fic: Keep Falling
Title: Keep Falling
Characters: Annie Walker, Auggie Anderson
Pairing: Annie/Auggie
Rating: PG, for cooties and alcohol.
Word Count: 786
Summary: The worst part about falling out of love, is wondering if you'll ever open up that far again. After Ben, Annie wasn't going to fall in love again. Then she met Auggie.
Author's note: Was about to put up this song in the prompt meme, when I discovered b_o_w_a 's prompt (thank you, b_o_w_a). This happens to be set to my favorite song of all time ("Why Do People Fall In Love?" by Linda Eder), so I recommend getting out there and buying it off iTunes or something. Because it's awesome.
Disclaimer: If I owned them, Auggie would have gotten together with a lovely bespectacled geek named Impossible Star. As this has not happened, it is same to assume that I do not own Covert Affairs. I also do not own Linda Eder, or any of her music people.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why do people fall in love?
Don't we know love is full of dangers?
Letting loose our foolish hearts
In this world full of perfect strangers..."
She'd met Ben in a bar in Trincomalee. Her mother had always warned her about meeting strange men in bars, but her mother had also been against language majors, world travel, and her daughter meeting men in general. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea to take her mother's advice - on this issue, anyway.
She'd thought it was exciting when he showed her his hut near the beach. It wasn't a seedy hostel, or even a fancy hotel - it was their own island get away, just the two of them. Endless days of sunlit ocean and golden sands and warm light filtering through the canopy, just for them.
She'd never fallen so hard for a guy before. Sure, she'd dated, but she'd never really thought she could love someone until Ben came along. He was beautiful, he was charming, he wanted to see the rest of the world with her, if she wanted.
She'd pointed out that part of the reason she hadn't liked being an army brat was because she'd never had time to put down roots.
He'd told her that they could put down roots anywhere she wanted. They. He'd said they like he meant it.
Of course, he'd left her the next night, and that afternoon the monsoon season started. She boarded the plane in rain and thunder, and didn't look at the ocean until she was safely in Georgetown.
She promised herself that she would never be so incredibly stupid again.
---
She was being incredibly stupid again.
Little by little, she was growing to depend on Auggie. She was accepting more and more hugs, noticing less and less when his hand touched her arm or her shoulder or her face. She was putting down roots and tearing down walls. She felt like her carefully crafted stone floor of opposition was actually a tightrope, and she was teetering on the edge of something terrifying and wonderful, something completely unknown and yet achingly familiar.
She wondered if she was scared or thrilled.
She also wondered, occasionally, how long a relationship with him would last. He'd said little about how long any of his previous relationships had been, but he'd been with Natasha over a year. It was certainly longer than three weeks. Her heart fluttered a bit at the thought, and she indulged in one fantasy before carefully discarding it and putting it away with all the other memories she'd deliberately forgotten.
But unlike every other friendship she'd ever had, he was there the next day she went into work. And the next. And the next. He was always there, as her friend with a smile or a voice in her ear.
So one day she took out that fantasy again, and daydreamed.
---
The strange thing was that she wasn't drunk. Auggie certainly was, but she'd needed to be sober enough to drive him and herself home, and so she'd only had a few sips of beer, not nearly enough to lose her inhibitions.
But she had.
She wondered if she was doing the right thing. He was drunk. She was still getting over Ben. There was no way she could do this. She felt her tightrope teeter, and with a sudden jolt of courage she jumped off. Screw the consequences, bars were wonderful places to pick up guys and she'd never gotten anywhere from being cautious.
"Auggie, I think I love you."
In hindsight, it might have been better to wait, at least until after Auggie had finished drinking. His eyes widened, his grip on the bottle tightened, and he coughed heavily into it, spluttering with choked-on beer. He turned towards Annie.
"Do you mean that?"
Annie had a sudden moment of panic. He only wanted to be friends, all his flirting was a joke, he was going to reject her.
But she had to be honest.
"Yes."
He put his hand on her cheek, and his thumb ran over her lips. He pulled her to meet his lips with hers, and Annie's tightrope burned.
She wasn't sure how it would be in the morning. She relished the unknowing.
"Why do people fall in love?
Are we fools with no hope of winning?
Or perhaps we always see
One last chance for a new beginning.
Holding on and letting go
But never really knowing.
Well, I guess that, after all,
That's the reason people fall in love."
