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Without any further ado...the story.

Chapter 7: I. Am Not. Lonely.

A cat's smile curled the corner of her lips.

"Looking for me?"

~...~...~

At first Harry couldn't place where the voice had come from. His eyes scanned the alley behind him looking for the girl he knew it belonged to. However, the first mate only saw dark empty space. If he was hearing her voice in empty alleyways maybe he really was going around the bend.

That thought was quickly dissolved when a small giggle floated down to his ears. Bewildered the pirate quickly looked up to find amber-brown eyes staring down at him behind an amused grin.

Harry couldn't help the wry smile that formed on his lips. It would appear he was no longer the hunter.

"I didn't think you'd show." he called up. His eyes scanned the rickety looking fire escape that separated him from her.

She raised a single brown eyebrow, "And I knew you would."

"Well," His voice was filled with hues of amusement, his accent heavy in his mirth. She was as smart as he had thought, though perhaps a bit foolish, "Then why did ya come, luv? Miss me since last we met?"

"Hardly" Cassie scoffed, even if a part of her knew that much was true, she wasn't ready or willing to admit that much to him. So instead she replied, "You could say I was curious." It was true enough anyway.

"Tha' makes two of us little kitty." the pirate examined her lean form as she came to sit dangerously on the edge of the building, her legs dangling over the alleyway. Looking at her so comfortable up there on the roof it suddenly occurred to him why his little ghost had been able to evade him so easily. What had appeared like going through walls and buildings to him had actually been her using the roofs.

Despite knowing the answer his first question was fairly straight-forward to his current thoughts, "Is that how you evaded me all this time? Runnin' on roofs?" It was almost laughable that he had not seen it for what it was. Instead he had fixated on the idea he was chasing a 'ghost.'

The little cat frowned at him and returned his question with her own.

"Why have you been asking about me?" Cassie's amber-brown eyes were smoldering with practiced-scorn at him. He thought it a rather lovely look on her.

"What's a fellow to do?" Harry's grin was positively irresistible, "I didn't know how else to show I cared luv."

He watched with amusement as she blinked with surprise before realizing Harry was playing with her. A beautiful blush dusted her cheeks as she wrinkled her nose with distaste.

"It'd be a pity if ya fell," Harry tried coaxing gently, "Why don' you come down so we can talk properly?"

The little cat's face pinched in distrust, remembering both their last encounter and his dangerous allure. "If it's all the same to you," she said in a sarcastic tone that left no doubt that she detested the idea of coming down, "I will stay up here."

"An' if I decide to come up?" Hook proposed, though looking at the fire escape he wasn't sure he had the will to actually attempt it. Regardless he got his answer promptly.

"Then you'll never see me again."

Hook found it interesting that her statement felt like a threat to him.

It also frustrated him that he knew she had him in a deadlock—and if the triumphant look on her face was anything to judge by, she knew it too.

Emboldened by her small victory, the cat straightened her back and demanded again, "Why have you been asking about me?"

Hook's smile grew slowly, mockingly, as he tutted and clicked his tongue at her, "I won't answer any of your questions until you answer some of mine."

A silence filled the space between them as Cassie's eyes flitted around the empty alley and over the pirate below her. Finally she came to an idea that she thought would satisfy them both, "Why don't we play twenty questions then? I ask something and you answer, then you ask and I answer." It was fairly straightforward and simple. Cassie could remember playing the game with her father when she was little.

However, at the suggestion, the pirate below burst into laughter rather suddenly, "That's a wee girls game." he jeered.

Her amber-brown eyes narrowed indignantly at the pirate. Her jaw clenched and her lips became a thin line of disapproval. His laughter stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Slowly she saw scrutiny crossing his face as he considered her proposal.

'Twenty questions, eh?' a thoughtful look crossed his face. He could make that work for him.

"You've got a deal. Twenty questions it is then," Harry said and Cassie released muscles she didn't know she had been holding, "One small problem though." Instantly the tension was back in the little cat. Her nerves on end. Harry found it rather amusing how easily she could be wound up despite trying to appear otherwise.

"Little kitty," Harry called up, obviously enjoying the little nickname he had come up with for her, "Are we to play at this distance?" he asked up to the girl on the rooftop, "The angle's hell on me neck." He punctuated this by rubbing at his neck. It wasn't false, he had to crane his neck fully back just to see her.

He could see her considering what he'd said, apparently torn between the temptation of answers and the fear of approaching him.

It became physically apparent which feeling won tonight as he watched her push off with her arms and jump onto the fire escape yards below her. The metal gave a sickening creak when her slight weight landed on the steel grating platform. He watched her take the stairs down to the bottom level of the escape. Even at her new height she was floating above him, her feet just above his eye-level. It was a concession though and he would have to take what she had offered.

