Author's note : I know, this chapter is a bit short but it is only because the next one is going to be SO long. :) Thanks for all the nice reviews, always appreciated. And yes, since you've asked, I am doing well and am currently wrestling with uni assignments + brainstorming for original stories + writing articles + three different fanfic projects at the same time.

After he left, I did not know how to cope with what had happened. For a long time, I just watched the door. Was this better than dying, this feeling of being loved, despite how ugly I was inside?

I don't know. I still don't know. I am too ruined to answer that question, even now.

I felt so drained that I went to bed earlier than usual. I did not sleep well, perhaps not strange considering. No dreams though, none at all. For that I was grateful.

The last concious thing I was aware of was the black cat in my care, which had curled up on the covers next to me, something he rarely did.

The next day passed by in a strange lull, like a peaceful dream as I simply went through the motions at work. I think I was in shock. I knew that Aro had not reacted as a normal boss would, under the circumstances. But he cared for me. I believed that much, but I did not understand why. I was just a teenage girl, a nobody.

There had to be more than this. I was no fling to him, otherwise he would not have looked so upset when he rescued me by the pool. He cared for me more than anyone I had ever known.

Later that day after i got home from work, he knocked on my door only an hour later. He had brought food with him in a plastic bag from a nearby restaurant, one that i knew was exceedingly expensive. It would have been so easy to believe that this was something he did often for other women.

He was rich, good-looking (though strange and eccentric) and charming sometimes without even trying.

But he looked so uncomfortable, so out of place in the brightly lit apartment that I almost wanted to turn the lights off. He seemed to favor the dark of every room, as he often clung to shadows and rarely stood in direct sunlight. The balcony doors stood open, the distant sound of church bells announcing the hour.

"How have you been?" he asked, not looking at me but further into the apartment, at the crumpled bedcovers. I dismissed this as just another facet of his odd behavior as I decked out the food on the table out on the balcony.

"Fine. " I answered, not really wishing to talk about it. Aro seemed to take the hint as he changed the subject. He looked at me over his shoulder, considering.

"I hope you like the food – I rarely go there myself." he said.

"Do you cook instead?" I asked, the idea of it not that all farfetched. He shrugged and hummed in response.

"Hmm, something like that. " he said before joining me on the balcony.I noticed that there was only enough food for one.

"You're not going to eat?"

"I already did. But you look famished."

I was afraid that this was all he was here for. To absolve himself of all guilt and make sure that I didn't do anything stupid. Ask me questions that everyone has already asked. But he did none of those things. Instead he started talking about my books, about Jules Verne. Wanted to know which ones I had read, and what I thought of them.

I answered him as best as I could inbetween bites of fettuchini, as he sat opposite me by the balcony table, watching. He looked feral today, a strange half-smile on his face as if he had done something naughty. But he quietly listened to me speak, our conversation flowing along easily. But I still didn't understand his side of all this.

"Don't you think it's boring, talking to me about this?" I asked, trying to be frank. He tilted his head to one side and looked puzzled by my question. But I don't think he was, infact I think he knew all too well what I was talking about.

"Pardon?" he asked, and I snorted.

"I mean, I'm hardly an expert on these books. I'm sure most of the symbolism goes right over my head most of the time. My opinion is not that important or groundbreaking. In fact, I am what you'd call a novice of all things."

"Oh yes, that's right. That's a common mistake people make around you, isn't it? " he asked, his eyes seeing too much of me, making me blink and look away.

"What mistake?" I asked.

"That you don't know more than the average person. "

"That's not- no that's not what I mean. This- all these things you keep doing for me. How can you care for me, when you can have anyone? " someone older, someone with a better mental stability. I was not even upset about this, it was just a matter of logic. I was trying to understand. It had gnawed on me for some time now.

There was a moment of quiet as we simply stared at each other, trying to read what was there. I could sometimes tell what was on his mind, his eyes being so expressive at all times. I couldn't now, but there was something about him just then that frightened me, just a little bit. Like I was seeing something very sharp at the bottom of the sea, the wreck of some terrible machine from wars long ago that was only just now resurfacing.

"Because you are what I've always been searching for."