TooMuchAtOnce, WanderingChild96, The Non-Existing Person, SeventhSister, loopycathair, CremeLover, My-Lover-Gren-Gren (times two! Wow), Raine44354, iCraft, Kentcharm, Almost Winter, unimportant

- I honestly can't thank you guys enough. You are the fuel of this story and I feel bad every time I have to put writing aside to do 'more important' stuff. Well, enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-One: One-Sided Confrontation

'I am so screwed…'

Rose sighed, standing before the iron gates of the mansion. Suddenly, going to that manse and seeing that person was something she did not want to do. Just as she thought that, she felt worse. 'Edward's got nothing to do with all that!' she argued with herself 'It's my fault I'm… that I'm…'

She pushed the gates so forcefully they hit the hard, rocky fence and creaked, as if they were about to break.

Rose marched straight to the wooden door and stopped there, a determined look on her face. Her narrowed eyes glared at the door as she straightened down her shirt and checked if her ponytail has been damaged. Feeling ready, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. She did not feel as calm as she would want, but she had to manage. Maybe seeing Edward would put her mind at ease. 'Like it always does.' The girl groaned, blushing. 'No!' she shook her head and clenched her hand around the doorknob.

'Ready, set, go!'

"Rose?"

"Aaah!" Rose jerked forward, her forehead banging against the wooden surface painfully.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Edward came up from behind, stopping a few feet behind the girl, his blades snipping against one another in an ashamed manner.

"Ouch," Rose hissed, rubbing the sore spot "This is gonna leave a bruise…" then she blinked, realizing Edward was standing directly behind her. She turned, her grimace replaced by a wide smile "Edward!" she greeted in a high-pitched voice "I… You… I didn't know you're… Ah, you surprised me!"

"Surprised?" he asked "Is that… good or bad?"

"Well…" Rose touched her forehead again before lowering her hand "No! No, I like surprises!" 'The truth is, you scared the shit out of me, but not like I'd tell you that…' "I didn't know you were in the garden, that's all."

"But… You hurt yourself…" he pointed at her forehead, where a light purple bruise was beginning to form. "Because of me."

"What? No!" she hated her voice right at that moment; it wasn't so high-pitched normally, so why was it so annoying now?! "I did that to myself, because I didn't pay attention. And it doesn't hurt," she reassured.

Edward said nothing; instead, he just stood there, staring at the small bruise on her forehead with a thoughtful expression on his scarred face. After a few seconds of complete silence, he suddenly took a step in her direction, then another.

"E-Edward? What's the m-matter?" Rose grew nervous as he approached her without a word, his eyes glued to her forehead. The lack of expression, save for the slightly narrowed brows, made Rose step back. She froze as her back hit the door.

He did not reply, just walked over to her, coming to a stop when he was too close for her comfort. He reached out, his bladed hand looming over her face.

Rose's eyes widened. 'This is another dream,' she thought, choosing to squeeze her eyes shut. 'A dream, a dream, a dr-'

Coolness so soothing and gentle made her crack one eye open. Edward was still standing right in front of her, his face as blank as before. One of the blade's side was touching her wound, making the pain less intensive. Rose opened her eyes fully. She remembered her mother doing the exact same thing whenever Rose bumped her head and had gotten a bruise. She'd take a cold knife and press it's side gently to the bruise. Just like Edward was doing.

"Wha…"

"Is it better?" he asked, his gaze sliding from her forehead to meet her eyes. He spoke with some uncertainty and confusion "Am I doing it right?"

"I…" Rose couldn't gather words to form a simple sentence. She gulped loudly and lowered her gaze. "Yes. Thank you…" her face was already turning red. She looked at him again "How did you know what to do?"

Edward blinked, furrowing his eyebrows in focus before his expression turned confused. "I don't know. I can't remember."

"Well, thank you." She smiled. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

Edward sent her a shy yet happy smile. Rose shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her back pressing against the door. She felt like an idiot. 'He wanted to return the favor from the other day, to take care of my wound and what do I do? Act like he wants to chop me up into pieces.'

Or…

Rose bit on her lower lip hard to stop that particular train of thought. She couldn't lie to herself; she wasn't scared he'd hurt her. She was nervous, because he approached her with such a blank face, as if… As if…

She had to do something to push that image from her dream away.

"Okay, I think I'm all good now," she squeaked out, turning her head away and shivering as the cold side of his blade trailed the skin on her forehead as she moved. "Thanks again," she ducked and managed to get away from her spot between the confused Edward and the hard door.

Heart hammering in her chest, the girl headed towards the back. She realized she's not being followed. Rose stopped and turned her head to look at Edward, who never left the spot.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Edward stared at her for a while before he shook his head slowly. "No… But, are you alright?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, why?"