"Well then, my lady" Hook gave a sardonic bow, "I am yours." The suggestive inflection he gave that last bit was not lost on her. Even in the darkness of night, with only a sliver of the moon to light her face, Hook could see the uncomfortable squirm and blush his words caused. It pleased him immensely.

By now he had come to expect the first question when she asked, "Why have you been asking about me?"

Harry considered the girl standing above him, she was wearing the same outfit that covered up all of the telling areas of skin. Tonight her hair was done in a loose braid over her right shoulder and her amber-brown eyes seemed to almost glow in the moonlight.

"I wanted to find you." he answered and when the little cat opened her mouth to say something else, he cut her off, "My turn."

Cassie frowned at him. Clearly irritated that he was offering her as little as possible while still sticking to the rules of the 'game.' After all, Cassie had not said anything about having to give detailed responses.

Harry considered his questions, before finally deciding to ask, "How did you find me?"

Her amber-brown eye filled with apprehension, "I...felt a pull." she answered, "My turn." she said quickly before asking "Why did you 'want to find me'?"

Harry considered how to answer that. Personally he was curious about her, he felt like she was someone special to him and he wanted to know why. On the other hand Uma had actually been the one to order the men to search for people who knew her.

"My captain ordered it." he decided was the answer he was more willing to give. Her face scrunched up in frustration again, knowing he had given yet another vague answer and that she would have to answer another question of his before getting her next answer.

Harry digested her previous answer slowly. She had felt the pull too. Did that mean she felt as drawn to him as he felt to her? Though the first mate hated to admit it, she had occupied a considerable portion of his thoughts as of late. Now, looking at her, he couldn't help wondering if she had been thinking about him just as much.

As Harry considered his next question, Cassie frowned down at the man below her. He was taking longer to ask his next question, which she assumed meant he had found something of value in her answer. She sat down, back to the brick of the building exterior. Her mind filled with trepidation, sensing the direction his next question could take.

From this distance she didn't have to look down as much to see him and the smaller details of his face were more visible. His pale blue eyes were fixed on the empty space in front of him as he considered his next question. Cassie took this time to examine her soulmate's face. He was handsome. She couldn't deny that. Her eyes scanned from his chaotic raven-brown hair down to his eyes. The light-blue gemstone-colored eyes were framed by thin lines of ashen black again. The effect was admittedly both powerful and mysteriously attractive. The combination of his espresso colored hair and light blue eyes was also striking. The lines of his face was sharp and strong. Everything about him was attractive to her. When those stunning blue eyes lifted back up to her own, she knew he had made up his mind.

"Do you have a SoulMark?" he asked. She could practically hear the weight of the question.

Looking her soulmate in the eyes, she wondered if he could read her thoughts as she answered.

"Yes." With that one word she felt like she was admitting he was her soulmate. She watched as a myriad of unreadable emotions crossed his face.

Cassie shifted her line of questioning, "Are you able to get your captain to call off the search?"

She saw those pale blue eyes widen and then narrow, his brows scrunching together, "Why?" came his question back.

"You didn't answer my question." Cassie replied.

Harry frowned but obliged her, "Probably. I want to know why it's so important to you that we stop askin'."

Cassie's own frown matched his. She wasn't sure she trusted him enough to tell him who would want to hurt her, all the same she had to answer him if she wanted her own answers. She was far too curious for her own good.

"I have people who are dangerous to me." she said with finality.

Harry pursed his lips at her answer. 'People who are dangerous' to her.

"Why does your captain want to find me?" the little cat asked next.

"She wants to know more about you before considering recruiting you." He took great delight in seeing her eyes widened incredulously before narrowing in suspicion.

"You're lying to me." She accused, her amber-brown orbs flaring with distrust, "Why would your captain want to recruit me?"

"I'm not, and I believe it's my turn to ask a question luv." his honey-sweet voice was colored by the smirk on his lips. Cassie made a noise at the back of her throat, somewhere between a growl and a grumble, before rolling her eyes and conceding his turn to him.

"Now then..." If she had a SoulMark then she wasn't a blank-slate like him and she was bonded to someone. Would she know who? "Who is your soulmate?"

Interestingly he could see her eyes widen marginally before her whole body tensed, "What does it matter to you?" she asked defensively, the color draining from her as anxiety ate at her insides. That was one question she definitely did not want to answer.

"It doesn't," Harry watched as the tension in her somehow became even more tightly wound, "Tell me anyway."

"I don't know." Cassie forced out. She could tell the first mate didn't believe her and that make her tension turn to slight-nausea. Cassie got to her feat, mentally preparing to leave even run if she had to.

