A mistake.

That's what you are, all that you can ever be, you disgusting little bitch.

Look at yourself.

Just seeing you makes me gag.

It's your fault that your mother is dead.

You killed her.

She committed suicide because of you.

The storm was bad, and it was only getting worse as the bitter night progressed. Rain hurtled down from the dark clouds like bullets, smashing to the ground with such force that droplets were propelled in all directions due to the impact. The gale-force wind was turning everything it touched to ice. The only sound louder than the crash of water meeting concrete was the occasional rumbles of thunder in the sky.

Roxas pulled his coat tighter to his body in an attempt to warm himself up as he walked slowly down the street towards his house. It was a pointless thing to do, since both he and his clothes were completely sodden due to the frozen water that threw itself at him without mercy, but he did it nether-the-less. Why had he even bothered staying so late after school? All he'd done was spend 4 hours with his head on the desk. In truth, Roxas hadn't wanted to go home. His house was large and well furnished, but he was always struck with a sense of loneliness as soon as he entered the neatly-painted front door to find that nobody was there to welcome him.

Battling against the wind, it took Roxas a few more minutes until he was finally outside of his house. He squinted painfully against the downpour at the large, lifeless building in front of him. Sighing gently to himself, he went to take a step onto the path leading to the house-

Only to have a small figure hurtle around the corner of the street and collide painfully with his chest.

The person was thrown back by the force and fell to the ground, where they immediately sat up and rubbed their head as though in pain. Roxas felt surprise shiver through him as his mind caught up with what had just happened. Looking down, he saw that whoever had run into him, they were clad in an over-sized, hooded jacket and a pair of equally over-sized jeans. Their face was covered by the large hood and Roxas' eyebrow rose slightly when he noticed that their feet were completely bare. Whoever it was, they were even more battered from the weather than he was.

Roxas simply watched, all good manners lost for a second, as the person froze all movements before whipping up their head to look behind them. Apparently, they'd forgotten Roxas was there. Then, scrambling clumsily, they practically threw themselves onto their feet and tried to run again. However, the person had taken barely a step before their legs gave way and they went crashing to the ground once more.

Thankfully, Roxas had regained his senses by then and caught them before they hit the concrete. As his body made contact with theirs, he knew immediately that it was a girl from the breasts that momentarily made contact with his chest. He shook the realisation quickly out of his mind as the girl struggled in his arms to stand up once more. He felt her weak, trembling hands grab his in an attempt to lift herself, but within seconds she didn't even have the strength to do that. Her small form was rapidly getting heavier and Roxas could only watch shakily as a small, pale hand snaked around his neck, gently pulling his head down to the girls' hooded face. He let her, completely confused about what was happening, and tried to ignore the slight heat in his cheeks as he felt warm, quick breath on his ear. It was hard to hear her above the noise of the storm, since she was so quiet, but Roxas knew what she said.

"Help me."

With those two words, the girls arm went limp and he felt her body fall into him. Slightly panicking and completely unsure what to do, Roxas decided that the first thing he should do was take her inside and dry her off. The girl was light, worryingly so, and it didn't take much effort – if any at all - for Roxas to pick her up and carry her up the path to his house. He opened the door within seconds and stepped inside, before switching on the light and shutting the door behind them.

"Now what?" Roxas muttered, looking down at the still hooded girl in his arms. Taking a deep breath, he calculating a list of what needed to be done; Roxas nodded to himself and carried her upstairs. He took her into his bedroom and placed her silently onto his own bed, where he looked down at her unconscious form. It was then that he leant down and slowly removed her hood, before his entire body froze in both horror and awe.

The girls face was completely battered. One of her eyes was swollen and dark purple, a large cut to the side of it still bleeding heavily. Her lip was split, and even now the dark red liquid dribbled down her chin from her mouth and gathered in the corners of her lips. There were numerous bruises and grazes along her forehead and cheeks.

But despite all the wounds, Roxas couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was.

The skin that was unharmed was pale and clear. Her good eye had long, dark eyelashes and despite how small she was, she appeared to be around his own age. Roxas felt something twist in his stomach, and immediately ignored it as he stood up and hurried to the bathroom where he kept his medical supplies. He returned within seconds with a damp cloth, bandages, plasters and a glass of water with some aspirin.

"What happened to you…?" Roxas muttered quietly as he cleaned the blood away from her face. It took a good ten minutes or so, but once her face was clean and patched up, he noticed that both of them were still soaked and shivering. He felt another knot in his stomach as he realised he would have to change her clothes.

Gently, Roxas sat the girl up and began peeling off her jacket. When it was off, what he saw immediately made anger boil inside of him, until his ocean-blue eyes darkened considerably and his mouth curled into a snarl. Her entire torso was covered in injuries like the ones on her face. Her simple strap top had been ripped into rags, and wherever skin showed there was blood.

