Title: Old Wounds
Characters/Pairings: Leah, Seth
Author's Notes: For Constance Greene. Clearwatercest if you squint.
She's so tired of hearing their thoughts in her head, but one sick strand stands out. It's the same mantra, always connected but constantly twisting, a snake devouring its own tail.
"Would you shut up, already?" she yells, throwing her clothes on. Her voice rattles the woods around them, silencing birdsongs and nature. "Jesus Christ, Seth! Dad did not love me more than you!"
"Yes he did!" he growls. He's finally tall enough to look down at her, muscles roped tight in his arms. "You were just too stupid to see it! Why do you think he always invited you fishing, you hunting? It was you to the goddamn ends of the Earth!"
"I was going through a rough time, he was just –"
"That's you, isn't it?" His voice drops to a dangerous pitch, low and primal like the wolf he really is under all that skin. "Always going through a rough time, Leah. You never step back from the mirror and realize the world moves on without you!"
"Don't you –"
"So big and tough and blind to just how fucking pathetic you are! Do you realize you're still twenty-two? Even Jacob's forced himself to grow up! But you're stuck because you won't get your damn feet out of the mud!"
"Shut –"
"Move the fuck on!" He grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her and she can tell he wants to leave bruises. "No one's going to wait for you anymore! No one's staying behind! Are you hearing me? Move on!"
And suddenly she realizes that he's been in inside her head too, has seen the snake and is trying his best to unwind it – even if it means snapping a few of the bones. Leah knocks his hands away and crushes herself to his chest, raking her nails along the skin of his back and cringing when he does the same. It hurts.
It hurts, but it will heal.