Radioactive || Riley & Isaac
@riley-voss:
Once the word ‘wrong’ comes out of his mouth she frowns, winding up to give another long spiel about all the reasons she’s right. But then the next three words that leave his lips have her face screwed up so tight she thinks perhaps her brain actually stopped functioning properly. Love. Love…love? Did he say… “You love me?” Riley repeats, dropping all the nonsensical things he says afterwards, they don’t matter. Not in the way these words do. Has he said that before? I love you…she can’t recall. Surely she would recall hearing him say those words if he had before…no. No, she has never heard them. And yet they leave his lips so easily, as if he’s been sure of them since the day he was born. How can he be so positive? Her eyes are still set on him when he turns to look at the people passing by, and she sees perhaps for the first time since he approached her, the tired lines under his eyes. He’s exhausted. Probably not just physically, from being taken into the station to early, but mentally as well. How long did they have him in there, questioning him, waiting for a moment that would never come? Riley knew of Isaac’s past, there’s no way in hell he’d sit in there and crack so easily. Surely her family’s secret is still safe. But she worries of how easily this could put a toll on him. On them.
They begin to walk, Riley easily sliding up beside him to take his hand. It felt better to walk this way, safer. With his presence beside her, she didn’t feel the need to reach into her pocket, to grip the knife she has hidden away. She had her time to talk at him, to get angry over his actions, to be fearful of what could have happened. Were they alive today? Yes. But did that mean they’d be safe forever? No. Things just…don’t work out that way, not for her family, and she thinks not for Isaac’s either. That…that worries her, probably deeper than anyone really knows. When they come to a stop, Riley turns to look up at him, her teeth catching on her bottom lip. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit. “I’m in love with you,” she blurts out suddenly after he’s finished speaking, her eyes going wide. “I…I have been in love with you for a while now, I think, and I’m…Isaac, I’m terrified. Every time I feel this way about someone, something horrible happens. And I think I’ve just been waiting for that thing to happen,” she explains, feeling tears well up in her eyes now, which she promptly pushes back. “When I realized I might die, that day of the parade, all I wanted to do was tell you that. I wanted to tell you then, that I loved you, but then…” She shakes her head trailing off. “I thought if I did, before…before I fed from you, that, I don’t know, something might happen, that I would lose control,” she goes on, wiping tears from her eyes as she laughs spitefully, shaking her head. “You could have died, Isaac. Whether I did it, or Edmund, or someone else, you could’ve died, I could’ve lost you, and you’re being so flippant about it. I mean that…that’d be on me. That’d be on me and my family, because this mess with Edmund, all of this, is ours. Not yours. I never wanted you to have to get involved in this again,“ she murmurs, her body seeming to gravitate towards his as she practically falls into him. Her forehead presses against his chest and her eyes close, taking in his scent, his heartbeat. “But you’re alive,” she says into his shirt, kissing his chest. “And Arthur’s okay, and so is everyone else who matters. I’m happy for that.”
It seemed obvious to him, the fact that he loved her. Had he not let her feed on him when it could have easily gone badly? Loved her enough to chance dying, though it was true that Isaac didn’t value his own life anywhere near as highly as that of those he loved. Maybe that was why he was so ‘flippant’ as she said, though a lot of that right now was an attempt to not have that conversation when he was exhausted for fear of saying something that he didn’t mean. He sighed as she began to blurt out word after word, her eyes filling with tears. Not because she was wrong, but because every bit of it was a sucker punch to his heart and even if on some points he disagreed, he could feel her pain through the touch of her hands on his own. “Riley, I...” Isaac began, cutting himself off just as he started once he realized he didn’t have the right words. Instead he led them over to a bench in front of a cafe on the way home and guided her into taking a seat with him. “I don’t know how to handle my life mattering to someone else. That’s the nasty truth, mon soleil. My life has always been an afterthought and I...I’m working on that, or I’m trying to. Also I’ve had maybe, maybe three hours of sleep. So I’m not at my best, even a little.”
A yawn cut him off there, which was good enough evidence all its own. Annoying though, given they still had to get home after untangling this thorny mess of emotions that they had rolled themselves into. “I love you, I would die for you, and I know only the first one of those is acceptable to you. So I’ll try very hard not to do the second, okay?” But Riley, sweetheart, you can’t lay everything on yourself either. You aren’t a bad luck charm, you aren’t a bad omen just because of what was done to you.” Isaac said, smiling at her despite the redness of his eyes and the decided slump to his shoulders. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then one to each cheek, and finally one to her lips, lingering and sweet. After that last one he pressed his forehead to hers a moment, brown eyes on blue, and he sighed. “I’m a target for being who and what I am as much as you are, mon soleil. All we can do is keep moving forward, not looking back. You willing to try to do that with me, my love?” It wasn’t a proposal, neither was ready for that, but it almost felt like it as he drew back into a sitting position before he went cross eyed looking at her. “I didn’t rat you out to Ulrich. Not you, not Odette, not Arthur. You know that, I just thought I’d reiterate. Also think it’s worth mentioning that I am in desperate need of a nap, so it would be real nice if I got to take one with my lady love. If you aren’t busy, that is. And if you’re willing to share a bed with such a mess.” Probably, even if the sheets needed washing again.