Roxas ripped off the tattered remains of the girls' top, barely aware that this left her torso in nothing but a simple black bra, and felt his blood boil as he mentally counted how many cuts, bruises and other signs of abuse littered her skin. A low hiss slipped past his lips as he began to clean her wounds once more. It took him almost an hour, and by the time he had finished bandaging most of the damage he felt like murdering the bastard who had hurt her. It scared him, feeling so protective over a complete stranger, but something about the girl made him feel that he had to protect her. Maybe it was the fact that she'd been beaten half to death.

Roxas left her side briefly to rummage through his wardrobe. He found one of his T-shirts for her to wear, and quickly – being careful of her battered skin – put it on her limp form. It fell to her knees. Next, he held his breath as he peeled off her sodden jeans, but let out a sigh of relief to find them free of any blood or injuries. He then placed the damp cloth on her forehead, and the aspirin and water on the table beside her.

"You're gonna feel like hell when you wake up." Roxas sighed, addressing the unconscious girl with pity. He placed a blanket over her and left the room, walking downstairs and into the living room. He threw himself onto the sofa and held his head in his hands.

"What am I supposed to do?" He groaned aloud, "Take her to the hospital? She's about my age… they'll probably think that I was the one who beat her up."

Roxas laid himself down on the sofa and continued to dwell in his concern until he fell asleep. By the time he woke, sunlight seeped into the room and birds sang outside. The storm had passed.

Sitting up and yawning, Roxas threw a sleepy gaze at the clock sitting on the table beside him to discover it was nine in the morning. He was an hour late for school. Deciding he didn't care and that the girl currently unconscious upstairs was more important, he stood up, stretched, and when to go check on her.

He tapped gently on the door, before slowly entering the room. The girl was still asleep, but instead of lying on her back she was now curled into a ball on her side. Roxas silently walked over to her and watched as her face twisted into painful expressions.

She must have been having a nightmare.

Without really thinking, Roxas gently reached over and placed his hand on hers. He'd only done it as an attempt to relax her, but as soon as their skin made contact her eyes shot open and she practically threw herself out of the bed and against the wall on the other side of the room. Large, violet eyes watched Roxas with such resentment that Roxas squirmed under the gaze. The girls' hair had dried now, and Roxas saw that it was a deep red colour and fell messily around her shoulders. He stood like a statue and watched her with a blank expression, hiding his concern.

"Who are you?" The girl hissed in a voice that was dripping with venom. Roxas watched her eyes dart quickly around the room before falling back on him. "And where am I?"

"I'm Roxas. This is my house." He replied calmly, despite how fast his heart was racing. The girl looked like she wanted to stab him. More than once. "You might want to be careful; you've got a lot of nasty wounds, and moving around too much is gonna hurt."

The girl glared, although Roxas didn't fail to see the fear behind her ferocity. She eyed him warily. "…Why am I here?"

"Because you asked me to help you, so I did."

"Ridiculous. I don't even know who you are, why would I ask you for help? Help with what, anyway?"

Roxas began to feel slightly irritated at the interrogation he was receiving. "How am I supposed to know?" He snapped, meeting her cold glare with one of his own, "I wasn't expecting you to run into me and pass out! I just figured that I should take you out of the rain! If I'd have known that I'd be treated like a criminal for it, I wouldn't have bothered!"

The girls' mouth opened, only to shut again as her fierce look gave way to confusion and worry. She stood up straight, leaving her defensive position against the wall, only to let out a whimper of pain and have her feet give way. Roxas was there before she could fall to the floor, one arm around her waist to support her. Pretty eyes stared up at him like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"I did tell you to be careful," He sighed, carefully walking her back to the bed where he sat her down. He let out a small groan as he collapsed beside her, ignoring her wide, lost gaze that was fixed on his face as he closed his eyes. A few seconds of peaceful silence passed before he heard her speak, all the fire in the voice gone.

"...I'm all bandaged up."

Roxas grunted and opened one eyes to see her with her shirt up, staring down in wonder at the handiwork that Roxas had done the night before. Now that the wounds were out of sight, he felt his cheeks flush as his gaze was immediately drawn to the surprisingly curvy figure of the girl and the amount of cleavage that he could see from the angle he was laying at. It took him less than a second to shoot up and pull her shirt back over her body, rewarding him with a shocked expression plastered on the girls face.

"Let's just keep that shirt covering your body for the mean time." Roxas said weakly, smiling at the girl as her eyes narrowed suspiciously. He coughed, changing the subject. "So what's your name, anyway?"

The girl stayed silent for a few seconds, as though wondering whether to trust him, before answering.

"Kairi."

"Well, Kairi, are you hungry?"

Kairi didn't say anything, but almost on cue the silence was shattered by a growl erupting from her stomach. Roxas smirked slightly as light pink settled across her face.

"I'll… take that as a yes."

Standing up off the bed and stretching, Roxas headed for the Kitchen. He was aware that small, bare feet were quietly padding along behind him, and he smiled to himself. It was good to have some company for once. Once in the kitchen, Roxas went to work on breakfast. He grabbed some bread and shoved it in the toaster, before pouring two glasses of orange juice and handing one to Kairi. She stared at it with a frown as Roxas downed his own. He watched her for a moment.

