Title: This is What You Want, This is What You Get.

Fandom: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Murder House

Pairing/Characters: Violet Harmon/Tate Langdon, mentions of the Harmon family, Langdon family along with Chad Warwick and Hayden McClaine and Moira O'Hara.

Rating: FR15 (swearing and sex)

Disclaimer: American Horror Story belongs to Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and company. The title comes from Public Image Ltd's song "The Order of Death."

Prompts: Written for DW's daily_prompt for #852 ( It was all fake. Pretend. Make believe.)

Notes: Set post Season One.

Summary: This time around it's Violet who breaks things between them.

Word Count: 1404

They're laying entwined on her bed in his old bedroom. She likes moments like this when he's quiet and still, his warmth pressed against the curves of her body. There are times when she wishes she could capture this moment forever and never let it go. It's impossible and invariably Tate will say something to ruin it. She knows that he doesn't mean to but it still hurts her that he has to ruin a perfectly good thing. When he does, she'll push him away and tell him to go away. He always tries to stay but it doesn't matter since the rules of the house are pretty clear. And so he goes and does whatever it is that he does between their stolen moments together. She doesn't really care.

* * *

As she stares out at him in the backyard, she comes to the conclusion that she desperately wants to make him hurt just like he had made her hurt. It doesn't really matter that his hurting of her had largely been unintentional on his part. All that matters is that he deserves to pay for what he's done to her and what he's done to her family. She ignores the little voice in her head that whispers that he's nothing more than a tool for the house. Her need for revenge is far too overwhelming. It doesn't matter that she hurt him when she yelled at him to go away and she's never once let him back in.

All that matters is that Tate has to hurt more. He deserves to hurt for all that he's done and not just to her family. She smiles as she decides on how to make him hurt.

* * *

It's easy enough to manipulate Tate. His mother's been doing it for years. Constance Langdon's been using her son only slightly longer than the Murder House and it's inhabitants have. He's the whipping boy of choice. Yet he doesn't seem to get it. He somehow thinks he's the grand manipulator. It's rather pathetic.

The only thing that matters is who she uses in her petty little game. Moira won't play along for some reason the withered up old maid seems to care about Tate. It's even more pathetic than Tate. She definitely can't use her parents or the burn victims in the basement. That means Constance's boy toy is also out of the question. Most of the older ghosts are actually out of the question. They're too likely to either blab or they're just too confused with everything to keep it together.

In the end she decides on Hayden, Chad and Tate's very own father. Not that daddy dearest will have a big role to play. He's just as easy to manipulate as his son is. Hayden and Chad are easy to convince. They have their own reasons to bring Tate down low. She doesn't really care why.

* * *

The late afternoon sun is muted as they lay beside one another. She knows that this will be the last time she'll be able to enjoy this with him. For a moment, she almost decides against going through with her plan. When Tate kisses her on the shoulder and breathes her name against her skin, she's tempted to let the plan fall through. What's more important: revenge or these stolen moments.

Then Tate has to go ruin it himself. I love you. Whispered against her skin and it makes her feel sick. What can a monster like him know about love? She pushes him away but doesn't make him go away. Tomorrow will make him go away without her ever having to say the words again. His body is tense against her as if he's waiting for the words and she hates the fact that he doesn't actually relax against her body again even though he stays.


* * *

It's not until Tate's father's hands are all over her body that she realizes what she's actually doing and how wrong it is. Hugo doesn't even realize that he's a pawn and he seems to genuinely think that she wants this, that she wants his hands pawing at her body. Before she can push him off, before she can stop this, he's easily wrested control from her. All she can do is lay there and wait for it to be over.

She can hear Chad's mocking voice in the hallway and she knows that Hayden and Chad have played their part. She tries to push Hugo off of her but she can't and it hurts when she hears Hayden's mocking laughter from the corner of the room. This is what she wanted, this is what she gets. Tate stands in the doorway, Chad right behind him with a hand on Tate's back.

Tate is mesmerized by the scene that plays out in front of him, so mesmerized that he stumbles when Chad shoves him into the room with a laugh. Like what you see? She's no different than you. She wants to say something but she can't, not with Hugo pounding away above her. So she closes her eyes as it plays out, Tate shouting incoherently until someone takes pity on him and wishes Hugo and her to just go away. She doesn't recognize the voice but she suspects it might be Moira's or her own mother's by the feminine cadence of it. She doubts it's Constance.

* * *

Tate finds her in the attic, playing ball with Beau. It's a mindless game. It has no meaning and she doesn't have to think about anything other than Beau's laughter when she rolls the ball back at him. Tate doesn't say anything nor does she. She has no right to wish him away not after what she's done. Even with Tate's silence she can hear his words clearly: I loved you. Apparently he's more like his mother than either he or Constance would care to admit.

In the end she goes away. Melts into nothingness because she can't stand the weight of his accusation.

* * *

He stalks her and she lets him. Until finally she's sitting in the gazebo out in the backyard and she's had enough.

"It was all fake. Pretend. Make believe."

"Doesn't make it hurt any less," Tate quietly says.

"No it doesn't but it's just like the lies you let me believe when I first met you."

If her voice is bitter and full of accusation, he ignores it.

"What lies Violet? I was everything you wanted me to be."

"I wanted you to be alive! I didn't want you to be a fucking murderer!"

Tate laughs. It's full of bitterness and pain. She knows that he was exactly what she wanted him to be. If he wasn't then the house would have given her someone else. Instead it gave her Tate on a platter. The only thing he wasn't that she wanted was alive. And they could have had forever if she hadn't fucked it up. She doesn't even bother trying to tell him it was the house that made her do it because she's not so certain that's the truth.

"You wanted a bad boy. You wanted a misunderstood Byronic hero. I gave you that and more."

"Leave me alone Tate."

"What no go away Tate! You've had your fun now it's time for me to go away?" Tate angrily asks. "Now you want to play nice? Fuck you Violet."

He storms away and she wonders why she couldn't have just kept the one nice thing that she had to herself intact. She looks over the fence when Michael makes a small shrieking noise in delight. She's pretty sure she doesn't want to peer over the fence to see what has the kid so happy. The kid might be her half-brother but she knows he's a monster.

Maybe being a monster is something that runs in her family as opposed to Tate's. Look at her, she isn't some perfect saint. Chad had it right when he shoved Tate in the room. She's no better than he is, maybe she's worse. She lights up a cigarette and tries to figure out if there's any point in getting back to where she was before she fucked it all up.

All that she does know is that she's got more than enough time to try to fix things.

((END))

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