I knew it couldn't last forever the moment I walked through the door on the last night I would ever visit that godforsaken bar. The loud familiar music hit me like a fatal blow and I felt trapped, but I'd been trapped for a long time. I knew I couldn't do it anymore, couldn't bare the thought of hanging around in here, using money from the last time to get drunk enough I didn't feel when yet another stranger would take to me and take me home.

I ached all over, physically and emotionally, and was at a new loss. This had been my only hope for survival, it had kept me off living on the streets, gave me money, but each night was spent under a different roof, having a bed hardly did much to give me a good nights sleep, and the money, that was just stealing, but I felt like some sort of prostitute. A prostitute, and if you'd asked me even when I was first running from my family if my life could sink to this low a level, I still wouldn't have believed you.

What sort of a life was this, no matter how perfect the escape might have seemed at the beginning? It finally caught up to me, what I was doing, and I became numb to the escape. It didn't work anymore, like a drug I'd developed a resistance to. Now I only hated myself more and more each time I tried to get high. That final night, stepping through the door, being assaulted by the sounds and sights and smells I'd slowly come to hate, I knew I couldn't let myself survive like this anymore. No survival would be better than this life.

As the strangling feeling overcame me I rushed back outside, hardly noticing the rain beginning to drizzle over me as I took shelter in the dark alleyway behind the bar. This place of refuge however was a very bad idea.

I collapsed against the wall, breathing heavily and feeling my tears mix with the rain as I cried about what my life had become. I couldn't go on like this, but if I stopped I couldn't possibly survive long. I'd been trying to find a job for the past seven months with no luck; I couldn't hold out that something would come up before I starved to death. I'd only been able to get enough food to keep me going for the last few months by my deluded prostitution act. I'd run out of that initial starting fund long ago.

So there that left me, slumped against a wall outside a sleazy bar crying about everything I'd lost and everything I'd never have the chance to gain; love, happiness, a normal fucking life. This was it, I realised after a few cold minutes, this would be the end of my life. Nineteen years old and I was destined to starve to death slowly on the streets, or I figured probably get murdered first if I kept hanging around dodgy parts of town like this.

And for once I let myself cry over it, there was no point pretending I could hold back my feelings like I had before. Before I'd repressed them all in the hope something would get better or believed in the impression it would be easier if I just didn't feel at all. Now it was all too late to matter anyway so I may as well feel. It was close to the end, I wouldn't be suffering long I could see that now. Nothing was going to get better and I just had to accept that this would be it, the end of me. My life had never been destined to come to anything more, like the Universe had just decided it had made a mistake bringing me into existence in the first place, so now it was trying to get rid of me as quickly as possible. I'd fought back for a while but that was hopeless because there was no point. I knew that now. The Universe had just given me a bad hand and I had to accept that.

Over my own sobs I hardly paid any attention to the loud voices drifting round the corner through the rain to where I was hiding, but as they got louder I managed to pull myself together enough to wipe my eyes on my sleeve. As I was drying my eyes the group of rowdy men came round the corner, their voices breaking into loud jeers of triumph as they saw me.

'Aayyy,' one of them drawled, probably the leader of this little gang, the largest out of the lot. 'Here he is!' The gruff looking man exclaimed, moving forward, and with a fearful start I realised he was speaking about me. Scared I looked up, meeting the man's gaze as he'd moved within a few steps of me, and a shiver ran right the way down my spine as a wicked grin spread across the man's face.

'Our favourite little slut,' he added as he moved closer, his gang moving in behind him and I realised too late I was now about to be trapped in a corner. No escape, and with the mangled smile I was receiving from this man that previous thought that I might die soon suddenly became so much more real.

'What- What do you w-want?' I stuttered, taking a stumbling step backwards and reaching out behind me desperately, finding nothing but the wall I'd just successfully backed myself into. It was a stupid question, to be honest, because it was quite clear from the way they were all looking at me what exactly they wanted. It wasn't hard to understand considering apparently over the last few months at the same bar I'd built myself quite a reputation.

'We heard you were selling yourself around a little bit,' the leader drawled with that sickly smile, gaining cheers of agreement from his group behind him. Four in total, and much more than I could ever dream of getting away from, fighting definitely not, and outrunning certainly I was doomed. Maybe this was just some sign of confirmation from the Universe telling me 'yep, you're outta here, I'll make it as painful as possible'. A great big 'fuck you' from the world, it would probably be this very night I was done for. I could see the newspaper headlines now: Gang bang rapes young boy leaving him for dead. And that would be how I go out of the world, hardly graceful, never having been loved or truly cared for. At least I wasn't dying a virgin, I thought darkly.

