Tasting Death. PG-13. Oct 24, 2006 - October 28, 2006. 339.
She's just walking over some old dirt road, alone for once, when she feels him appear behind her. "Have fun in Jappa?"
Cold, she stops but doesn't turn. "I died."
"Heard about that." The voice behind her is trying for casual, but she hears the slight tremor to the otherwise flawless bravado.
Goes for the kill. "And you weren't at all concerned. Right."
This time, she can practically hear the shrug, but he's moving closer to her. "You always come back."
"Well, I promised, didn't I?" She puts as much sneer into her voice as she can manage.
And he's still unconcerned by her hostility. Or, at least, that's how it sounds. "Yep."
She sighs, tired. Tired of everything. "And I don't break my promises."
"Nope."
"Are you laughing at me?" Now her anger's back, played out expertly from his hands.
Hands that are currently resting on her shoulders. "Of course not, Princess."
"You are!" But he's won because in her anger she spins around to hit his hands away from her.
Blazing blue eyes meet their fiery brown counterparts. He smirks, shrugs again. "I just missed the violence of your presence."
"I knew you liked getting your ass kicked, but really." This time, she can't stop the half-smile that appears. It's refreshing to smile again. To be alive again.
"Well, you've been gone a while."
Now she's the one laughing and he's nervous, she can see it as plain as day. "Do we need to have the 'I was dead' conversation again?"
He stiffens at the implication. "Not really, no."
"Then what-" and she has a brilliant comeback all lined up and ready to throw out there…
When he stops her firmly with a kiss. The kind of kiss that they've always shared, the kind that engulfs her entire soul and spits back something new altogether. Only this time it's different, more important, because she can taste the terror on him, taste all the fears and longings that he's hidden away while she was off being dead.
"Oh."