#someting somethinf too little words too little background context all just white noise something something

[mirohtron]

"I don't hate you."

The villain's monologue came to a halt as the revulsion flooded in like a broken damn. She breathed in, then breathed out, shakily, because she'd been getting a little too emotional. God. This was why she prepared her speeches in advance.

The hero looked at her with a sort of sombreness. "I know it's hard to think otherwise." The hero looked down at her restraints like it was a buffer. "But... I really don't. I wish you didn't try to beat yourself up like this."

There was a beat of silence, as the anger slowly rose.

"You wish?" The villain sharply laughed. "Oh, yes, I'll be sure to oblige, little miss sunshine. Your fucking audacity."

The hero winced and looked up at her with wide eyes. "That's not what I meant, I just—"

"I know exactly what you mean," hissed the villain. "And I don't need your pity. Anybody's pity."

The hero stared at her a little helplessly. That gaze burned into her like acid. Rancid and acrid and blissfully unaware of its effects.

"I miss you," the hero said, quietly. Soundlessly. She didn't follow it up with anything else. It hurt like a twisting knife.

They'd been something, once, before all the pain and the anger and the why can't we matter over everything else? But what they were now was what little remained of a thing bygone. It showed in the way the villain talked about herself and in these moments when no one was there to witness this side of the hero.

Really, it didn't matter. In the same way moments like this one didn't matter. The villain steeled herself and turned around.

"You won't be saying that once I'm done with you," she said.

They started.

She wouldn't ever be done with her.