'We wanted a little taste for ourselves, didn't we boys?' The man continued and I sighed, giving in and letting it happen. I could feel tears slipping down my cheeks as the man stepped close enough now I could smell the alcohol on his breath, and feel his erection pressing against my stomach when he leant closer.

'You're such a sexy little thing,' the man drawled, his hand grabbing me roughly and pressing me against the wall as I closed my eyes, just willing it to be over quickly. At this point I just wanted to die, or at least figured that would be easier now. It wasn't like I had much choice; this was so different from any other time I'd been hit on, sure it wasn't like I hadn't already slept with some sleazy assholes, but there was no procedure here, no flirting, no buying me a drink first, and certainly no consent as the second man moved in planting a wet kiss to my neck as the first pressed against me holding me against the wall. These men had seen something they wanted and I knew they'd stop at nothing to get it, the dark overcast alley only gave them the prime opportunity. Great planning on my part.

Cringing against the repulsive feel of the man beginning to kiss me hungrily, I prayed to the Universe in one last desperate attempt that it would all be over quickly and that there wasn't an afterlife where I would have to go to remember everything that wasn't worth living for. But that was hopeless, there was no saving grace. Nothing to help me now.

'SAM!' the angel called, loudly enough to almost convince me to open my eyes, but what really did it was as the angry angel's voice called out more ferociously the man attacking my lips with his tongue pulled away in as much shock as I was in.

'SAMMY! Get the fuck away from my boyfriend you scumbags!'

I opened my eyes disoriented, delirious, squinting through the rain and fighting to concentrate through the haze of alcohol left in my throat. I was just about able to make out the silhouette of a tall man coming to join our party through the blurry shine of light surrounding him like a halo. The streetlight illuminating him I realised later but with what happened next he may as well have been sent from heaven.

The man so intent on having his way with me backed off, fear filling his eyes as he turned to look at my guardian angel, stepping away from me as the new arrival advanced.

'The fuck do you think you're doing? Touching him like that? You stay the fuck away from my Sammy!' The man warned, rage in his eyes intensifying to pure murder as my attacker tried to protest. 'You dick,' my saviour growled before full on punching the first man in the face. He fell staggering backwards into the wall, blood dripping from his nose as he cried out in pain, I cried out in shock causing the taller man to turn to me as the other members of the gang crowded around to attend to their fallen leader, trying to convince him to hurry off obviously scared of the bigger man.

For a split moment I was able to fully take in the appearance of my saving angel, he was tall, taller than me, not particularly large but intimidating all the same, messy black hair clinging to his face in its dampness, and most strikingly, piercing blue eyes that met mine through the dim light. For that second I was relieved, just about to throw myself onto him out of gratitude until it quickly dawned that as he looked at me he was about to realise I wasn't actually his 'Sammy' and he was probably about to turn around and leave me right back where I started. Or worse, maybe he wanted me just as badly as the other men had and I was in no better a situation.

But the black haired man did neither of those things. Instead he pulled me into a close hug, kissing my the top of my head quickly and putting on a show of great relief. 'This is exactly why I told you not to go running off without me babe,' he said loudly so the men helping the gang leader limp off could still hear. 'I'm just relieved I found you when I did! Never do that to me again okay Sammy, you're scaring me to death!' He added pulling me into another quick hug as the last member twisted back to look at us before they disappeared around the corner into the night, where hopefully, I would never see them again. My angel hugged me to him for a few moments more in which I grew yet more confused, at least until it was clear the men had definitely left and weren't coming back before he let go of me, stepping away to give me an urgent stare.

'Here, walk with me, quickly, let's get you out of here,' he murmured softly and quickly, taking my hand and dragging me along behind him in the opposite direction. I struggled to keep up, grateful for the man for getting me the hell out of this place, but worried about what was going to happen next. At least before, when I'd been ready to accept death, I'd had a plan. Now I was just letting a stranger take me off to god knows where and who knew what would happen, not to mention what on earth this meant from the Universe, my so called destiny, was that original plan to discard me still in place, or did this mean something had changed around?

