Letting Her In

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase needed out of the school. It was driving him crazy being penned in, even if Hogwarts was enormous. Dru was there, and her boyfriend, some simpering kid she hardly knew, who had practically cowered when Chase had warned him off. Dru would walk all over him. He hoped they were f~ing happy together. F~ing ecstatic. Bitch. Just another reason why relationships were a crock of sh~. Time, effort, blood sweat and tears, a f~ing year trying to give one girl everything he had, fighting against her, giving in, letting her in, and it was over because she was tired of waiting.

F~ her, Chase thought, leaning back against whatever shop he'd just stopped in front of. He was done with girls, done with relationships, done with letting people in. The entire world could gut itself with his explicit permission. Chase's eyes flared with crimson and scarlet, and his jaw was set tight, arms folded defensively over his chest. Anyone who dared to f~ing say anything about his loitering was going to get the force of his thinly repressed fury.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle walked down the street toward her shop. She was glad that her cold was finally over enough that she could enjoy the fresh air. As she turned the corner, she saw Chase standing outside, looking very brooding and fowl tempered. Against her better judgment, she stopped next to him. Last time they'd seen each other he'd been in a bad mood also,but she'd been able to pull him out of it and had seemed fine when they parted ways. She wondered if the same thing was bothering him, or if it was something different. "Hi Chase." She said hesitantly.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase's eyes moved slowly toward Anna, narrowing slightly as they stopped on her face. If there was anything he didn't need right now, it was innocent curiosity and well-wishes. He wanted to rage, wanted to hurt, wanted the world to suffer the way he was suffering. He'd have gone to the jewelry shop in Hogsmeade to pick a fight if it wasn't apparently burned out. "Go. Away." Chase warned Anna, his eyes still blazing. She didn't need to see him like this. She'd seen enough, and he didn't want to let her get too close, didn't want to risk it again. He didn't want her.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"Do you always greet people that way, or do I just bring it out in you?" She flashed him a smile, deciding to listen to his warning about as much as she had last time. This was different though, he seemed in a much worse mood, if that was possible, and wondered if it had anything to do with what Dru had shared in the Room of Requirement. Does he still want Dru? She mentally shook the thought from her head. Chase didn't believe in love or committed relationships. He was probably just upset that Dru didn't want more then one guy so she'd ended things; that's what it sounded like Dru said had happened.

[Chase Firebrand]

"Piss off," Chase said. He folded his arms tighter against his chest and turned his gaze resolutely back to the street, dismissing her. He might have felt a twinge of guilt for snapping at her when she'd only smiled at him, but there were more than enough emotions tearing at him, and that guilt wasn't enough to affect his behavior. As far as he was concerned, Anna was the enemy, simply because she belonged to the so-called fairer sex, though there was certainly nothing fair in the way things had gone with Dru.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna's eyes widened slightly at his words. She knew she should probably walk away, that whatever was bugging him wasn't her problem, but she couldn't. She wasn't sure if it was that she considered him a friend, or that he'd commanded her to do something, twice. Whichever the reason, Chase brought out Gryffindor qualities that Anna normally didn't possess. "Whoever pissed in your porridge this morning, it wasn't me; so you don't have to get all snippy because I had the nerve to say hi. I thought we were on better terms then that." She brushed past him, pressing against his arm as she unlocked the door to her shop.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase stood gritting his teeth painfully for one tense moment, struggling to keep himself from exploding on her; she didn't deserve it. That thought didn't hold him for long, though. Before Anna could even open her door, Chase had pushed away from the wall, eyes blazing. "What is with girls being all f~ing high and mighty?! I don't want to have a f~ing conversation, and I don't need your f~ing sunshine! What about that is so f~ing hard to understand?!" Chase knew he was yelling, but he didn't care. It was a relief to get something out, even if it was on the wrong person.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

If Annabelle had harbored any doubts that his mood was because of Dru, Chase had laid them to rest. She turned toward him, her one hand still on the door handle, and looked him over. He reminded her of a snake, full of venom, poised and ready to strike. "I didn't know it was a crime to say hi to someone standing outside my shop. For all I knew, you could have been waiting for me!" She wasn't sure why she rose her his bait, allowing her own voice to elevate. Her heart had sped up at the confrontation, even if she knew that she wasn't the real cause to his outburst. "She really did a number on you didn't she? I didn't even know you guys had still been seeing each other." She cringed slightly, knowing it probably wasn't the wisest comment, but like most, it slipped out before she could filter her thoughts through her brain.

