Welcome! From the world of Matched, I bring you Complicated, a full on Love triangle!
Disclaimer: Matched and all it's lovely characters belong to Ally Condie.
Rating: For mild cussing, and romantic theme.
She has led them to a courtyard.
"Xander." Cassia. The boy smiles, as best he can, because he knows that whatever happens, he must protect her. "I have something to tell you." He leans in closer, brushes away the strands of loose hair. He hopes she doesn't notice his shaking hand, the panic in his eyes.
Does she know?
"I think I'm falling in love with someone else."
For a moment, he is stunned. This is not what he expects, and for that, he is relieved. But now... someone else? She takes his silence the wrong way, and so she tries to explain, on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry, you're my friend and I love you too. It's just that…" But before she can finish, he takes her in his arms and pulls her in for a hug. He murmurs into her ears, it's ok, Cassia, but he isn't sure if she can hear through her crying or if he's saying anything at all. And she breaks down again, because it's Xander, because he's always been there for her, steady, reliable, and now she's betrayed him.
She doesn't know that Xander understands completely.
He watched Ky out of the corner of his eye. Impress him, his thoughts encouraged him. Win this game.
They were in the games room and Xander was facing a boy from their class. His classmate shot him a wry smile after his move; everyone, including him, knew that Xander would win. He always won. He was calculating, strategizing, and now, he played to gain Ky's attention. Their game was gaining quite a crowd, and for that, Xander was glad. It was less suspicious if he looked up to smile at his audience.
Xander didn't know when he began noticing the boy, after the incident at the pool, or maybe when Ky stole the pills, but he did. And it scared him. So he settled for this, a few moments snatched from nowhere, furtively watching.
This was probably the last time he would be able to spend any kind of time with him, anyway. He was going to be matched, a fact beyond expected from his family and friends. And Ky had been taken from class to work in Nutrition.
Nobody except Ky saw the disgust in Xanders eyes as his opponent conceded defeat, even as he smiled. He knew that disgust all too well himself.
Self loathing.
"It was a mistake. He shouldn't even have been in the match list, but I saw his face. It's Ky Markham."
Xander freezes in Cassia's embrace. Ky.
"But it's ok, Xander. Because we're not going to see each other anymore. It was all just a mistake." Her pitch rises as she doesn't feel him relaxing. "It's ok because I love you too." She stops when his head falls onto her shoulder, and they sit like this for minutes, hours, it seems.
And then, just when she thinks it really is going to be ok, Xander laughs. It is a menacing, dark laugh, the kind you only hear when everything has shattered to pieces and nothing else could make it worse.
But he still holds her, as his laugh grates on her ear and fills the whole courtyard.
"That bastard."
It wasn't often that Xander would catch the same air train as Ky, so today was special. He hesitated at the door, wondering if it would be too obvious if he sat next to him. But Ky saw Xander, and waved, making the choice for him.
"How was the banquet?" Casual small talk with Ky. Xander smiled.
"I guess you heard who I've been paired with?"
"The beautiful Cassia Reyes, of course. It's the talk of the town. You're a lucky man, Xander." There was twinkle in Ky's eyes that Xander would've found delightful if he had not been too busy feeling sorry for himself.
"You have no idea."
Xander sighed. What was he doing, entertaining such illusions between him and another, not his Match? And a boy, no less.
Ky chuckled and leaned closer, and whispered almost conspiratorially, "she's a lucky girl too," his hot breath on Xander's ear burning his skin. Ky's husky breath, the way his body melded into Xander's own, he couldn't take any more. Carefully drawing out his ragged breath, as not to alarm the Officials further down the carriage, Xander looked away, anywhere, except at the boy he could not ever have, ever, or even just think about having.
He knows, he knows, how can he know?
As the train slowed at his stop, Xander leapt out of his seat, hurrying past the puzzled looks, away from the boy that would destroy him.
Cassia wonders why nobody has come looking for them. She opens her mouth to ask Xander, but it's too painful to talk anymore. Instead, she moans, and almost psychic, Xander picks them both up, and they stagger towards the door.
