"Max is gone." Lucy stated simply, looking down at the food that Jude attempted to make. There was silence. Jude placed down his fork and Pepper stopped pushing her food around the plate. "Max is gone," she repeated, "And no one fucking cares." Tears sprung to her eyes.

"Lucy, you know that's not true." Jude defended, trying to catch her eyes.

She shut them and shook her head. "No, don't you tell me that, nobody has done anything, we need to do something."

"It's out of my power, Lucy, if I could do something, I would, but--"

"Do you even know the chances of him ever coming back? How could he do this to us?"

Jude automatically thought she was referring to the government, and he looked down. "Things are tough, they're doing everything they can…"

"Not the government." She spat. "I meant Max."

"Lucy," Jude said softly, slightly shocked.

"How could he have dropped out and had no plan at all?" Tears were streaming down her face. "Couldn't he have realized how this was going to affect everyone? It's not fair!" She slammed her hands on the table childishly. Jude reached out, wanting to take her hand, but she retreated it quickly, leaving his hand out in the empty space.

Defeated, he let his hand fall on the table. "Lucy, I don't know what you want me to say. We just have to pray that Max'll be alright--"

She smirked bitterly. "Pray? Are you kidding me?" Jude looked down. "Pray to who?" He was silent. "God, Jude?" She stood up and pushed her food away. "I wouldn't pray to a God that did this to us." She stormed into her room, and Jude flinched as the door slammed.

Pepper sighed. "Well, that was interesting." She stood up. "Thanks for the breakfast."

"But you didn't eat anything," He pointed out, but her door slammed in reply.

"Pepper?"

She looked up absentmindedly from her bed. She was too high to care about her uncovered wrists, so she waved, weakly.

He didn't notice, but he walked in and sat awkwardly on the edge of her bed. "I have to ask you a question."

"Alright." She muttered.

"Do you think that… It's my fault?"

This got Pepper's attention.

"That," he continued to explain, "Lucy's so miserable all the time, I mean."

"You want to know why I think she's so miserable all time, Jude? You really want to know?" He looked around uncomfortably and then nodded. "She's miserable because her big brother has to go to war, and the only person who could really comfort her would be… Well, her big brother."

Jude looked down, silently agreeing.

"Not to diss you, or anything, because I personally think that you're really cool."

He shook his head and a tiny tear fell onto his jeans. He placed a hand over the spot immediately, embarrassed. "I just wish that things could go back to the way they were." He wished, in a tiny voice, next to a whisper.

Pepper watched for a few seconds before getting off the bed and grabbing the dimebag from her drawer. "Alright, come here."

Jude looked up. "What?"

She poured it on the desktop and got on her knees. "Come here!"

He shifted over awkwardly and watched her hands form a line. That's when his stomach sunk and he grabbed her hand.

He turned it over and looked at the scars. He traced a finger over them, completely shocked, and then looked up at Pepper, her eyes suddenly stinging.

"Pepper." He whispered. She wriggled her hand away from his and folded her arms. He stared at her for another second.

"I made that line for you, you know," She stated bitterly.

There was another moment of silence before he finally gave in and sniffed the line.

He held his nose for a moment, and closed his eyes. "I don't like it." He moaned, putting his head on the bed.

"You don't?" Pepper asked, sniffing one for herself. "I think it's great."

She crawled up beside him and lay down looking at the ceiling. "Can't you feel it running through your body?"

He moaned again. "I hate it, Pepper, it hurts."

"Only for a little while." She looked over at the side of his head. His brown hair stuck out in pieces from behind his hand. His fingers were black from the charcoal he used so often, and his hands seemed strangely large for the size of arms he had.

"Can you feel your sense of judgement failing?" She asked through giggles, biting on her nails.

"I feel a headache." He complained.

She put a hand on his chest, and moved it up to his chin, and then back to his stomach. His shirt was thin, and it kind of moved with her hand. Jude looked out from under his hand. "Pepper?"

She traced circles around his stomach, moving down to the edge of his jeans, and when she got there, she just moved her finger around the edges, hooking it on the belt loops everytime she passed one. Jude looked down from his odd position on the bed and then threw his head back on the bed, his eyes wide open and sweat forming from under his hair.

"Pepper…" He said, his mind commanding him to say it, but as soon as it escaped his lips she could tell that he didn't really mean it.

She looked up at him, his eyes looking away. He wanted this. She could tell.

She took her hands off him, suddenly, putting them back at her side. He looked over, relieved but disappointed at the same time.

Slowly, but determined, she moved on top of him, straddling him on his knees. She put her hands on his shoulders and pressed her face up against his chest. Closing her eyes, she turned her head over, and Jude placed a hand on hers, the one with scars. As she kissed his chest over and over, forgetting Lucy, forgetting Max, forgetting war, everything… He traced his fingers over her scars, torturing her as she was torturing him. His hands moved then, down her arm and to her hair, and he started stroking it back out of her eyes, humming shortly.

She then pulled herself up on his body, causing him to moan softly as she kissed his chest, moving up to the space between his shoulders and his neck. Her figure felt so perfect there, nested between him, laying kisses where she wanted to, her eyes closing and her hands moving to his hair. Then he moved his hands to her tiny waist, holding her tighter as she moved her lips up to his cheek. His eyes closed, he waited with his chest moving faster, up, down, up, down.

She'd been here too many times before. Lying with a stranger, not being able to trust anything, heart racing but broken in pieces.

But with Jude, they seemed different. Instead of broken, she felt as if he'd picked up the pieces of her heart and handed them back to her, even though he had barely done anything at all.

"Jude?" She kissed his cheek again.

"Mm?"

"Do you love me?"

"Mm."

And she kissed him, not breaking apart their lips for a long time.

It hasn't been too long but I've updated again.

Don't kill me for this, I'm not twisting up the movie too horribly, trust me, things will end up like they should in the end.

Anyways, this is probably the closest thing to a sex scene that you'll ever get from me. I'll update soon eventually, these last few chapters weren't too long…

Review?