I keep finding myself in these positions [cw]

Ace wasn’t a glutton, and since he had been getting a lot of blood from her last weekend and this weekend too, he still had some bags left – that might also be why he didn’t really mind that she had to get some of the blood back. She would just have to visit another time, and that might just be alright in the end. Having someone at his home every weekend really lived up everything. Living all alone was quite lonely, even though he preferred to be alone; or at least that was his belief.

He gave her a single nod as she mentioned she was going back to bed to sleep and moved away from her so she could get down and take the stand with her. He raised his brows in a surprise as she kissed his cheek. He heard how the wheels on the stand squeaked a little as she left, and he blinked a little. His gaze followed her shortly before he frowned and looked back at the kitchen counter.

He rubbed his forehead a little before he decided to go and make breakfast and some coffee. Quite often, Ace didn’t remind anyone of his father, and then again at some points they did. But food and other drinks, made the biggest difference between them. The picture of his father throwing ordinary wine after a servant was still so strong in his mind. The servant hadn’t known that his father only could drink blood. His father couldn’t ingest anything else than blood, unless he wanted to get sick.


Scrambled eggs. Salty bacon. Juicy tomatoes and bell peppers. Cut melon pieces. Cold juice. Freshly brewed coffee. And pancakes for dessert, with sweet maple syrup and different kind of wild berries. What wasn’t to like about the brunch table he was setting up? Well maybe the fact that he never really cooked for more than one person, so when he had to make food for more than one person, there suddenly got just a little too much food on the table. He set the table and lit some candles. It was said to set the mood, right? Maybe she would get less clingy of it. He eyed the watch on his wall and noticed it was almost ten in the morning and therefore went to his bedroom. “Hope?” he said trying to get her attention, noting how much blood she had received in his mind. He stepped all the way in as it seemed like she slept quite deeply. “Hope?” he spoke a little louder and finally got all the way up to the bed right next to her and tried to shake her a little to wake her up. “Hope,” he said a little annoyed. There was simply no connection. His face got completely deadpan just before he slapped her cheek. “Hope!” he said louider.

As soon as her head had hit the pillow, she had fallen asleep. Not only was she exhausted from her fight, and the fact that she had almost been drained from blood. But the whole week, no, month? When had been the last time she had been sleeping like this? She couldn’t even remember, and less so now that she was sleeping.

His voice seemed so far away as he tried to wake her. It was almost as he was in her dream. Dangerous making her think of him while being in this vulnerable state of mind. Where she clearly didn’t have control over her illusions about fear and desire. Just as she was about to enter a new kind of illusion. The one what would let her keep herself in the dream of the closeness they had shared before he had insisted on her getting a new bag of blood. His voice came through loud and clear, almost jolting the poor fairy awake. “By the gods!” she exclaimed, her scared and worried eyes wandered towards Ace as he was standing beside her. Her face went from chock to mimic his perfectly.  “Really?” she grumbled and slowly got up in seating position. She found it very unfair that he would do this to her, especially after he had made it clear that she needed rest. It was then her nose caught a whiff of food.

“You made breakfast?” she asked and looked at him with her brows knitted. Why?

She didn’t really look satisfied with him waking her up which made a slight crooked smile appear in amusement – but then she smelled the breakfast. Maybe the scent of breakfast hung onto his c. “Yeah. Breakfast. Brunch. Whatever you want to call it,” he said and shrugged a little. “Are you coming?” he asked and stretched his arm towards her to help her up. “I might have made a little bit too much, so I hope you’re hungry,” he said trying to smile a little more warmly at her. The smile only lasted a moment before he looked towards the front door, even though it meant that he looked towards a wall. “You gotta be kidding me,” he exclaimed and let go of Hope if she had taken his hand before he almost trotted towards the front door, clearly not very satisfied with getting uninvited guests.
He didn’t even get to the door before it was opened up and in came the small older sister. “Hey Ace of Spades,” she said happily before she noticed the smell of a ‘known’ fairy and breakfast. She raised her brows, clearly hinting at the thought about whether or not Ace had started to date his blood bag.
“Don’t you dare,” he tried to stop her from entering, but Aria just pushed his hand away and continued after the sweet, sweet smell until her eyes spotted the fairy. She raised her brows and looked back at her little brother.
“Did you really-” she had a wide amused smile on her lips, thriving about his brother might or might not have lost control. He never lost control.
“Don’t get started,” he sneered
“Well… Okay then, let’s eat some breakfast,” she said looking back at Hope gladly placing her hands together almost in a clap. She moved next to Hope, following her pace.
“She can walk by herself,” he continued to sneer, and she almost immediately looked over her shoulder to wink at him. She wasn’t going to leave her side. So, Ace swallowed the hard pill and went to the dining table and sat down.

