powerless // f.w

You Could Be Mad... Or You Could Not...?

There was a knock on her door.

Declan opened it and walked back into her room.

Finn stood in the doorway awkwardly.

"You can come in" Declan rolled her eyes.

"Are you still mad?" Finn asked cautiously.

"Jaeden's fine so..." She shrugged.

"I asked if you were mad" Finn sighed.

"No. I wasn't in the first place" Declan defended.

"Why do you keep saying that? It's not true. You know it's not true" Finn asked incredulously, stepping into the room now, "You're allowed to be mad, Declan"

"No I'm not" She said, "You didn't break any rules. You were completely within your right to see her. You weren't within your right to attack Jaeden"

"Then why are you ignoring me? Why do I feel like you hate me?" Finn sighed.

"I'm not and I don't. I'm keeping my distance for my own good" She huffed as she continued packing clothes into her suitcase. They had 10 minutes before the shuttle left for the press event.

"What does that mean? I thought you weren't mad? Are you going to yell at me again?" Finn questioned.

"That wasn't for my own good. That was for Jaeden. So you can stop being so tense" She frowned, briefly looking up at him in his rigid state. He sighed.

"Just telling me what's going on Declan. I want to fix this" He came closer to her, still too hesitant to touch her.

"And what if I don't?" She mumbled as she stopped packing and stared at the shirt in her hand, thinking about how easily she had gotten hurt, and how maybe that risk wasn't worth it.

"Declan...?" Finn frowned hesitantly.

"Finn don't make this hard" She grumbled, closing her eyes.

"So... you don't wanna figure this out?" He asked, sounding hurt and sad. Declan wanted to punch a wall.

"I don't want to risk getting hurt" She explaining as she handed him the shirt. One of his.

"Keep it. Please" He huffed, handing it back to her. "Come on Declan. You're not serious"

She sighed as she held the shirt in her fist. She closed her eyes and looked like maybe she was going to yell, but there was something else. Something Finn hadn't seen before that made him frown.

"Declan?" He went to put a comforting hand on her shoulder but she dodged it quickly and threw the shirt in her suitcase angrily.

"Ugh!" She groaned, fists gripping the sides of her suitcase aggressively. "Please! Finn! You're making this so hard!"

Finn didn't have anything to say to that. He wanted to hit himself because he was slightly more hopeful at the sight of her angry. Because it meant that this—that he—meant something to her.

After a moment of tense silence, she spoke again.

"He said that if I let you go, I'd regret it. Asshole. He's always right" She scoffed, looking away from him.

"Who?" Finn frowned.

"Who do you think?" She rolled her eyes.

"Jaeden" Finn nodded, "You'd regret letting me go?" He added in a small voice.

"I could hit you for asking that" She mumbled angrily as she resumed folding and packing clothes. She went to grab another shirt and when she turned back around, he was there, engulfing her in a hug, holding her tightly. She could hear his heartbeat and feel the steady rise and fall of his chest.