Goodness, it's a long time since I posted a story! Well, this is it. I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer - If it was mine... *restrains from ranting*... You get the picture. Yah, I don't own it, unfortunately. I would at least have left Kate open to return, even if she never did. Grr...
Troubles
She walks into the café and scans the room for his face. As if he'd known she'd be here, right this second, he leaves the counter with two coffees in his hand and places them on an empty table. She goes to join him and he pulls out her seat. She smiles at him tentatively and sits down, stepping on his foot in the process. He flinches and she apologises, a warm flush rising up her neck as she recognises the spark that has started at least three fights in the last two months. But this time he smiles forgivingly, and she relaxes.
He tells her they need to talk and she agrees quickly. And then he tells her everything. How he loves it when they fight because he gets to find out what she's actually thinking. How much he hates it that she can only tell him how she feels when she's so furious the words spew out of her like hot coals poured onto his body in a stream of pain and suffering. How she expects him to understand exactly what's going on and yet she never lets him in. How she's the one who told him a relationship took give from both ends and yet it feels like she's given nothing at all. And then he tells her how much he loves her and needs this to work, and that if things don't change then they'll be over, two broken people once again.
And she realises how right he is.
She has changed for him, he knows she has, but only the little things – changed the way she teased him about his waistline and complained all the way through his favourite movies, taken money from his wallet to make up what he owed her, stolen all the chocolate when he wasn't looking. He interrupts her and tells her just how much he loved those little things she did. She tells him that it feels like she knows all about his past but nothing about him now, and he admits to the truth in that, the truth he hadn't seen. She tells him that whenever they fight it's as if he wants it, as if he's getting high on the pain, and that it kills her a little more every time. And she lets the tears fall down her face as she explains to him that she doesn't tell him things any more because every time she lets her guard down she causes him so much pain. She feels so stupid, crying over this, and she tells him so. He chuckles and tells her that she can never be stupid, because she's his and he loves her. And he says that he's almost glad she's crying, because maybe it might mean that she loves him, too. She swats at his arm and tells him to stop being such an idiot, of course she loves him.
It's the first time they've said "I love you."
He gets up from his seat and kneels on the dirty floor beside her, takes her into his arms and lets her cry. It lasts for two and a half minutes before she sniffles out that the coffee's getting cold and he tells her it can wait. Then, as if it were planned, they both burst out laughing at how ridiculous they've been. She goes to the bathroom to clean up, and he finishes off his coffee, ordering another for her when she's done. The people inside the café, bored now the scene is finished, go back to their conversations, and he realises they've been watching for a while. It occurs to him that he was so wrapped up in her that he didn't notice, and he laughs to think that nobody has ever captivated his attention like that before. She comes out of the bathroom only a little pink, and he kisses the remnants of her tears away. She giggles in a way that suits her surprisingly well, and whispers that maybe they should avoid making a scene. He asks her what the last five minutes were, and her eyes widen in horrified realisation. He chuckles and takes her arm, and they leave for work together.
The whole office know they're okay.
Sure, he has his arm slung around her shoulder. Sure, she's nestled into him comfortably. But everyone seems to already know that they're all right, and it intrigues them. The mailman tells them how he knows, and they turn to glare at the source of information, who apparently left the café just minutes before they did.
He grins widely when he looks up from his desk to see them standing in front of him as if one body...
... sees their identical expressions...
... and the smile fades.