Victoria waited until Alex was the only other person in the room before speaking again, shakily. "...God." she muttered simply, moving her head towards her shoulder to clean the blood off her cheek.

Alex walked up to her, ignoring the guilt gnawing at him from the inside. He sat down next to her, wishing he could wrap his arms around her. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"It's okay." she told him- a little white lie, as she saw it. She didn't want him to worry, even if not worrying was a little impossible at this stage. "It wasn't your fault." That much was true.

"No, it's not. I was an idiot. I see them differently, because they're my dads and they've never been anything but accepting, but they're dangerous. I can't deny it, and yet I still let this happen. Stupid!" He would have punched himself if he could. He felt Victoria lean her head into his arm, and he leaned his head onto hers. "This is my fault."

"No, it's theirs. You couldn't have known." she assured him, resting her head on his shoulder to remind herself that he was right there. Her cheek still stung, but at least it wasn't bleeding any more. "Well, at least we know what not to do in the future." She gave him a forced smile.

"You know, Romeo and Juliet never told their family about their relationship, and it ended up in three murders and three suicides. I think their ending was happier," he said, cracking a smile.

"I suppose my earlier comparison was actually more accurate than we first thought." she remarked, looking over to him and making a small gesture with her eyes towards her cheek. "It's a shape, right? I can't see it." she asked him quietly.

Alex nodded. "A heart. Jim must think he's freaking hilarious. The bastard..."

"...Ah." she nodded. "How bad is it, do you think? I can't really tell from here." she asked softly.

"Don't worry, it hasn't damaged your beautiful face. Nothing could," he teased.

Victoria gave him a small smile in response. "I hope not."

"...I know it might be dumb to worry about it at a time like this, but still, I need to know. After this whole situation is cleared up, you'll probably never want to see me again."

"I will." she assured him. "I just don't know if it'll be possible, with both our sets of parents knowing. They'll probably pay close attention to make sure we don't see each other. I hope it'll be possible anyway."

"I was gonna say, with all this happening, you should stay away from me. I don't want you getting hurt because of me ever again."

"It wasn't because of you, it was because of your family." she assured him.

"But it was. You heard him. " He motioned towards her face. "He hurt you to punish me. And probably to piss off your father too. "

"I'm not blaming you." She made a small shrugging motion with her shoulders.

"You should. Then you could join the club. I'm the leader, Jim's the founder, and your dads are the newest members," he said with a smile, trying to cheer her up. "I'll be that person who shows up at the door of your club protesting all the meetings." she replied, offering a small smile in return.

"Do you ever wish you had a different family?" he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

"...Sometimes," she admitted. "I'm sure you do."

"I mean, they really do care about me," he took notice of Victoria's incredulous look. "In their own way. I know, it's hard to tell. But sometimes, I just wish I hadn't grown up the way I did. Every week them running off and me not knowing if they'll be killed or arrested, or the training they forced on me..." In the six months they were together, he'd never revealed to her his true capabilities, like how he could kill a man barehanded in five different ways, he thought it would scare her off.

"They trained you? To do what?" she asked him. They knew each other well, it wasn't often that they learned something about the other that they didn't already know. Thus, it was strange when they did.

"How to fight, handle a weapon, all sorts of rubbish like that. And not just for defense," he said, keeping it a bit vague. He looked at her closely, trying to determine her emotions. Honestly? He'd kind of enjoyed learning these things, but he didn't want Victoria to distrust him.

Victoria furrowed her brows, "You've never brought it up before." she murmured, looking confused, although not upset.

"I'm not exactly proud of it. Besides, what good did it do today, when I needed it the most? Of course, they taught me everything I know, just not everything they do."

"It wasn't your job to be stronger than them." she assured him. "And you don't have to be ashamed of anything, either."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." But then he cracked a smirk. "Although, there is one skill I've been perfecting myself. Takes a while, but it comes in handy" he said, putting his arm over her shoulder, grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh, really now?" she murmured, putting her head on Alex's shoulder.

Alex gave a chuckle. "Victoria, I know you're a little stressed and completely missing the obvious because of it, but what is A, resting on your shoulder, B, not behind my back, and C, not restrained anymore?" he asked, waiting for the realisation to hit her.

Victoria paused for a second before grinning widely. "You're brilliant, Alex."

He got up, starting to work on the ropes that held her down. "A trick my dad taught me. Remember how I said they care about me in strange ways? Jim doesn't know my dad taught me. Plus, why else would he convince him to leave me here with you? Gotta love him sometimes." He let the last knot loose, helping her up and wrapping his arm around her. "Sorry it took so long, but it's harder when my hands are behind my back. Looked more believable, I guess."

Victoria rubbed her wrists and stood up, steadying herself a little bit. "We should get out of here before they figure it all out. That didn't go so well last time." she urged him.

"I'd say the window, but it's too high up. And even if I did lift you up, it might be too small." It probably wasn't too small, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to lift her anyways. He very nearly broke his own wrists trying to get out of the binds, and was hiding how much it actually hurt him. His hands were now basically useless when it came to applying force, unless he wanted to finish the job.

"Hmm..." Victoria thought for a moment. "We can't very well go up the stairs because they'd hear the door open, and the window wouldn't work. Is there a way we can get out without going upstairs? Is this the only room in the basement?"

"No, but we have the same situation. Just more windows made so that only anorexic pixies could make it through." He saw the hope she had in her face diminish."But we could try. I'm not sure I could fit, but you probably could." He hoped she appreciated the things he did for her. Then again, she was so amazing, she probably did. He quickly snapped out of it, now wasn't the time to get distracted.

"Not if I'm only fitting through. We're either both going or neither of us are." Victoria said firmly. "Worth a try, though. What do you think we could use in here to stand on? And we need a plan for once we get out the window."

"I have a plan. You run. Really, really fast." He looked around the basement. They didn't really use it much, so there wasn't really anything in there. "Let me just give you a lift, okay? If I can't make it through, doesn't matter. This is my house after all, and I can't really run away from it. I knew I was going to get in trouble for helping you from the start, I chose this. They won't hurt me, not like they would hurt you. I just want you safe. Now get on," he said, knitting his hands together.

Victoria nodded before standing tentatively onto the step created by Alex's hands and climbing up onto the window frame. "At least try to follow." she told him, pushing the window open and crawling through the small space.

Alex was shaking, successfully keeping himself quiet, until he felt his wrist snap. He yelled against his will, dropping to the ground, cradling his wrist, unintentionally causing Victoria to lose her grip. The noise had been heard upstairs and they quickly heard the locks on the door unlatch and footsteps go down the stairs. "Oh, fuck," Alex muttered under his breath.