Hot and cold, she had thought it before. But he always reminded her so perfectly that he was the perfect example. Staying with her, calming her down and caressing her back. To then shouting her awake because he became inpatient that she didn’t wake up fast enough. And now there was breakfast, or brunch. Where he had made to much, so he hoped that she was hungry? She let him help her up, not really thinking about the fact that she was still just wearing an oversized worn-down grey t-shirt where the neckline was so big that it hung down her shoulder.

“What?” she asked as Ace cursed under his breath and walked towards the front door. She slowly walked after, peaking behind the wall watching who it was walking through the door. Aria, his sister? Hope narrowed her brows. As they started bickering back and forth, Hope was two steps away from turning into her true form and fly away as quickly as she could. But standing there, almost frozen as Aria pushed her way through to her, she didn’t get that far in her little escape plan. A soft smile formed on Hope’s lips, as she tried to get back to the persona that she had been using when going to the event where she had met this vampire woman. How she wished that she was wearing pants right now.

The slow pace continued as she now involuntarily was going to eat breakfast with not only Ace but Aria too. A woman where she could almost feel how the desire towards her was latching on as small strings to feed her power. Daring it to explode and show her. Hope sat down, every movement she made was very submissive, she pulled down her blouse to cover her thighs letting her blue eyes glide upwards towards Ace. Almost trying to figure out how the hell he wanted her to behave right now.

Aria sat down next to the fair she had met only a week or two ago. She took the plate and utensils that Ace had gotten for himself and started to scoop up for herself. Aria was clearly hungry enough to eat everything on the table. “So, Hope, that was your name, right?” she said and glanced over at the fairy before she looked back at the food that she was scooping. “Did you sleep well, darling?” she asked. After all she could feel how the melatonin was almost hanging over her and how the smell of Ace was all over her. She wasn’t allowed by Ace to talk about the blood bag, she knew that. He wasn’t proud about loosing his control. He truly hated that, and well, to some extend Aria understood why.
Ace noticed how Hope was seeking some kind of answer by looking at him,  he simply raised his brows and waved his hand a little. He couldn’t see the future, and honestly, right now they weren’t on that mission anymore, so maybe she could just go ahead and act natural? If Hope at any time went to Ace’s desires, it would most likely be that Aria wasn’t there and Ace and Hope simply sat and discussed anything between earth and sky. Aria on the other hand desired to be intimate with Hope. Wanted to explore just about how much she could tease the fairy and eventually, quite specifically bite her thigh. Yes, that was exactly what she desired.

As Ace didn’t really give her anything to go on, she just decided to stay in the same mindset she had been in at the party. A smile innocent smile formed on her lips as Aria asked if she was correct about her name “Yes, and it was Aria, right?” she mimic the way Aria had asked her and looked at the spread of food that Ace had made for them. It was funny how different vampires could be. She had encountered some that never ate human food, well they did like their wine though.
“I slept very well, thank you very much” she mumbled and took some eggs and tomatoes. Her fingers found a piece of melon, as she was about to put it in her mouth she was overwhelmed by the passion and desire that radiated from Aria. Her eyes went wide as pictures of how the vampire wanted to go down and bite down her thigh exploded in her mind. A small, choked gasp left her and she dropped the piece of lemon. “Shit” she mumbled and leaned down and picked it up. Luckily, she had been strong enough to not project the illusion around the table, that would have been awkward.
“Aria, honey, might want to keep those desire in check” she said and winked at her, even as everything screamed in her to get up and get out. Her eyes shinned bright purple for a moment before she grabbed another piece of melon and ate it.

“Correct,” Aria replied, as it seemed like the fairy had just as good of a memory as Aria herself. She started to eat her food as Hope seemed to reply to her question about how well she had been sleeping. She nodded a little and glanced towards Ace with a cheeky smile. She couldn’t smell sex and sweat on them, but it sure had been a hectic night and she would love to poke Ace just a little more about how things had gone down, just not directly. Ace sighed a bit and with his new plate and utensils he sat down across from Hope and scooped himself some food. He actually noticed how she hadn’t picked bacon, which made him raise his brows a little. Maybe that was why she was just a little more difficult than so many others?

