A Very Volatile Valentine's (Tses)

Ah, another Thursday. To Tses, is was just another day in the year, a mark on the calendar, a date to pass by that she didn't care about in the least bit. None. There was nothing particularly exciting about such a day, but if she had known what holiday was lurking around the corner, she would have made the effort to care even less. Valentine's Day was lame, stupid, and just a way for companies to rub peoples faces in their cards glittered with hearts rainbows and cutesy feelings. And Valentine's Day was pink. She really could care less for the color pink.

But Tses wasn't aware of what day it was, or the fact Ty was coming to visit. She was lounged on the couch, headphones in her ears, and volume turned up to max. In her hand was a book, one she was staring upside down as if the words would suddenly make more sense that way. After an hour like this, she was starting to try and makes shapes out of the black blurs in her mind, while the melodies of 'Burning in the Skies by Linkin Park migrated through her head. The song had a softer rhythm than most of their music, but she liked the beat and had the song stuck on repeat as she listened to it.

I fill my cup with the rising of the sea, I pour it out in an ocean of debris. Oh, I'm swimming in the smoke of bridges I have burned. So don't apologize I'm loosing what I don't deserve.

The emo song was ironic on such a cute and cuddly day, a song about loosing someone close to you on a day of togetherness. Tses had listened to this a few times when Ty was gone, and she had felt empathetic with the lyrics at that time. She never deserved him in the first place, and when they were separated, it just seemed like fate had dealt an appropriate hand for once. But now, he was back.... but that didn't mean she deserved him any more than she had before.

Her hands shook slightly and the pages of the book rattled, slipping from her hands and fluttering in the air. Reaching out, she tucked the paper back into place, and turned the music up another notch, completely missing the sound of knocking from outside.

Tses had to admit: she was being a little unobservant, and didn't notice when the door opened. Nose to her book, she was squinting at the upside down word 'Alice', and couldn't decide if it was a word or a name, just seeing squiggly letters staring back at her. But then suddenly there was a kiss on her forehead, which took her by surprise enough that she forgot to be annoyed by the cute gesture. Jumping slightly, the blinked up at him, book still upside down in her hands. then she looked at what he was holding, and a smile slowly worked it's way across her face. It started on the right side of the mouth, then spread to the left so it was only slightly crooked, then she chuckled and laid the book in her lap, reaching out for it.

"It's a moon. And a pillow. Guess I don't have to sleep on you now huh." She quipped with a glint in her eye, and pushed the headphones down off her ears. The music moved into the air with a distorted jarble, and it became background noise to their conversation.

"You're lucky I didn't think you were a robber or something. I could have blown you clear across the room before I realized who you were. Sometimes I think that key was a bad idea." She said, sticking out her tongue and putting the pillow behind her back. "Did you do something wrong or you just decided to come bearing gifts today?" She asked, tilting her head slightly, a serious tone to the question even with a teasing glitter to her eyes.

Tses' little quip didn't quite have the reaction she expected, and her face turned a little pink but she let it slide. She pushed a few buttons on her cd player to stop the music, then set it on the coffee table with the book. Eventually, she would get past page one of Alice in Wonderland. Today wasn't that day though.

"Well, you gotta knock harder next time. I was drowning out life through a musical technique. And I'm not sure if I should feel flattered or slightly creeped out by that sentence." She remarked, raising and eyebrow and glancing out the window. But she smiled just a little. At least he cared enough to risk her wrath and break into her apartment. They had a weird twisted relationship sometimes in that way...

"I think you'll have to deal with each screw up as they come. No forgiveness passes from me." She said, sticking her tongue out. "But ... I guess we could go on a d....date." She stumbled over the word slightly, face getting pink. She lost the snarky smile she had only moments before, and looked slightly more nervous now. "At least you're not dragging me to a chick-flick. I'd die a little on the inside. No, I'd die a lot." She said and chuckled slightly. Her brain buzzed around the word 'home' momentarily, and it seemed odd to her. they had separate homes, but sometimes he acted like he partially lived here.

Tses just shrugged her shoulders at Ty's comment. If he got yelled at it wasn't her fault. Although she did find it odd that someone downstairs would be yelling. She went through the mental list of people in the floor below her, but none of them seemed like the yelling type. There was that grumpy old man but his 'yell' was more of a low growl when people walked past his room. Oh well, she'd figure it out eventually. "Then again, this is one of the few places I stay on my best behavior. I haven't blown up any furniture or anything here. So you making noise is probably a shock for them." She teased and laughed.

"You know, that face was almost worth the horror of the idea of seeing a chick-flick. And horror is pretty fun.....what do you mean considering?" Tses stopped mid-sentence and tilted her head slightly to the side. He had a look on his face she couldn't quite place, and he almost had a goofy grin lingering on the edges of his mouth. She quickly tried to skim her brain for anything she forgot. Anniversary. Birthday. Major holiday. The world had been a little pinker than normal, but that didn't seem too major....or was it?

"Am I like totally missing something right now? Or do I need to kick your butt pretty soon when I figure out what you're hinting at?" Her eyes narrowed and she stood, crossing her arms at him.

Tses tilted her head ever so slowly to the side, and blinked, once. She had a look of a tiger that was sitting back on it's haunches, shoulders relaxed, but expression still deciding if it was going to attack or not. There was the subtle 'flick' of the imaginary tail, as her hands glimmered with a faint green energy for just a second, then she frowned.

"You're trying to get me to celebrate that godforsaken hallmark holiday?" She slowly asked. Her face was unreadable, but that was the most dangerous time to mess with her. There was still to much ammunition around to use. She was tempted to reach for the book. She resisted for the moment. His only salvation was the temptation of going out to see a horror movie. She did like blood and gore. When it wasn't, you know, coming from her or something like that.

"If you talk about what you've 'gotten away with', I'll make sure it never happens again." Her voice said with a cold catty edge, and her eyes narrowed. then she shrugged and crossed her arms. "But.... we can try the movie. Just this once. But if you try giving me anything with a heart or pink glitter, there will be some unforeseeable attack to your person in an unpleasant manor in the near future." She finished with a warning.

Tses slowly relaxed as he started to get upset, and lost the defensive stance. As he set down the flower, she felt a smile form on her mouth; a genuine one that was almost balanced unlike her crooked snarky expression. She ran a finger across the petals, and then looked up at him. "You don't have to leave.... And I'm not usually a flower person, but this one is probably cool enough I can let it slide." She remarked, and moved over to him, slipping her hand into his and giving it a squeeze.

"Let's just... restart, ok? 'Hey, wanna go on a date with me?' 'Sure, I'd love to! Let's go watch something bloody and disgusting!'" She grinned at him, speaking the two 'sides' of the conversation with a different inflections to her voice. She poked him ever so lightly in the side, searching for his smile beneath his sad frowning.

Tses sighed slightly as he moved over to put the flower in water, and toed the ground a little with her shoe. She grabbed her jacket off the chair in the kitchen, the leather jacket he'd given her a long while ago. It didn't have a Ty smell anymore, and hardly felt like it had been 'his' at this point, just in the sentimental way. She never felt sentimental, but for him she tended to be. After she put it on she reached underneath her clothing and tugged her necklace to the surface, letting the moon hang on the black leather. As he returned and took her hand, she tried giving another smile. She hadn't said anything, but maybe he'd notice the little gesture she'd made to try and show she did care when he tried doing something nice for her.

"So.... what time does this movie start?" She asked. Her hand shook slightly for a second, then stopped, the little movement becoming what felt like a nervous tick for her now. She kept trying to overcome it, but it was like her nightmares: they only seemed to get worse. Maybe they just had to gain strength before they could burn out.