madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-the tea has been spilled and now the carpets stained-

Why would you ever kiss me? I'm not even half as pretty

Teqi rolled her eyes at the lyrics, her chest tightened uncomfortably. She skipped the song, laying back on her bed. Her boots were probably leaving dirt and seaweed on her blankets, but she didn't move them. Little claws kneaded into her shirt, pricking her side. The bandage had come of yesterday, and the wound where she had ripped a burning arrow out was now a tender scar.

Walk in your rainbow paradise, strawberry lipstick state of mind

Teqi picked up leopard [she'd never actually called him that, when she thought about it], and held him above her head swinging him back and forth. The small cat just purred lazily. She dropped him to her chest, where he curled up comfortably.                                                                                                                                          She huffed, looking at the little polaroids stuck to the wall beside her head. Her lips twitched into an involuntary smile as she looked at Leo building the Argo II, or at least trying too, he was curled up hugging Festus's head, asleep.

You don't have to say you love me, you don't have to say nothing

She ripped her headphones from her ears aggressively and threw them to the other side of her bed, scrunching her legs to her chest so that she was far away from the music. It was the first time in her life she'd been angry at Harry Styles. Leopard started chewing on her small Ipod, tail flicking back and forth.

Teqi had three options:

1. Ignore the feelings that were making her body feel like gravity had just been cancelled, and her stomach had been filled with fairy floss that was sickly sweet in her veins. She could then turn into a dry and shrivelled husk.

2. Tell Leo that she really, really, sorta kind of maybe loved him, and then stand there awkwardly as the world crumbled around her.

3. Tell Leo that she really, really, sorta kind of maybe loved him, and then tried to comprehend that he liked her back. And then maybe kiss. A lot. Maybe. Hopefully.

Teqi forgot about her dilemma for a while as she thought about how pretty his face was and the little scars on his cheeks that she wanted to touch and his curly hair that really was just begging for someone to run their fingers through and how soft his lips looked. Then her cat jumped on her stomach and her thoughts were scattered to the wind like clouds as she gasped for air.

"Rude." She muttered, scratching the cats head affectionally. She couldn't be mad at him; he was to fluffy and small. Only one of the options stated above sounded good, and it wasn't guaranteed. Who on earth invented overthinking? Teqi wanted to kill them, find Neeks, bring them back from the dead, and then kill them again.

Teqi was the one who thought about the plan after she had done something stupid, not before. She didn't meticulously think out every option of every scenario. She could either lose her best friend or get a boyfriend-

She was not prepared to go down that train of thought.

She needed help. Otherwise, she would stay up all night thinking about this. Admittedly, Leo wasn't the worst thing to think about, Teqi knew from experience, but she also needed sleep. She needed someone who knew about this stuff.