This chapter is for the lovely Kati, because angst is delicious, and for tater06, because she is incredibly sweet! Actually, they both are, and talented. If you're not reading their works, then you should repent immediately and go do so. You are seriously missing out.
Is it bad that I had fun writing this chapter? Wait, don't answer that. Not until you read it.
For now, all we will say is that I did have fun. Yes.
Still insanely busy. I have an essay due tomorrow for a book that I've barely even started. Guess that I'm going to spend tonight doing! :D At least I have a while tonight and tomorrow morning, though. Or something. Blech, I barely have time for fun anymore. Just writing for this and my novel, schoolwork, and the occasional game of ultimate Frisbee.
Right. Gotta go get ready for Writing now. Peace out, and I hope that the rest of your week is the best ever!
Disclaimer: Don't own, except Thatcher and Nikki.
Love, Sadie
--
The glass door slid open soundlessly and allowed the body to step through. Slumped. Disfigured. The shoulders were hung low and the head dipped toward the floor. The feet slid against the floor in a worthless scuffle. The lips were white and bloodless, pressed together in a taut line that had anger teeming around the edges.
Anger. Defeat.
The other figure moved forward. Confident. Surreal. "Welcome back."
The emerald eyes slid upward and glinted with a hard light. A smirk. Weary acceptance. "It's good to be back."
--
Underneath the cotton covers, a muffled sigh sounded. With hands that were numb from the chill in the room, Kuki pushed back her covers and shook her head, letting strands of hair tickle her nose without any movement to brush them away. She could only bring herself to a slumping shuffle as she moved from her bed into the bathroom, with heavy-lidded eyes that gazed emotionlessly back at her in the mirror.
After a few minutes, she began to ready herself for her day. A puppet on strings, each movement was listless and somewhat awkward, as though she couldn't bring herself to put any enthusiasm into her motions. It was only when the hot water from the shower began to race down her skin that she was able to relax.
Each attempt to make it a normal day was simply a mask over what she really felt, and a sad endeavor to forget what had happened the previous day. Anything she could do to keep the memory from rising to the surface of her brain was worth completing, and she kept about her meaningless tasks to retain concentration on things that didn't really matter anyway.
Only when she was seated on the plush of a chair beside her kitchen table did it hit her full-force, like a punch in the gut that left her breathless and reeling. Everything pouring back, invading her mind and pushing and swarming and conquering until it had taken over every part of her senses. Warm lips on hers, angry and demanding, and then gone just as fast, leaving her with only a breath of the feeling left.
With the wind swirling around her, she had stood there, looking after his escaping figure with nothing but confusion. Her lips, throbbing slightly, had parted to call his name, but had received no response, and with a sense of defeat, she had started the long walk home, trying in vain to both capture the memory and to forget it and pretend that it had never occurred.
Just like him, to play with my mind like that.
With a disgusted sigh, she pushed her bowl away and stood, slinging her purse over her shoulder and starting for the door. She really didn't want to work today, not with her mind buzzing about annoyingly, but it wasn't worth it to skip a day, so she wrenched the door open and stepped out into the frosty neighborhood. It would be a long walk to work; plenty of time to clear her mind before she had to deal with the bustle of a regular day.
--
The leaves crackled nearby and Wally jumped to his feet, looking around wildly and relaxing when his eyes caught sight of honey-blonde hair that danced in the wind. Relaxed, but not ecstatic. As if he wanted to talk to the girl right now, who was smirking at him as though trying to say I told you so with her lips. Cruddy sneak.
"What do you want, Nikki?" he snapped, leaning back against the tree and shoving his hands into his pockets. He had considered ignoring her completely, but he didn't want her running to Thatcher while oozing out poisonous, sugar-coated words that would end up being used against him.
She came to stand beside him, and he didn't trust her innocent smile. Not at all. "What are you doing out here, Wally?" If he stopped to think about it, she really was attractive. The problem was in the fact that she knew it. Each curve of her lips, tilt of her head, swing of her hips, all of it calculated and unnatural. Appealing, but forced.
Two can play at that game, he figured. Answering a question with a question was her specialty, but perhaps he could twist her own game and use it against her. "Why do you care?" With a hard smile at her, it was amusing to see the way she faltered slightly, although she was able to cover it up smoothly as though it hadn't tripped her up at all.
"Because," she purred, tilting her head so that her hair spilled over her shoulder. Her voice became a whisper that was both alluring and accusing. "I don't believe you." Each word was a dagger, and she spat them out in order to drive them into him.
Immediately, Wally's face smoothed over into a mask of cold stone, emotionless and chilling as he appraised her. There was no way that she could know why he was here, no way that she could tell what he was trying to do out here. She was bluffing. She had to be. "You should."
