Oh, my gosh, has it been a LONG time. I'm SO SORRY. Well... I guess, this is all I've got for now. I'm almost graduated and my Senioritis has kicked in, so... I really don't know what to say. Fanfiction has kinda fallen into a box of things labeled "I'll Get To It Later"... For now, I'll leave you with this. Please enjoy the tenth chapter. I worked hard on it...

-Mandy-

A mere four hours of sleep came to Andromeda that morning. When Perseus called for her around ten o' clock, she forced her tired eyelids open reluctantly. She ignored him at first, slept about twenty more minutes, and finally decided to start the day.

After a shower, she walked drowsily downstairs to the kitchen where Perseus had made her eggs and toast.

"Morning, Andie," he sang. He was in a cheerful mood.

She took a deep breath. The back door was open so a cool breeze could flow inside. The air smelled fresh of morning dew.

Perseus raised an eyebrow at her. "You look tired."

"I didn't sleep much…"

"How come?"

"Just a sleepless night," she said, remembering fondly when Ezekiel had laid over her. He wasn't James Marsden, but he was attractive and hard-edged, and as far as she was concerned, that was good enough. Every time she remembered the way it had felt lying underneath him, she felt an unfamiliar fire blazing in her stomach. It was the first time she could remember feeling desire for any guy.

When breakfast was finished, Andromeda returned to her room to sleep some more, which made her feel much better once she woke around two o' clock. Feeling refreshed, she strolled outside into the warm afternoon sun. There was almost not wind, only a gentle whisper of it to keep the hot day moderately bearable.

One of Andromeda's favorite things to do was climb the apple tree in her front yard. Today she felt great, and she pulled herself up into the higher branches so she could see down the street, beyond the town, where the hills were.

She loved those hills. They were the place she wanted to go most of anywhere in Wisconsin. And if she could someday go there, she wanted more than anything to go with Ezekiel.

As she was chewing a succulent red apple, she realized she'd forgotten to yell at Gabriel (again) for following her.

Rage blazed within her chest. He was going to get it.

She climbed down from the tree, and the instant her feet touched the grass she was running toward Gabriel's house.

Three angry knocks on the door and he answered, looking rather surprised at the sight of her.

"How could you?" were the first words she spoke.

He frowned, concerned, "How could I what?"

"You were spying on me! Gabriel, you told me you wouldn't pry anymore, you promised!" Tears of frustration were burning the backs of her eyes.

"Andie, I'm sorry, it wasn't-"

"You broke your promise, Gabe! I trusted you!"

"Hey, it was Carson's stupid idea about going to spy on the trailer and he almost literally dragged me with! I told him we should go home, that it was a dumbfuck idea, but he wouldn't listen. I went with because I didn't want him to get in trouble. Isn't that a good enough explanation?"

She stared—at his eyes, at his expression, at him—unable to find anything she could say. She began with "Oh…" but couldn't go further.

"I wouldn't break a promise with you, Andie. Why can't you believe me?" He looked insulted by her accusation. Did she really have to assume it was him without hearing his story first? Would she believe it, had he told her his side of it?

Her anger melted away into remorse. "I'm sorry. I'm just stressed; you have to bear with me. I didn't sleep much last night."

Gabriel's hazel eyes hadn't left hers since she'd arrived. He seemed conflicted in some way. "I could've stayed away, though. I didn't have to go with him. I just wanted to know if you were okay."

Again she could understand his reasoning for this. He cared about her; he was doing it out of friendship.

"I appreciate you trying to make him respect my privacy," she said to him, "it was very nice of you."

His eyes rose to meet hers again. "You think so?"

"Without a doubt." When she looked at Gabriel—really looked at him—she saw the faint yellowish marks on his cheek from his last fight. They must've been a few days if not a week old.

"Do you wanna hang out today?" he asked timidly.

Why not, she thought, he deserves it for being so thoughtful… I think.

So for the next few hours, Andromeda and Gabriel traveled into the woods behind his house. Though they weren't as mysterious as the forest surrounding Ezekiel's trailer, they were hilly and wide, stretching from one end of town to the other. Some wrappers and firework shells littered the dirt while birds of several kinds darted from one tree to another.

The two teenagers walked through the woods, remembering the times when they were younger and would pretend the forest was enchanted, full of unicorns, trolls, centaurs, fairies, dragons, pixies, elves, and giants. And when Gabriel suggested they play a game of Magic Forest, just for old times' sake, she couldn't say no.

They spent all afternoon pretending to be warriors. Andromeda was a pond fairy who wielded a powerful jeweled staff (the jewel being an apple from Gabriel's apple tree that she stabbed onto the end of a huge stick) while Gabriel was a centaur with a mighty blade (a regular tree branch) who sought to slay the red dragon of the mountains because it was incinerating his village.

