An elderly lady drinking her herbal tea looked at the pair of teens sitting in the farthest table in the teashop and wondered what the handsome young man had said to cause such a look of horror to appear on the beautiful young lady's face. She couldn't know that he had just asked her if she was scared of him. If she could read the young non-couple's minds, she would have smiled lightly and remembered what it was like when she had experienced the stirrings of love for the first time. Since she couldn't read their minds, she mentally sent some good vibes their way before heading back home to her husband of 50 years. The teens in question continued their conversation without noticing their audience leave.

"Of course I'm not scared of you, Patrick. Why would you think that?"

"Well, Kat, let's see. We agreed to keep our budding friendship under wraps so as to not give the gossip hounds anything to talk about. Some assholes attack you at a party where I promised to protect you. I finally arrive and get them off you while a crowd of our classmates watch. You barely speak to me all week, and lie to get away from me. Fear is the most common response to my presence at Padua High, and after being hurt by some guys I can understand you believing some of the hype about me."

Kat was surprised that Patrick was being so forthcoming about his thoughts on what happened at the party and this past week. She wondered if the rumors about him bothered him more than he let on. She decided to get to the bottom of one of his statements before going into any details on her feelings. Putting off the inevitable is a stupid idea, but I want to finish my tea in peace.

"You never promised to protect me. You only signed up for helping me watch my sister, which you did."

"I might not have made the promise aloud, but it was still made." Patrick replied, tensely. Kat realized that he felt guilty, so she tried to put him at ease. She knew it wasn't his fault; he had saved her, for goodness sake.

"Patrick, while I appreciate the sentiment. I didn't ask you to protect me, so you have nothing to feel guilty about. I…"

"I don't feel guilty."

"Sure you don't. You're not exactly Joe Cool, Verona. I can see guilt when it's right in front of me. You have no reason to feel that way. I was the one stupid enough to follow him into that room."

Kat looked away when saying this last part, not wanting Patrick to see the embarrassment in her eyes. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't the only perceptive one at the table. Patrick realized he was finally getting to the reason for following Kat to the mall in the first place. He was surprised by her embarrassment. She hadn't been stupid, she had been worried about her sister. If he had a sibling, he would have done the same thing, screw the consequences. And that's exactly what he told her. She looked back at him in surprise.

"You don't have any siblings?"

"Nope. My mom decided one of me was more than enough."

"And your dad?"

Kat hesitated before asking, remembering the picture she had found on the bathroom floor and Patrick's reaction when he realized it wasn't in his bag. She had never brought up his family in any of their conversations, hoping he would open up without her having to pry. She took his voluntary mention of being an only child and having a mom as a sign that she could question him. She noticed Patrick's muscles tense, before he let out a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders.

"I don't have a dad." And that was that. He continued. "But back to my point, you weren't being stupid. You were willing to do whatever it took to keep your sister safe, including going into a situation that was risky. You shouldn't feel embarrassed."

"Yeah well, I'm supposed to be able to take care of myself. I worked my ass off to make sure I was never vulnerable again."

Kat looked into her empty cup, and then closed her eyes. She pushed back memories of another time when a guy had hurt her, that time emotionally and mentally. Taking a deep breath, she looked back into Patrick's eyes and tried to get across her need to keep some of her thoughts to herself for now. She watched a frown form on his face, but it cleared after a few seconds and a look of acceptance appeared in its wake. She decided she could get used to having silent conversations with Patrick Verona, but didn't plan on dropping too many of her shields just yet. Protection was necessary; she had learned that the hard way, multiple times.

Patrick realized there was a lot more to this story than he realized, but he knew she wouldn't tell him everything in the middle of a mall, not to mention after so little time as friends. He knew she understood he was only accepting her silence for the moment. The time would come when she would have to share more of her darker thoughts. He wasn't going to be the only one letting down some walls. Deciding to just concentrate on the situation directly at hand, he responded.

"It's impossible to never be vulnerable, Kat. We just have to push through the tough times to get to the good ones."

"Look who's getting philosophical."

"Hah, you haven't seen me being philosophical. You'll know without a doubt when that happens. For now, just tell me that you aren't going to hide from me behind some stray dogs or naked mole rats again."

"I wasn't hiding. I was helping those beings that are underappreciated by society. There's a difference."

"You keep telling yourself that, Stratford. Now that that's settled, I've got somewhere to be. You heading back to the bookstore?"

Kat got up from the table as well, nodding her head.

"I'll walk you back."

"Well aren't you quite the gentleman." Kat smirked, hiding her apprehension about where Patrick and she were heading with this flirtatious friendship. They walked quickly to the bookstore.

"Like I said - you haven't seen anything yet."

With that, he gave a short wave and sauntered towards the closest exit.

"So did anything exciting happen at the bookstore?"

Kat gave her sister a weird look before turning her eyes back on the road.

"No. Did you find your outfit?"

Bianca frowned, wondering if Patrick had forgotten where they'd be.

"You didn't bump into anyone?"

Kat started in surprise, but kept her eyes on the road.

"I told you. No."

Bianca smiled to herself, knowing he had showed. Kat wouldn't be so calm about her prying if she hadn't been in a good mood.

"Oh, ok then. Well my top is super cute! It's baby pink with puffy sleeves and a v-neck. Not to puffy, 'cause that'd be so last year, but…"

Kat zoned her sister's details about her outfit out and thought about her conversation with Patrick. Next time, she was uncovering some of his secrets. I wonder what his Thanksgiving plans are…

A.N. Sorry this took so long to update. I probably won't be writing again until my classes finish at the end of April. Hope you enjoyed it!