King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Jack of Spades

A/N: I am gone for the long weekend. BUT I am still near internet Saturday, so there may be another update tomorrow. No promises on that one though. ________________________________________________________________________________________

Maddison was watching West out of the corner of her eye, wondering what had happened to ruin his night already. No one else noticed something wrong with her Cubano, he was talknig to people, laughing and generally looked like he was enjoying himself. But Maddison noticed that none of the laughter ever reached his eyes. He never once had that softer look to his face that he had whenever she made him laugh.

And he was avoiding her. Not in the run if he saw her coming kind of way, it was more subtle than that. Almost as soon as they had walked into the party, West had barely been paying attention to her. It sounded so petulant inside Maddison's head, but she had gotten used to how he would put her as the focus of his attention, everything else getting a cursory look over. But here and now, he was barely even talking to her, and hadn't touched her since coming in. Mad shook her head softly. He's just trying to give you the space you need so you stay friends, she reminded herself. Maddison wasn't ready to admit to herself that it hurt to have him treat her as if she were just a friend.

"Mad, you are too stupid to be my blood relative. You must have been adpoted." Siobhan insulted jokingly, voice low enough that no one else heard.

"What are you gonig on about now?" Maddison asked her little sister.

"Go claim him. You moron." Siobhan replied, sending a pointed look towards West. "It's not like I don't know you two are already banging the gong. And if you're going to pull that self sacrificing, martyr bullshit I will smack you."

Maddison stared at her little sister, a little surprised that she was being so blunt. Shiv was usually all about the flirt and play. The game of teasing but never giving it up. And it made her wildly uncomforable to be reminded of the fact that she was sleeping with a man on occasion, her younger sister had heard them together, and yet he wasn't her boyfriend.

"Consider it my birthday demand." Shiv said the fatal words. Maddison closed her eyes and sighed. Of course Siobhan would choose that as her demand. Because money was so tight in their family, being able to afford multiple gifts just didn't happen. There were necessitites that had to be bought long before any of them could ever think about blowing money on impulse items. So to make up for the lack of overindulgent gift giving that other children were showered with, Maddison and Siobhan grew up with a different tradition. The birthday girl or boy could make one request from any family member and they would have to do it. The request couldn't be something impossible, outrageous or dangerous; but it was usually something that the birthday girl or boy REALLY wanted.

"You're wasting your birthday demand on making me what.. ask him out?" Maddison asked her little sister, looking surprised.

"Mad. You've been happy. For the first time since you came home from the States, you were actually back to your no-holds-barred self." Siobhan hugged her older but shorter sister. "I don't know what he did to you down in the States, but it's taken you almost a year to recover from it. You deserve to be happy. So whatever it is you have with the golden eyed love hunk, just accept it and don't fight it. I know you, you've already told him that you just want to be friends haven't you?"

Maddison was flushing, not meeting her younger sister's eyes. Siobhan knew the one secret even her parents hadn't. That while in Julliard, she had fallen in love. He'd been in his graduating year and hotter than hell. You know the kind of guy, dark blue eyes, light blonde hair, a wicked smile and the softest hands..... And then he was graduating and going away. What they had had, she thought was love, he thought was a good time. It was one of the reasons she was so reluctant to start anything with West. Right now she knew they both agreed they were just friends. You couldn't get your heart broken by having friends.