A/N: ughhh, I'm so frustrated right now! I typed this whole, explanatory A/N, and then somehow managed to make it magically disappear. You are just effing talented, Crimson.

Onwards!

so

I close the door sharply behind me when I enter, but just soft enough where it shouldn't wake anyone. Fang steps out of the shadows by the door, his arms crossed and chin held high. He doesn't speak.

I just look at him for a moment. His proud shoulders and sharp cheekbones that make him look like a prince out of a fairytale. The dark hair and eyes that mark him as the evil twin. But real life isn't a fairytale and goodness knows Fang isn't a prince. I shake my head with a sigh.

"Follow me," I say, and surprisingly, he does. I lead him out to the back yard then turn to face him. I want to look fierce, but what if I look fragile? I want to look strong, but what I look soft?

"Why?" I ask.

Fang still doesn't respond, just glowers. That's when I notice the quickly purpling bruise around his right eye, and the matching shadow on his cheek. They're too dark to have been inflicted by Kristopher so soon ago.

"God, Fang, what did you do this time?" I ask, stepping forward and looking more closely at the welts.

"I did nothing," he finally says. "This one can be blamed on Iggy." He looks smug for a moment, then reverts to statue form. "You should see the state of him though."

"Really, Fang?" I shake my head and pull back. "Why is this something you're proud of? Why are you happy to have inflicted pain on someone?" I gesture to the front of the house. "Kristopher was bleeding. You made him bleed! Does that make you happy? Are you glad you made my first date run away? I might very well never see him again, because he's so terrified of you!" My voice has been growing louder and louder, but I hardly care.

"Rory—"

"No! Don't call me that, don't talk to me! I cannot believe you felt the need to ruin the best night of my life because of your warped sense of right and wrong and 'protection'. I have been miserable my entire life because of people like you who do not think I deserve any happiness, and I will not put up with it any longer! I was mocked and sworn at and had food thrown at me from buses and my clothes ripped and torn by cheerleaders and their boyfriends! I may not have grown up in a bloody dog cage, but my life was as much of a hell as it could be in the outside world. All because of some stupid scars on my back that set me apart, and this stupid hair, and my stupid height and all of my stupid self! So stupid Ro for thinking she could be happy once she got away from all the shit in her old life, because now she has to sit in Houston and scold a teenage guy for getting in another fistfight. When did this become my world?!" I scream blindly at him, taking out all of my ager on Fang, all the fury that has built up inside me over the last ten years.

Fang stands stock still, stunned at my outburst, but I'm not finished yet. "I have never had a date in my life Fang. You were practically married to Max, but I have been alone forever. Then I wake up one morning surrounded by people who have literally popped out of a book, and my life gets great because suddenly someone cares about me, and whether I am safe or hurt or if I am happy. Then Kristopher comes along and I think that having amnesia is the best thing that has ever happened to me, because I can just start over, but I can't. Because you attacked him. Goddamnit, Fang, there are other people here besides you and your stupid ego!"

I'm breathing heavily by the end of my tirade, and Fang's eyes are wide enough to see the whites. Then, slowly, they narrow.

"You want to talk about shitty lives, Rory? Well then, let's talk. I was raised in a dog crate in a hospital that created human hybrids. My mother gave me up to them because she couldn't be bothered to take care of me herself. So I was raised being beaten and scarred and hurt in unimaginable ways that your mind can not comprehend."

"You can bet it was the same way for me!" I yell at him. "For all you know I was in the dog crate right next to you until they dragged me out and gave me to my mom for some screwed up reason!"

"Your mom is one of the Whitecoats, Rory! She took you to see what it would be like if one of us was raised outside the lab. You got to see the world, breathe fresh air, do anything you wanted, while the Flock was locked up inside of a concrete building for our entire lives!"

I feel the blood rush out of my face. My mom, a Whitecoat? Fang doesn't notice how I've frozen. "Then, when we finally get out, I fall for a girl who has no intentions of ever loving me back! Max never loved me! Maybe she thought she did, and I thought she had too, but it wasn't right. Then Wonderboy comes along, and I have no one. So I form my group and we do the best that we can! But that's not bloody good enough, because then Max comes back and she's dragging you along with her. And my life gets all screwed up because you're there, and nothing seems quite the same because whenever you're out of my sight I need to make sure you're okay, and if I don't I just know something bad is going to happen to you, I can feel it in my heart."

