The final day of spirit week went by fairly quickly for Malik. Nothing really unusual. Same shit, different day. And after school, he considered staying home and far away from the dance. But he decided against it; he promised Mrs. Auditore that he'd watch over Claudia. And besides, from what he overheard, he shouldn't trust Duccio.

Malik stood up and threw on his blazer, and walked down the street to the school.


Claudia sat at her vanity staring at her reflection. She had put on some light makeup, and she was in her dress she bought for the homecoming dance. A scarlet gown that came down about mid calves. it would have been the shorter dress she had been eyeing, but Ezio flat out refused. Eh, maybe it was better this way. SHe was going with Duccio after all. No one special.

She heard a horn honking outside, and she looked out the window to see Duccio's beat up old truck. She sighed and picked up her hand bag before walking out to meet him. It semed Duccio never cleaned up the car since the last time she saw it. The silver paint was chipped off in some spots, there were scratches, the bumper dented, and the interior smelled of mildew and cigarettes. Gas and alcohol too.

How romantic, she thought grimmly.

They droved down to the school, where they paid for admission and went in. The gym was dark, decorations set up all around. She immediantly took a seat and waited for this dumb dance to be over. It would have been fine, if she had been with the righShe askedt guy.

She sighed, and got up. Claudia left the gym, left the building. Outside she stood, staring at the lake. The school was built beside this lake, and so they sometimes take a boat and examine the ecosystem for marine bio class (or so she heard from a girl in her study hall). She just wanted to go home. This dance wasn't worth it. She could hear the music on the loud speaker echo out through the door, and the lights glistened on the water.

And for a moment, it all just caught up to her. The pain, the loss, the loneliness... She stiffled a sob and shook her head. No, crying meant ruining her make up. But once the tears started coming, she couldn't stop them. She rubbed at her eyes relentlessly.

"Rough night?"

She turned around and found herself starig at Malik. Oh, God, he could see her in all her smudged up glory! She would hae have wiped her eyes again but he lightly brushed his thumb at the tear stains under her eyes. She asked, voice almost failing on her, "I thought you weren't coming."

"I figured you'd need someone if Duccio went back to his old tricks," was his simple explanation. "I guess he's still not the guy you wanted."

Claudia smiled sadly. "No, he's not."

"Then I'm sure you'll find that guy some day." Malik said calmly.

She shook her head, "No, he's not who I want, because I already have someone else in mind."

He smiled, "Do I happen to know this person?"

"I think you do," Claudia said with a boarderline shy smirk.

Malik pulled his hand away from her cheek, and she felt the skin there feeling cold without his touch. That's when the music on the loud speaker changed to the next track. He took her hend in his fingers and asked, "Then until you meet him, would you mind me having this dance?"

"I wouldn't mind at all."

And there they danced. Sure neither really knew very well how to, but it was a slow song, so they danced in that typical slow song dance. When Claudia tripped on her shoe, she was kept standing by Malik. And soon they simply sat down and stared at the water. Claudia leaned on his shoulder, his arm around her. The cold air brushed against her bare arms, and she scooted in colder for warmth.

"Didn't you bring a coat," Malik asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, but it's in the math class."

Malik hummed. "Then we should probably go inside and get it. You'll catch a cold."

"I have a cold right now," she pointed out.

"Same here..." he puffed.

With that, they agreed to go inside. But they sat by the door to the front parking lot. Neither really wanted to go into the gym, too crowded. But they didn't really decide to leave either. Well until Claudia's cellphone rang. She glanced at hte number to see Mario's home-phone and stood up. "I'll be back in a couple minutes."

"Sure." Malik nodded.

Claudia then walked outside to the parking lot where she answered her phone (and put an end to her high pitched tweening ringtone she hated so much). SHe held it to her ear and said sharply, "Hello?"

"Nipote, are you enjoying yourself?"

"Uncle, do you really need to check up on me? I'm not a baby."

"Oh no, I think you'll be fine. But Ezio's just a tad bit unnerved. Eh... said you were with Duccio, no?"

"No." Claudia shook her head, regardless of whether her Uncle could tell or not. "I was at first but... I'm just hanging out with a friend."

"Is this that boy you brought home with you yesterday?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, just curious is all. So when do you want me to come over and pick you up."

"I can walk, Uncle. It's fine."

She could hear him sigh. "Alright. But give me a call if you need me."

"Sure. Bye."

Then she hung up and sighed. Ezio worried her ass. Ezio's never been worried about her. Why start now? Sometimes she just didn't understand boys, no matter how many she had in her life.

Well, she was about to walk back inside when she felt a hand grip her wrist. She turned and found herself staring right at Duccio. And so she pulled her wrist away with a snap of disgust, "What do you want?"

"To teach you a lesson," he said gruffly, "I apologized to you, I took you out here as a date. And here you go sticking me up for some other guy! What the fuck, bitch?" Then he took her arm again and shook her when she didn't have a quick enough answer. Once again he shouted, "What the fuck, bitch?"

"So you heard me on the phone then?" Claudia asked, trying to buy some time.

