Captured - Talenny

Chapter Six

Penny's POV:

Talon sighed, bringing his still gloved hand to his head. "If I tell you.. Would you really care?" he asked, fidgeting slightly with the bottom of his gloves until he accidently pulled up slightly. His eyes widened and he decided to just twiddle his thumbs. 

Yes, I would care. I do care. A whole lot more than you will ever know. I nodded once, moving closer to him on the bed. "Of course. If I didn't care, why would I keep asking you?" I asked him, leaning my head onto his shoulder. He smiled but quickly turned his face away from me, causing my to sigh and lift my head off him.

Talon sighed, turning around again to face me. "Well, sometimes people ask things they don't even care about," he answered, shrugging his shoulders when he finished speaking. 

I reached forward to hold his hand, and he immediately pulled his hand away from me, causing me to frown and a small pang to hit my heart. I shook the ache away, at least the best I could. "This isn't one of those times, Talon," I assured him, absent mindedly pressing my palm to where my heart is.

He chewed on his bottom lip, not noticing my small change in mood. Talon sighed, shaking his head and resting his chin on his palm. "How can I-"

"Just trust me! Talon, please. Something's wrong, and if you don't tell anyone about it, it can't be fixed." Wow, I sound like a professional psychiatrist, or something like that. Actually, maybe not 'professional'. 

He fiddled with the bottom of his glove. "I don't.. Well.. Uh.. F-fine," he stuttered, staring at the gloves covering all the scars on his hands. He chewed on his bottom lip, still debating whether or not to remove his gloves.

I reached forward, holding his glove as staring him the eye asking if I could. He took a couple shaky breathes, before he closed his eyes and nodded.

*~*~*~*

By the time he took his gloves off, I had already thrown at least a hundred unanswered questions at him, and by the looks of it, he might just scream at the top of his lungs and walk off. Honestly, I wouldn't surprised if he did that, he seems quite annoyed. 

I held onto his shoulders the second both his gloves hit the bed. "Where'd you get your scars?" I asked him, shaking his shoulders when he didn't answer. He gasped, muttered curses, and closed his eyes and I kept shaking him. 

"Stop! I'm so dizzy now," he complained, squinting his eyes as I moved my hands off his shoulders and onto my lap.

I smiled innocently at him, before frowning, "Answer the-!"

Talon's still squinting eyes glared at me. "Ah. Really dizzy.. I need a second," he muttered, holding his head with his hands, closing his eyes and mumbling other words I couldn't make out. 

I frowned, puffing out my cheeks in annoyance. "Okay. One," I counted, holding up a finger to his face. He groaned, keeping one hand to his foreheard and with the other he brought my hand down. Sighing, I rested my elbow on my lap, and my chin on my palm.

I stared at the scars on his hands, and something else caught my eye too. The end of a scar was visible just barely past the sleeve of his jacket. Oh my gosh, how many scars does he have? I poked it, and Talon tensed again, his hands dropping from his head to pull at his sleeve and to swat away my hand. 

"Talon.." I mumbled, staring at the scars, and reaching forward to hold one of his hands in both of mine. "Enough stalling, please tell me. I really do care, and I'm worried about you."

He raised his eyebrows, smiling nervously. "What, I'm not stalling! Huh, that's a strange word.. Bet you can't say it ten time fast; Stalling, stalling, stall-"

"Talon!" I interrupted him, laughing a bit, and shaking my head at his attempt to stall his answer.

He sighed. "Fine. So.. Y'know how I fail every mission?" No, Talon, I sleep through every one of our fights.

I laughed. "Not every single one, you did get your uncle his claw back," I told him, holding one finger with my left hand and making a fist to imitate Claw with my right. 

Talon chuckled, rolling his eyes at me, and rubbing the back of his neck. "That's true," he agreed. "But as I was saying, Penny.. My uncle.. Well, uh.. Hm, too put it bluntly; he's freaking insane!" His eyes flickered from sad to almost full on rage, as he continued to describe how after every failed mission he'd get.. Well, punished.

"Before, it wasn't that bad, I guess," he continued, raking his hand through his hair to calm him down, "but then later on, it slowly got worse and worse until he'd pretty much beat the living daylights out of me for no reason!"

Talon sighed heavily. "The scars on my hands are mainly from me deflecting a knife from slicing me, or simply when MADcat gets annoyed at me," he sighed again, copying my sitting position wit his elbow on his lap. "I guess I really should thank you, Penny," he chuckled dryly, his eyes starting to get glossy. 

I frowned, turning my head to the side as I stared at him. "Why?" I asked. 

He smiled as a single tear fell from his eye and down his cheek. "Because if you didn't capture me, I'd still be at the rat-house with my uncle," he answered, getting up from the bed and crawling over to hug me. 

I blushed as I hugged him back, rubbing his back when I felt his tears start to stain my shirt. "It's going to okay, Talon," I assured him, and he stiffened slightly, but didn't pull back from the hug. "You can.. Leave MAD?" 

Talon froze, pushing away from the hug. "He would kill me if I ever left MAD," he told me, his eyes widening in fear of just the thought. 

I chewed on my bottom lip, shaking my head at the mere thought of the idea forming on the tip of my tongue. "Well," I started quietly, smiling slightly at the odd idea. "You could join the HQ." 

*~*~*~* 

Hello! Wow, so Talon finally told Penny. About time, right?