As I half jogged behind my mysterious saviour I felt an unfamiliar rapturous sense of something it took me a moment to realise was hope. It had been so long since I'd felt anything of the sort, if I'd ever experienced it all, but now for a split second it occurred to me that perhaps something had just gone very right in my life. At the very least it had not gone as downhill as I'd been prepared for. Tentatively I just had to check, I'd been through enough shit to know not to trust this feeling too soon.

'I-I'm not, your…Sam,' I stammered, shivering in the rain it had somehow only just occurred to me was still falling; I was soaked and I was freezing and it amazed me that for once these were not the complete least of my concerns. 'You know that, right, I think- I, you must be- you're mistaken,' I told him blushing and mentally cursing myself because surely now, even if this man was a bit delusional, now he'd know for sure I wasn't his boyfriend 'Sammy', who apparently had a habit of wandering off and getting into trouble. The man surprised me once again however, answering roughly with only a small irritated glance at me from the corner of his attractive gaze.

'I know you're not, you idiot,' he replied hastily, rolling his eyes as we continued to walk at his rapid pace, nearly at the opposite end of the road now, a good hundred meters or so away from the bar, and my own personal hell, from which we'd just come.

'I just had to have a believable story, didn't I? There wasn't any other way I was going to get those scumbags to leave you alone, was there?' he replied angrily and I didn't know if he was just angry at the men, or at me as well. The softer glance he gave me after a second however, contrasting with his harsh tone, communicated a much gentler emotion he was feeling towards me, one that made me feel warm inside and much, much safer, although I wasn't quite sure what that emotion was.

'You- you saved me,' I murmured as we finally slowed to a halt around the corner, standing still in the rain and I allowed myself to look, really look, at the man who'd pulled me straight from hell, my saving grace, my guardian angel. This was my rapture I was sure, it had to be.

'Well someone had to,' the man replied with a dark, yet attractive, smile, much more a grimace in the bleak humour, but I couldn't tear my gaze away from his fascinatingly blue eyes. I felt drawn to him, like he wanted me closer to him and I wanted to be closer to him too.

'I- I, can't thank you enough,' I stuttered, half caused by shivering, half from the nervousness I experienced in his presence; he made me feel so much smaller than I was, somehow more vulnerable, yet safer too, all at the same time. It was a powerful force albeit a strange oxymoronic one. The man whose name I still did not know cocked his head to one side slightly, watching me intently as I stumbled my way towards gratitude and only making me more flustered, that gaze made me feel like I wanted to do everything for him.

'I was scared they were going to…going to-I don't even know,' I choked on the words, trying to comprehend it now but I couldn't. In response the man's face contorted back into that grimace that I was growing to hate; it made him look so angry and hardened to the world, and such a good person as to rescue someone such as me, a stranger who meant nothing to him or the world, someone that perfect didn't deserve to ever experience anything that made them look like that.

'I do,' he replied darkly, glancing around nervously as if he was still expecting that gang to come around the corner suddenly, come back to haunt me. Without realising I took a small step closer to him, feeling safer nearer him.

'I've seen their work before but I'll spare you the details. All you need to know is it's not shit you want to slip and fall into,' he explained, taking a step towards me too resulting in a closeness that made me shiver. His hand brushed my arm slightly as he looked away, distracted for a moment, before turning back to me with that angry expression again that made me cower beneath him.

'Reminds me to ask,' he began again, his voice threatening beneath the conversational tone. He was pissed now, and the darkness to his tone and expression made me feel like I was wanted to break down and cry. 'Why the absolute fuck were you hanging around in a dark alley in this part of town on a Saturday night anyway? It's like you're practically asking for it!' he exploded, much less casual now, and I shrank back away from him, nervous. I hadn't wanted to upset him. 'You weren't, were you? Asking for it?' he added looking wild and scared now, and I quickly shook my head in a violent no.

'No, not exactly, not- not like that anyway,' I tried to explain badly, wondering if he somehow knew what my way of life had been up until tonight. If he didn't I promised myself not to tell him, sure that wouldn't do well for his anger management. He didn't seem like the type of guy to get on the wrong side of and well, he had saved me so I owed him that much at least, but it was too late anyway. Of course it was.