Suddenly Hope dropped her piece of melon and the siblings both raised their brows a little as the fairy cursed. As hope got back up Ace was focusing on his food and Aria looked caringly at her, though the smile on her lips disappeared ever so slowly as she mentioned something with desires. “What?” she was confused about what Aria knew about her desires. Ace rubbed his forehead a bit.
“You know, maybe you should just scoop some food up and get going,” Ace said and looked over at his sister. She immediately frowned and made a slightly dramatic motion towards Ace.
“Do you want me gone?”
“Yes” he replied stiffly and cold. Aria opened her mouth in surprise.
“You’re so mean,” she said, acting like no offence was taken. She was used to his hot and cold behavior. She scooped some more food onto her plate, “’Scuse me,” she said and leaned over where Hope sat to grab some food but on her way back to her seat she turned her head towards Hope and smiled flirtatiously for a moment before she leaned in to kiss her passionately. She let one of her hands find their way to her neck and the other down towards the edge of her hip. It all happened quite fast.
“Aria!” for once, Ace raised his voice and Aria let go of Hope, giving her a short peck.
“See you,” she said and winked to the fairy before she took her plate and utensils and straightened back up. “You’re a lucky man, Spades,” she said before she headed out.

Hope was just about to explain that she knew what Aria was thinking about her, when Ace asked her to go. The light fairy lifted her brow and looked towards him, not understanding why he suddenly decided she couldn’t stay. He had of course told her as she stepped into his house that she shouldn’t. But this sounded more serious than it had done before. Not that it seemed to bother Aria that much, even though she called her brother mean. It would seem that it wasn’t only towards Hope that he was very hot and cold.

Not really understanding what was going on she put another piece of melon into her mouth, as Aria suddenly stopped and turned her head towards her. Hope let her eyes slide up about to ask her if there was something she needed. But never got the chance as Aria’s lips suddenly were on hers, not that she did anything to stop it. But she also didn’t reciprocate the kiss. Not that it seem to put Aria off as she more or less just poured all her passion into that kiss enough to make up for only one of the participants to react on it.

Hope jolted a little as Ace raised his voice and Aria pulled back, but not before she let their lips meet again in a small peck. Utterly stunned by what had just happened she watched how the female vampire walked away with the plate in her hand. What the hell had just happened? Her lips were burning from the attention they had gotten, and Hope wasn’t sure that she was happy about it. Because it had happened so quickly, almost as she had been used as a pawn to prove something. And that wasn’t something she liked. A coldness ran down her spine and she looked towards the plate of food standing in front of her. Maybe some coffee would be better. She leaned over the table not looking at Ace at all. Her hand lightly shaking as she took the handle of the coffeepot and pulled it towards her and poured in her cup. What had she gotten herself into.

Ace followed Aria with his eye as walked towards the door and first when the door was heard shutting behind her, he looked over at Hope seeing how she was shaking a little. He could even smell how this had been an unpleasant situation. He closed his eyes while his hands found his face and rubbed it, groaning a little. He then let his hands find to the edge of the plate and leaned back. What a chaotic thing to do. “I had told you about how Aria probably wanted to do you, right?” He wondered, believing he had told her before. “I’ve known her for so long, that I don’t need an ability like yours to know just about everything she wants to do with you,” he breathed out. “I’m sorry if it was overwhelming,” she said, and with his index fingers touched the edge of the plate to rotate it clockwise and then counterclockwise. He licked his lips and got slightly annoyed about how she was shaking a bit, not that he needed to care about her wellbeing -  she just needed to stay alive for now. “Gosh you’re even shaking… Is there anything I can do for you Hope? Blanket? More food? Fresh air?” he didn’t really know what people liked to be comforted with and mostly just thought about what he saw in commercials.

She snorted as he told her that he was sorry if it had been overwhelming. That was an understatement. She wasn’t near her full capacity, so everything was overwhelming when you had powers connecting to people’s emotions. It wasn’t only fears and desires she could feel in a person. It was every god damn emotion. Normally she was very good a closing down for it and not feel anything herself, but this, this was to much and his way of phrasing things weren’t making it any better. She took the milk and poured in the coffee. She could feel how he was getting annoyed at her. It didn’t help.