"Oh I heard," he nodded. "I heard you, I saw you dancing with that jackass outside! So tell me, WHAT THE FUCK?"

She was beginning to think there wasn't any other phases in his vocabulary. "You said it yourself, you can do better than an Auditore."

"Sure as shit I can," Duccio growled, "but you, and all the whores in your fucked up, dead ass family, can't do any better than me! You should be fucking greatful and here I am getting my date stolen by some crippled bastard! You're nothing but a whore, you know that, a fucking whore! And that doesn't even fit you cause you're still too scared to actually fuck a man!"

Okay, there was nothing she wanted to say more than that she was too young to fuck anyone (that and Ezio would have that poor guy's dick hanging off the flag pole in the morning). But with her better judgement, she didn't try to add fuel to the flames.

"Now, I'm gonna teach you a lesson on cheating," he nearly shouted. CLaudia shrieked as he stomped down on her foot, her ankle twisting and flaring up in pain when the high heel failed to keep her foot steady. There she felt a hard blow to her stomach, and she doubled over coughing. DUccio kicked her, right up the jaw and she tumbled backwards and laid on her back, fearing for her life as he was completely really to assault her. Pumble her to a bloody pulp even. Or worse...

Duccio was getting down now and reached for her neck, and she shut her eyes tight, waiting to be strangled. But it never came. A harsh gag sounded in the air and she opened her eyes to see Maliks arm wrapped around Duccio's neck. The latter vainly gripped at his sleeve in his effort to get free. In the cold air, she could see their breath puffing in clouds in the pale flood lights of the parking lot. Malik would have effortlessly thrown Duccio, had the other not struggled. Still, Duccio stumbled and rolled out onto the pavement, and Malik came torming towards him. And there Claudia could see there was real fear now in Duccio's eyes, fear she had in her own all but a moment ago.

"So you have to beat up girls," Malik said with probably the scariest tone she ever heard from him. This was a side she never saw. Not from Malik, not from Ezio, or anybody. It was terrifying, and she begun to realize that this was serious. "How about you think about what you say and do, 'cause I might be a cripple but that doesn't mean I can't kick your ass into orbit and back!"

To her surprise, Duccio whimpered.

Yup, the big bad Duccio WHIMPERED!

"Not so tough now, huh," Malik continued. Then he pressed his foot on Duccio's chest and leaned. "How about I show you every last injury you caused to every last innocent person you ever met." And it seemed now like he was really put some weight on his foot now, as Duccio's face screwed with pain and his hands helplessly grabbed at Malik's pants.

But Claudia had enough of it. She got up, her ankle unable to support her weight very well and her stomach killing her, "Stop it, Malik. You made your point." She held onto his hand and looked up at him. "You can let him go now."

It seemed then the anger just washed out of his features as reason was coming back. Malik eased his foot off Duccio's chest and the Junior got up and ran for his car as fast as his trembling legs could carry him.

"Malik," Claudia watched as Duccio's car sped away, "please don't do that again."

"I can't make any promises about that," Malik sighed, his gaze turning down towards the pavement. "I should probably take you home."

Claudia nodded and tried her best to follow him, but her ankle was giving her a terrible limp and hindered her progress. Malik stopped not too soon before glancing down at her ankle.

"Do you want me to carry you or something?" He asked.

Well, it wasn't like walking on a possibly twisted ankle would help. She had no arguments towards it. "Sure, if it's no trouble."

And so she was piggybacked down the street. Now because of the lack of and arm on one side, Claudia had to wrap her leg around his waist. At some point though, they stopped and Malik put her down on the bench at the park. He sat down and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," Claudia said.

Malik gave her an exhausted smile. "Don't be. It's fine." He looked at her ankle and asked, "What else did he do to you?"

She sighed. "Well he kicked me in the stomach and and the jaw."

There he leaned in and lightly tilted her head up, studying her jawline. "Now isn't that a shame." Then he asked, "May I ask your stomach for a moment?"

"Sorry, can't." Claudia answered. "My brother will kill me if I lift my dress up."

He hummed. "Well it's not like either one of us will do anything. Besides, I'm just seeing if there's an bruises."

Okay, so Malik had a point. Doesn't mean it isn't awkward. "I'd rather not though."

"Alright, if you don't feel comfortable with it then I won't force you," Malik said, "But have someone look at it later."

"Will do."


When Claudia got home that night, she was almost too tired to remember to tell her Uncle about the fight. Thankfully Malik told him and also brought up the possible bruise on her stomach. So Claudia just slumped upstairs and passed out in her bed.

Dimmly as her thoughts were slowing down she thought, I forgot to thank him...

This chapter is 1000 words more than what I intended to write! Congratulations!

Anyways, I'm a little "if"y about this chapter. I'm not too sure if I went overboard with the fighting and if it'd make much sense either. I don't know. And I'm not sure about Duccio either. If you didn't catch onto my suddle hint, he was buzzed. Probably wouldn't have attacked Claudia if he didn't have some alcohol to give him some false bravery. Anyways, I'm not too sure about this chapter.