'There's no point trying to deny it now, you self destructive idiot!' he fired back, raising his voice to the point I was worried someone would hear. 'You've got quite an underground reputation at that place from what I've heard, considering you're what, 18 at the most. You're cute, don't get me wrong, but that's probably why there's a fucking waiting list for you! Yeah, you heard me right, a bunch of sick fucks who can't wait to get their disgusting little hands all over you, and those guys back there, they were just tired of waiting their turn but they would have had you sooner or later! You're only a kid for fuck's sake, this can't be what you want, can it, enabling a parade of filthy, perverted men in their sick fetishes, does that get you off, letting men twice your age put their hands all over you, grope you, cum all over you, do they make you get them off, do they take you from behind up against a toilet stall, is that really the life you want?!'

The man's voice had grown louder and more fierce over the course of his speech and I'd quickly grown more and more uncomfortable, cringing at the truth behind his words, the rash way he made everything that had happened to me the last few months so real, and so raw, and so painful. He just kept digging down, unearthing everything I'd fought so hard to keep covered.

'Stop,' I moaned softly, tears falling fast from my eyes now as I just wanted him to stop. I couldn't take any more but he only kept going, deeper and deeper.

'No, you need to hear this. What are you trying to do here? Is this some sort of screwed up bet? Or are you just a suicidal idiot with no brains, because it's a different pervert every night and you're going to get yourself murdered if you keep it up, not to mention a HIV status, assuming of course you haven't already. I just don't understand your game plan here, enlighten me!' he demanded as I cowered against the wall away from him but feeling no inclination to continue to hide it all. I wondered what it was about this man that made me want to tell him absolutely everything, why did I feel like I could trust him, what was so different about him to everyone else?

'It's not like I had a choice,' I admitted, trying so hard to sound a little more convicted than I had, the words trembling out rather than the force I'd meant them to come with. But instead of sympathy this only set the man off all over again leading me closer and closer to break down.

'Of course you had a choice you spoon!' the black-haired man exploded, his anger making me tremble on the spot and cause the tears to begin spilling from the corner of my eyes again. 'It's called stay the fuck away from people like that! Don't let them near you, just what the hell happened to you to make you so damaged that this is what you have to resort to?!' he demanded to know and at that question it all became too much. It had been a long time coming but suddenly I couldn't bear to think about it because he was right, I was damaged now in so many ways I hadn't even realised it was happening. It all started with the rejection, the disowning, that beginning, but in trying just to survive that I'd tortured myself anew and only made things worse, perhaps now I was just unfixable. My angel may have saved me from one fate but I was in no way saved completely and probably never could be. I was still in danger, a danger to myself it seemed, I didn't think there was anything that could fix me now.

The tears came with no regard to my dignity, cascading down my face and bringing with them sobs that wracked my entire body. There was no mercy, and finally the man caved, but I couldn't see the guilty expression that befell his features now. I could only barely hear his sympathetic words of comfort, but I could definitely feel his warm figure wrapping around me completely, nothing more than a complete stranger hugging me tightly to them, but it had been so long since I'd had any innocent human contact; sometimes you just need a close hug every now and again.

'Hey, hey, don't cry, I'm sorry, I don't want to upset you, hey, come on, I'll take you home, you're safe now, you've learnt your lesson I'm sure, you're going to be okay,' he murmured reassuringly and I came back into the conversation as he mentioned the word home, expecting that to set me off all over again. It didn't, instead it did the opposite, my sobs choking to a hold, my tears freezing up inside me.

'You can't. I don't have a home,' I whispered, voice strangled from the emotion so I felt strangely dead inside. Feeling too much, it was like that had killed me.

'Okay,' the man replied, unfazed, stepping back from me now but keeping his hand in mine, holding me down to earth where I'd threatened to let go. 'You can come home with me and you can tell me all about it. I'm here for you now, I'll take care of you,' he told me softly giving me something that almost equated to a small smile and it took an equally small weight off my shoulder, just the promise of finally having someone to talk to, that was overwhelming enough, but he was giving me a place to stay too and that was just too much to have ever asked for.

'Are you sure?' I gasped in disbelief, still having just as little a clue as to why this man was bothering at all, couldn't he see the Universe had given up on me, there was no hope for me, I wasn't worth anyone's time and effort. But as I allowed myself to hope anyway, looking up at the man with what was as close to a smile as I was going to get to, the man smiled back truly and sympathetically, a very foreign expression to me.

'I don't just rescue anyone,' he replied, one side of his mouth curling up more in a sad grin and I felt a rush of affection for this man I didn't know. Spending a moment to gaze up at him in wonder I felt renewed hope that there was some good left in the world after all; I'd been growing understandably skeptical.

