Oh I beg you, can I follow?
Oh I ask you, why not always?
Be the ocean, where I unravel
Be my only, be the water where I'm wading.
You're my river running high,
Run deep, run wild.

…

Eden slowly flicked the light on and off in the closet, the bright glow making her wince with every illumination. The small, cheap alarm clock by her empty bed beamed a determined "3:00 AM" throughout the room with its red digits. She wanted to sleep, she really did, but every time she closed her eyes Eden heard Argent. Specifically, one line wouldn't let her exhausted brain rest.

"You are, and forever will be, mine. Do you hear me? No matter how many dicks you fuck, Eden, none of them will ever want you! Why? Because you're a whore, Eden. You're nothing more than a dirty tramp!" Eden's mind repeated, just as if Argent were once again screaming it at her.

Trembling, Eden allowed her body to slump down the doorjamb until she was in a fetal position on the floor. Stop thinking about it, she was wrong. An evil person, She thought.

"You always were a dumbass, weren't you? You'll never kill me, Eden, because you're no good for anything other than a warm hole!"

"Shut up" Eden said quietly, squeezing her eyes shut and allowing her tears to flow freely. Argent has known you almost all of your pathetic life, and the entire time she's degraded and humiliated you. It's bullshit. Everything that ever came out of her mouth, it was all—

"I'm surprised that it took this long for that boy who stole you to get tired of your useless cunt"

"SHUT UP!" Eden shouted through tears, slamming her fist into the drywall and cracking away the cheap plaster; creating a large hole just beside the closet door.

"Whoa, what the hell?" came a familiar gruff, but concerned, voice from the bedroom doorway.

Flustered and still sprouting tears, Eden turned slowly to face Mello. "I'm sorry" she said, wiping her tear-stained face. "I'm—I've—It's just…" Eden paused, taking a deep breath, "Is everything okay? I haven't seen you for a few days"

Mello stared blankly at her for a few seconds before he crossed the room and sat on the bed, motioning for her to sit beside him as he began to take off his boots. "Work is heating up right now. Want to talk to me about the new rat hole in the wall?" he asked, glancing at her in between untying his laces.

"By heating up you mean…?" Eden tried to appear the least concerned possible. "The cops have started sniffing around you guys, or…?"

"Please, we have more cops under our thumb than the commissioner does. Besides, just a hint, when I give you a surface answer, it's the nice way of saying mind your own damn business" Mello shot out, his frown deepening as Eden flinched. He sighed, "I mean, look you're not getting anywhere near my place of work anymore. Not to mention, you're never touching another gun. So, none of it is your concern. End of conversation"

Eden snorted, shaking her head. "Yeah, okay, I get it" she stated, rising from the bed hurriedly. However, before she could exit the room, Mello caught her by the wrist.

"Wait" Mello said, "You know that's not what I meant. Sit down, come on"

"Can I ask you something, and actually get an honest answer?" said Eden, returning to her seat.

"Hmm?" Mello grunted, returning his focus to his boot.

Eden fidgeted, "Why am I here?" when Mello gave her a questionable look, Eden continued. "Sorry, I mean—Not existentialism, like 'why am I here?', I mean 'Why am I here', with you?" In the moments that followed, Eden could feel her heart racing inside her chest and something in her beginning to panic. "It's not like I'm really of any use, I clean sometimes, but I'm really just a burden on you and—"

Mello's stoic eyes cut into her and ripped her thoughts right out of her head as his rough hand gently cupped her face. Tenderly, he dragged his thumb across her bottom lip. "You…" he began, as if about to speak, before he resolutely closed his mouth and brought his lips to hers instead.

Her eyes fluttered shut instinctively, and slowly she felt her body fold into his. Everything about the blonde possessed her as his long fingers wrapped around her shoulders. When an impatient whimper escaped her mouth, he suddenly shifted—one hand buried in her smooth hair; mussing it and pulling her further into his intoxication at the same time.

Eden could feel the heat on her face and rapid rhythm of her heartbeat in her ears as she allowed Mello to gently ease her back on the bed, the blonde looming over her. "It's been too long, hasn't it?" Mello said playfully, smirking heartily at her flushed features.

"Well, I know how important your work is to you, and I can be patient" she replied bashfully, her voice already ragged from his attentions.

The stare she received in return was serious and hard for a second before it once again burned up into lustful amusement. "Let's see just how patient you can be," Mello said deviously, his smirk larger.

He bent over her, making her squirm in spite of the fact that both of them were fully clothed; the painfully light friction between their bodies was enough to make Goosebumps rise on her skin. As Eden shakily inhaled a breath, Mello's lips exhaled one agonizingly close to the tender skin of her neck; his mouth not even half a centimeter away, ready to strike. When she let out a gasp, it was all the motivation he needed to promptly assault her neck with kisses.

"You tease" Eden managed to say, husky and severed by a whimper. He knew exactly where and how to strike her weak points, making it effortless to break her down.

Gently, he groped her breast before harshly tweaking her nipple; rewarding himself with a hiss of pleasure from the flushed girl writhing under him. Pausing at the crook of her neck again, his breath pooled deliciously a top her skin as he made his decision to pursue her sensitive ear rather than her collarbone—both of which drove her equally fast towards submissiveness. As much as Mello enjoyed her occasional dominance in bed, it was far more enjoyable to watch her squirm.

