"I'll never understand you."
(by Cheeto (me) for a story concept where Milo gets sucked into a portal with Ashlyn, and is stuck time-hopping with her.)
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Milo blinked. "What do you mean?"
"What do I MEAN? Isn't it obvious?" She scoffed, her voice raising in pitch with her exasperation. "You spend all day with your head in the clouds and a smile on your face while all this is happening around you- We were just on a boat full of hundreds of kids doomed to die, and you're smiling like it's CHRISTMAS FREAKING MORNING!"
"No, I don't want excuses- I want to know! How are you so disgustingly HAPPY all the time?!"
Ashlyn cried desperately, her voice starting to break.
"I would kill to have the bliss of an empty conscience like you do, but the universe won't let me die, so I don't get to have that! Why aren't you angry?! Why aren't you crying?! Why, when you have broken bones, have heard air raid sirens, and watched people DIE, do you still have nothing but that stupid little grin on your face?!"
The silence that permeated the endless stream was deafening. Milo simply looked at Ashlyn as she heaved, the dirt in her hair, her hands calloused and cut, the bandages she was crushing in her fist against the grandfather clock beneath them.
Milo's eyes met hers with a gentle smile that gave way to a weariness and level of understanding that shouldn't ever have to be worn by a child.
"I'm always positive for the same reason you're always negative."
"We're scared of what might happen if we try the other side of the magnet."