The door opens, disturbing the silence and sending his head whipping up, away from the case and comfort of his hands, upwards to glance at the intruder.

She's a sophomore, he remembers her from last year, right around when that ridiculous principal, The Shep, had to take those classes. She's the one he called a bitch or whatever.

Not important.

What is important is her state of disarray, curls disheveled, and eyes watering. Normally he'd keep his distance, but it's after school and this girl looks positively suicidal.

"Are you okay?"

The girl looks at him from her huddled position on the bench, obviously shocked to see someone else in the Zen Garden at such a late hour. She wipes at her eyes, takes a shaky breath, and then bursts into tears once again.

"He- fight- doesn't- listen- kill- care- ELI."

The name strikes a bell. Eli. Isn't that the guy who owns a taxi or a hearse or something? It's some unusual car like that. He wears all black too, and he raises his eyebrows, wondering what business this innocent girl has with a guy like that.

He gets up and kneels before her, putting an arm around her shoulder.

"It's Clare, right?"

Still crying, she nods. "I'm Zane."

She nods again, reminding Zane a little of a bobble head. "Yeah. Y-You're that," hiccup, "gay guy."

Ouch. He retreats a little, and she flushes scarlet, realizing how accusing her words sound, especially with the cross around her neck.

"No, I didn't mean t-that. I just m-meant..." she sobs again. "My best friend is transgendered." Clare says, as if that makes everything better. Which, honestly, it does. Zane isn't unfamiliar with people labeling him, and this girl; she seems so innocent, like she couldn't ever really mean wrong. She sobs again, and Zane's surprised that he's honestly, genuinely concerned.

"It's okay. Sh..." He has no clue how to comfort a girl, so he pats her back. "What's got you this way?"

She shakes a little, but he notices how her breathing is calming down. Hopefully she'll stop crying.

"It's..." Her voice falters. "My English Partner. He's... He's my friend too, I think. E-except when he's flirting and almost k-kissing me and being just... ugh." She lets out a short noise of exasperation. "And h-he's being bullied, and I'm afraid he's going to l-lash out and just do something st-STUPID because he doesn't g-get that bullying just leads to b-bullying and I just c-can't get through to h-him and I can't STAND IT."

Something clenches around Zane's heart as the curly-headed girl rambles on about this Eli. Something about this situation feels so eerily similar that, for a second, it feels like she could be writing his biography.

Eli = Riley.

His grip on her tightens, and he pulls her into a full hug.

"Believe it or not, we're in the same boat."

She looks up at him, a tear resting on her cheek but hope in her clear, blue eyes. "H-How?"

Zane grits his teeth, sorrow in his eyes as he explains to Clare. "My... boyfriend. Or sort of boyfriend. He's really good at displaying mixed signals." She snorts, almost laughing, and he continues. "He doesn't get that when you beat up a homophobe, you just make them more homophobic. I swear he's going to get hurt, and I can't live with that. But I also can't get through to him- it's like a side of him is this good, sweet, caring guy that I love and the other side is violent and dark and just messed up."

There's silence, and when he looks at her, her eyes are wide.

"So what did you d-do?"

He sighed, pulling his hands away from her and dropping them in his lap. "I broke things off. Told him to leave me alone."

"And?"

"And now I'm miserable."

He watches as she bites her lip, hands fiddling with a ring on her finger. At least she isn't crying.

"Would you be more miserable with him?" She asks.

"Honestly, I don't think so. But just watching someone hurt someone else... It's scary."

"But don't you feel bad that you're not by his side? I mean, shouldn't you remain a constant, even if he doesn't listen?"

Zane shrugged. "Sometimes you can't stand there and watch. As much as it's good to stand by someone, sometimes you have to do what's going to keep you sane."

She nods, and brings her feet in to her chest. She looks so delicate, so breakable, so utterly broken and damaged that Zane just wants to fix everything for her.

"But maybe you should talk to him, really talk to him. Maybe he doesn't know exactly how you feel." As he spoke, realization dawned on Zane. "Maybe you don't have to watch someone break. Maybe you can put them together."

Obviously Clare felt it too, and he watches as her eyes light up, turning to him. There's something so naive and innocent about those eyes that again, his heart twangs, wishing he could be in her shoes for once. She leans over, kissing him briefly on the cheek before standing up, her cheeks flushed red.

"Thank you so much Zane. Excuse me; I have someone to talk to."

Then, she rushes out the door, her flats making echoing noises as she travels down the empty hallway. Zane just sits there, listening to those footsteps and feeling the outline of sticky gloss on his cheek.

Good luck, Clare.

The next day, he watches as Clare and the dark haired boy- Eli- he presumes, walking down the hallway, the dark boy's arm slung across her shoulder, her hand around his waist.

He watches as Fitz, an older bully, corners the two, fists out and menacing. He watches as Clare shuffles behind Eli, her eyes wide and scared. Then he watches as Eli calmly and smoothly moves away from Fitz, pulling Clare down another hallway.

Safe.

In that moment, as he thinks of Clare and Eli and Riley, he realizes that if two stupid sophomores can make up and realize how sacred love is, then shouldn't he?

Suddenly, he has some phone calls to make.

I know, it's out of cannon, sue me. I'm just pretending these episodes were closer together, okay? When I was watching Still Fighting It, all I could think about was the Eclare and Ziley similarities.

Sorry I sabotaged Zane, I don't write him, like, ever, haha.

Review because I think you're stunning?