FIC: how my heart behaves (jurassic world, claire dearing/owen grady, pg)
For @forthediehards, per her request.
it’s the sound of our hearts getting louder
beating like a hollow drum
-Laura Welsh, Hollow Drum
Claire and Owen waited for the last boat, making sure everyone else evacuated before leaving themselves. Now they stood at the stern, the sea breeze blowing against their skin, freckling them with salt water. Claire took her heels off, scraped some of the blood off the insole, and put them back on.
She caught Owen looking at her.
“What?” she asked.
He shook his head, but he was smiling. “Nothing.”
Normally, Claire wouldn’t have let him get away with that, but it had been a long day. She drummed her fingers against the hull. Owen was still looking at her; she looked back. He was brown and bloody; there were creases in the dirt and blood by his eyes and mouth. Smile lines. Claire’s mouth pursed; they said there were destined for one of two sets of wrinkles: smile lines or frown lines. Claire had always figured she’d get frown lines. She hated that about herself.
He was fucking beautiful, and she didn’t hate that at all.
“Hey,” Owen said, his tone gentle. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” That was when she realized she was crying. She dabbed ineffectually at her cheeks, which just smeared the dirt and blood and tears around. She tried to stop crying, which only made things worse; soon she was sobbing, gesturing wordlessly with her hands in front of her: stop. please stop.
She felt Owen fold his arms around her. She sobbed into his shirt, her fingers grasping at his shoulders, trying for purchase and finding none.
She became aware of Owen’s heartbeat. It throbbed against her cheek: steady, constant, synching with her own. They said that happened when you were in love: your heartbeats harmonized. Buh-bum, buh-bum, buh-bum, the two of them together, blood deep.
Claire felt her tears dry up, but she stayed against Owen’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. She took his wrist, pressed her thumb to his pulse point and felt their heartbeats throb together.