The walk back to her room left her glancing over her shoulder every few moments and taking timid steps. When she reached the dimly lit room, she tripped over the kicked in door and felt stray splinters dig into her palms and shins. Wincing as she stood, she stumbled over to her bed and kneeled down beside it. Her hands rested palm side up on the blanket; she lowered her head in shame how could she? How could she have fallen so easily into Topher's trap? She should have been able to tell that her mind wasn't fuzzy because she liked him and her stomach wasn't queasy because she wanted to kiss him. Her stomach hurt because it was her body responding to adrenaline that was infiltrating her blood too fast and there was a faint smell of blood that her subconscious knew meant trouble. Her mind went fuzzy not only from the pumping adrenaline but from his eyes. They were hypnotic, even if Topher said that his gaze had nothing to do with how quickly the entire gang trusted him. Roughly blinking away her tears, the only thing she had ruined was her dignity and her relationship with the girls, she lifted her head and slowly plucked out the splinters in her left hand. Most only penetrated the first layer of skin and slid out after a gentle tug. Others were deeper or at an angle and had to be carefully removed unless she wanted to cut herself. When she finished her left, she moved onto her right and easily plucked out all but one splinter. Biting her lip slowly, she eased herself onto her bed facing the door and firmly gripped the splinter that was sticking out of her finger by a prick. Squeezing her eyes shut, she yanked on it.

"When blood is shed let the Staff of One emerge!"

"Ni— oh shit." Thud. Nico opened her eyes, not surprised to see that by pulling the splinter half way out she had cut herself. What did surprise her was the African-American boy that lay crumpled on her floor, grasping his stomach with the Staff of One held loosely in one hand.

"Alex, oh my God!" Throwing herself forward she limped over to Alex, sitting down once she reached his side and took her staff with one hand and pulled it away from him. Alex groaned as the butt of the staff was moved away from his half curled position. "Are you okay?"

"Nnn, 'm fine Nico," he grunted, then he seemed to notice her slightly bloodied knees and torn palm, "What 'appened to you?"

Nico smiled slightly before pointing with her good hand behind him, "Tripped and fell. Guess you're luckier than me though since you just missed it." Alex slowly unwound himself from his curled position and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He groaned as he straightened his back and shifted his legs under him.

"Careful," Nico placed her bad hand lightly on his shoulder, careful not to press the splinter, "Don't hurt yourself!" Alex gave her a frown before taking her hand off his shoulder and examining her palm.

"You should take your own advice," he mumbled as he wound his fingers around the splinter and pulled in a straight upward movement. Nico flinched as she felt the pressure be relieved and blood rush to fill up the hole left in her skin by the splinter. Looking at her finger, she was surprised to see the amount of blood she saw for the splinter, it was barely a trickle. Keeping her hand firmly in his, Alex leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her finger. Instead of leaning back and meeting her eyes afterwards, he stood and pulled her up and to him in a hug.

"I really am sorry Nico. About the whole spying and the jealousy. I just didn't know how to tell you," he mumbled into her neck, pausing as her hair tickled his nose. God, how had he ever found her dorky?

Nico slowly allowed her arms to gravitate up and around Alex's waist, gripping the back of his jacket as hard as she could. She leaned into his hug and buried her face into his jacket and shirt. Tears welled in her eyes as she remembered the feeling of being so helpless. Her measly amount of magic was not even enough to put a scratch on him for more than a few seconds. Alex tightened the grip he had on her hair and allowed his other hand to lightly run along her spin in invisible patterns. Nico shuddered in his grasp before small teardrops leaked out of her eyes and swam down her face.

"Nico?"

"I was s-so sca-ared. H-he said he w-was going to t-turn me into a v-vampire," Nico blabbed into his shirt. Alex weaved his fingers through the knots in her hair, starting at the nape of her neck, trying to soothe the witch in his arms.

"It's gonna be okay Nico, I promise." Damn that fucking scumbag to hell for what he was doing to Nico.

