MARS Fan Fiction ❯ Nothing is as it Seems ❯ Connecting with You ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Mars.

"Hey," he said casually as he entered her room. For the first time he didn't notice the strange smell. "Hey, no fair. If I have to wake up early to get here you have be awake by the time I arrive!" he said jokingly.

She was laying down, her arm dangling off the cot.

He got closer to see if she was actually sleeping. He reached out to touch her pale arm.

She jerked up and hid her arm from him the second she felt his fingers raze her.

"Easy there, relax. I'm not gonna hurt you," he said asuringly, looking down at her.

She felt her heart beat quicken and her heart rate speed. Suddenly it felt as if there wasn't enough room in there for the both of them.

"What are you hiding there?" he questioned, his voice calm and soothing.

She looked away from him and began to study the pattern of the white tiles.

"Mind if I have a peek?" he pried. He waited for some kind of reply, and when he got none he took her hand from behind her back.

He gasped softly when he saw the numerous scars on her arm.

"Why?" he asked softly, his voice merely above a whisper, although he already knew the answer.

She looked up at him with wide teary eyes, and then looked back at the floor, her light brown hair shading her face from him.

He looked at the thin slits for a few more minutes before dropping it gingerly and sighing heavily.

After a few moments of an awkward silence he came up with an idea.

"Hey, let's get some fresh air," he said, taking her other hand and leading her out the door and towards the back door.

Her eyes grew wide with surprise as she tried desperately to keep up with him. She doubted that what they were doing was allowed.

He stopped when they reached the far side of the parking lot.

"Much better isn't it?" he asked her although he didn't expect a reply. "So you cut yourself huh? I'd tell you that it's wrong, but hey who am I to ridicule? I sort of understand why you do it. I'm an ex-druggie slash ex-alchoholic any ways. I know that stuff like that can take the pain away," his blue eyes had a far away look in them. "There are other things out there that can take away the pain, you know?" he began to look down at the floor, he knew what he was getting at, but couldn't think of a way to convey his thoughts to her. "I know it sounds lame, but it's true," he asked.

"How about this then, if you stop cutting, I'll take you out to ice-cream?" he said jokingly, lifting the dense fog of silence.

At this moment she burst of laughing, almost causing Rei to fall off the hood of the car.

"She makes sounds!" he cried, genuinely surprised.

She gasped and covered her mouth. She looked up at him, her eyes stricken with fear.

"You can't tell anybody," she whispered, her voice hoarse from lack of use.

"And she talks too," he commented.

"I swear it Rei. You can't say a word of this to anybody," she said, more forcefully.

"Why shouldn't I? Other than the cutting thing you're fine," he asked, frowning deeply as he remembered that she'd said that she didn't want to leave.

"They'll make me go back there... Rei, please you can't tell them! I can't go back there. I swear he'll kill me if I return!" she was frantic now, tears began to roll freely down her cheeks.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Who's going to kill you? Where are you talking about?" he asked her.

"He will... my stepfather," she whispered as she began to sob.

Rei wrapped his strong arms around her frail body, holding her carefully as she sobbed into his shirt.

"Please Rei, don't let me go back there... I'd rather kill myself than go back to him," were her final words of the day.

His heart ached deeply for her as he held her. He could feel her body heat, the slow and steady beat of her heart, and her hair brushed against his arms. For a moment he wished he could stay like this with her forever.

"What the hell am I doing and what the hell am I thinking?" he wondered. This was highly uncharacteristic of him. He attempted to let her go, but she only held onto him tighter. He was surprised that her thin and pale arms were so strong

Twenty minutes or more passed before she stopped crying.

She looked up at him with her wide deer-like eyes.

He wiped away her tears with his thumb. "That's better," he said softly.

"I'm sorry," she said when she noticed the damp spot on his shirt.

He looked down and touched the wet area on his chest. "Don't worry about it," he told her with a shrug.

She sat next to him on the hood of the car and stared at the laces of her sneakers.

"Do you want to go back inside?" he asked her.

"No, not yet," she replied softly. She felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from her shoulders. After many months of silence, she'd finally found someone she could speak to. She didn't know why yet, but she trusted him.