This is my first try on Fanfiction and I would like to finally test the waters. It is about Red and Liz on the run and it will include Angst, Romance and Hurt&Comfort. I try to update as often as possible if you want me to continue.
Unfortunately I don't have a beta so if anyone is interested in that please leave a message.
Rating is T for now but it will change to M.

If Lizzington is not your cup of tea, don't read it!

Raymond Reddington is viewed as a notorious criminal by the US government and they are certainly right about that but he protects those who he holds most dear. He had lost his wife and his daughter and it hurt him every single day. He went on the run on christmas 1990, had to look over his shoulder for 20 years and he could say that he is used to that by now but a life as a fugitive is new for Elizabeth Keen.

It is new for him, too.

Most of the time he was alone.

Of course he has Dembe with him but he pays him even though he knows his friend would stay nonetheless.

He couldn't pay Elizabeth Keen. All he could do was protect her from the common enemy. Those who would dare to get close to her are as good as dead. There is no problem in protecting her. The problem is that he has to live with her, or that she has to live with him from now on. This wasn't something he is used to. He feels okay around random women, who he has encounters with, in his hotel room but his Lizzie isn't a random woman.

She is his everything.

The moment she walked down the stairs at the Post Office was one he would never forget. She was the light that made it into the cave, the light he desperately wanted to catch. It doesn't matter what the media or his associates might think about him but he wanted to be seen as a human being by Liz. For this to happen she had to get to know him and that was something he could not let happen.

"Wow, you're so damaged."

Yes, he absolutely is damaged and in despair. Every now and then the desire to ask her to dine with him or just talk with him about everything and nothing becomes too much to bare. He wonders what her favorite books are, when she had her first boyfriend, if her first heartbreak hurt as much as his. Would they have something in common beside being fugitives, or are they like North – and South Pole?

Like will to like, or opposites attract?

Since she had found out about a part of her past and what he did for her, her behavior towards him changed. Gone was the person who shouted at him and used him as her personal punching bag, and now there was a woman who would brew him his favorite tea in the morning after she had smiled at his drowsy attitude in a way that made him wish he would burn his tongue on his tea.

Because he, of all persons, doesn't deserve a smile like that.

He tries to ignore her gratitude but she made it anything but easy for him as the months pass by.

–

Bali was a wonderful change. Not only because he loved the view from his bedroom, but he wasn't alone with Liz anymore for 24h.

He had missed Putu and her skills. He had pulled the housekeeper into a tight hug the first day and earned a distasteful look from Lizzie. Maybe, he shouldn't have kissed her so deeply but at this moment he wanted her to be angry at him.

He definitely succeeded but it didn't make him feel better, because she didn't look angry.

She looked hurt and he didn't want that.

–

It is a sunny afternoon and if he had to watch Lizzie, who is running around in her black bikini, for a minute longer he would go mad.

She had stopped to make him tea in the morning and her smile vanished from her face since they arrived in Bali.

He calls it a win but now she tries to get his attention by putting on tight fitting summer dresses, or wearing her bikini when she'd go for a swim in his pool. The dark fabric was a complete contrast to her light skin and it makes her look even more beautiful if possible.

It is plain torture.

He picks up his straw hat and fishing pole. There is something about fishing he had always enjoyed. It is a rare moment of peacefulness in his life where he has the opportunity to relax. If he would catch a fish, it would make him happy and if not, he would still be happy. He only wants a moment alone.

As the hours passed by and the sun is about to disappear beyond the Indian Ocean he feels her presence behind him. The warm summer breeze filled with her scent betrayed her. She sits down on the landing stage next to him and eyes him cautiously. She wears a white summer dress, no shoes but her toes are painted red.

Of course it has to be red.

The pole is placed in the middle between two wooden beams, his hands laced together in his lap while he watches the sunset. If their situation was not so messed up this could easily be one of his favorite romantic moments.

How badly he wants to watch a sunset with Lizzie in his arms.

"I didn't know you like fishing?"

"I enjoy the silence while I pretend to fish." He sounds cold and he can't even look at her. Every time he does so reminds him of his failure.

"Why are you doing this?" And she sounds so heartbroken.

"I don't know what you're talking about.", he says and pulls the pole out of the water. The bait-fish is still attached to the hook. He doesn't mind at all.

"You ignore me and I try to figure out why."

"If I had ignored you, I wouldn't talk to you now.", he counters and puts his pole back in place.

"Look. If you don't want me here, I can leave. I'm not willing to be a burden for you." His burden?

"Where would you go? To your ex husband? He can't protect you."

"But unlike you he doesn't treat me as if I'm not there." Now she is angry. It feels so much better when she is angry with him. He deserves it.

"Yes, he only fooled you, hit you and almost got you killed. What a good man he is." He slowly stands up and winced as his knee cracks while doing so.

"You came into my life and wanted me to trust you and I never did until I've found out what you did for me in the past. Now that I do you behave like you don't care. I fail to understand you." She looks up to him now. Literally and figuratively. It has always been the other way around. He looks up to her. She is his ray of light. He shouldn't be hers.

"So do I.", he nods and throws the pole back to the water and adjusted his hat.

The expression on her face almost rips his heart out. He has hurt her. Again! His eyes are fixed on the water that beautifully mirrors the orange colored sky and not on the woman who leaves him alone.

Only small waves can be seen where the hook dove into the water. There is nothing in sight before him. The sun is halfway swallowed by the ocean when he turns around, but she is already gone.

That is what he wanted but does it have to hurt so much?

TBC...

Thoughts? Crappy? Meh? Okay? Or Yay, please more?
Please let me know what you think! :)