“Stop” she hissed at him turning her purple eyes towards him, she could feel how her power radiated in her. Not that anything was going to happen, but even though she wasn’t as old as him, she was still old enough to be taken seriously when it came to her magical powers. “Stop pretending to care, and just stop trying to care for me, just, stop it” her voice became weaker when she tried to make her point come across, she took a sip of her coffee. You are a lucky man Spade. She shook her head and got up from the chair, she pulled off the tube connecting to the blood bag. She was wise enough to leave the needle in her hand, as she started walking towards the bedroom to get her pants.

Ace raised his brow as she told him to stop. As soon as she started to explain what he should stop, the other brow accompanied the first. Pretending and trying to care. Apparently, that was a no go for Hope. He watched how she took a sip of her coffee and then pulled out the tube for the blood bag, spilling the residue blood onto the floor. He sat for a moment trying to think about what was wrong. He didn’t really understand what all of this was about.
He left the table, with all of the food on it, almost untouched if Aria hadn’t taken so much with her. He approached the bedroom watching how she put on pants. He put both his arms on the doorframe, leaning in a little bit. “So, you’re not hungry or want to sleep further?” he wondered, raising a single brow.

She had her pants on when Ace had moved towards the bedroom and placed himself by the door into the bedroom. She looked towards him as he asked if she wasn’t hungry or wanted to sleep further. “No” she said rather dry and walked past him towards the Living room to get her backpack and her computer. The most annoying part was the fact that she wasn’t strong enough at this point to do to much magic, which meant that she had to get back on foot. Or call a taxi. Neither was something she wanted. But she couldn’t stay here, where her presents was an annoyance or a unwanted distraction. “I’m going home” she told him, as she pressed her computer rather roughly down her bag. “I’ll be back next weekend, and that will be our last meeting, I think I’ve given more than enough” she stated as she let her cold eyes glide towards him, watching if he had anything to say about her statement.

She didn’t want to either sleep or eat anymore. Sad. Then he just had to throw all of it out. Even though his hands were basically blocking her way, she simply walked underneath his arms and out in the living room to get her things. He turned around and followed slowly. He still didn’t quite understand what was going on. She announced that she was going home and shortly after that next weekend would be the last. He took a deeper breath in. Maybe she knew what was going on with his desires and fears, but he had no clue on what was going on with her. Being ‘normal’ made things difficult, even though he could smell the hormones and sweat on her.
He approached her with his hands in his pockets, coming off as a little of a threat as possible, his eyes were even at the floor as he approached her, only looking up as he got close enough. “Stay a little with me?” he reused her phrase from when they were laying in bed. He didn’t mean to beg, but having company that wasn’t uninvited was quite nice.

It was like every ounce of air left her body as he started walking towards her, how he let her eyes glide up as he was close enough. But really hit her, was how he phrased himself. Stay a little with me. She could feel that he actually meant it, and it almost knocked her of her feet. Her eyes became glassy as if tears were threatening to glide down her cheeks. But she never cried, not when she had the power to stop it. The only exception had been the one he had witnessed some hours before. Her nose sting as she took a deep breath in, not moving nor saying anything in a good while.

An urge came over her, and it was so easy to just take a step towards him. Let her hand find his cheek and press her lips towards his. Letting him wash away what Aria had taken from her without permission. But something held her back, mostly herself and the fact that she was very aware that he didn’t place the same feelings into a kiss like she did.

“That is very mean” she mumbled looking at him a little defeated. But she let her bag fall to the floor, and she sighed as she tried to figure out what to do now. Maybe she should just try to eat something after all. “Fine” she finally agreed and started walking towards the dining table and sat down.

He noticed how her eyes became glossy, though tears weren’t escaping her. He didn’t look away while she took her time, taking her deep breath in. He pulled on what one would category as a sad smile as she said that what he had said was mean. It might have been, but she had used the same phase earlier, and he had understood the message just fine – right?
The bag fell onto the floor and his eyes shortly followed it before he looked back up at her and shortly after she moved towards the dining table. While he was behind her, a true smile actually appeared on his lips and just a bit more warmth seemed to spread in his chest before he followed her and the warm feeling, sitting back onto his seat from earlier, right across from Hope. “Can you tell me what’s going on?” he asked as he sat down.

She tried her best to keep her hand from not shaking, she didn’t need or wanted to feel the same annoyance as she had done before, as she took the coffee cup and took a small sip. She kept her eyes on the food as she started nibbling on it. She still wasn’t that hungry, but now that he wanted her to stay, it had to also be the fact that he had done this for her. She locked up at the candles slightly burned down now. Candlewax gliding down the white stick, she was shortly swallowed by the orange flame, as his words broke through and she turned her head as he asked what was going on? She blinked, as if she hadn’t really understood his question. But she had and was very tempted to ask him why he even cared or asked.

