Red and Gray

The Dawn as it Broke

Dee had cookies all right.

"I keep telling you not to go up there, but do you listen? No! Well let me tell you something you stubborn little brat, I will not be held liable for a broken neck in your future and Gray, it's so wonderful to see you again. How was juvie? Oh, it wasn't juvie? Oh, God, now I feel so bad."

She'd dissolved into tears at the end of a five-second speech, and Red was instantly regretting not jumping from the roof when she had a chance.

And so was Gray, it looked like.

"That was the worst thing I've ever done," he said, after they'd put her to bed. Well, Red led her upstairs, Gray opened the door, and she just stretched out onto it and started snoring.

"Trust me, she didn't notice," Red reassured dryly. Back in her own room, she collapsed onto her bed, stretching her arms up. Gray sat down beside her. Keeping her eyes hooded, shading her sight with lashes, she could barely see him. But she knew he was staring at her.

"Everything's changed," he said.

"Keep stating the obvious," she said, throwing her arm over her eyes, though she wasn't tired at all. Not with him so close.

"Your hair threw me off when I saw you again," he said. "Mom joked that I ought to start calling you Black."

She wanted to hit him for that, but it seemed like she wanted to hit him for a lot of weird reasons. "Go on," she whispered.

"All that time I was at my uncle's, and he was running drills and making me dive down into the mud or crawl on my stomach under barbed wire, I did it because - well, it was boring as hell in his house and it was the only excitement I ever get, but mostly 'cause my dad said I could come back when I get my shit together." He blew his hair out of his face. "I could get to see you again when I'm done."

Oh, God. She needed to neutralize this. "If it makes you feel better, you look a lot more toned."

He snorted. "Whatever," he said. "Point is, I did come back, didn't I? What the hell did I come back to?"

"What do you mean?" Red finally lifted her head, her heart banging once against her chest. She narrowed her eyes. "Gray?"

"Red," he conceded, touching her hair. Her natural black, waist-length, straight as a curtain hair. "You know, I've forgotten your real name."

She choked back a mad laugh. So did everyone. She used to find it amusing. But now it just made her giddy - and not in a good way.

"Just call me Red," she told him, sitting up. "I'm still Red. That girl who was there when you were buying Simon and Garfunkel."

"It was Pearl Jam," he said automatically. That did it.

When she'd finally caught her breath from laughing, they'd fallen back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Hello darkness, my old friend," she sang out teasingly. He leaned on his elbows and took her hand, grinning.

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