Tattoos On My Mind

Admission

This turned out shorter than I wanted it to. I hope that I still did the topic justice.

Rhys just stood there with his mouth agape unsure of what to do. He immediately contemplated running but knew that that would only draw out the inevitable. He should have seen this coming being one Hyperion's top negotiators, a job which required an ability to read people and to be able to constantly anticipate their next move. Of course Fiona had thrown him for a loop from the very beginning so maybe he shouldn't have been entirely shocked.

"You don't have to worry," he had said in response to her questions about his intentions toward Sasha. "I'm interested in someone else."

Those words had seemed like the logical response in his head, vague yet still shutting the door on her idea of him being interested in her sister. He had been anticipating a longer pause in the conversation, a pause where he could easily get himself out of delving into that particular topic any further by declaring the conversation over and continuing forward towards the portal into the Vault of the Traveler.

"So who is it then," she asked almost immediately completely derailing his previous plans. "This other person you're interested in."

She stood there boring holes into his skull with her stare evidently wanting an answer to the only question he wasn't ready to give her the answer to yet.

"Well um," he started unsure of where he was going to go with the sentence.

"It's not Yvette is it," she cut in saving him from completing his thought. "Because that would be kind of weird after the whole betrayal thing."

"No of course not," he said quickly.

"Hm," she said contemplating. "Well it can't be Athena and you already ruled out Sasha; is it someone I don't know?"

"You know her better than I do," he mumbled under his breath so she couldn't hear it.

His mind was still trying to wrap around a way to get him out of the situation without telling her the truth. He mentally cursed himself for not just going along with the illusion she had created about him and Sasha; it would have been way easier than dealing with this.

"What was that," she said. "If you're having some sort of fling with a Pandoran whore I won't judge you, I just need to know or it will eat at me until I do."

He tried one final time to find a way out of actually answering the question but his mind remained hopelessly blank. To his horror it seemed that the only way out of the situation was telling the truth, and as much as it pained him he had been wanting to get it off of his chest for a while now.

"It's you," he said in a nervous voice that sounded nothing like his own.

"What," she said giving him a look that seemed to already be questioning his sanity.

"You, I'm interested in you," he said more confidently. "I guess you deserve to know since we may not make it back from the other side of that portal."

"This is not a good time for jokes Rhys," she said a blush already starting to appear on her face.

"It's not a joke," he said. "It's the truth, I'm interested in you Fiona."

"Why," she asked, her cheeks getting redder by the minute.

"Why not," he said. "You're the most beautiful, selfless woman I've ever met and in the short time that I've known you I've felt more alive than I've ever felt in my life."

"Oh," she said unable to look him in the eyes at the moment.

"If this is weird for you then we can pretend it never happened," he said trying to comfort her.

"No it's not that," she said quickly. "It's just that no one's ever said anything like that about me before."

"Well I meant every word of it," he said.

"Most of the guys I've known were after only one thing and didn't have time for that kind of flattery," she said.

"You deserve it," he said reaching up to cup her cheek.

"Rhys," she said tears starting to well up. "I'm just a two-bit Pandoran con artist, I don't deserve anything."

"Don't say things like that," he said moving to brush the tears away. "I don't know many two-bit con artists who would go out of their way to honor a fallen friend with a special message in the sky or try to save their mentor's life even after he betrayed them; you're a good person Fiona and you deserve the world."

He took her into a warm embrace and they stayed like that for a while afterwards, neither one wanting to break the moment. Of course it couldn't last forever.

"Well," she said taking a step towards the portal. "Let's see if the world's waiting for us inside, though I doubt you can find something that sappy inside of a vault."

He wasn't going to let her get off that easily. "So what do you think of that," he said nervously. "Me being interested in you I mean."

"Well," she said raising a finger to tap it on her chin. "I think that I'm interested in you too, so I guess we just see where this goes."

"Really," he asked.

"Really," she said affirmatively.

She reached out her hand for him to take it which he happily did. They walked through the portal hand in hand unsure of what they may find on the other side but confident that they would be able to get through whatever it was together. He couldn't stop himself from smiling and was glad that he had finally gotten that weight off of his chest. He didn't know what the future had in store for him, he only knew that he wanted her by his side for whatever it was. When he had first came to Pandora he had found himself completely out of his element, but she made it bearable and he was going to do whatever it took to keep her with him.

So I was just watching the scene where he talks about being interested in someone else again and this sort of just popped in my mind. Thankfully a little more lighthearted than last time. I hope you liked it.