as he stared at her with a furrowed brow. Meggie felt like she had just had a spliter lodged in her heart as she stared at him with her jaw open wide.

"Well when will be the right time? Do you expect me to wait until he has found someone else? Do you expect me to wait for Roxanne to completely step aside on her own? Do you want me to wait until my parents think that I am of an appropriate age to be with you?" Meggie asked as she jumped off the bed and rushed at him, grasping at his arms. She felt like something was bubbling inside of her. The insanity of everything that she was putting up with just for him boiling over. Why was he making things so difficult?

Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with you
Look in my eyes
You're killing me, killing me
All I wanted was you

Meggie suddenly felt like she was light-headed as she placed a hand over her eyes, letting go of Dustfinger and backing away. "Meggie are you all right?" Dustfigner asked in concern as he stepped forward, however, Meggie stepped back until the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed and she sat down on it. She put up a hand to keep him from stepping closer to her. Her mind felt feverish.

Shaking her, Meggie slowly looked up at Dustfinger who was startled by the expression in her eyes. Her eyes looked so sunken and they seemed like the were burning and smoldering. There was a haunted look in his beloved Meggie's eyes that looked like she was being eaten alive from the inside. It looked like her eyes were shining like black death and burning out of their passion, like her life was slipping away.

"I can't do this anymore," she cried out as she clung to her hair as though she were about to rip it out, all the while her eyes fixed on his. "Can't you see what you are doing to me? This is killing me, I can't stand it anymore," Meggie cried out as she continued to look at him.

Sinking to his kneed before her, Dustfinger reached up and tenderly removed her hands from her hair. "Meggie I am sorry. I will give you whatever you want," he said in a remorseful tone as he gently took her lips between his and placed a slow kiss there. He hadn't known that he was driving her insane. It seemed to break his heart that the woman he loved more than any other was going out of her mind because of the love that she felt for him.

I tried to be someone else
But nothing seemed to change
I know now, this is who I really am inside.
Finally found myself
Fighting for a chance.
I know now, this is who I really am.

Meggie slowly returned the kiss, afraid of what might come. She didn't know if she could believe his words anymore. However, as she closed her eyes she felt herself sinking into the same, low burning passion that she could never stop. It was something that she couldn't contain with her skin, even though she had tried for years, thinking that it was something highly improper and that it made her something low. It was something that she felt would break her parents heart, but there was an insatiable hunger inside her where she had finally found herself.

Slowly slipping her shirt off her shoulders, Meggie rolled her shoulders as she leaned back on the bed, causing Dustfinger to ride off his knees and climg over her as their kiss continued to rage a little more passionately. "I love you Meggie," he whispered as he kissed her forhead, his fingers tracing down her bare shoulder and pushing off the garment down her arms. Meggie sighed complacently as he continued to palce kissed down her neck as her legs parted for him to situate himself between them.

"Dustfinger.." she moaned as he ground himself against her and placed kisses along her collarbone as wound of his hands grasped greedily onto her thigh and pulled it around his hip before tracing a trail up her thigh to her hip, across her abdomen to her breast. "I want you forever," Meggie whispered. Dustfinger moaned into her and bit her neck, causing her to arch off the bed and grind her pelvis into his. "Now, Dustfinger," Meggie pleaded as she reached down her legs and pulled her skirt up to her waist.

"Meggie," Dusrfinger growled into her neck as he pulled his hand from her breast and hastily pulled open his pants, letting his erection thrust out from its confines and meet with Meggie's wet lips. "This madness for you is going to be the death of me," he said as he pushed himself within her tight walls and moaned deep in his throat. He tried hard not to think about the way that Mo would kill him if he knew that he was doing right this moment to his daughter, beneath his roof.

However, Meggie was impossible to resist. Her skin called to him, her smell intoxicated him and her heat took made his see the starts, burning his soul.

Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with you, you, you.
Look in my eyes
You're killing me, killing me
All I wanted was you

"Of us both Dustfinger," Meggie replied, her sentence almost being lost in a moan as she rocked her body, meeting his hard thrust with her own. It was amazing to feel so full of Dustfinger, having him buried deep within her, their bodies melted into one. Her heart swelled as their frenzied bodies hammered out the beats of their racing hearts.

Hungrily they kissed each other and every inch that their mouths could reach, their skin scorching beneath soft and hungry lips. They were consuming each other, living and dying, reaching the highest heavens and feeling the lowest hells. But they couldn't trade it. Such exquisitely painful ecstasy was addictive.

They could never get enough of each other, and Meggie simply wanted it to change. If she had Dustfigner to herself all the time for the rest of eternity, how would she not be able to quench her love and desire for him?

THE END.

A/n: Well that's it for my one-shot. Haven't written for Inkheart in a long while so I hope you all enjoyed it. Please review and tell me what you think even if you didn't like it.