Pudding didn't really sleep. She lay on the bed, facing the door. Her eyes were wide open and she couldn't bring herself to relax enough to sleep. The room was cold and she shivered. She could wrap herself in the blanket, but the thought just never crossed her mind. The whole ordeal was too much for her, but she could only imagine what the other girls were going through. Paraded around like that for the amusement of those old men, that was too much of an ordeal. Why was she spared that fate? Syaoron said it was because she was too young, but she didn't really know if that truly mattered to him that much. All these thoughts swirled about her head, further adding to her insomnia. It wasn't until a noise disturbed her that she realized how deep her thoughts had been.
A padding echoed through the cell and Pudding sat up on her bed to better listen. It was coming from the corridor outside, growing louder. It sounded like footsteps, but it wasn't morning yet. They were also too soft, not the clumpy shoes that Syaoron had been wearing, but instead the sounded like bare feet. Who could it have been?
The noise stopped as the unknown person halted outside the cell door. Pudding's curiosity was piqued as the bolt was slid across and the handled lowered. It was done slowly, not making the loud sound it did before, and pudding why whoever it was didn't want any noise. The heavy door was slowly pushed forward allowing the light from the corridor to flow in more than the tiny window had allowed.
It was Lee. He stood there with an innocent look on his face and smiled casually to Pudding, as if he'd done no more than knocked on her door at home. "Oh good, your awake!" He said as he stepped in and glanced around, carefully taking a moment to make sure no one else was in the corridor. Pudding stood, confused and bewildered. "Come on, I want to show you around a bit more." He said. He beckoned for her to come and, not knowing any better, Pudding followed.
He led her out into the corridor, grabbing her wrist and towing her along behind him. Pudding said nothing and simply followed. She got the impression he didn't want his father to find out about this, and neither did she. He began to show her around the place. The facility wasn't an awful lot bigger than what she'd already seen, though Lee took her through the lab, kitchen, show room and some of the storage rooms that she'd only seen bits of. There were the living quarters aswell and Lee let her glance through the door. He didn't want to go in with her for fear of waking Syaoron. All this time he babbled away like the excited child he was and pudding began to feel more and more relaxed about him. She didn't sense any of the malice that his father exhibited.
The tour came to an end rather soon however and Lee offered to get them a late night snack. Pudding broke a rather small and half hearted smile and nodded. It was the first time she'd smiled since she got here, and she didn't even realize it. They sat down on the counter, to eat. Pudding shuddered as she felt the cold surface touch her bare skin, whilst Lee, who was wearing regular pyjama's, didn't even notice.
"Why are you being so kind to me?" Pudding finally asked, after fighting to say something for quite a while. Lee stopped and looked at her, putting his snack down on the side.
"I want us to be friends." He said simply. Had pudding been in her normal environment she'd have jumped at the opportunity but here, after everything that had happened, she genuinely didn't know what to do.
"Friends?" She simply stuttered in response.
"Friends!" Lee replied. "I'm not allowed to leave this building, so I don't have any other friends. I'd love for you and me to be friends." His words were innocent, and sincere. He smiled at her, meaning exactly what he said. Pudding couldn't really believe it, it was all so overwhelming, and she did the first thing that came naturally to her; She cried.
She sobbed away, and Lee pulled her close to him, not really sure how best to comfort her. "Don't cry Pudding, it's all right." He comforted her, but this only made it worse. He was genuinely being kind to her. " She fought to hold back the tears as she looked him in the eyes. "If you keep crying, Daddy will wake up and find us." He added, still with the grin on his face. Pudding instantly tried to calm down, knowing that he had a point. She fought back the tears and sobs, but still felt the emotion of it all weigh heavily on her.
"I'm sorry" she finally said after a pause for what seemed like ever.
"It's okay. I cry sometimes too. You're the first person I've ever met my age." Pudding was amazed. Lee wasn't the person she had assumed him to be.
"Why?" She simply asked, hoping to better understand him. Lee took a deep breath and sighed.
"Daddy says it's not safe for me outside. I have a heart condition and he says that bad men could take me away and hurt me." The irony of Syaoron fearing kidnapping did not escape Pudding but she kept quite. "If I get taken away from Daddy, then I won't be able to have my medicine, and bad things could happen. So he makes me stay here with him." Syaoron clearly had enemies which only made Pudding curios about what exactly he did. Lee seemed genuine though, innocent, unwise to the real world. It was odd being around him.
"I'm hoping we can be Friends?" He added as he turned back to her. "I like spending time with you. We should meet up like this every night." He added. Pudding smiled again. She was genuinely pleased with this idea, and she didn't know why.
"I'd like that" she replied simply. A smile stretched across Lee's face from ear to ear and he grabbed her hand and jumped up and down with excitement.
"Really?" He almost shouted. He caught himself and spun round in silence to see if he could hear Syaoron rousing. After a few tense moments he turned back to her with a sigh.
"Daddy will want you back in your room." He said dejectedly. Clearly he didn't quite grasp the concept of the cell but Pudding was more dejected about leaving him than returning to the cell.
Slowly the two snuck back to the corridor that pudding's room was located on. Lee stood by the door as Pudding stood by the bed. "Thanks for being my friend." He said to her as she simply smiled her response. "Can I ask one more thing?"
Pudding nodded and he leant forward again to whisper in her ear. "Can I see where you pee from again?" Pudding was a bit surprised, but she'd been walking around in the short skirt all day so she felt no embarrassment now. She slowly lifted the front of the skirt to allow Lee a clear view as he had earlier. "Wow!" was all he said and Pudding blushed. "Tell me more about it tomorrow, ok?" He added before closing and locking the door behind him.
Pudding lay on the bed, and smiled. It wasn't long before she fell completely asleep.