"You may have fooled Thatcher. . ." Within seconds, she was inches from his face, glaring and dangerous behind a façade of sweet innocence. "I see right through you, Wally. Even if Thatcher trusts you again, I don't. And you have a long time to go before you can prove to me that you're even remotely worthy of being a member of the team, best friends with Thatcher or not."
Wally glared at her before his eyes picked up some movement on the street nearby. Although he was partially concealed behind the bush, he could see her, walking to work as she did every morning about this time. Her hair, whipping in the wind, covered his view of her violet eyes, the part of her that he wanted to see the most.
If Nikki noticed his distraction, she made no mention of it. Instead, her voice became sly. "But. . . I'm willing to overlook it. . . I know she was just one of your assignments, Wally. I loved the report you gave us on her." Something in her tone caught Wally's attention, and when he glanced back down at her with a look of confusion, she caught his head and pulled it against hers until her lips were molded against his.
Wally let out a muffled grunt of surprised and tried to pull back, but she held him fast against her, using her other hand to wrap around his waist like a snake and secure him there. It was nothing like it had been with Kuki – no fire that threatened to engulf them, no connection that bound them inexplicably together. Just jumbled thoughts and a flurry of confusion that left him wondering what the heck was going on.
He was so caught up in trying to escape her grasp that he couldn't determine the source of the thud behind them. But he did recognize the voice behind the gasp that sounded, and with horror, he finally shoved Nikki away, just in time to catch a pair of violet eyes that had seen everything.
"Wait!" The word barked out of his mouth before he could think, and in response, the girl's face hardened and she took off at a run down the street toward the large office building where she worked. Wally scrambled to run after her, but Nikki was there, in his way and in his face and not allowing him to go after Kuki and explain everything. "Nikki, move!"
"No."
His glare was furious as his eyes met hers. If she wasn't a female, he would have socked her in the face, then and there. "What are you talking about? Get out of the way!"
"I said no." Her eyes glinted hard at him and her mouth was a thin line of disgust. "You're not betraying the I.U. for some stupid girl, Wally." The look on her face, the venom in her voice, all of it created a rebellious feeling inside of Wally that bubbled up through his veins and threatened to explode.
"You can't tell me what to do."
And Wally took off at a run around her, slipping out of her grasp easily when she tried to catch his wrist. He knew from his early attempts to spy on her that Kuki worked nearby, and his eyes scanned the street frantically for a glimpse of that billowing green jacket. When he finally found her, on the stairs that led up to her building, he screeched to a halt in front of her and tried to speak, breathing heavily. "K-Kuki, I-"
"Save it!" Her snap stopped him short, and he only then realized the levels of hurt that reflected in her eyes. The very edges of them brimmed with hints of tears, and Wally winced away from her. Again, he tried to explain, fumbling around for words that would make her listen.
"You don't understand-"
"Oh, I think I understand!" There was a fury in her voice that he hadn't even heard there before. It stabbed at him like a long rapier. "You played me, Wally! It was all a lie. You got to know me, spent time with me, and. . ." She hesitated on that thought, not even willing to say it out loud. The guilt pressed on Wally even heavier. "And, it was all just a lie so that you could stalk me like some kind of freak!"
He shook his head rapidly, letting his hair flop around his face like a blonde curtain. "Not all-"
"I heard her, Wally! I was never anything but a stupid assignment! I don't know what you reported on, but I bet you got an eyeful by pretending to be close to me. The dance, the conversations, they were all fake! You're sick!" She spat out the last word with a fiery rage that made him flinch. Finally, with a growing irritation at the situation, he cut her off and began to speak.
"That's not true! You're blowing it way out of propor-"
"Was I assigned to you?" Her quiet demand stopped him short. She would looking at him in earnest now, and the whispered question was the one that made him want to throw it all away and forget that it ever happened. It would only take one word and he could convince her that it was all false, and that it had only been fate that had brought them together. Just one word.
But he couldn't give her that word. Not truthfully. ". . . Yes."
Her lips pressed together and the pain inside of her eyes only deepened. Without another word, she whirled around and stormed into the building, slamming the glass door behind her. Down the street, Nikki was watching him with a triumphant smirk, and the sight sickened him.
Turning his back on her, he began to walk. He didn't know where he was going, or how far he would go. All he knew was that he needed to leave her behind, standing there, thinking that she had won.
Which, in reality, she had.
Because Wally had lost.
--
p.s. Freaked you out a bit with that first section, did I? Oh Wally, you and your acting skills.
Bad Nikki, bad Nikki! Go to your room!