And squirming she was, his teasing of her earlobe with his tongue was driving her to the brink. She whined impatiently. Eden didn't hate foreplay, in fact she preferred it, but Mello already had her desperate for release and he had yet to touch her in the one place she wanted it the most.

He kissed a trail from her neck to her collarbone, gently biting the exposed skin before moving down to the prominent nipples in her t-shirt, which he also gently applied his teeth to. "P-Please?" Eden whined in spite of herself, nearly drooling.

Mello's smirk wavered slightly as he looked up at her, his own arousal starting to show through the cracks in his expression. "What was that?" he asked coyly.

"God dammit" Eden said, exasperated. She arched her back; a clear effect from Mello's fingertips lightly tracing the skin just below her bellybutton, "Please, please, don't tease me anymore!"

"You have no idea," said Mello, leaning over her and growling into her ear, "How much fun it is to watch you tremble" And with that, his teeth bit gently into her neck.

Eden gasped, followed by a guttural groan. "Please, please, please" she urged rapidly as she grabbed one of his hands and dragged it towards the hemline of her t-shirt. She could feel his will start to break, as much as he wanted to tease her, Eden knew her reaction was getting to him. Her lips were red and plump from biting, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes half-lidded and moist with desperate tears; "Please, Mello, I need you"

And that was all she had to say.

…

Looking at the ceiling, the two of them laid in the bed. Eden spoke first, comfortably tucked into Mello's shoulder. "So, why don't you want me to know about your work?" she asked.

Mello sighed and began to get up from the bed, automatically making Eden frown as he began to re-dress. "You're in over your head" he stated.

Eden sat on her knees, the thin sheet gathered around her naked form. "Wait a second, what the hell does that mean?" she asked, feeling her anger bubble up with ease. Once again, Mello was going to fuck her and then run off to the gang.

"It means exactly what it sounded like. Stop asking questions you don't want to know the answer to" Mello retorted grumpily, slipping on his leather pants and walking out the doorway into the kitchenette.

"I'm still talking to you!" Eden exclaimed, following him with the sheet haphazardly wrapped around her. "If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't ask. You spend almost every waking minute there, and if you haven't noticed I kinda give a shit. I know it's something dangerous, otherwise you would just tell me so I'd stop asking. So, what is it? Are you in trouble?"

Mello wearily relived a chocolate bar of its wrapper, "Look, the last time I took you to the headquarters, you shot someone—that's on me. I'm not putting you in a similar situation again. Honestly, the less you know the better" he said.

"Seriously?" Eden stated in disbelief. "That's what this is about? Aside from the fact that he earned that bullet, you weren't the one that pulled the trigger. I don't need you to protect me, I can do it myself. You don't have to worry about me!"

He fixed her with a hollow stare, something saddening the corner of his eyes as he spoke. "It's not you I'm worried about" It's what I'm doing to you that worries me, he finished in his thoughts, You aren't a killer, you aren't like me. You can't be. The world doesn't deserve another one.

Eden hesitated, shocked by his words. "You… You're afraid I'll kill someone else?" she asked quietly.

Mello pushed away his thoughts, swallowing her bitterness. "No, it's not—" he said, but was cut off almost as soon as the words left his lips.

"You're lying!" Eden exclaimed angrily. "Look, I know I've done some serious shit lately, but that's no reason to keep me locked up in this box!" she said, motioning to the small apartment around her. "I just want to help you, instead of lying around here being useless. No one's looking for me anymore, there's no reason why I have to stay here!"

He felt her hit a nerve, the twinge of guilt he felt in himself for letting Eden descend to his level; letting her get blood on her hands. "Then why are you?" he asked coldly, almost in physical pain as he felt his chest throb at the sight of her crushed expression.

"I thought…" Eden trailed off before shaking herself out of the abused expression and into a furious one. "Stop jerking me around, Mello! Do you want me here, or do you want me to leave?" she nearly shouted, once again feeling tears well up in her eyes. "What the hell am I to you? I'm completely transparent to you, in spite of literally and figuratively stripping down in front of you. I've entirely poured myself into this, into you—and you just leave me waiting here? When are you going to tell me what this is for you?"

Time seemed to slow down in that second. Mello knew what would happen; if he said he wanted her, she would stay. But, if he told her to leave… she would be free of him. The only problem was; he wasn't entirely sure he could let her go. He stared at her; the beautiful sex-mussed dark hair, porcelain face absent of makeup—the face she'd only let him see the vulnerable-ness of. In spite of that, he knew she was tough; that she could take it.

"Go" was all he said as he crossed the room to her, stuffing a crumpled 100$ into her palm.

As he returned to the bedroom to assemble the rest of his clothing, he heard her knees hit the ground behind him. Something in him strained painfully as he kept his back turned, closing the door on her wet sobs.

It was better this way. It was better alone.

…

You're my river running high,
Run deep, run wild.
I, I follow, I follow you.
Deep sea baby, I follow you.
I, I follow, I follow you.
Dark doom honey, I follow you.