Oh no, there you go
Looked away, missed the show
How much waste and time
Will you survive?
-Duncan Sheik, Wishful Thinking

"I don't think I can do this anymore."

Her words hung in the silence like Christmas baubles, shining and fragile and waiting to be broken. Asking to be broken. She was sitting with her hands folded in her lap, head bowed, long strands of hair falling slowly from her shoulders to dangle before her eyes. She was thin, now. Very thin, and fragile. Waiting to be broken.

He had frozen the moment she'd opened her mouth, the way he always did. It hurt him to see her so...diminished. The gilded music of her voice had dulled to a green copper twang that nearly grated on his ears. But he still hung on her every word, her every fragile bauble of speech, as though they were gifts of gold and jewels from a merciful angel. His merciful angel. She was more than he had ever deserved, of that he was quite certain. It didn't surprise him that she wanted out.

His eyes held the look common to that of deer or small rodents caught in the headlights of a truck. "C-Can't do what anymore?" The slight stutter betrayed him- she was the only one who had ever been able to make him stutter. She was the only one who could make everything else seem trivial, who could make even the trivial seem monumental.

"This." She gestured futilely, looking up for a moment. Her hands fluttered like butterflies before settling back to her lap again. Her eyes were rimmed in red and purple, the colors of weeping and weariness. "I-I can't stay here anymore. I can't..."

He nodded and turned away. "Then don't." He was not bitter. He would not be bitter. He would not be angry. He would not feel betrayed..."Just don't. Get out of here if you can't take it anymore. Just- just get out of here!"

She flinched. "I'm sorry." She stood, like a flower blooming in fast-forward. "I tried, you know. I tried."

"Yes." It was a statement, an agreement. "You tried. But you failed."

Some of her fragility vanished beneath the sudden fire of her anger. "I failed? It isn't my fault that you- you- Don't blame this on me! Don't blame this on me! I won't let you- you can't blame this on me! You failed. You're the one who couldn't live up to expectations, you're the one who always fell short- of everything! You failed me, and I tried, God knows I tried! I tried to pick up your pieces every time you fell apart, I tried to support you and love you and keep you safe and happy. I tried!. And no matter what I did, no matter how much of myself I gave, you still fell, you still broke under all the pressure. But now there's nothing left and I'm not going to try anymore! Do you hear me? You failed me, and I've given up on you!"

He stumbled back, as though she'd struck him. His eyes had lost their glazed look, replaced it with a look of hatred, hatred that was so very close to love. But then it was gone, replaced once again by sadness, apathy, and remorse. "Yes."

She fell back to the couch, her shoulders trembling. "I tried...I'm so sorry, but I can't..."

He moved to stand beside her, offering his presence as a small amount of comfort. "We both failed."

His words shattered the fragile bauble that was their life. And he stood there, while she cried, unable to do a thing.