They were so engrossed in their game that by the time they went inside for dinner, the sun was already setting.

Gabriel's family had a habit of eating breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast, so they ate a "supper" of omelets and sausage links. Nostalgia filled Andromeda as she conversed with their family over the meal, like they would so long ago.

She looked behind her at the clock and her eyes widened.

"I should be heading home," she told then all, standing up from her place at the table. "Thank you very much for dinner."

When she left, the sun was low, crickets playing in a symphony somewhere buried among the grass, warm evening wind blowing gently on her face as she hurried home. She was more excited now to see Ezekiel, especially after playing childish games with Gabriel to fuel her imagination.

Popping into her house for only a second, she snatched her book City of Bones off the counter where she'd been reading it.

"Hey," Perseus called, noticing her hurry, "what's the rush, Speedy Gonzales?"

"I'm visiting a friend for a while," she told him.

"What about supper?"

"I ate at Gabriel's." She dashed out the door with a brief goodbye.

The sun was gone by the time she reached the trailer. All around her the trees were quiet, the road as empty as always, the small house quaint and peaceful.

Andromeda knocked on the door, her heart racing with eager longing to see him. There were no words she could find to describe him, or the way she felt toward him.

No one replied after a few seconds, so she knocked again.

Still nothing.

"Ezekiel," she called, "it's me! Are you there?"

Where would he go? She thought, downhearted. He never leaves this place… does he? Well… he did to return my sweatshirt… hmm…

"Ezekiel?" she yelled again, the book slipping from her grip, so she shifted it to her other arm. Carefully she turned the knob, gave the door a firm shove, and she stepped inside. The smell of pine-scented cleaner was potent in the musky trailer's air, the floor now clear enough to walk across without tripping.

She hesitated halfway into the room, feeling like as much of a trespasser as she had been the day she'd investigated the place. This time she had no bad intentions; she was there strictly for Ezekiel.

A door just beyond the kitchen caught her attention, the one where the strange boy had stood back when he'd found Perseus. As she stepped closer, she noticed it was ajar.

Something outside the trailer made a rustling noise, and her muscles tensed. If someone had followed her again, Ezekiel would be furious.

With a few careful steps she approached the still-open front door, only the book in her hand as a defense. She could've turned and ran for the room behind her, but something inside her wanted to defend herself. Something also reassured her that Ezekiel was at least near, within screaming distance.

There was a rustling noise, the click of shoes on wood, and she leaped back, knife held high.

"Whoa, fuck!" yelped Ezekiel's husky voice from the doorway as Andromeda staggered to her feet. He darted over the counter, a pale blur, half of him hidden behind it. "You're early!"

"And you're… naked?" Oh, jeez…! He's gonna make me go crazy… "Why are you naked?"

"I was washing clothes in the river!" She watched as he swiped for a pair of boxers on the floor and haphazardly tugged them on, though she saw nothing but his upper body behind the counter. He was creamy pale with light chest hair and ripples of sinewy muscle going down his arms and back.

"Um…" Good way to start a conversation… Her hand tightened around a small box in her pocket. "Have you ever had gum?"

"Yes, I've had gum before."

"You want some?"

"Sure."

While he began chewing, Andromeda realized she was still holding City of Bones; she held it up and said, "I brought a book."

"Joy…" muttered Ezekiel, who was in the process of putting on his shirt.

"No, it's a good book. I really think you should read it, or at least… let me read a little section of it to you."

"Why?"

Andromeda bit her lip. "Just because… it might make you think."

As she settled down in the now-clean couch, Ezekiel came to sit beside her, close enough that she could feel his arm brushing hers as he leaned over her shoulder to see into the page she had flipped to.

"That's a lot of words…" he said.

Ignoring him, she began to read one of her most favorite quotes in the book, one that went in depth about love. After reading the quote, she looked at him. His face was contorted into a thoughtful frown, like he was trying to decipher the words one by one.

"That's… weird."

She rolled her eyes and flipped through to another page and read another, but stopped with her hand on the page, conflicting emotions stilling her tongue.

"Ezekiel, about yesterday…" she began carefully, recalling the moment when they'd been hiding under the laundry, "I just wanted to tell you… I had never felt so good being so close to someone. I really wanted to..."

He shook his head. "Look... in any other situation, I wouldn't mind, but… I haven't… I haven't even kissed someone for a really long time, and… I don't know if I'd be able to control myself with you."

"Really?" she asked, unsure of what he was saying. "Why?"

The sound of his sigh made Andromeda feel bizarrely calm.

"Because," he began, "you're… really pretty, and you care about me, and it's just… it's weird, you know? This is gonna sound bad… but you gave any less of a flying fuck about me, I probably would've…" He paused, sounding horrified at himself. "I probably would've done something terrible to you."

