F-When The Day Met The Night.
Colin Fisher was generally not a happy-go-lucky guy. In fact, he was rather depressing. Most of the time.
Nate knew this. She was well-aware of this when she moved in with him. She also knew he had a wandering eye and could spit out more impromptu Goth poetry faster than anyone she'd ever known.
Nate still wasn't sure if that was a good thing. Cute, though.
Both qualities, depending on the day, annoyed the hell out of her.
This was because Natalie Daye was in no way like Colin Fisher.
Nate was bright, sweet. Albeit a tad naïve. She thought with her heart, not head and made rash decisions that often got her in trouble.
Fisher was usually smarter than that…although thinking with his dick got him in trouble almost as often.
Of course, he had a similar problem. Fisher had fallen in love with someone freakishly kind and frustratingly naïve. But, every once in a while, she'd surprise him.
-
"Ya know," Nate drawled one late afternoon in mid June, the news crinkling behind them in the empty diner, "if people just listened to their fucking kids there wouldn't be as many school shootings."
Fisher glanced at her, "You sound pretty confidant."
"Well." She shrugged, "ignoring them sure as hell ain't helping."
-
Her odd sensitivity, if you could call it that, came with an awry of optimism he just wasn't prepared for.
For every negative though Colin had, Nate had a positive. He often wondered why he'd asked her to move in with him in the first place. Why they were even together.
Physically, they were about as alike as night and day.
Fisher, dark, tall and lanky.
Nate, blonde, bright eyed and delicate. Her smile could light up a room…
And if Fisher allowed himself to admit it, it lit him up too.
-
"No."
"Aw, why not?!"
Colin peered over his book as Nate tugged at his leg. "Because I would rather have my spleen pulled out by a barb wire pulley system than dance."
"But it's our song." She said, plucking the poetry book from his limp grasp. Holding it behind her back, she smiled brightly as he glared at her.
"We don't have a song." His dark brown eyes watched her wearily as she tilted her head, her grin dropping to a soft smile. Slowly she brushed some of his shaggy hair away from his eyes.
And this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me
A small smirk started at the corner of his mouth. Fisher leaned forward. Nate leaned back.
"Hey." He went to grab her but she moved out of arm's length.
-
Running a hand through her blonde hair, she sighed as purple paint coated her fingers.
"Little bastards." She said lowly as she wiped her hand on her light blue jeans. Nate popped the door open while slinging her backpack off her shoulder. "'Lo?"
"In here."
She made her way to the living room, and collapsed on to the couch next to her boyfriend.
His dark eyes made a quick assessment of her. "You've got paint in your hair."
"I know." Nate sighed, closing her eyes, only to pop them back open when Fisher started running his fingers through said dirtied hair. She turned to look at him. "Oh…"
He cocked a brow. "Oh what?"
"You're in one of your moods." She said, smirking.
Fisher fought a smile, "what moods?"
She leaned into his hand as it brushed her cheek softly. Nate sighed, before saying, "One of those sweet, quiet ones that mean you're in for a lay."
"You think I'm sweet?" He asked, monotonously.
"Sometimes," Nate said, shrugging half heartedly. "When you're not fucking around on me or being a total dick."
His brown eyes blinked at her at her as she pulled away. Rubbing the back of her neck, she smiled sadly at him. Fisher didn't like it. Nate wasn't the sad one, he was the sad one. Nate was supposed to be the sweet one. Melancholy didn't suit her in the least.
"Natalie?"
Not giving him a response, the small blonde left the room before he could see the tears slip from her blue eyes.
-
"You alright? You look glummer than usual."
Fisher glanced at Hodgins and his disinterested look simply provoked the man.
"What? Did The Smiths break up? Your puppy die?"
"I think my girlfriend's depressed." The young grad student admitted, electing a snort from Hodgins.
"Of course she is, hell, it probably happened through osmosis." He chuckled, not noticing Fisher's crestfallen gaze. "I mean, Christ, you're hard enough to put up with on a day to day basis but that poor girl never gets a break."
His dark brown eyes glanced up at him from his computer chair, "you…you think maybe we should take a break?"
"Lord knows I could use one." The doctor quipped, smirking to himself as he stepped off the platform, leaving Colin to think over what he'd said.
-
"He's staring again."
Nate glanced at her friend, "Who?"
"That's creepy guy you like so much." Norma answered, nodding toward the window.
Peeking out it, the blonde saw she was right. Fisher was seated on the bench in the park across the street from the day care she worked at. Dressed in his usual gothic drab, nothing seemed out of the ordinary as he waved at her.