Harry Hook frowned. He knew she was lying but he also knew from her new stance that she was about to end this conversation. Whoever her soulmate was she was going to protect that secret. He hardly blamed her. Soulmates in the wrong hands could be leverage, a weakness to be exploited.

"Never mind then," Harry said gruffly, catching her eyes once more, "I don't really want to hear about them anyway. What about you?"

Her amber-brown eyes were focusing slowly on him, questioning him "What about me?" she asked.

"Tell me about yourself. What do you do for fun?" his smile was wickedly charming, "Other than steal from the goblins."

Cassie scrunched her eyebrows together, unclear what he hoped to get from his new question.

"I..." Cassie hesitated, unsure what to say, "I go on night walks around the Isle." She hadn't expected him to ask her about herself, "I people-watch mostly; I look for habits, try and guess at relationships from body language and stuff..." she trailed off, feeling lame.

"Huh." Hook looked interested but was obviously waiting for her to ask her question.

"Why would your captain want to recruit me?"

"Hmmm" Harry hummed, causing the little cat to stiffen apprehensively as he took a step closer. The fire escape still separated them but Cassie knew he could easily jump and pull the ladder down.

"It's less about what Uma wants and more about what I want." Harry watched with open satisfaction as she shivered at his last two words. Something she had said earlier though struck him, "Does that mean you only come out at night? Why?"

Cassie frowned, "That's two questions."

"Okay," Harry revised, "Why do you only come out at night?"

Cassie's frown deepened. Answered that question fully could be very telling. In truth she came out only at night because it was what her father taught her to do. He had explained the reasoning once, stating that in order to live peacefully and stay alive they had to avoid being seen by others.

"Because my father told me to." she instead answered. It wasn't a lie, simply not the whole of the story.

Harry seemed to know this and frowned but conceded.

"What would you do if you had a soulmate?"

She barely registered the thought before the question had slipped from her lips. If she could take it back she would have. Instead she looked up into those pale gemstone eyes and saw a flash of silent pain before they broke away from her and stared elsewhere.

"I don' know." A rueful scoff, "It hardly matters thinking about it." His voice was deep and even, with a tinge of pain and irony carrying his words. He hadn't gotten angry like she had feared, instead he seemed...a little broken.

"Yer...different." Harry mused, his gemstone eyes lifting to hold her. Under their gaze Cassie grew self-conscious of all the locations of her SoulMarks. Were they all covered properly?

His next statement felt like a physical attack to her.

"What you described though. It sounds lonely."

In the face of that Cassie could feel her mental barriers snap back into place, she hadn't even realized she had dropped them.

"That's not a question." she spat, her words almost a hiss.

Harry gave a sympathetic frown—an expression that she wouldn't have expected, "I'm not trying to insult you. I'm right though aren't I? Yer lonely." His voice was soft like velvet and warm like cinnamon, "You don't have to be."

Those words sent a shiver to her soul.

A moment later though an indignant rage burned in her. 'How dare he say that.' her mind seethed. Even though, deep inside, she couldn't deny the truth of the word she was loath to admit it to anyone. She had been struggling with that feeling since her father had passed when she was 14. It had become such a defining part of her and she hated it.

"I. Am Not. Lonely." Cassie hissed vehemently. Her own emotions were a violent storm inside of her as she battled the overwhelming need to defend herself from his statement and the sickening hope his last words lit in her. Enraged amber-brown orbs flashed luminescent yellow and for a moment her vision abruptly shifted. During the brief moments of that shift, the alley's shadows evaporated as though a spotlight had been cast on them before shifting back into their usual darkness.

She didn't have time to think though as the next few minutes happened so quickly.

She watched as Harry hissed in pain and clutched at his chest. In the next horrify moment of clarity both of them looked down to his see-through shredded shirt. There on his chest scrolled in matching font to her own the word Lonely appeared right above his heart. Cassie knew what the appearance of that word meant for him and she knew what the location of the word meant for her.

Pale gemstone eyes stared at her in disbelief, as though Cassie had grown a second head. She wish she had. Instead the proverbial cat was out of the bag.

"You." Harry's voice hardly reached her, "You're..." The disbelief in his voice carried to his eyes.

Cassie's own eyes were still locked with his pale gemstones as she took a step back.

"No." she whispered. Her fears had been confirmed right in front of her very eyes.

With his guard down those pale orbs conveyed his feelings so clearly that Cassie wished she could look away. She watched, held prisoner by them, as years of hurt and self-hatred flashed in his eyes before the pain just fell away, giving way to something akin to hope.

Cassie cursed her curiosity. Everything her father had ingrained in her urged her to run, even as she was held captive by those pale blue eyes that spoke of untold gifts and an unbreakable bond. Her father had been fooled by that promise and it had cost him deeply.

