After a few heartbeats, Law rose from the plush couch and scrubbed his fingers through his soft obsidian locks. Then, he tugged lightly on the strands. Topaz had actually given him a choice, a choice that involved his own life. He could stay with her and risk death or go somewhere safe and leave her to face death alone.

Maybe it was because she had given him the choice that he made the decision he did…

Quietly, he padded from the living room in search of Topaz. A quick peek in each of the rooms revealed that she was no longer in the house. Law's heart began to beat violently and erratically. Where could she have gone? Had that man come and taken her away to finished what he had started on her leg? Panicked, he rushed outside in search of her and nearly barreled into the back of her wheelchair on the porch.

She was sitting with her good leg drawn up against her chest and her arms wrapped around it. Her fingers were coated in blood, torn apart and he saw parts of her pinky fingernail were ripped out. Her shoulders were trembling minutely and her hair veiled her face from him. Her voice was thick with tears when she finally spoke. "Have you decided?" she asked him.

Law put his hands on the back of her wheelchair and his fingertips brushed her shaking shoulders.

Immediately, her trembling stopped and she went stone still.

"I have," he murmured.

She swallowed. "And…?"

Law pulled her chair back a little, out of the onslaught of the blowing rain. "If… if you'll have me, I'd like," he hesitated, "to stay with you, Miss Topaz."

Her back tensed up again and her voice became a hesitant little squeak. "Really?" she whispered.

He nodded, but she wasn't facing him so he murmured, "Yes."

She let out a shaky sigh of relief. "You'll stay with me," she whispered. "Thank you." She reached behind her shoulder, found his hand, and laid her palm over it. "Thank you, Law. Thank you so much," she sniffled, "for this."

He felt a lump welling up in his throat and whispered, "Thank you for the choice."

Topaz lifted her chin and craned her neck to look at him. "The choice?" she asked and their eyes met.

Law lowered his eyes and whispered, "The choice to stay with you or keep my own life…"

"It's your life," Topaz whispered. "How could anyone try to control another person's life? How could that choice be made by someone else?"

The wind howled through them, rattling in the eaves of the beautiful house and shaking the windows.

Law didn't say anything, but carefully pulled her chair backwards into the house. Safe from the onslaught of chilly wind, he hesitantly touched the short strands of dark hair at the base of her neck, twisting them around his fingers.

She made a small sound in her throat and tilted her head into his hands. "That feels nice," she said softly.

Law hesitated and then whispered, "Is it alright… for me to… touch you like this…?"

Her forest-green eyes slid open and tried to catch his, but he studiously avoided her gaze. His gunmetal orbs were locked on his fingers twining through her pale hair.

He looked so fragile, like a small child stepping out on the limb of a tree branch hoping someone below would catch him. His barred eyes revealed how terribly aware he was of the crippling fall that stretched out below him like an abyss. His poor broken body, Topaz thought and traced the paths of the scars on his arms with her eyes.

Finally, her silence drew his eyes from her hair to her face. Their eyes met and held.

Topaz wet her lips to speak, but couldn't find her voice.

The color rushed from his face and he started to pull away.

Topaz caught his hand and held it tightly. A little whimper crawled up his throat and he tried weakly to pull his hand from her grasp.

"Trafalgar," she whispered. "It's alright."

Then, she gently pressed his hand to the warm side of her face.

He shivered and she felt his fear run through her body.

He was afraid to trust her, afraid that this was all a trick. He was also afraid of what she had told him, afraid to lose the life he was just beginning to live. He was afraid to lose her, the only person who had ever seemed to care for him, the first person not to violate or beat or torture him on sight.

He was afraid.

Topaz uncurled his fingers and cupped them around the curve of her jaw. She nuzzled against his palm and let her eyes slide closed.

"It's alright," she murmured.

"Really…?"

She nodded and her mouth curved in a faint happy smile.

Gently, Law stroked his thumb along the high ridge of her cheekbone, just enjoying the velvety texture of her skin. Her eyes were closed; she trusted him. His trust was fragile, tenuous at best, but he prayed that she wouldn't destroy him.

Outside, it was pouring rain, but inside, Law felt the first rays of sunshine warming his frozen heart.

…

Night was a dark humid blanket just outside the windows. The stars stretched out endlessly like sparkling diamonds stitched into black velvet. The rain had finally stopped, but the soil was spongy and worms were flooded onto the stepping stones in Topaz's garden. The air smelled fertile, like earth and wood and cut grass, like flowers could be grown in it.

Law was standing at his bedroom window, dressed in fresh black cotton pajama bottoms and a pale t-shirt with his clean wet hair slicked down against his forehead and cheeks. Nervously, Law unlocked his window and pushed it up. Warm moist night air caressed his chilly skin. Sighing contently, he put his elbows on the window sill and leaned out. He inhaled the scent of the rainy night.

