2031 ~ Pie Are Squared (A Pie Place)

Ana's consciousness split. Seemingly literally.

The impish humour faded, and she found her mind warring, one side demanding a yes- although she put this down to sheer desperation or some other pathetic reasoning; the other declaring no, that this could only ever be pretend. They weren't allies, they weren't friends.

No.

A mist of silence fell, driving reasoning to the forefront of her focus. What would it do if they did make this into "something more"? It couldn't work out! It never could! Look at the records!

And then who would suffer? The children. Their future would be in jeopardy.

She couldn't risk that. They couldn't risk the future of Darius, Eliza and Fitz on something that seemed doomed to failure. It'd be fine to start with perhaps, but then it couldn't last! This whole marriage had to be a farce, or it would peel apart!

That was the whole point!

"Nick, I'm sorry..." Her gaze flickered to the table but she hauled it back to meet Nick's gaze again. No point tergivesating. "We-I just can't."

What a sh!t rejection that was, she rebuked herself silently. Really, god awful.

Nicolas felt something akin to a zombie tearing his heart out.

"Right." He mustn't show how affected he was. He straightened his shoulders. "Right." He repeated.

"Well this is a little bit embarrassing. Just um..." he coughed. "Pretend this didn't happen."

Ana almost apologised again, but something stopped her.

"Right." She repeated, in an emotionless monotone.

Everything would go back to normal.

All would be as it should be.

As it had to be.

Nicolas stared back at his pie. He wasn't hungry anymore. Hmm... odd zombies made him hungry, getting rejected didn't.

Ana could think of nothing to say, and simply sat in silence, glancing around the shop for something that she could pretend to be deeply interested in.

Anything.

Nicolas stared at his watch. Odd, there was a brand new scratch. Wonder where that was from.

"Listen, can I just ask why not?" He said looking back at her. "I'm not so bad, am I?"

"No, you're no-It's not that simple." Ana's response was slightly flustered. Explaining her reasons would make them... permanent. Fixed. She didn't quite want that. Not exactly.

"Its the simplest thing in the world!" Nicolas argued. "I mean we are already married for Merlin's sake!"

Ana sighed. "And don't you think that's a bit of a pressure? What if it didn't work? What if we couldn't stand the sight of each other afterwards? Darius would be...They'd all be- we can't do that to them."

He was silent. Nicolas the lawyer couldn't seem to find a rebuttal to that. He sighed. "You're right. You're absolutely right."

Ana felt an odd surge of disappointment. He could've at least tried to argue- wait, whose side was she on? She felt like a hypocrite that was in three different minds.

How inconvenient.

Nodding numbly, she averted her gaze from Nick entirely.

"We should probably go." Nicolas said trying not to look at Ana. He was very confused at the moment. He was embarassed for one, frustrated and kind of restless.

"We should." Ana agreed, getting up while still avoiding meeting Nick's gaze, while nervously finding her eyes drifting in his direction while her thoughts warred.

Honestly, such unrest was excessive.