“I don’t like people doing things without my permission” she simply said, it was deeper than that. But sharing to much, only opened up for the possibility to understand each other better. To letting herself care more for him than she already did. She didn’t want to, she even deny it, but she did. What a situation she had put herself in this time.

“Just, if you want me to stay can we just not speak? At least just, for a little while” she asked letting her eyes find their way back to the plate and look down at the food seeming so unappetizing to her right now. Even though it almost threatened to get stuck in her throat she ate anyway. Mostly to do something, other than sit in this awkward emotional hell she had created for herself.

She didn’t like when people did things without her permission. Great. They had something in common. He hated when people didn’t respect boundaries it was the worst thing of all. He swallowed a little and looked down at his plate and started wondering if he knew why she didn’t like it when people did things without her permission. The only thing he really could think of was how mean the man in her nightmare had been, but he didn’t want to well on it too much and it seemed like she didn’t wish it either the way she asked if they could stay silent. He nodded slowly and stared a little at his food. His appetite wasn’t there anymore, sadly. He did however grab one of the pancakes he had made and folded it with some sugar. It was a plain dessert, but he had thought pancakes would be an all times favorite. Just, maybe not when you were confronted with past trauma.

He didn’t know how long they had been sitting in silence, but he had finished his pancake as he looked up at her for a moment before he got up from his chair and walked around the table and presented his hand to her. He still wasn’t going to say a thing, so she would just have to trust him in where ever he was going to take her, if she took his hand.

She apricated that he took it to heart that she didn’t feel like talking about it. So, they did just that. Sitting in silence eating a little, her drinking some coffee as she tried to find herself in all of this mess that had happened over the last twenty-four hours. She was still very tried and if he had let her, she might have slept through Aria even coming to his house.

She looked towards him as he stood up and walked towards her. She knitted her brows together, not really understanding what he was plotting. More confused as he presented his hand without saying anything. For a short second she looked it at up at him again. She wasn’t sure why, but she took it with almost no hesitation. Walking with him, trying to figure out what he wanted to show her, or bring her too. But just like him, she didn’t speak. Letting the silence still hang very heavy over them.

She took his hand without hesitation even though it seemed like she wondered what he was plotting. So, he started to walk backwards until they arrived at a couple of stairs which would bring them upstairs. Like a true gentleman, he gestured her to walk first. She would come to a well-lit room with a great height to the loft. It was light hardwood floor, polished and looked like something you would find in a dancing school, which it was. Ace hadn’t really been a dancer, and never really would turn out to be one, but he liked to dance casually once in a while, and he believed that even though he didn’t really express feelings, he could through dancing.
As they both stood upstairs, he let her inspect the giant room while he found his way to a music box with multiple speakers connected to it. He put on some calm music they could dance to before he turned around to look at her. He presented his arm, even though he stood far away and then approached her, inviting her up to a dance.

Once again, her hand was placed in his without hesitation, and he pulled her gently closer to dance with her ever so slowly. They needed no words for a dance to work out. They could communicate with their bodies and how he could lead her in dance, even though he wasn’t the best dancer and made mistakes. Ace wasn’t perfect. He could feel how she relaxed more and more and how the warmth she had started in the morning had spread all the way to his shoulders. It felt weird and it was almost scaring him. He hadn’t felt something like this for so long and he didn’t really know If he had to push the feeling away or pull it closer, because something about this known, but unknown feeling made him fear how it would be like when the feeling was gone again. He had simply lived with the coldness for so long, it had turned to be what was the most welcome to him.
He noticed how the room changed into something that reminded him of the sixties and just as she did that he slowly let his eyes close shut. He felt like he didn’t need to explore the surroundings, but rather stay in the moment, how she calmed down while dancing. Something made Ace not want to let go of her even though he wanted to invite her to do pretty pirouettes and solos. Something made him want to keep her close and not just let her go her own ways. He took a slightly deeper breath in letting himself loosen a bit of the tension in his shoulders.