"I don't think that's true."

"It is. I have terrible self-control. I get horny, I get angry, I get impatient, I turn into a-" Here he swallowed too hard over the words and nearly choked. "…a monster."

There it was. It was a reference to the beast he'd been referred to as by so many people. Did they know it was just a figure of speech? Did they know that he was only considered a beast because of his temper, and because he chose to remain away from society? Did anyone really put any thought into the fact that there was a hurting person living in this trailer house outside city limits, longing to be worth something in another person's life?

Taking a huge chance, she reached up to touch his beautiful face, drawing his eyes to hers. "You aren't a monster," she said. "You're just a lost human being."

"No. You don't understand…" The swift movement he made in leaning away from her touch hurt her feelings. "I'm not a good person. I'm anything but a good person. I honestly don't know why you haven't gone running for the hills yet but I don't expect it to be much longer before you never come back here. And it sucks because I really, really don't want you to leave me alone…"

In the desperation of his words, Andromeda realized she had moved so close to him that their noses were poked together. This was it. This was perfect.

"I won't," she whispered, and she closed the space between them.

At first Ezekiel hesitated, barely kissing back except for small nibbles. When he tilted his head to angle the kiss better, she felt his lips part to let her tongue through, and she tasted the sweet strawberry of the gum she'd given him. It was slow, tender, with all her intent to soothe his feelings of loneliness and despair.

After a few seconds, he pulled away, his gray eyes wide in the darkness. "Oh, God, what did we just do?"

"We kissed," she said timidly, licking her lips to retain the flavor he'd left there.

"I told you I have no self-control!" He slapped himself in the forehead and cursed under his breath.

"But it was fine. You didn't do anything wrong."

"You can't get attached to me," he told her. "I'm not… I'm not right."

"Ezekiel, we're in too deep now. I can't not be attached now that I already am. You made me want you more and more and now I can't stop wanting you. This is… this is what I've been hoping for since I met you."

He shook his head fiercely. "No. This can't happen."

His words stung. After all they'd been through already, he was just now going to tell her to stop? Did he do that on purpose?

"What do you mean?" she asked, trying not to sound as hurt as she felt.

"I mean, I can't afford to have you want me the way you do. It's not good for you and it's especially not good for me. I can't get involved with someone like that. I just… I just can't."

"So this is about you again, isn't it?" By now, she was standing, fists balled up, her chest clenched with anger. "This is just like you staying out here in this damn trailer, because you're selfish and lazy. Do you ever stop thinking of yourself?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You kept letting me come back these past few weeks, not wanting me to like you but knowing that I would anyway? And then now that I do like you, you suddenly decide that it goes nowhere? That is a textbook case of playing a girl's emotions, and let me tell you something, that hurts." Before he could respond, she went on, "Maybe you're right about yourself. Maybe you aren't a good person. Maybe I was wrong, because right now, all I see is the monster everyone told me about."

She turned and stormed for the door as tears began to drizzle down her cheeks. How could she let herself get hurt like this? How could she have been stupid enough to trust such a… beast?

Her promise to Gabriel was broken. She'd gotten hurt.

"Hey!"

The sound of Ezekiel's voice stopped her in her tracks, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him. Her hand tightened on the doorknob in case she decided to make a mad dash, just for the satisfaction of leaving him behind in midsentence.

For some reason, though, she couldn't, and instead remained frozen in place to hear out whatever it was he had to say.

"I'm not trying to protect me, I'm trying to protect you. In case you missed something, Blondie, I'm the beast who lives in this damn trailer on his own, and you're Little Miss Curious who has to come storming in here and mess up my life. I didn't give a shit before you showed up and now suddenly I actually care again. After all this time being alone, it's weird and kind of scary suddenly feeling like I'm worth something to somebody else and it's even scarier having someone who's worth something to me." His voice dropped considerably in volume and tone when he spoke next. "I'm as afraid as you are… of getting hurt. Nobody wants that. But that's all there is to it, Blondie… I'm just scared."

At this point, she was staring at him. Emotion was welling up inside her, but she wasn't sure whether to let it show or not yet.

"You care about me?" she asked skeptically, and began inching her way back to where he stood.

"I guess so. If I didn't, I wouldn't have taken the time to keep you here." He spread his arms for a moment and then dropped them to his sides, exhaling with resignation, but saying nothing except for, "Well… now you know."

Andromeda was moved by his reasoning. As cliché as it sounded, she felt her heart trembling, like he was magnetically drawing her back toward him. A few more steps closed the gap until she had her arms around him, holding his body like she had never held anyone before, and hoped she'd never have to hold anyone else that way. Only Ezekiel.