it's just a little white lie, adna

[bethlehem]

I can get there on my own. you can leave me here alone.

Perhaps it goes without saying.
That they don’t want to fight.

But all each of them has wanted was to be seen by the other. She has wanted him to see her in all of her darkness and love her anyway. And he has wanted nothing more than for her to see that he is plain and simple and not at all the kind of man she should want to love or have love her. But he doesn’t want to be with anyone else. Because no one else has ever set him ablaze the same way she has. Nobody has ever sunk a fish hook into his belly that called him back to them. Nobody but her.

There is no mirth in her laughter, absolutely no warmth. If he didn’t know better, he’d have thought it was a sob. And maybe it is but he doesn’t know how to provide her any comfort without making this something that it’s not. He doesn’t want to have to comfort her because he doesn’t want this to be dark.

She speaks then and a slanted smirk flits across his features before it’s gone. He shakes his head, good-natured. There is nothing angry in the way he eyes her. There is nothing dark in the breath that leaves him in the shape of a muted laugh. “Are you trying to talk me out of it?” he asks. Were their circumstances any different the tone might have been teasing. But here and now, there is simply a lilt to it. Accompanied by that smirk, he thinks it’s probably enough.

But, after a moment, he nods and says, “I’m sure.”

BETHLEHEM

I'm just tryin' to do what's right. oh, a man ain't a man unless he's fought the fight.