There were many times in his life that he had longed to do this, just look out on the night without feeling as if life was so bleak and dangerous out there in the dark. Moonlight kissed his skin, played over the planes of his face like cool silver and he allowed his amber eyes to slide closed in bliss and comfort.

He felt safe here and that was a rare thing for a slave to feel.

His life had not been easy, but there would always be fond memories that he could look back on, even when he was a slave. There was another slave girl, his best friend, and he would always look back in time and miss her. Unlike him, she had remained a working slave while he had been sold off for his body. His only fond memories of a kind touch came from her and the hug she had given him the day he was sold was the only thing that had kept him going throughout his darkest days.

"Be safe, my friend," she had said.

He remembered the sharp bones of her body against his hard frame and the softness of her skin, bare and bruised and grimy, and the scent of her rain-washed hair. Like him, she had never had a name and it was forbidden to give another slave even a nickname.

Sighing, Law rubbed his burning eyes and looked out into the night. He wondered how she was doing now.

He closed his eyes and inhaled the air deeply into his lungs. A night bird cried in the distance and he opened his eyes hoping to spot its silhouette. A star fell, streaking for a split-second across the dark velvet sky like a misplaced jewel. At that moment, he made a wish with all his heart.

Please, let this last. Don't take this away from me. Let this last, please…

There was a faint knock on his door and he turned quickly.

Topaz was standing in the threshold with her hand still poised from knocking. She was smiling beautifully and her green eyes shone with light. Her mahogany-toned hair curled in wisps around her face though she had the front pulled back with a single butterfly clip. She was wearing dark blue pajamas bottoms with a pattern of cherry blossoms on them and a white tank top. He could see the rosy skin of her nipples beneath the translucent fabric and that made him a little nervous, but she looked so gentle that he pushed his fears away.

"Hey, Law-kun," she said almost timidly with a touch of nervousness in her smile. "It's going to rain again tonight. You may want to close that."

"Of course, Miss Topaz," He said and nodded hurriedly.

She bit her lip and looked as if she wanted to say something, but Law ventured a question before she could speak.

"But… is it alright if… maybe I close it later…?" he whispered.

Topaz smiled broadly. "Of course!" Then, the nervousness touched her face again. "Law…?"

His mercurial eyes darkened fearfully and he drew his bottom lip between his straight white teeth.

"I was wondering if you could… maybe, just… um… could you…? Could you…?"

His throat flashed as he swallowed. "Yes?"

"Would you be willing to… um, spend the night with me…?"

Law looked as if he had been struck across the face. All the color drained from his face and he bit his bloodless lips. "O-of co-cour-rse, M-Miss Topaz," he stuttered. His voice cracked and broke with what must have been terror.

Topaz's heart clenched in a sharp painful fist of ice. Immediately, she gripped the doorframe and swayed unsteadily on her feet. Her injured crippled leg tried to buckle beneath her, but the brace snapped it straight.

"No, no, Law," Topaz tried to explain. Her breath rushed out of her lungs in panic, making it nearly impossible to sputter out what she was trying to say. She heaved in a deep breath and managed to calm her racing heart.

Law was curling in his shoulders, shrinking and collapsing in on himself. He looked very small and fragile and she had broken him.

"No, Law-kun, please, wait. Let me explain," she whispered.

He didn't raise his eyes to meet her gaze, but a tremulous shiver ran through his entire frame.

Topaz limped the expanse of his bedroom. Every step forward she took toward him, he took one backwards. Finally, he was backed up against the window, whimpered faintly, and squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

"Please, listen to me. Let me explain." Tears welled up on Topaz's lashes and she hurriedly brushed them away with the back of her hand. "It's… I can't sleep at night," she whispered. "I'm so afraid that Bellamy will come in and finished what he started on my body."

Law's face eased, but he didn't open his eyes. He stopped biting on his lip and there was a speck of blood on his split flesh.

"I just want someone to be with me," Topaz sobbed. "Dear Lord, I didn't mean what you thought I meant…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Law opened his eyes and took in the shattered heartbroken look on her beautiful face. He wet his lips and whispered, "It's alright."

She fisted her hands in the front of her shirt and stared down at her toes. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "You must think I'm a horrible person."

He shook his head. "No, I think you're a," he swallowed, "a very good person."

Topaz sniffled and looked up into Law's face. The moonlight fell across his cheeks and shone on his eyes, making his gray eyes glow in the dark. He looked beautiful, like some kind of strange paradoxical god. He was strong and handsome and rippling with power yet he radiated fear and abuse and years of torment.

"And… I'd be," he swallowed, "willing to spend… the night with you…"

Topaz shook her head. "No, never mind. It's alright," she said. Then, as fast as her crippled leg could carry her, she ran from him.

He heard her door slam down the hall and then, everything was silent.

Outside, it began to rain.

...

Questions, comments, concerns?