Characters: Annie Walker, Auggie Anderson
Pairing: Annie/Auggie
Rating: PG, for cooties and alcohol.
Word Count: 786
Summary: The worst part about falling out of love, is wondering if you'll ever open up that far again. After Ben, Annie wasn't going to fall in love again. Then she met Auggie.
Author's note: Was about to put up this song in the prompt meme, when I discovered b_o_w_a 's prompt (thank you, b_o_w_a). This happens to be set to my favorite song of all time ("Why Do People Fall In Love?" by Linda Eder), so I recommend getting out there and buying it off iTunes or something. Because it's awesome.
Disclaimer: If I owned them, Auggie would have gotten together with a lovely bespectacled geek named Impossible Star. As this has not happened, it is same to assume that I do not own Covert Affairs. I also do not own Linda Eder, or any of her music people.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why do people fall in love?
Don't we know love is full of dangers?
Letting loose our foolish hearts
In this world full of perfect strangers..."
She'd met Ben in a bar in Trincomalee. Her mother had always warned her about meeting strange men in bars, but her mother had also been against language majors, world travel, and her daughter meeting men in general. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea to take her mother's advice - on this issue, anyway.
She'd thought it was exciting when he showed her his hut near the beach. It wasn't a seedy hostel, or even a fancy hotel - it was their own island get away, just the two of them. Endless days of sunlit ocean and golden sands and warm light filtering through the canopy, just for them.
She'd never fallen so hard for a guy before. Sure, she'd dated, but she'd never really thought she could love someone until Ben came along. He was beautiful, he was charming, he wanted to see the rest of the world with her, if she wanted.
She'd pointed out that part of the reason she hadn't liked being an army brat was because she'd never had time to put down roots.
He'd told her that they could put down roots anywhere she wanted. They. He'd said they like he meant it.
Of course, he'd left her the next night, and that afternoon the monsoon season started. She boarded the plane in rain and thunder, and didn't look at the ocean until she was safely in Georgetown.
She promised herself that she would never be so incredibly stupid again.
---
She was being incredibly stupid again.
Little by little, she was growing to depend on Auggie. She was accepting more and more hugs, noticing less and less when his hand touched her arm or her shoulder or her face. She was putting down roots and tearing down walls. She felt like her carefully crafted stone floor of opposition was actually a tightrope, and she was teetering on the edge of something terrifying and wonderful, something completely unknown and yet achingly familiar.
She wondered if she was scared or thrilled.
She also wondered, occasionally, how long a relationship with him would last. He'd said little about how long any of his previous relationships had been, but he'd been with Natasha over a year. It was certainly longer than three weeks. Her heart fluttered a bit at the thought, and she indulged in one fantasy before carefully discarding it and putting it away with all the other memories she'd deliberately forgotten.
But unlike every other friendship she'd ever had, he was there the next day she went into work. And the next. And the next. He was always there, as her friend with a smile or a voice in her ear.
So one day she took out that fantasy again, and daydreamed.
---
The strange thing was that she wasn't drunk. Auggie certainly was, but she'd needed to be sober enough to drive him and herself home, and so she'd only had a few sips of beer, not nearly enough to lose her inhibitions.
But she had.
She wondered if she was doing the right thing. He was drunk. She was still getting over Ben. There was no way she could do this. She felt her tightrope teeter, and with a sudden jolt of courage she jumped off. Screw the consequences, bars were wonderful places to pick up guys and she'd never gotten anywhere from being cautious.
"Auggie, I think I love you."
In hindsight, it might have been better to wait, at least until after Auggie had finished drinking. His eyes widened, his grip on the bottle tightened, and he coughed heavily into it, spluttering with choked-on beer. He turned towards Annie.
"Do you mean that?"
Annie had a sudden moment of panic. He only wanted to be friends, all his flirting was a joke, he was going to reject her.
But she had to be honest.
"Yes."
He put his hand on her cheek, and his thumb ran over her lips. He pulled her to meet his lips with hers, and Annie's tightrope burned.
She wasn't sure how it would be in the morning. She relished the unknowing.
"Why do people fall in love?
Are we fools with no hope of winning?
Or perhaps we always see
One last chance for a new beginning.
Holding on and letting go
But never really knowing.
Well, I guess that, after all,
That's the reason people fall in love."