Sam/Alex drabble
Simple lies and complicated truths
I don’t love him. Of course I’d be the first to admit that I wouldn’t know love if it crawled up out of the sewers and bit me on the ass, but love is elusive, and probably impossible when it comes to me. What I feel isn’t love.
I get out of the car, glancing over at one of the few men in my life who’d never open a car door for me. He won’t do me the disrespect. I’m not the weaker sex, and I can open my own damn door. I watch him close the car door so hard the force rattles the government-issued SUV. He glances over at me with a holocaust in his eyes that makes my stomach jump slightly. I think I like him the most when he’s angry. His gaze singes me and I hope he yells. It’s icy silence that I really can’t stand. I truly hope I get an earful. “What the hell were you thinking out there?” He doesn’t disappoint; hurling glacial words my way. I don’t even flinch.
“Having fun, Alex. Geeze, no need to jump down my throat about it.” I close the door on my side with less force.
“You want to do acrobatics, you join the circus. You want to kill a government official, , you follow your god damn orders.”
“Let me see. Order number one, get the guy killed. Order number two, don’t get caught. I pulled off both objectives and managed to still enjoy my assignment. Could this be jealousy talking?” My words are bathed in sarcasm. Some day I’m going to coerce Alex into actually enjoying his job, I’m determined.
“What’s there to be jealous of? You nearly got your head cracked open.” He wasn’t wrong, I’d been…well, distracting, the older man. He was a prominent government contracted doctor who’d been doing some secret-telling for the enemy on the side. Not those phony terrorist clowns, mind you, but the real threat to American security, her own patriots. Those who would point out our sordid government’s flaws and wrinkles. I don’t know why they bothered, everyone knew a proper scapegoat was an important part of the American machine. I got Alex a better shot, and when the old man fell I noticed a balcony and couldn’t resist the impulse to show off. I’d done a flip off the ledge and made the pool down below by mere inches.
“Well I didn’t, see?” I tap my head. “Brains still safely in place.”
“That’s not exactly conclusive either, is it?” He seldom smiles when making a joke depending on me to know when he’s not serious. It’s usually a sign he’s tired of fighting, too. His jab coaxes a smile out of me, and I puff up my chest a little as my face transforms into a small pout. Our lives had never been as dramatic as the drama we were wrapped up in.
“Come over to this side of the car and say that, punk.” I give my head a little wiggle and purse my lips. He drops his jacket and I tense a little, a tiny smile playing around the corners of my mouth as our eyes lock and I wait for him to move, unflinching.
“Oh you‘ve got no idea how much shit you‘re in now.” He takes a few steps around the front of the car and I grin, running. I toy with him, keeping the car between myself and him. We dance, he moves a step to the left, I move a step to the right….my eyes locking with his solemn green ones. From looking, no one would guess we’re so closely matched. I’m about a third his size with dark, carefully maintained hair. He, on the other hand, has wide shoulders and arms like steel cable, moving on a firm base, while I dart around on heels. I pierce the tense silence with a giggle and make a break for it, running half-heartedly. After all, I know very well I’ve got nothing to fear.
One of those steel cables slips around my waist and yanks me back none too delicately, and we’re both met with a tense moment, the playfulness evaporating into tension as our bodies collide and both of us run face first into truth like a brick wall, and quickly retreat from it, as if wounded. He releases me and I step off as he runs a hand through his hair and clears his throat, his eyes darting around, desperately searching for a subject change. He finally squares his jaw and picks his leather jacket up off the ground, glancing at me only briefly. “be more careful next time. I’m not going to keep saving your ass.”