For a moment, just this moment she allowed herself to be pulled into the safety of trusting another person. Trusting that Ace would grab her hand when he pushed her out in a pirouette, even though it was very clear that he just wanted to keep dancing this close.
So, it was also trusting that he wouldn’t step her over her feet or steer her wrong. And though there were mistakes, it only made a small bobbly laughter leave her throat. Her eyes opened seeing what she had created around them, watching how he himself had his eyes closed, while dancing around with her. The illusion disappeared and it was only them in his house. She came to a stop, forcing him to stop his dancing as well. Their faces so close. His hand in hers, her hand on his shoulder and his on her hip. Breaths mingling, emotions steering that had been dormant for so long.

“Ace” she whispered letting her blue eyes glide over his face before finding their way back to his hazel brown. A lump formed in her throat, and she had to swallow.


“I can’t have my heart broken again; I won’t survive it” she whispered feeling how tears started to threaten to spill again. Who would have thought that underneath the hard exterior of a woman that chose to be cold rather than showing her true emotions, could be this direct? “What is that you want with me?” she asked, needing to know what this meant. Was she just an investment needed to stay alive, so he would be able to cash in his favor and get his blood? Was she a friend? Or was she something more? How her heart burned to be something more for at least someone. Not expendable for the next one to come by and take her place. But if she was, if she was just a drop in the water, she rather know now, so she could guard her already fragile heart.

Her small laughter when he made mistakes didn’t lessen how warm he felt. There was just something about it which made a little smile curl up on his lips. The smile rolled off when she stopped following him, and he automatically stopped right after, opening his eyes and looked at her. They stood so close and witch such a correct stance, even though it wasn’t on purpose. He gave a small hum, as she said his name, curious of what she had on her mind since she wanted to break the silence between them. After all, she had asked for them to stay silent, so he had just followed what she had wished for.

A small line formed between his brows in a frown as she mentioned she didn’t want her heart broken. Why should he break it? Why would it break? There was a lot of questions roaming around in his mind, but he noticed how she indeed feared getting heartbroken, the way her eyes threatened to spill tears. For a woman so fierce, he truly was allowed to see her softer side. He opened his mouth to reply what he wanted with her, but he closed it again as he wasn’t sure what was his correct answer. Because what did he want with her? Their deal; her blood. But ever since the evening at the mansion, the first tapping day and yesterday it was like things had been changing up a bit. Especially the last twenty-four hours. The warmth in his chest made him doubt so many things. “I don’t know what I want with you, but I can’t see why I would break your heart,” he replied with a soft voice. “The only thing I actually know is that your company makes me glad to still be alive,” he said pulling a slight smile. It wasn’t like he had been planning to unalive himself, but sometimes, living alone got quite lonesome. She was one of the very, very few people he actually enjoyed to spend time with.

He didn’t know what he wanted with her. But he couldn’t see why he would break her heart. A pained smile formed on her lips, those words were more then enough to confirm that she would end in that position, because he wouldn’t even know what he would have done wrong. Not that it was his fault per se, he was just saying it as it was. And he clearly didn’t understand where she was coming from, or why she was even talking like she was. A person that cared for another being, made sure they survived, stayed with them, and even comforted them when they were upset. To then make food and set a table including candles. To then bring them up to what felt like their hideout and show them how they reground themselves. That to a lot of people meant something more, than just liking their company. At least to her. She nodded, taking a deep breath in. Then if he couldn’t define it and didn’t understand it. She had to put up the walls and boundaries to protect herself. “So, you want to be friends” she stated. The feeling that spread from her chest and out to her fingers making her arms feel heavy. Told her that she had already been falling since she had laid her eyes on him. Stupid heart, not understanding that it would be dangerous. But she liked his company as well, so friends. She could do that, hopefully.

Ace could see how she was processing the information he had shared with her. She found what she believed was the conclusion. Friends. He held his breath a little. He didn’t believe that friends would be the right term, because he had some friends, but no one like her. She was something different than just a friend. She was more than just a friend. “Yeah, I” he continued to frown a little. “I don’t know, Hope,” he exhaled, “You are… Different,” he exhaled and looked down between them for a moment. “There is something about you which,” he frowned a little more not knowing exactly how to express his feelings. “Which makes me feel at home,” he said and looked back up at her. Was that even a feeling? He was so bad with feelings and especially expressing them to others. So, this was simply something very unusual for him. For so many, many years he had kept himself to himself and done whatever he wanted; make people feel better in the body they lived in. “I like to spend time at home. Like seeing what my home can look like depending on each and every single day. I want to protect my home and a have somewhere I can turn to when I just want to be myself,” yes, he was spilling emotions like a waterfall, but he didn’t directly say that he wanted to live the rest of his life with her. He simply explained what a home was to him.