Lies

Eva Rosalene knew Neil Watts was lying.

It was easy to know, when she'd known Neil as long as she had. Even when he was clowning around and declaring himself to be 'Lorenzo von Matterhorn' to some poor befuddled customer or client he'd tilt his head at exactly the right angle so that reflective glasses would reflect the light and make it impossible to see his eyes and his nose would wrinkle slightly, as if annoyed that he had to lie in the first place.

So when she confronted him about the brand-new bottle of painkillers that he'd left on his desk while he went to the bathroom and she walked into the room to ask him about paperwork and spotted the bottle, almost gleaming in the light, and he 'confessed' that he'd run into another wall facefirst, it was easy to tell that he was fibbing.

"You didn't run into a wall."

It was hard to tell his reaction, with his reflective glasses reflecting the fluorescent light from the office lights as he stared at her and she stared back.

"You're not telling the truth, Neil." She stepped closer, arms crossed. He stepped back, as if that would have an effect. "You need to tell me why you're actually taking painkillers."

"I told you. I ran into another-"

"No you didn't. You think you can get away with lying to me? Cucumbers, Neil, I know you." She shook her head, refusing to remove her eyes from his face. "Your nose wrinkles."

He stared at her.

Thumbed his nose thoughtfully, as if he'd never realized this.

"... why does it matter so much to you, Eva?"

His voice was almost serious for once, not a jokey undertone or outright humored tone to his words. "It's not like it really has much to do with you, right? I mean, yeah, you're my best friend, but does it really matter if I'm taking painkillers for who-knows-what?"

Eva Rosalene thought about lying.

Lying that it was because he was her partner, so of course she cared about him, he was her best friend and had been since she was eight years old and sitting on the playground with jellyfish hair clips and talking about who-knew-what with him, and that was why she was worried and confronting him over why he was taking these pills.

But she was an honest person, if a little blunt and overly critical of her best friend sometimes, and it was only a second's thought before she told the truth.

"I love you."

His jaw slackened.

She couldn't see his eyes.

Maybe he thought she was lying.

But she was not.

Eva Rosalene did not lie.

"It's because I love you and you're an idiot and I want to make sure you're okay, Neil," she told him, continuing to be honest and blunt and Eva Rosalene, because she was not good at lying, not like Neil could be, she did not try to deflect with fibs and laughs and jokes and often would simply avoid the truth while still giving her honest opinion, but here she was not avoiding the truth and flat out saying it.

"I know you too well and I don't like the fact that you are lying to me, and I don't want you to lie to me Neil, not when I care about you this damn much and not when I love-"

He grabbed her by the face, fingers slipping into place like he'd done so a thousand times before to support the back of her head and his palms tilted her face upwards slightly because he was only the tiniest bit taller than she was and pulled her so that her feet stumbled over carpeted floor and then the two of them were kissing, coffee breath breathing into her lungs, and she'd never imagined her first kiss with Neil would be under fluorescent lights with the door nearly shut behind Neil and his desk at her back, but here they were.

Roxie had once described kissing to Eva like feeling fireworks go off, if they were with the right person and you cared about them enough. This was like feeling a rocket take off into the sky while the sun set, painting the sky purple and red and hues of pink and feeling a hand try to sneak into hers but pushing it away because they were working and she didn't know how to feel about that.

He pulled away from the kiss, hands tangled in her long black hair and green eyes, for once, so close that even with his reflective glasses, she could see green eyes that looked like a cucumber in the summer sun, thumbs cupping her cheeks slightly, staring into her dark brown eyes and looking at her.

He looked at her for a while.

Then a little breath that smelled of coffee and warmth puffed out of his mouth in a sigh, and with the sigh came quiet, quiet words that she could barely hear over the humming of fluorescent lighting.

"I'm dying, Eva."

Her first instinct was to scoff and shake her head and tell him to quit joking around and tell her what was actually wrong, but she stopped her first instinct because his nose had not twitched, his green eyes had not left hers and there was no way he was hiding anything and his face was serious, for once, not a joking grinning mask.

He was not lying.

Neil Watts, a chronic fibber and joker and her best friend, was not lying.

He was dying.

He was dying and she hadn't known until now.

The two of them stood under fluorescent lights in Neil's office, Neil's hands cupping her cheeks and entwining in her thick black hair, her hands automatically around his waist as if they were trying to slow dance, coffees and cucumbers meeting as both of them looked into each other's eyes, almost searching for reactions in the odd pair that they were.

Eva Rosalene and Neil Watts.

Senior Memory Traversal Agent and Technician Specialist.

Blunt honesty and lighthearted lies.

An honest, living, breathing person.

And a liar with smiles and laughs and humor who was a dead man walking.

Her fingers curled on the lapels of his lab coat.

"No more lies." Eva's throat bobbed slightly as she swallowed, staring up into his cucumber green eyes as she searched his face. "Alright?"

Neil only hesitated for half a second before he nodded. "Okay."

He pressed his forehead to hers, their faces so close that she could feel every quiet breath that he breathed, see every flicker of his eyelashes as he blinked.

"No more lies."