Incompatible

He was laughing. Laughing! The bastard.

“It’s not funny, so shut the hell up!” Of course, the laughter continued. It wasn’t in his nature to stop once he had started, even when she got upset or angry with him; Hell, any reaction simply fueled his proverbial fire. Nevertheless, he was laughing at her, and by God, she was pissed. “Keep that up and I swear I’ll beat you ten ways from tuesday.”

“I’m sorry, Riza, really I am.” Wiping tears from his cheeks and clutching his stomach with the force of his amusement, he was still quick to raise his arms in appeasement when her fist rose sharply in the air. The grin never left his lips, eyes glittering with humor as he brought himself under the guise of composure. Still feeling the severe urge to wipe that expression from his face, she turned her back on him with a huff, choosing instead to watch the fountain nestled within the courtyard in which they stood. Within moments, arms had snaked their way around her waist, coaxing her stubborn body back against a taller, harder one.

The day was cool, a breeze sweeping down through the terrace and across the stone, making the water itself mist in the fountain. The effect was usually calming, but for once Riza felt very much like a tortured cat: hackles raised and claws fully extended even as its owner tried to sooth it was a few well-placed strokes. Of course, the cat did not forget that it was the owner who had stepped on its tail in the first place.

“Riza.” Those arms tightened incrementally.

“Why would you laugh about that? It’s not funny at all. I was trying to make a serious point.”

“It’s not that serious a matter.”

“How can you say that?”

The low chuckle that sounded from his throat rumbled down through his chest and vibrated into her back. “Because if humans never dated on the sole fact that they had a problem with their partner, we’d all have died out by now for lack of compatability.  You think I’m insensitive and laidback, I think you’re obnoxious and outspoken. Right there, we’re even.”

“You WHAT–?”

“–THE POINT IS,” she could hear the smile in his voice as he leaned closer to her ear, “that despite my dislike of some of your habits, and yours of mine, I am not going anywhere because of that fact. So, I’m not going to let you go anywhere either.”

Sure enough, when she attempted to step outside the ring of his arms, she found neither appendage would budge. Sighing, Riza stubbornly let herself by held by the frustrating man at her back.

“I hate you.”

“Mm… So I’ve been told.”

~ by eeratka on April 19, 2008.