Love-Love || OLD DRAFT

eight - ten

The song to the top is Killing Me to Love You by Vancouver Sleep Clinic.

(unedited)

....

Linden was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen - with his cherry pink lips and sap green eyes and his curly mess of hair, and that smile which promised the sweetest of sins. But maybe it was true what they say, beauty is the Devil's snare because Linden was as heartless as he was beautiful, but I was too broken, too desperate for company, and too much of an idiot to realize it sooner.

I loved him and I hated him for all the same reasons and I was reminded of those reasons again as he stepped closer to me, pulled the mask off my face and kissed me like he did not want to kill me, and I kissed him back like I did not want him dead.

He pushed me against the wall, his hands on my throat, and though I knew it was a trap, I pulled him closer, my fingers tugging at his hair, feeling the small leaves that always lay scattered over his curls. I did not want the kiss to reveal how much I had missed him but I knew I was failing because he was smiling into the kiss, and I wanted to break it off but I couldn't -

Linden pulled away, lightly biting my lower lip in the process, and took a step back, leaving me with enough space to realize what I had just done.

"Good to know you missed me," he smiled. "I was beginning to think otherwise."

My hands were shaking as I reached out to pull my mask back over my face.

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against a thick creeper he had brought along with him. "How many times did I tell you, babe, black doesn't really look good on -"

There was a scuffle behind me but by the time I turned to look, Linden had created a blockade by the door, preventing any of the police personnel from entering.

I looked back at Linden. He hadn't even bothered to put on a mask. "I thought you were dead."

"Hmm, see, Ridge," he shook his head at me, "for a supervillain, you sure are a terrible liar."

That snapped me out of my daze. I focused on my powers, tried to feel the earth, but all I managed to do was heat the air around my hands as they glowed red.

"Ready to burn me again?" Linden said. "Already?"

"What are you doing here?" I said through gritted teeth.

He stood up straight and stretched out his hands. "I'm rescuing you, babe."

"I don't need your help, thanks."

"I'm sensing anger here," he said, "which is strange because you were the one who left me to die in a burning building, so technically I should be angry at you."

I took a few staggering steps towards him and roughly grabbed him by the collar. "What do you want? Why are you here? Why did They let you go?"

Two tendrils climbed up Linden's shoulder and wrapped itself over my clenched hands. I did not let go.

"You knew I was alive," he sneered, baring his teeth at me, predator-like. "They kept me captive, all alone and away from sunlight. They tortured me, Ridge, and yet you never once came to rescue me."

I looked away from his face and at the tendrils crawling around my fingers. "I tried," I said in a ghost of a voice.

"Not enough."

"Not enough?" I hissed, turning to glare at him. "I did every fucking thing that They asked, Lin. I robbed bank after bank to pay Them. I killed at Their orders, made Garnet kill at Their orders. Don't you fucking tell me I did not care, because I did. I always did. It was you who -" I broke off when I realized where I was going and I knew I did not want to go there.

"I what?" Linden whispered. "I what, Ridge?"

I pulled away from him, tearing the tendrils off their stems and throwing them on the floor. "What did you do to Super Storm?" I asked instead.

"Oh, you mean your dearest Superman-boy?" Linden laughed. "I've heard stories, you know. Of how he manages to beat you every single time with his tiny tornadoes and you just run away with your tail between your legs as if you do not have the power to beat him...to kill him."

I clenched my fists at my side and took a deep breath. "Are you here to kill me, Linden?" I said, staring at my feet. "Because if you are, you should just go ahead and do it. I don't have time for your games -"

"Oh, Ridge, you always thought so low of me. I'm here to take us home. I want you, me and Roux to be together again - as one big happy family -"

"We were together, Lin," I cried. "We were happy, but you were never satisfied -"

"Do you even hear yourself?" he sneered. "Happy? You think we were happy? We lived like rats, Ridge, relying on petty theft to fill our stomachs. We have been gifted these amazing powers which the world out there does not have. I dreamt of us to be kings, Ridge, but you just wanted to die like a common thug by a ditch somewhere."

I stared at him and said nothing. There were a hundred things I wanted to say to him - there were a hundred things I had said to him - but I knew it was futile. We would only be going in circles until one of us killed the other. And I wanted to kill him, I really did, but we had too much in common and I had too much to lose. I had lost him once and I thought it would make me happy. But seeing him in front of me again, as much as I hated him, I wanted him. I wanted him to stay because his twisted heart was all Gravel deserved.

Aspen's face suddenly flashed in my mind and I had to shake my head to get it out. It was stupid of me to spend time with him. It was stupid of me to think Ridge could live a life without Gravel.

Hell, I didn't even know if Aspen was alive, if his mother was alive, and it was my entire fault.

"Anyway, that's all in the past," Linden said shaking his head. "We're going to start over again, yeah? Without your Superman-boy and the stupid -"

"Is Super Storm dead?" I asked.

"Not yet. But we have him," Linden flashed his teeth in a grin that could melt hearts and freeze hells, "and you are going to kill him."

..

A/n

Few important things I had to mention -

This chapter was unedited and the next following chapters are going to be too, so please help me out by pointing out any errors, whether typos or grammatical mistakes.
Also, if anyone wants to help beta read the coming chapters and 'edit' them, please DM me. You'll get exclusive inside information on the story as well lol. XD Also, I'd really appreciate the help.

Second thing, I was updating daily these days because we had a week long break from college. But now the week's over and college will be starting from tomorrow, so I'll be back to my previous update schedule of posting two chapters a week.

I hope you guys are enjoying so far. Aaaaaaaa I'm so excited for this, I cannot express it in words.

Stay TUNED!!!!