Hesitant to return the gesture in front of the children, she chose to simply smile.
"Well?" Norma smirked, "go see what he wants."
"You'll be okay?"
"Go."
And with a light shove, Natalie went.
-
"Hey."
He smiled to himself as she took her seat next to him. Fisher laced his fingers through her own, "Hey."
"You remember that conversation we had about how you lurking around a day care facility could be viewed as creepy?" Miss Daye inquired, squeezing his hand a little tighter.
Without a word he plopped a red tulip into her lap. This caused a brow to quirk as she picked it up. Spinning it between her fingers, she looked at him. "Ya know, I never pegged you as the tulip type, Colin."
Fisher had been going over this scenario in his head since their third date. How to say it, where they should be, how'd she react. He finally settled on being direct.
"I love you."
Nate's brows shot up as she paled. "What?"
"I said I love you, like the tide loves the moon, like-"
"Don't." She snapped, standing now. She dropped the flower on the bench next to him. "Don't say it just because you think it's what I want to hear."
Fisher's face contorted into one of grief, "I'm not-"
"Yes you are! Fuck, don't-don't play with me like this, Colin- I can't take this." Nate's voice dropped as she licked her lips. Raising a hand she wiped her eyes. "I- I think I'm gonna stay with Norma tonight."
"Natalie…" He reached for her hand again but she was quick to tuck into herself as she walked away. Sighing he plucked the discarded flower from the seat where she had been. The thin stem broken, Fisher sighed, I can relate.
-
"Is it just me…?" Angela started, earning an interested quirk of the brow from Temperance, "or does Fisher seem…sadder?"
"Is that even possible?" Booth said, smirking, his tone picking up a hint of amusement as the three turned to inspect the grad student. Colin was hunched over his desk, working robotically, with little expression on his face.
"Hmm." Brennan tilted her head, "one could assume his lack of sociability could be a sign of clinical depression."
"He's not depressed," The trio jumped as Hodgins smirked from behind them. "He and his girlfriend had a fight. That's all, now, back to these particulates."
Booth's jaw dropped. "He has a girlfriend?!" His exclamation was louder than intended, and Angela smiled as she saw the young pale man on the podium flush.
-
Nate cleared her throat. The receptionist looked up at her, offering a polite smile.
"May I help you, miss?"
"Um, I'm-I'm looking for Colin Fisher, could you tell me if he's gone for lunch yet?" She bit her chipped nails as the receptionist typed something in on her computer.
"I believe he left about ten minutes ago."
The blonde sighed, raking a hair through her short blonde hair, "Alright, thank you."
"Goodbye," The woman nodded, but Nate was already gone.
As she stepped out into the cool, September wind, Nate sighed. Plucking her from her pocket, she made her way back to their tiny apartment. She'd have to talk to him when he got home.
-
The hours seemed to tick by agonizingly slowly as she paced the apartment. Finally, she settled down on the couch.
I guess he won't be home tonight. Inhaling deeply, she tried not to imagine who he may be with.
Wrapping herself in a sheet, she drifted off into an unsettled sleep.
-
Fisher's head lulled back as he stuck his key in the door. Damn computer had given him a kink. He dropped his backpack onto the floor as he made his way to the kitchen. Glancing into the bed room, he sighed. Still empty. He rested his lanky frame against the door. Staring at the bed, still unmade from the morning, he couldn't bring himself to sleep in it without her. He hadn't the night before, and he couldn't bring himself to now.
Pulling the comforter from it, Fisher made his way to the living room.
The TV flickered against the darkness, and he stiffened. Looking over the side of the couch, a grin split his face in two as he saw Nate. Brushing his nimble fingers through her light hair his grin softened.
"My Annabelle Lee." Fisher whispered, leaning down to brush his lips against the smaller woman's cheek.
Nate's blue eyes opened, sparkling as she leaned into him. "Colin, I'm-"
"I meant it." He murmured, interrupting her.
"I know. I'm-I'm sorry I freaked it's just-strange, hearing it." She said quietly, running her fingers along the stubble of his cheek.
"I know." He continued to smile down at her, before pulling away. Grabbing a remote off the table he clicked a button, and music filled the apartment.
"Dance with me?" Fisher asked, blushing slightly, as Nate cocked her head to the side.
"Okay."
When it all came down to it, they pair smile at each other as they swayed, it really didn't matter that she was over sensitive and he was morbid. Because they completed each other, like day and night.