Hesitance

"I'm glad you're okay," Alex said abruptly, voice still hushed. Rich peered back at her with wide eyes. She kept her gaze firmly on the floor. "I--you scared me at the Halloween party, running around and screaming and just... I thought--I thought you might have died. I don't know what would have happened if--if you had. I don't know how I would have been after, knowing I was there and could have done something maybe or--" She cut herself off with an inhale, barely wincing as her voice got louder.

"You would have been fine-I was an asshole," he responded, a melancholy in his tone. "I think it might have been--" Best? He wasn't sure.

Alex shook her head. "No. You had a crappy piece of technology stuck in your head that had convinced you that--that you were bad and that's--that wasn't you. You're a good person, Rich."

"I don't feel like one."

"Good people never do. You're learning. You weren't a good person, externally, last November, but you're a good person now in April. You've--you've definitely changed, and for the better. You're different and... I like this you better. The real you."

-----

AKA Shameless Rich Goranski/OC fanfiction. Don't like? Don't read.