When the ocean meets fire

~~~~~~~~~~~~Anger~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taz wasn't angry at Up. She was extremely frustrated to say the least but she wasn't angry. She would have been angry at him;

Angry that he let his guard down,

Angry that he let the importance of his job falter,

Angry that he didn't turn around and shoot the dead-god damn robots and leave her,

Angry that he was such an idiota,

Angrythat he'd almost got himself...killed.

No- she had to be tough. She was tough. She needed to be tough. But she was angry- angry at herself;

Angry that she'd left his side.

Angry that she hadn't seen those hijo de puta Autobots.

Angry that she'd thought she could leave him and destroy them.

Angry that she'd screamed his name when one of them got hold of her.

Angry that she knew he would come for her.

Angry that she didn't tell him to look out.

Angry that she'd let him care about her life.

Angry that she let herself care about him.

Angry that she loved him.

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He hated it. He couldn't fight it, he couldn't help it. He couldn't cure it, he couldn't fix it. He couldn't scare it away and he couldn't run from it. It was a part of him that he'd never even thought about being possible.

Well, maybe in his nightmares.

So 'it', though he was disgusted to admit it, was himself. At least- the right side of his body. Dr Space-Claw's 'project'- he shuddered at the thought. Everyone had thanked the doctor, saying what a wonderful good deed he'd done: to 'save' him. No one knew how humiliating it was to have to be coached in the gym by some pathetically patronising bimbo while the third-years sparred in the ring, high with the adrenaline of a fight. To watch as they whispered (they needn't have, it was so obvious) about him and looked with smirks and creeped-out curiosity on their faces, when he knew he couldn't even intimidate them anymore.

Well, no one except Taz.

He punched the wall, ignoring the pain for the first time in a while. She wouldn't even talk to him anymore. He didn't blame her; he'd let her down. She knew him as the toughest son-of-a-bitch ranger there was: someone that put fear into even the hardest lieutenants just by looking at them, someone to respect, someone who taught her the most important life lessons she knew, someone who she could come to at any hour (even if it was three in the morning) and show her only weakness- the nightmares she still had about her Quinceanera....but with him as one of the dead, someone who she could curl up with and fall asleep on after watching The Karate Kid, someone she...loved? No- he was being stupid. Anyway, if she had...felt something, it was most definitely gone now.

And he was angry that he'd let it go.