'Now, let's get you somewhere warmer, you're shivering,' the man noticed at the same time I did, meriting this as a much more worrying problem now relative to what it had been before. Now that I'd been promised somewhere to stay, at least for tonight, with no strings attached, I was eager to get to that place dry, the promise of warmth better than anything.

He put his arm around me again, tucking me snugly into his side as we began to walk again and I let him guide me. It was a nice feeling, being held close to someone who had no further intention, a contact I'd never experienced before, but something I liked. It made me feel like a person for once, like I was human again, like the one holding me against him actually cared.

We walked and walked and walked for what seemed like hours through the rain. Not knowing where we were going I had only my trust in the man who treated me like I was real, and eventually his promise held true and we arrived at a towering block of flats. I gasped as the warm air hit me when he opened the door, and I moved into the warm, dry building gratefully as the man moved in quickly behind me, throwing an anxious glance back out towards the cold, hard world he'd saved me from.

'This way,' he muttered, taking my arm, not roughly, but pulling me with him as he unlocked a second door leading into a stairwell that was slightly colder. Several flights later I was finding myself welcomed into his studio flat, which was by far the nicest out of the many tens of others I'd found myself in over the last few months. Of course in those instances, the owners' of such flats often weren't one for giving me much time to look around. This time around however the man whose name I still did not know let go of me as soon as we were inside and moved off to the kitchen, leaving me to enter more slowly and take my time.

'Do you want a drink?' the man called from the kitchen before re-entering the room carrying a glass containing what looked liked straight vodka and cautiously I shook my head, the smell alone making me gag just from pure association; I'd spent too many nights of my life being assaulted by that smell. The man luckily took no offence, instead only crossing the room carrying the bottle of vodka and his glass before downing the drink in one and setting the glass on the table, not pouring another yet, but sitting on the sofa and beckoning me over to sit next to him with that sympathetic look again, a soft look of pity.

'So, you going to tell me what's going on? You can trust me you know,' he murmured softly as I allowed myself to settle next to him on the sofa, sitting awkwardly on the edge and feeling very small as I looked up at him. He had a cautiously intrigued expression on as he examined me closely, a curiosity about me that at first I was uncomfortable about. At least until I realised that right now he was the only person in the entire world who actually cared and he was showing it, so right then I made the decision to trust him, putting aside my fears developed from months of social and emotional isolation, breaking down my own barriers.

And with that I launched into the story, the whole depressing ordeal that had become my life, explaining everything to this man, letting go and spilling all my secrets. I let it all out where I'd bottled everything up inside for so long only because I had no one to talk to and couldn't risk emotionality when there was survival to fight with. Now, safe in a stranger's arms, I could allow myself to feel, and taking advantage of that I let myself feel it all.

For what seemed like hours I sat there and spoke, my voice coming out numb with the pain of it all, but somehow making me feel lighter just to get it out, to let someone else know what I'd gone through and what it'd made me do. Finally I could let go of everything I'd been holding back all these months, every emotion and thought I'd been too scared to think. I spilled my soul out to this man and more importantly he listened. I told him everything there was and he just sat and listened to me like no one had ever bothered to before. By the time I'd finished it was technically the next morning, after I'd told the man all about how I'd had to run away from home and how alone I'd been forever and how my only option for survival had been what I'd done, how terrified I'd been the whole time no matter what I tried to tell myself, how much hope I'd lost…

'Well, up until tonight,' I found myself murmuring softly sometime early that morning where I'd relaxed into the man's side now, letting him hold me close to him, glad just for the contact as he'd taken it upon himself to be there for me.

'I think you've given me some back,' I admitted barely loud enough for myself to hear, I thought, let alone him. But he did and when he spoke again for the first time in hours as he'd let me ramble on and on and get it all out, taking care to hold me tighter when the emotions became too strong and I had to break down crying for a moment, he'd silently let me get through it, knowing it needed to be said; now his voice was rough after so long a silence.

'I'm glad,' he said, voice catching in it's softness. 'You seemed to have lost a lot. At least now I know why,' he murmured gently, rubbing his thumb gently up and down my arm and he held me against him. 'Why did you never think to get help?' He added curiously after a delicate moment and I looked up at him frowning.