Her thoughts were broken when both her forearms burned where she knew her SoulMarks were. Cassie hissed as she frantically pushed up her sleeves to see the two marks fade letter by letter as if being wiped out by an invisible hand. She stared at the blank skin with shock as both Damaged goods and Broken completely disappeared, leaving a burning sensation behind in their absence.

Cassie looked up. Harry had seen the words vanish and his shock matched her own. However under the fresh shock, there was something lighter, softer—and infinitely more scary to Cassie. The amber-eyed girl felt frantic, like a wild cat caught in a cage. He knew.

He knew. He knew. He knew. Cassie grew more wild with fear as this phrase ran around her brain.

"Cassie." Harry's voice was like thunder and rain. He took a step towards her.

"No!" Cassie's hand reached for the railing to the stairs, her mind was a frenzy in panic.

Harry froze, both his hands held out before him, as if he was trying to calm a wild animal.

"Cassie," he repeated carefully this time, "How 'bout you come down now little kitty?" Harry's smile was pure honey and temptation but she could see in his soft blue eyes that he was just as frantic to keep her from running as she was to run.

He didn't understand why she was reacting the way she was, but what he'd seen—it left no doubt. They were soulmates. The very fact that he had a soulmate was amazing and he was desperate to keep her from disappearing again.

"You could join us." Harry offered, his slightly-straining voice reaffirming his earnestness. She could hear that he meant it; he wanted her to join him. "Uma would let you in if I asked. If you were with us you'd be safe from anyone who'd wan' to hurt ya."

Cassie, despite everything, considered it. As part of Uma's crew she wouldn't have to hide. Surrounded by the crew of the Lost Revenge, even the Queen of Hearts couldn't touch her. But that would only last so long. She couldn't always be surrounded. No, they couldn't protect her every minute of her life. Eventually the Queen would find an opening. It was a gilded cage at best.

Harry watched with baited breath as Cassie paused, considering his offer. Then her amber-brown eyes flicked between him and the stairs—and his heart sunk.

"Cassie!" she heard his voice shout as she fled. And although his shout broke her heart into jagged little pieces she kept running.

"Damn it! Cassie!" she could hear the loud creak and bang of the fire escape ladder being pulled down and the metallic clang of boots on the rickety fire escape stairs. Each footstep caused the metal to vibrate just enough to make the pirate nervous about the escape's structural integrity.

She was on the next building down the line by the time he got to the top of the previous roof.

"Bloody 'ell" She heard him hiss in aggravation as he spotted her, "Cassie!"

He was faster, but she was more sure-footed.

While she stepped with speed and purpose, knowing each rooftop and every step in front of and behind her, his run was halting, wrought with the fear of falling. Harry was pointedly ignoring all the sirens in his head as he chased after her. He wrestled against his fear of heights for each step.

Finally she came to the end of the row of rooftops. The gap ahead was an alley's width wide and she had done it a hundred times.

Cassie didn't hesitate, she went into a full sprint and at the last moment she pushed up with all her strength. Her feet fell securely on the ledge of the building, her hands grabbed at the roof out in front of her propelling her forward into a sprint.

Harry had faltered when he got to the ledge and skid to a rushed stop.

Cassie looked back and came to a stop halfway to the next roof. The look in his eyes was pure devastation.

They locked eyes, his own pale blue eyes asking the unsaid 'why' and her amber-brown eyes answered his eyes with their own sadness. It hurt her to see him like that. She got the sense that he was rarely vulnerable but in that very moment it was the only word that could describe him.

"I'm sorry." she whispered, hoping her words were enough but knowing they never would be.

After that she didn't slow when she heard him call her name. Even at the frantic quality in his voice and the curses, she kept running.

That was where he lost her.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Man, this chapter was both very difficult and very easy to write. I revised the wording and dialogue a lot to get the proper feelings across. I hope you liked it!

I am curious how you all think Harry will react now that he knows the truth, especially in light of seeing Cassie's reaction.

REVIEW RECOGNITION:

Historic Soldier: And I love the support! I know that they are not always together, this story is more of a slow burn since the relationship needs to be built from the bottom up. Thank you for always commenting!

GreatBigBookofEverything: I really appreciate your comment! I was really hoping that those things all came across well and I am glad to see that (at least with some) they have. I really wanted to try my hand at reluctant-soulmates/enemy-to-friends-to lovers.

SARITA1998: Well, they definitely met, and then some...but for now their relationship remains less than ideal. I hope that regardless you enjoyed and it was worth the wait!

Lottielue1: I stopped there because I love teasing cliffhangers, and that was simply too perfect a stopping point to pass on. Thank you for your well-wishes, I am already on the mend. Being a substitute teacher I am sure I will be sick again though...

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