Envy's Office, The Hegemony Compound, Brazil, Monday

[whenshewasnice]

It had been an unbelievably good week and a half or so. Envy had barely left Todd's side at all. It'd been almost like when they'd been kids. Except with much more kissing. But it wasn't a reunion that would last, yet. Todd still had a semester left at Vegan Academy (yes, he was a vegan and yes, that was why he could fly to the moon and punch it).

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

"I may be leaving."

She hadn't meant to announce it like this. Hell, she hadn't meant to announce it all because until now she hadn't really accepted there'd be anything to announce.

If pressed, she might've admitted she wasn't even entirely sure when she'd decided to get up and march across the hall and make said announcement, with her arms folded across her chest.

[whenshewasnice]

"Yes." And it was insane to her too, but somehow still not as insane as the fact that he'd finally returned to her. "They don't just teach moral superiority at the Vegan Academy."

[lockestheway]

"But not basic physics, apparently," Peter said flatly. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Does your dimension need disaster relief?"

[whenshewasnice]

"... There were some tidal waves," Envy admitted. "But it's fine now."

It didn't work entirely by normal physics.

[lockestheway]

"So you're running away with some guy because he punched a hole in a celestial body and risked the deaths of potentially tens of thousands of people," Peter said. "Wow."

No, this was crazy. Why wasn't she saying it was crazy?

[whenshewasnice]

"He's not 'some guy', he's Todd." And there was so much weight to that. Eleven long years of heartache of it. "And I'm going with him because he loves me."

And, if he paid close enough attention? Actual heart-shapes flashed in her eyes when she said that.

So that was why it wasn't crazy.

[lockestheway]

And Peter was beginning to feel vaguely nauseous.

"You stopped being a teenage girl a year ago," he said, "That's no time to decide to turn into Bean and Petra. Yes, he's some guy."

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm twenty-two!"

Envy, darling, that wan't actually an argument against what he was saying.

"And he's not some guy, he's Todd and I love him!"

[lockestheway]

"Is that why you're leaving?" Peter said, incredulously, "So you can spend more time on scrapbooking about your true love? You're better than that."

[whenshewasnice]

Envy looked like she wanted to tear his eyes out. Just briefly, but the look was there.

She held back the response that threatened to accompany it, though.

"I'm leaving because I'm getting back something I thought I'd never have again." The purest love she'd ever had. "I don't expect you to understand. But maybe Petra and Bean weren't all wrong about everything."

[lockestheway]

... had she changed into this while he wasn't looking, or had the Envy Peter knew just been struck by lightning or something?

"I was ready to watch you leave because you were planning to use that boundless ambition to become something great all on your own," he said flatly. "This? This is pathetic."

[whenshewasnice]

Envy didn't look hurt. But she looked stone-faced, which from her was in most cases the same thing.

"Have you asked what my plan is?" she asked. "Nope. You've decided I'm just going off to play house or something. Does it make this easier for you to call me pathetic, Peter?"

[lockestheway]

"You just told me you were leaving and going with him because 'he loves you', after ten days," Peter said dryly. "And you don't appear to particularly care that the man caused a natural disaster because it was a romantic gesture. I'm sorry if I don't have great faith in your judgment right now; it's a terrible affliction I suffer from called common sense."

[whenshewasnice]

"So you don't respect me anymore because I'm not doing things you approve of," Envy summarized, tone getting colder by the second. "That's fine."

This wasn't fine at all. Something she wasn't pointing out about what he'd just said stung more than anything else, too.

[lockestheway]

"No, I'm saying I doubt your judgment right now because of what you're saying to me right now," Peter said.

Maybe he was hurt, too. The problem was, he couldn't figure out how much of it was personal and how much of it was genuinely that he thought she'd been above something like this.

[whenshewasnice]

"Then I won't say anything more to you." Might as well have been ice shards out of her mouth. "Except this: fuck you."

Thanks, Jim.

She turned on her heels.