"N-no it's n-not Alex! W-we all barely made it out of th-there and it was m-my fault!" Alex pushed Nico away by her shoulders and starred at the Goth girl. The once dorky teen's eyes were bloodshot after only a few minutes of crying and they were widened with fear. He had never seen her cry. Never scared. Never blaming herself.

"You didn't invite him onto the team, I did. We all fell for his fake sob story about his 'rents being like ours. It's not your fault Nico."

"But I—" Alex smashed his lips over hers, cutting off the rest of her words. Squeezing his eyes shut behind his glasses, he poured all of his emotions into the kiss. Anger. Hate. Love. Lust. Sorrow. Passion. Nico wriggled her arms through the small space between them and wrapped them around his neck, trying to pull him even closer. Alex felt his eyes roll back into his skull when her fingernails scratched his scalp. He could feel Nico smirking, her lips curling upwards at the corners ever so slightly. Alex took her lower lip between his teeth and bit down hard enough that Nico gasped and stumbled back away from his embrace. Awkwardly her arms disentangled themselves from him and he released his grip on her shoulders, lowering his hands to grasp her forearms. Opening his eyes, Alex starred at Nico as he gasped lightly for breath. Her pale cheeks were flushed pink, a color he never thought he'd see on her. Her eyes were half lidded as she started to open them, but despite them opening she looked dazed. Her lips were red and swollen, her lip-gloss having worn out when they were running back to the base. He smiled, showing his teeth before swiftly picking her up bridal style and walking over to her bed.

"What are you—?"

"Shhh Nico," he whispered as he lowered her to her bed and kneeled in front of her on the floor, "I'm just gonna help you." He reached slowly for one of her shoes, slowly untying her laces and sliding it off. Next he rolled her sock down, surprised at her small feet and lime green toenails. Alex looked at Nico over his glasses and raised an eyebrow.

"What? I'm not all Goth you know. I have some surprises," she huffed as she wriggled her toes at him. Alex chuckled as he grabbed her foot and rolled up her pant leg. When he saw the splinters sticking out of her shin however, his chuckles stopped as he set to work removing them. Nico leaned back on her bed, leaving her legs dangling over the edge with Alex plucking splinters out. She trusted him, plus it was only five splinters on this shin and three on her other. Nico giggled when she felt a light brush on her arc. The brush turned to fingers lightly dancing across her foot. Nico yelped and attempted to pull away, only enabling Alex to tighten his grasp on her foot.

"Alex *gasp* p-please st-top *gasp* it!" Alex smiled, gently letting her foot go as he stopped tickling her. Her laugh was light and happy, a beautiful sound. He wished she would laugh more. Reaching for her other foot he repeated his actions slower, taking the time to make sure there were no stray splinters as his palm ran over her skin. He silently wondered how she could be so pale, even paler in contrast to his own dark skin which even looked a few shades lighter than normal. Were they not getting enough sunlight and vitamins? Karolina seemed fine, but her powers were a smaller scale replica of the sun.

"Alex?" Nico tugged her leg from his fragile grip, slipping herself off her bed and next to the distracted boy on her floor. She hesitantly placed her hands on his shoulder and slowly turned him to face her. His eyes were glazed over slightly, not even noticing his glasses about to fall of his nose. "Alex."

"Hm?" his eyes darted up to meet hers. The previous glazed look gone and he still didn't notice his slipping glasses.

Nico's face softened, reaching up a hand to push his glasses up, "Are you okay?"

"I think 'm fine." Nico sat back on her bed, keeping one hand on his shoulder.

"You think? Do you need anything?" Alex looked up at Nico before taking her hand on his shoulder and interlocking their fingers. He smiled looking at their hands intertwined, yin and yang quite literally.* Locking eyes with Nico he stood up before sitting down next to her and leaning over to kiss her, his other hand creeping until it rested on her hip and pulled her closer.

I don't own Runaways... Otherwise Volume II would have gone a little different... Such as Alex not dying for one thing... But I don't own it so all I can hope is that he is revived and makes his way back to Nico! Sad hope, but still! Totally new to the whole Comic side of fanfiction, so I hope you guys like and review! I love hearing other's opinions on my work! :)