Salvation

Goodbye

WARNING: This chapter contains mature content.

He returned to the complex to discover she was waiting for him, having barely touched his fist to her door before it eas opening. She stared up at him with wide, anxious eyes, and for a second he debated on whether or not to lie to her - say he was merely going on a simple hunt - but he couldn't. She deserved to know the truth. He stepped into her apartment when she moved aside to give him passage, and the door shut behind then with a soft click. The smell of the candles instantly flooded his senses with a comforting aroma, and he took a moment to close his eyes and inhale a calming breath before turning to face her.

"They want us to hunt down the queen. We'll be heading to Sola Mira at dawn."

He was taken back when he eyes almost instantly began to glisten, her face tightening as she tried to hold back her tears. She turned her face away with closed eyes, features taut.

"What's wrong?" He asked, stunned at her tears.

"I don't want you to go." She whispered.

He stared at her. "I have to-"

"I know." She made an attempt at a calming inhale. "I'm just terrified you'll..." She trailled off, unable to say the next words.

He was watching her with a mixture of bewilderment an disbelief, at a complete loss for words. This was not something he had been prepared for. Her tears had come as a complete shock to him. He'd been trained in many fields, but emotional women was not one of them. It was obvious she dreaded the thought of him leaving, but what as to why he didn't know. No one had ever shed a tear for him before, so why was she?

"Why do you care about me so much?" He asked finally, unable to fend off his curiosity any longer.

"Honestly?" Looking up, she shook her head. "I don't know. I barely know anything about you. I haven't felt anything towards a man since my last relationship, which ended over three years ago..." She released a quaking sigh. "You know what it is? It's that you're the first man I've met who hasn't tried pushing me into anything. You like me for me, and even though you think you can't have me you stick around. I'm not a toy to you. You see me as a human being rather than someone you can get a good night out of and then leave me flat like a used tissue."

It was true. He saw her as everything he was never able to be, and now that she had said it he was realizing it himself. They were friends, he knew, but now he saw it was more than that. Much more. To him she was his healer - his peace - the gentle touch he now craved and looked forward to every time he saw her. She was the hand that kept him from toppling backwards into his own darkness. Her smile was the light the city lacked, and in her eyes the hope he had let go of long ago.

"Whoever it was that treated you in such a way is a fool." He said at last, shocked at the boldness of his words.

The look in her eyes was incredible. He had never seen such raw emotion in his life.

"Stay here tonight." She said. "Please. I need you to stay."

He nodded, realizing he wanted to stay just as much, if not more. She threw her arms around his neck, face burying itself in his shoulder, and he held her back gently.

"Let me give you a massage." She whispered. "It would do you good to be as loose as possible."

He didn't refuse. His eyes remained closed as her hands glided over him, savoring her touch to the fullest. The part he loved the most was when she gently ran the backs of her nails down his back. It took all he had in him not to fall asleep to her touch. As she gently traced her fingertops over the scar on his shoulder, his muscles twitched under her touch, and then there was a small shift in the mattress before a strange sensation. It wasn't until she did it a second time that he realized it was her lips. Opening his eyes a sliver, he looked over his shoulder at her to see she was kissing his back lightly. The feeling of her soft lips against his skin was alien, as she touched them to each of his scars, counting them slowly. He didn't interrupt her, remaining completely still as she gradually made her way up his back and to the scar on his shoulder. She continued down his body, keeping a slow, soothing pace as her soft lips counted each scar and bruise with gentlr intent. Once she had reached the waistline of his pants, she had counted nine in total on his back alone, and that number didn't include the various bruises. A feeling he had never experienced before stirred within him at the sensation of her lips on the old wounds, but it wasn't unwelcomed.