"Your face is… all red."

The color deepened visibly and Rose turned her head away quickly. "Oh, it's nothing, don't worry. Hey, let's go, um, there!" she pointed ahead and continued walking. Edward, still very confused and worried - he found he couldn't help it - followed after a few seconds.

Rose sat down on the grass, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. 'What the hell am I doing?' she asked herself, sighing. 'I'm acting like an idiot, making him worry…' She hated making Edward worry - he was so easy to do so. Being a simple, child-like man, he could not comprehend the complex emotions she was feeling. 'That means I have to stop feeling them,' she nodded to herself 'Yes. I have to stop this nonsense.'

Edward joined Rose to see her burying her head in her arms. He stopped immediately. Her face was still a bit pink, and she looked… sad.

Rose raised her head and noticed him standing there. Her gloomy expression melted away in a warm smile. "Come and sit," she patted the grass next to her. Edward complied.

The two sat in silence for a while. Edward kept glancing at the girl to see if her dim expression returned, but instead, she seemed to be lost in thoughts. She was looking ahead, but her eyes were clouded over; her eyebrows narrowed and the corner of her lips cast downward ever so slightly.

Edward had a feeling that if he'd ask directly, she would brush it off and give him a smile that does not last as long as he'd wished. So, he asked another question, the one that was on his mind the longest.

"Why didn't you come yesterday?"

His quiet voice snapped Rose out of her state and made her look straight at him. "I… I couldn't. I'm sorry." A wave of regret washed over "I should have… But I really couldn't."

"I was worried."

Her eyes widened.

"Worried you would not come."

"Edward, I told you -"

"I know." He interrupted quietly. "I know. You're the one who always comes back."

All of a sudden, Rose found it difficult to swallow. She managed to after the third try, cleared her throat and opened her mouth to speak. "Ye…" she had to clear her throat again "Yes, I will always come back." A semi-firm smile appeared on her face "Don't you ever doubt that."

The silence that came next was much more comfortable than the first one. Rose managed to relax and started a mostly one-sided conversation, where she did all the talking and Edward was responsible for the listening part. She told him about all the funny situations from school, her quarreling with her brothers, the jokes she'd exchanged with Nina, everything she knew that would make him smile. The sun had just begun to set when she ran out of topics. She looked over at her friend and frowned.

"Does it hurt?" she asked, staring at his scars, at one of them in particular. The one she cleaned two days ago. "The scar. Does it hurt?" she repeated seeing his confused expression.

"No," Edward said simply.

"I should have brought some cream or something…"

"No, no cream!" the scissor-handed boy interrupted immediately, thinking back to the strange, purple thing Peg had smeared all over his face such a long time ago.

Rose laughed at his expression. "Okay then, no cream it is." she stopped laughing soon, but the grin staid "As long as it doesn't hurt, I guess…"

The grin got smaller and smaller until it vanished completely. Rose couldn't tear her eyes away from all the scars. She wasn't sure if Edward could feel pain, since he was not a regular human being after all. If he could, then each and every of those scars had to hurt very much. Unconsciously, she raised her hand.

"Why do you keep your hair like this?"

Rose snapped out of it and lowered her hand, gripping the material of her pants. "Like what? The ponytail?"

Edward nodded, staring at her tied up hair with curiosity. He had seen Rose with her hair down only once, and he liked it better than the thing she called a 'ponytail'.

"I don't know. Maybe because it's more comfortable," the girl shrugged "But I guess I can -" she reached to the band that held her hair together and wanted to yank it out, when a pair of scissors beat her to it. After one short snip the band was cut. The scissors ran through her now free hair carefully and fixed it slightly, making it cascade past her shoulders.

"Ah," she blinked, ripping her eyes away from Edwards' shyly "Thanks." She needed a distraction, fast. Looking up, she spotted a particular large cloud and pointed at it "Hey, look at that! Does it remind you of something?"

Edward followed her finger and squinted his eyes at the fluffy cloud. "Um…" he thought about it for a while "No." he admitted sadly.

"Oh? Well, you wanna know what I see?" he looked at her curiously and nodded "I see… I see a horse."

"A horse?"

"Yeah! That cloud kind of looks like the shape of a throttling horse, right there! Look, there's the head, and neck…"

The game continued like that for the rest of her stay. She'd point at a certain cloud and explain the shape. Edward would watch on in fascination at first, but as time went by, he started pointing at the sky himself. Sometimes he pointed and couldn't name the shape, and Rose would laugh at his expression.

Everything was just like it should be. They were friends again.