(Untitled)

[amazonofthe21st]

The door to room 2754 slams.

A minute or so later, it opens again.

A few seconds and it slams again.

Just to make a point.

But it's open when the other person who lives there finds his way.

Comments

[whoiwasmeant2be]

Tobias almost shifts human so that he can walk in and slam the door himself, but he doesn't. For some reason it would feel like admitting defeat, or something. And he's not prepared to do that.

Rachel hurt him, after all. And then acted all surprised that it had hurt.

He flaps silently through the door and perches on the back of the couch. His talon tense and relax, slowly shredding the fabric.

[whoiwasmeant2be]

Tobias doesn't answer.

Because they both know what it is, but if he doesn't say it then it's like it can't be used as evidence in this argument.

[amazonofthe21st]

Rachel stops her pacing, just to look at him.

Her smile, if it can be called that, is grim and satisfied.

It's a rhetorical question. Jake hadn't asked Tobias or anyone else. He hadn't really asked Rachel, either. He hadn't needed to.

He knew her place.
And so did she.

[whoiwasmeant2be]

It shouldn't have been, though. It should have been no one's place to make that sacrifice.

But it especially shouldn't have been hers.

He doesn't say that, though.

[amazonofthe21st]

They all had strengths and weaknesses. Jake learned all of them - had to - but he wasn't the only one. Even Rachel is sure, if Tobias would let himself think about it, he'd realized it had to be her. It had to.

Everyone else had so much more to...

"...we were never going to get a happy ending, Tobias." She leans back until her spine touches the bar at the kitchen, and lets her shoulders slump, looking at him. The words are heavy on her tongue.

"There was no way out. And I wasn't going to risk you and everyone else on... god, it wasn't even a chance. We all knew Tom would turn on us the first chance he got."

[whoiwasmeant2be]

She said 'we', and the one he heard was her and him.

he asks with a scowl in his voice.

[amazonofthe21st]

[whoiwasmeant2be]

There had to have been another way!

[amazonofthe21st]

[whoiwasmeant2be]

And she acted like it was nothing.

[amazonofthe21st]

[whoiwasmeant2be]

Because what she'd done wasn't worthless. It just hadn't been worth it.

[amazonofthe21st]

"But it was a chance! Not going at all would have been killing you and I couldn't do it!"

And...

and.

[whoiwasmeant2be]

Which is unfair, and he knows it. The alternative was so much better than losing the war. At least in the grand scheme of things.

Just... Tobias didn't care about the grand scheme of things at the moment.

[amazonofthe21st]

[whoiwasmeant2be]