The journey back home is blurred, and all Cassia wants is to lie down and sleep. But even that is not granted to her; her whole street is filled with people out, Officials herding them close like sheep. She sees even the same woman Official who told her about Ky and the mistake on her microcard, and they exchange a glance as she and Xander continue walking through the crowd toward her parents.
"Mom? What's going on?" Cassia's family is huddled together outside their porch. Her mother reaches out for her and hugs both Xander and Cassia together.
"Oh, it's the Markhams. They're taking Ky."
"What?"
"I don't know! It just.." Her mother pushes away her hair in frustration, but Cassia is already dragging Xander to the Officials, who form a barrier between everyone and Ky. Upon their approach, they turn to her, eyes cold, apathetic. But Cassia will not go gentle. Not now.
"Where are you taking him?" Her tone stuns, nobody has ever experienced such defiance before. When no one answers, she goes to hit the nearest Official, but is stopped, inches before her palm connects.
It's Xander. She turns, and her eyes are pleading, and it takes every inch of his willpower not to help save Ky as well. But like always, he knows when it is over. They see Ky behind the wall of Officials just before he turns, led away. And though his body has given in to defeat, his face is fierce. A message, a promise.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
It was a job for two, surveying the outskirts of the town, and Ky and Xander had been specially picked, while everyone else was enjoying their recreational hour.
Xander laughed when he had been notified of this. At fate, or, the illusion of it, under the Society's ever watching eye. They knew everything. He only wished he knew why they would allow this, even order it.
Every gift was a curse.
"Xander." Ky spoke with a certainty and wisdom no one else possessed, and it was in full command then. "Can you… make me a promise?" A crack, the only one in his whole façade.
"Of course."
They were sitting on the edge of a small cliff, looking out at the vast, iron red desert that lay ahead. They would go no further than this.
"Promise me - Promise me you'll look after Cassia. Please?" He didn't know what to think, why Ky would ask for Cassia. Xander nodded in silence. Yes, he would, but why? What was going to happen?
And what of him? Did Ky care about him at all?
They gazed out toward the edges of the world, together. Xander, in the moments he turned toward his friend, caught a glimpse of something in Ky's eyes, that could've easily been longing, for something in the desert. Xander dismissed it. There was nothing out there.
When it was time to go, as they got to their feet and their faces were mere inches apart, Xander wanted nothing more than to kiss Ky. Just once. But in a second, the moment was gone and the only sign left that they had ever even been sitting on the cliff together was swept away in the wind.
The Officials that do not leave with Ky, call for everyone to gather. It is now that they open the special packages, and inside are rows of red tablets.
"Everyone is to take one of these new tablets. Do not take the one in your possession."
Cassia cannot help but feel déjà vu, and an image of a crushed tablet comes to mind. But from where?
Everyone hushes at the Officials order, nobody has ever known the red tablet's purpose, let alone a new version, and so, are appropriately hesitant. Cassia's mother steps forward to take a new tablet first, and her father places a firm arm on Cassia, prevent her from stopping her mother. Cassia watches as she places the pill into her mouth and swallow.
But she is fine, nothing happens, and soon everyone files up to take the tablet.
The last, after Xander, is Cassia.
There is no escape now, everyone's eyes on her as she swallows the pill that could mean the end of everything.
Do not go gentle.. Her vision spins, from fatigue and heartbreak. The last thing she remembers is Xander's arms holding her up, and a hollow cry that is hers but not hers at the same time, as she realises that she cannot remember any more of the poem.
"Cassia, it's time to get up." Streams of light…
She is in her bed.
"Don't you remember what day it is? We're having a celebration for the Markhams!" Markham.
"What... what happened?" She sits up now, alert. Her vision fuzzes, adjusting to the sun shining in.
"They've been transferred to Central Government, Cassia! Sometimes I feel like you're living in your own world." Her mother laughs, and it feels strange. Cassia can't recall the last time she has laughed like this, carefree. So she smiles too.
"Xander came calling before," Her mother says as she closes the door, to allow Cassia to get dressed, "But you were still asleep. He didn't want to wake you up, so said he'd meet you with Em and the others. Such a gentleman, that boy." Yes, Cassia agreed. There was no one else she'd rather have been Matched with.
She was very lucky indeed.
And that concludes this story!
Please review! This being my first guyxguy fic and all, I would adore it if you could give me some feedback!