date posted: 2023-05-30
summary: Rose and her vise grip touches.
word count: 247 words
notes: first time participating in a ficathon, prompt was "Any/Any - even monsters are welcome / when your home feels empty." i interpreted it pretty abstractly so i hope that's ok.
Her breath was hot against Cassie’s shoulder, her pale hair struck by the moonlight. Cassie felt the grip on her other shoulder more than her sense of reason. Rose chokes out a laugh, high and manic.
“Do you,” she gasps, “really give a shit about me,” she says, inhaling sharply. Cassie shifts her weight on one leg, putting a hand to Rose’s back, light. There’s static in her ears, dizzying.
“I do,” Cassie says, almost accusatory. “You’re one of us, you’re with us, you matter,” her breath catches in her throat, stopping her. Cassie inhales as Rose pushes up from her shoulder, looks her in the eye, cutting.
Rose tilts her head back, and smirks, grimly. She inhales.
“I matter just as fucking much as you need me, Cassie.” Rose says, still with that frenzied lilt. “You’ll have me on the team, call me ‘family’, and you’ll have me–“ she chokes, for a moment, and Cassie sees her bloodshot, teary eye in the moonlight, “you’ll have me when you’re alone,” her voice cracks.
Cassie steps back, frozen. Rose smiles, bleak.
“You want me when I’m useful,” Rose whispers, like a hiss, and looks down – Cassie can see her fist tightening, and almost mirrors the action.
Cassie stares down at the floor too, silent.
She thinks about Rose’s breath against her shoulder, her lips, her thighs. She thinks about Rose and her vise grip touches, clawing for closeness, as she hears the door to her room slam shut.