Chapter Text
"Just leave. Please."
He didn't know if she would do it. She'd never been good at following orders, regardless of the flack he'd always gotten from her for the very same thing. That fiery red hair of hers made her a stereotype to the fiery personality he'd come to love as much as he'd hated.
So he waited, playing statues like he and Marlene had as kids, chest tight, breath caught in his throat, hands clenched into fists.
It took longer than he thought.
So long, he thought she wasn't going to do it. That she wasn't going to listen to him, yet again, she wasn't going to listen to him.
And that made his fingers curl tighter, his heartbeat even harder, twisting his stomach into knots piled on the knots that had formed overnight.
But just when he was about to speak, his lips parting, his chin dropping, he heard it.
Soft, as if not done in anger, but sorrow. As if completed with regret and remorse, not fury and furore.
The closing of the door.