[Chase Firebrand]

If Chase had been angry before, he was livid now. "F~ YOU!" he shouted, hands clenching into fists, but remaining firmly planted at his sides. "You don't know me! You don't f~ing know what my problem is, so just keep your damned mouth shut! Just go...go f~ing read a book, Anna!" Chase reached past Anna to push the door of her shop open. "F~ing go!" He didn't want to talk to her. He wanted to rail at her, wanted to hurt her; she needed to go, needed to get away from him, leave him to self-destruct on his own.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle stood her ground, her face turning red with anger. She let go of the door handle and allowed it to swing open with Chase's force. "Stop telling me what to do! You don't own me! Hell, you told me to stop reading and live; well that's what I'm trying to do! It's not my fault you change your mind and only want what you can't have!" She was pissed at him; they both knew she'd hit dead-on with her statement, so to deny it was just stupid. She wasn't sure if her last words were meant to describe her own relationship with Chase, or the one between him and Dru, but realized both could fall under them.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase swore again, fervently. "I don't want to own you! I just want to be left alone, without someone trying to change me all the time! I was just f~ing standing there and you had to come along and try to cheer me up! I don't want to cheer up, and I don't want to change! And I don't want anything else!" Yes, he wanted what he couldn't have, but he pushed that thought down and back, and focused on his anger, focused on yet another female who'd wormed her way into his life when he hadn't been paying attention. He wouldn't have another Dru, wouldn't let her control him, wouldn't change for her. He didn't want her.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"I never said I was trying to bloody change you into anything, or cheer you up! Have I ever asked that of you? NO!" Anna pointed her finger at Chase accusingly. "You are the one that kept trapping and kissing me. I've never asked for anything from you, so how dare you say that I do?! Are you that full of yourself that you think everyone in the world is trying to trap you? I'm convinced you are the last bloody person on earth that I would want a relationship with!" Anna continued to stab her finger in the air during her rant, emphasizing her anger at him confusing her with things that Dru or others had possibly done to him. She didn't care about any of his other women, but she'd be damned if she was lumped into the same cauldron as them.

[Chase Firebrand]

"Good! I don't want one either! You're the one who was all into the mutual non-relationship anyway, and I never trapped you! You wanted it as much as I did, or have you already forgotten what you did at the lake!" He'd tried to stop her, tried to push her away, and she'd kept going, until he'd had to give in or go insane. And then he had gone insane, and it had been intense, amazing, and she hadn't pulled away after, or argued with him, hadn't done what Dru had almost every time and looked like she regretted everything. Chase's gaze dropped reflexively to Anna's lips, and for one brief moment, one heartbeat of time, all his anger focused into near-blinding lust. A growl of frustration rose in his throat, and Chase dragged his gaze away from the temptation of her, the danger that giving in would bring.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"I didn't mean that I didn't want it, that I didn't want you; Cause I do!" Anna yelled back, then realized what she had confessed. She ran her hand through her hair, amazed that she could go from angry to embarrassed so fast with the words that had flown from her mouth. Only then did she focus on what he'd said first; that he didn't want her. She looked down, ashamed that she felt so rejected from his words. She reminded herself that he wasn't anything more than a friend, but the reality of the situation still hurt.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase couldn't keep glaring into the street when Anna was talking. He'd turned back to her, and though her words were everything he liked to hear, their delivery, that exasperation, the momentary anger that he'd seen fade into insecurity. The insecurity added as much to his anger as the argument; was she ashamed to want him? Chase waged a momentary battle with himself, the desire to prove to her that he wanted her, that she wanted him too badly to be able to fight screaming in his blood, even as what was left of his mind insisted that he needed to keep his distance. So he attacked her words, using them as a lifeline, hoping her answers would tip the scale so that he could walk away. "Is wanting me that bad?" he asked, his voice lower now, but just as dangerous. Say yes.