He stabs himself in the chest with his hand, his eyes as open and honest as I have ever seen them. I'm locked in their gaze. "And the only time, the one time I put that to the test, I lost you. You were gone, and I didn't know what to do with myself because I didn't know that you were safe and sound and that I would see you soon. My heart didn't stop hurting until we found you again. Really, though, you were still gone. You didn't know me, or Iggy, or Max, or anyone."

Fang reaches out and grabs my hand and holds it to his heart. It races too fast. "You ran from me, you were terrified of me, and it nearly broke my heart. You looked into my eyes and saw nobody but a stranger who could do nothing but hurt you. And I looked at you and saw nothing but fear—the small, small friendship we had was gone, and I didn't know how to get it back. I still don't."

He takes my other hand in his as well, and I can't fight it. His eyes are just too sad. "I don't want to lose you, Rory, but I don't know how to keep you."

"Fang, I…" My head is a mess, and I can't tear my eyes away from his. "I don't know what you want me to say."

"Say you believe me, Rory! Say you forgive me."

"I can't." I pull my hands free.

"Rory, you can trust me, I promise."

"I don't know that, Fang! I don't know if you've given this speech a thousand times to someone else, I don't know if this is a trick, I don't know anything! You say you've known me for months, but all I know is I've only known you for weeks."

"Please, you have to trust me."

"No," I say. "I don't have to do anything of the sort, Fang. You have yet to give me a good reason to trust you, except for that amazing speech. How do you expect me to be able to put any faith back in you when you have done what you have?" I step closer to him again. "If what everyone says is true, and I was dating Iggy before I was kidnapped, then would you mind telling me how many times you have beat up my boyfriend?" I hiss the word, hoping to make it hit home. I want him to understand how he has hurt me.

He shakes his head. "Rory—" I hold up my hand.

"Answer the question, Fang."

"I promise I—"

"Answer the bloody question!"

"I don't know. At least three times."

I shake my head. "Well. Thank you for at least being honest with me." I turn my back and walk up the stairs.

"Aurora, wait!" Fang races up the steps right behind me, turning me towards him, with a heartbroken look in his eyes. "Don't leave. I want to protect you, I don't want to hurt you. Please…." He breathes. "Please…" he leans forward, his eyes starting to close, and I dodge under his arm, breaking his grip.

"Don't do this to me, Fang," I say. "Don't do this to yourself." Then I turn and enter the apartment, letting the door swing closed behind me.

A/N: I totally hate Fang so much right now. Or, rather, I would, if I could.

yes, I know, this chapter is a little shorter than the others, I'm sorry. I was going to keep the chapter going longer, but then I just couldn't get the right words after the break, so I cut it off. YAY! My apologies that this chapter is 500 words shorter though. I'm sowwy.

So, a brief explanation. If you don't give a crap about some possibly important details that may come into play later in the story, then please, continue on with your wonderful lives.

In the last chapter, Fang and Iggy got in a fight. Fang admits this to Ro in this chapter, and also says that he beat poor Iggy up pretty badly. Well, this ticks off Ro a lot. Ro abhors any violence, especially any fights that may be about or because of her. Because of this, she goes for a rather low blow with Fang.

She reacted similarly to how I may have in that situation. Actually, in this chapter, Ro kind of becomes me for a while, so sorry for any OOC stuff.

Also! When Fang is talking about how he can't let her out of his sight, it HINT HINT may be the lead-in to a new talent Fang may or may not develop. yeah. you heard me. I JUST GAVE AN EFFING SPOILER. If a rather lame one.

So, yeah, that was my chapter. Huzzah, hip hip, joy for all! Byyyyyeeeee!

Quote of the Chapter:

"I'll never know what made it so exciting...

Why all at once my heart took flight!

I only know when he

Began to dance with me

I could have dance, danced, danced

All night!"

~Dance All Night, from "My Fair Lady"