"You… know what orange juice is… right?" He asked slowly. He face-palmed when she shook her head, her eyes large with wonder as she observed the orange liquid. "It's… It's good stuff. Just drink it." He sighed, and watched her take a small sip. Immediately a small smile stretched across her lips and she drank more. Roxas couldn't help but chuckle to himself at her reaction.

The smell of burning reached his nose, and Roxas turned to see smoke rising from the toaster. "Shit." He quickly walked over and bashed the appliance with his fist, making the toast pop out. It was black. Roxas was about to break the stupid toaster for burning their breakfast when a small hand touched his elbow. He turned to see Kairi, still clinging to her orange juice, looking at the toast with what looked like a smirk on her face.

"If you want… I'll make breakfast. It might be better – not to mention safer – for the both of us." She said quietly. Roxas narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, 'safer'?"

Kairi pointed at the black squares on the counter.

"I don't know what that is, but it's not toast."

Roxas felt his hard face give way to a grin. He sighed dramatically. "Fine, tease me and my amazing skills in the kitchen. Clearly you're jealous. There aren't many who can produce charcoal from bread."

Then, to Roxas' amazement, Kairi laughed.

She actually laughed.

It was only slight, but it was enough to make Roxas' stomach knot up all over again.

Unaware of his awe-struck face, Kairi began rummaging through the cupboards and pulling out random ingredients. Roxas managed to snap himself out of his daze and sat at the table, watching her as she cracked eggs into a saucepan and placed sausages and bacon alongside them. After a few minutes, she spoke.

"So, Roxas… last night, when I ran into you… was there, uh, anyone else around?" She asked timidly, her voice slightly off as she asked the question. Roxas frowned. "No. It was a pretty bad storm, so I doubt anyone was out. Now that the subjects been brought up, what were you doing out, anyway?"

He still hadn't gathered the courage to ask her about all her injuries.

"Oh!" She said, turning over the sausages. "I was just going to the shops for some stuff." Roxas scoffed, feeling slightly irritated that she was lying to him after he'd just practically saved her life. "Right. Because people always go shopping in thunderstorms with bare feet." He said, watching Kairi as she froze momentarily before continuing.

"Really? Bare feet? I didn't notice. I don't really like storms, so I guess I was just in such a hurry that I forgot to put shoes on." Her voice said lightly, her back still facing Roxas' disbelieving expression. He raised an eyebrow. "You were definitely in a hurry, but was it really because you needed to get to the shops?"

"Yes."

It was sudden, and Roxas didn't really know what happened, but his body moved on its own and before he knew it he was standing right behind Kairi with one arm around her waist and the other in her hair, gently playing with random strands of red as he pulled her against him. She let out a gasp and the breakfast was temporarily forgotten as her cheeks flushed considerably. Roxas could feel her heart double in speed and smirked. His eyes had darkened.

"Who were you running from?" He asked quietly, his head tilted down so that his breath tickled her ear and sent shivers down her spine. Roxas wasn't sure what had come over him, but the electricity that was ripping through him was incredible. He'd lost control of his body. Kairi took a shaky breath. "I wasn't-"

Roxas pulled her closer and was rewarded with another gasp and a slight whimper from the red head as he pulled a little on her hair. The sound did unimaginable things to him. "I said," He growled seductively, "who were you running from?"

Kairi's skin grew considerably warmer and Roxas felt another shiver shoot down her spine.

"He- I couldn't-"

All of a sudden the phone rang, and Roxas felt himself regain control as he quickly let go of Kairi and felt himself shake violently. What the hell just happened to him? Kairi, too, was as red as her hair and shaky from the ordeal. Running a hand through his already messy blonde hair, Roxas quickly turned and headed for the phone, leaving Kairi standing in the kitchen with a dozen emotions carved into her face.

Roxas shook his head as he walked away. Whatever had just happened, he lost control and basically harassed a girl who he'd only just met,

And quite frankly, it scared the fuck out of him.

Pushing his thoughts to the back of him mind, he picked up the phone and discovered that it was his school, asking where the hell he was.

"I-I'm… uh… ill?" Roxas said weakly, before coughing dramatically. He could hear the woman on the phone sighing with disbelief, but she went along with his bad acting anyway. After a few minutes of sorting out his absence for the day, Roxas heard a click as the woman from the school's office put the phone down and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Breakfast is ready!"

Swallowing the previous incident, Roxas plastered a smile on his face and returned to the kitchen, finding the most appetising breakfast he'd seen in a while waiting for him. Kairi was clearly pretending that nothing had happened either – although her cheeks were still slightly pink behind all the plasters – and both ate whilst making polite conversation.

Regardless of all the laughing and smiling that passed between the pair, a lot was starting to trouble Roxas.

What had happened to Kairi?

And why was he losing control?