Multifandom Oneshots

euphoria ~ after the storm ~ rue/jules

A/N : This is a sort of look at their relationship post-season 2 I guess

The rest of the school year after the play felt pretty anticlimactic compared to the rest of the year. It was like all this crazy shit happened and then the last two or so months of the year were just... Normal. Instead of crime and petty drama (usually both at the same time), it was just the normal day-to-day, as if this was a normal town with a normal high school full of normal students and not fucking East Highland.

Rue didn't avoid Jules, no. "Avoid" would be the wrong word. "Avoid" would imply that she went out of her way to not see the blonde, and that simply wasn't the case. In fact, they saw each other all the time- The bathroom, the hall, art class, you name it. To say she avoided Jules would be a blatant lie, but it may have seemed like it to anyone who didn't know what had gone down, as they suddenly went from constantly with each other to merely sharing a glance and a smile in the hall.

Rue still loved Jules, and the feeling was mutual. That wasn't the issue. No, the issue was that Rue knew her sobriety would be completely at stake if she got back in that situation- As loving as the two were, it was the wrong place at the wrong time that led them to the relationship they had, and the relationship they had hadn't been healthy. It couldn't have been healthy, not when Rue's sobriety had been completely dependent on the other girl's availability. Not when Rue had lied for lord knows how long about being sober.

Jules had definitely taken it all harder than Rue had. That wasn't necessarily to say that Rue was unbothered by it all- She wasn't. She just also wasn't as affected by it as the blonde had been because she had peace in the reason. Of course, Jules knew the reason. She was the one who had acknowledged it first, way back when Rue was always asking to come over. She understood that Rue needed to not be in a relationship in order to be sober, but that didn't mean it hurt any less.

A glance in the hall. A few words in the bathroom. Maybe a full class of talking when they were in art and didn't have another partner. That was what their interactions had been reduced to. Not a small amount for friendly acquaintances, but a stark contrast to the affectionate dynamic they had previously shared. That's what it needed to be, at least for the time being.

Maybe the stars would align for them again when they were older and healthier, but that time wasn't what mattered for the time being.