'I didn't think anyone could help me. Or anyone would. What would be the point?' I asked meeting his eyes with a certain sadness because that was the one thing I still could not understand; why this man would bother in the first place. He read this question easily in my eyes and his blue eyes softened before he glanced away into the distance, staring across the room.

'I'd been going to that bar a while, I'd seen the sort of slum that passes through and I was used to that. I only went because the drinks were cheap, so that first night I noticed you it immediately felt like something was out of place.

I remember looking at you thinking fuck, he can't be more than 18, and I was wondering what on earth you were doing in a god-awful place like this.' He paused to chuckle darkly before continuing his side of the story. I listened intently, hanging on his ever terrifying word.

'I was trying to keep an eye on you, sort of wanted to go up and talk to you, just to make sure you were okay, but then I saw you flirting pretty heavily with this one guy and he seemed to be pretty friendly. I figured he must be your boyfriend so when you went home with him a few drinks later I thought nothing of it.

But then the next night you were back again and you looked a little more desperate. You were looking around the crowd nervously and I thought you were looking for that boyfriend of yours but well, turns out you weren't as I realised soon enough. Once a different guy had latched onto you it confused me when you started flirting back, eventually going home with him. I wondered what had happened to the last one but tried not to think too much of it. It wasn't like I could really do much about it if you decided to have a few one night stands, it was your life after all. Who was I to interfere?

But you kept coming back, night after night, a different guy each time and it wasn't hard to notice that each night you looked a little more… dead inside, like the life was slowly being drained out of you. It never looked like you wanted to be here, it all seemed forced and that just didn't seem right to me.

I tried to figure you out, you were like some self destructive impossible puzzle, and that intrigued me, but by this point it was apparent I wasn't the only one who'd noticed your pattern; I tried to ask someone if they knew what was going on with you and nearly got in a fight cause he thought I was trying to cut in line.

That's how I discovered the waiting list hanging in one of the bathroom stalls and I was sure it had gone too far, you were still only a kid and you'd become some sort of plaything for fuck's sake, you never looked happy enough about it to want to be there and I was sure this could only end badly. Guess I was right.

So I decided it was up to me to look out for you. I destroyed the list, you really don't want to know, and I kept an eye on you. Good thing for you 'cause it meant I overheard that gang of lowlifes plotting to get in before their rightful turn with you. That was the same night I saw something in you snap, like the last bit of life and hope had trickled out of you,' the man concluded with a dark smile before shaking his head sadly at me.

'I should have stepped in earlier, you've been through some shit,' he added and it was my turn to smile that sickly smile at my close demise.

'You could say that,' I answered before looking away, wondering if it could really all be a little bit better now. The promise that followed seemed to answer that for me at least.

'You're okay now though. It's all over, you don't have to do it anymore. I can take care of you now, for as long as you need, as long as you want,' he promised softly, hopefully even, and I looked up, meeting his kind blue eyes again and feeling some unfamiliar warm rush of affection for this stranger who'd been so willing to put his own safety on the line just to protect me. He really had been like my guardian angel, looking out for me all this time as best he could. Not that I'd made things easy for him.

'Thanks,' I murmured softly with the first genuine smile I'd smiled in months. But that wasn't nearly enough gratitude for my saving grace, he'd literally saved my life but I didn't know anyway to show affection, I'd never felt it before, let alone on this level. I tried my best to explain, not really explaining at all but he understood, I could tell.

'You don't know how much you've helped me, how much you've saved me,' I added through the smile and the man answered with an amused smile, the corner of his mouth twitching up at the side, tongue just poking through his teeth.

'You don't even know my name,' he replied grinning, that small laugh making me feel as young as I was when I realized he was right.

'Phil, since you never asked,' he added still with that perfect grin that shone through those blue, blue eyes, and my own smile relaxed somewhat, putting a name to the face of my angel. Somewhat overcome now, I thought what a nice name that was, had a certain power and respect to it, a comfortable name, someone I could feel safe with. Finally.

'Dan,' I replied quietly and Phil's face split one more into a softer smile as he met my eyes for a long time, still holding me close as I looked up at him and blue melded with brown.

'You're safe now Dan,' he murmured gently, and smiling, I believed him. I truly felt safe for the first time in possibly ever. And smiling at that I relaxed into his hold, laying down with my head on his shoulder as we settled back into the couch. For the first time ever I fell asleep that night in another's arms feeling I was somewhere better than alone and that feeling meant the world to me.