Gray's POV

"So, what do you fancy doing today?" Now, a week after Christmas, Petal and I were continuing to come to the beautiful meadow she'd found, it being a nice spot to relax away from my family. So we were both laying down, surrounded by dozens of small white lilies – that I was sure were Pet's doing. Taking our intertwined hands, I kissed her knuckles as she thought about what we could do. We'd both had nothing to do for the whole of the winter break, and if I was being honest I didn't mind. It felt like everything else had stopped mattering, just each other and our meadow existing. Not even time could affect us, both of sleeping in as long as possible and then taking a lazy stroll through the forest in the afternoon. I'd never been more relaxed and happier in my life.

"Do you want to go to our ice cream place?" Sad that we had to leave our sanctuary, but only too happy to oblige to her wishes, I stood up. Using our joint hands to pull her up, we started walking slowly towards the house so we could take the car. I smiled at Petal, already thinking of all of the possibilities that our lives could take.

"Oh yeah, I was going to ask, how's that annoying friend of yours doing?"

"Who?" Petal asked, looking up at me with her eyes wide in question and her eyebrow furrowed. I had to stifle a laugh at her absolute innocence, and her belief that no one could do any wrong. She hadn't even considered it to be Althea, even though she was one of her only friends.

"Althea."

"I... I wouldn't call her annoying, Gray." She berated me, sending me an evil glare from beside me. But when we were talking about Petal, the extent of her "evil" gazes were a simple squint. I found it quite amusing, but knew she wouldn't appreciate the comment so kept it to myself. I liked all of this, the feeling of being with someone and understanding the small little details which made them them. In fact, I liked the feeling of this whole holiday - it was the feeling of being so close to Petal that at any point in the day I could randomly kiss her, simply because I wanted. That at any point I could beat back any ugly memories from her mind if they ever appeared. That I could coddle her and love her to my heart's content. But most likely, it was the feeling that we were the last two people on the surface of the Earth - or maybe it was simply that we were each other's worlds. She certainly was mine.

But before I could continue that train of thought, a white piece of paper caught the corner of my eye.

"Oh, wait. Is this yours?" Snatching it off the floor, I handed it to her. She slowly twirled it around her fingers, confusion apparent. "I thought you might've dropped it." Suddenly her eyes took on a sharper focus, zeroing in on the letter, instead of the soft disdain from before. And without me even realising, the perfect moment from before was ruined, the course of our day doomed to be on a decline of pain and anguish regardless of how much I struggled and fought against it.

"Yeah, maybe." I could see she was trying to sound convincing, but her gaze was lost, and she looked too deep in thought to follow what I was saying. Opening the folded paper, she quickly scanned its contents. Her reaction was nothing that I could've anticipated, though, making me jolt in surprise as she scrunched it up, fear shadowing her features. Throwing it into the overgrown vegetation on the side of the narrow path, it was like it had never existed. Worried now, I stepped closer to her.

"Pet, are you ok? You look terrified." She nodded, but it soon turned into her shaking, the fear I'd seen in her eyes reverberating around her body. Even more worried about her mental state, I drew her into my arms, kissing her temple and trying to calm her down. I'd seen Pet having many panic attacks, but it always hit me just as hard. I could practically feel her fear washing over me as if we belonged to the same system – her pain becoming mine.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm-"

"I asked you if you were ok, not what you look like." This got a small smile out of her, but she wasn't even looking at me. Her eyes were pointed at me but they were unfocused, as if she was miles and miles away. No longer my Petal, but rather the shell that she became when she was truly terrified. Giving her a chaste kiss, I hoped that would startle her out of it, like it sometimes did. However, it didn't even seem to affect her, the shaking continuing and her breaths becoming more and more shallow.

Scooping her up into my arms, I sat down on the floor, knowing this was a lot worse than all of the other times. Before, she'd looked scared of the reaction her body was having, but I'd never seen her look this truly terrified – that is, until… Until Christmas. Feeling as if I'd reached some sort of epiphany, I started brushing stray strands out of her face. Maybe the note was connected to Blake in some way? Absentmindedly trailing my fingers down her cheek, I looked her in the eyes and prepared myself to convince the most amazing person in my life that she deserved to be happy.

"Pet, Angel, you need to listen to me, ok? Focus on my breaths." I then made my breathing extremely loud, so she'd be able to hear it. Soon I noticed her gasped breaths toning in with mine. Relieved that at least the breathing problem was solved, I calmed down substantially. Having my soulfinder in any danger – whether it was something physical or simply her mind – made my skin practically crawl. "You're the most beautiful girl I know, you have been since the minute I saw you, you know? And I guess a part of me knew back then that I was going to fall for you no matter what. I guess I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have you love me back.

"It just hurts me that that asshole of your father caused your heart to break like this. I hope that one day you can be truly happy again, so that I can make you feel like you make me every day.

"I love you so much Pet." Knowing that what she needed to come out of the panic attack was to feel loved again, I rambled on, hoping to distract her from her imminent break down. I then hummed to her, not really sure what I was singing in particular, rocking back and forth. After a few minutes of that, I decided to speak up again. "It's going to get better. I promise." My voice had quieted down to barely above a whisper, so I leaned in Pet's ear to tell her. Surprising me again, she turned her head, looking straight at me for the first time in the past ten minutes – her gaze finally focused on what she had in front of her. And giving me a small smile, she crashed our lips together.

"I love you too." She mumbled this against my lips, making me smile even broader into the kiss. Yes, she was broken, so what? It was these moments, when the world fell away and it was just us, that made it all worth it. The pain, the anguish. And in the end if the only thing I got out of this was Pet's happiness, I'd be content. Even if she ended up leaving me – her being happy would make all of this worth it.

Or, at least, that's what I tried to convince myself of. Because, if I was being honest, I didn't think I could survive without her.

Hi :)

So, crap's going down now O.o Hope you guys don't hate me too much xD Also, this was just Gray's point of view on the situation, really, nothing monumental happening, but soon ;) But yeah, tell me what you think of this chapter, I had loads of fun writing Gray being sweet to Petal :)

We didn't reach the target, but that's ok, we can reach it next time, right? Enthusiasm! So, do you guys reckon we can reach 118? Gosh, I can't believe how high we've gotten, it's hard to imagine that it all started off with just a couple of reviews :) Thank you all so much for helping me out, and I know I say it every time, but you guys are just gonna have to deal with it :P

Bye bye xx