Royally Flushed

Confrontations

~Louis~

She was pulling away from him, that much he knew for a fact. Something changed within her eyes when she witnessed him beating Daniel, kicking him until Louis' senses kicked in and he realized what he was doing.

But he just had so much rage that couldn't be tamed; it was as if there was a hidden aggressive monster inside of him that only reared its ugly head when Malia was threatened, and it was a part of him that he never knew existed.

He had pulled away from her when she flinched at him attempting to come towards her to give her comfort, but it was like she saw him as the same monster that used to abuse her everyday, instead of the man that would always be there for her...if only she would let him.

So he strode to the other side of the room and sat away from her, eyes firmly fixed on the ground in front of him and permanent scowl etched on his face because that's what he did when he felt hurt or rejected-he lashed out or he pulled away, and at that moment he felt like doing both but it wasn't easy to lash out at her so he just kept quiet, feeling her silent pain from all the way across the room.

A swish of air and soon she was sitting on the other end of the couch as far away from him as she could muster without falling off if it and he wondered if she was that angry with him on the account of defending her life!

"So you're actually angry with me for saving you from him?"

His voice was like an accusation hanging in the air, a challenge for her to remain angry over something so incredulous.

"Louis, I really don't want to get into this right now."

Her voice was firm and almost devoid of emotion, and all her words did was make him angry.

"Malia, can you seriously sit there and say that you weren't grateful that we arrived when we did?"

She sighed and turned her full body to him then, giving him her full attention, something he'd been begging for since the first moment he met her.

"Do you want to know why I'm mad, Louis? I'm mad because Daniel was probably coerced into this gang and he was about to tell me everything!  You don't need to torture him to tell you anything. Yes I needed your help because it started to get scary but you didn't need to use the amount of force that you did and if I'm being honest, it just took me back to my past where all I knew was violence."

Her words hit him like a brick across the face and suddenly he wished that he could take it back, that he could take back every terrible thing he'd done and said to her.

"Malia-"

"No, it's okay.  I know I'm broken, you don't have to remind me..."

Her voice cracked on the word 'broken' and that shattered his angry facade and he found himself gravitating towards her, wanting to comfort her in a way that he couldn't before.

"You're not broken."

He stood up and made his way to her, wary of the shining tears threatening to hurt free from her blue eyes.

"You don't know that, you hardly know anything about me."

"That's simply not true. I know you're one of the most compassionate people I've ever met with a heart of gold even though you put up walls against people to make them think you're emotionally detached."

Her accusatory stare turned confused and then hardened.

"That's kind of funny coming from the man who did almost everything to keep me away from him when we first met but then couldn't stop coming back."