"I.." He paused. "I'm you friend mistress".

(Penelope's POV)

Running had easily caused her to become out of breath. She grumbled angrily at her body for failing her, and internally cursed Claude. Of course she had not run away because he called her his friend. It was the name he called her. 'Mistress'. She detested the title. The title restricted their friendship, and every time he called it her, she swore it broke her heart a little bit more.

Climbing the stairs that led to the attic, she carefully shut the door behind her already knowing that he would find her easily enough. The attic was creepy to say the least, cobwebs littered the corners and although Penelope was terrified of spiders, Clause had always chastised her for being so fearful. She remembered the first time she screamed because of a spider and his reaction.

-*FlashBack*-

At eleven years old, Penelope had flaming red hair that always ended up in a series of tangles due to her playing in the garden. So it was usually her maids job to remove all the twigs and leaves from her hair. But, in this particular occasion the maid had been sent on an errand by her mother. So, in an attempt not to get told off by her mother for looking like she had crawled out of a bush, which she had done, Penelope had started the job of removing shrubbery from her hair. Laughing at a particularly large leaf, she smiled thinking about how she looked like the flower fairies that her nanny, Lucy, had shown her when she s little. Lucy at this time had other children to take care of who were younger than Penelope, meaning that she only saw her three times a week.

Carrying in with the task at hand, she watched in the mirror as two long black legs crawled from just above her left side of her head. There tangled amongst her curly red hair was one of the biggest spiders she had seen in her life. Not wanting it to get on her face, or rather any more entangled, she decided against shaking her head. She also was fearful of moving it herself in case she harmed it, but above all she was just terrified in general. So closing her eyes tightly and putting her hands over them for good measure, she let out a glass shattering scream.

Within seconds of her scream, she felt a cold gloved hand turn her around. Shaking still, she whimpered.

"Penelope?" He asked, concern laced within his voice. Her reply was stuttered out quietly but he heard it. With careful precision, Claude had moved the spider gracefully from her curly hair and moved away from the child. As though she sensed his presence was gone, Penelope opened her eyes and ran to the furthest corner of the room.

"P..please don't hurt it!" She shouted out, shakily. Claude at this point had been going to the window, to release it and stopped in his tracks. Looking at Penelope, she was sure she saw amusement in his eyes but thought nothing of it. Before Claude could have replied, her mother, a tall dark haired lady and ran in the room.

"Penelope! Oh, my love are you ok? I heard your scream from outside" she said hurriedly as she pulled Penelope into a bear hug. Since the death of her father, Margaret, her mother and focused all her attention on her only daughter. This caused Penelope to feel guilty for the shock she had put her mother through and quietly explained the spider situation. Her mother, who had looked relieved but irritated, thanked Claude for helping Penelope. Before she left however, she turned to them both.

"You should have just killed it, it's only a pest" she spoke offhandedly and then left the room.

Looking upset, Penelope had shook her head at her mother's words wondering how she could say such cruel things. Looking over the Claude he gestured for her to come foreword. Walking to him, she flinched when she saw the spider still in his hand, but it was sitting rather still as though in a trance.

"Your mother is a fool for thinking such things as a pest Penelope" he spoke with a calm voice, but she could detect the anger behind the words. "Spiders are beautiful creatures, and yet they endure such cruelty from the world. I hope that one day you will realise that Penelope". And with those words he opened the window and placed in gently out. As he turned to leave however, she grabbed his sleeve.

"I don't doubt their beauty Claude, and I would never hurt one, why do you think I didn't move? Or touch it? I probably would have caused more harm. It's not my fault that I fear them". Smiling at him, she then hugged him as a thank you and carried on with removing the twigs in her hair. Yet as she started moving the foliage from her messy hair, she saw Claude in the reflection of the mirror bat her hands out of the way and did the job for her. They both didn't speak throughout the time, but as he finished he turned her around and rubbed her cheek with a gloved thumb fondly.

As he left, Penelope couldn't quite understand why he seemed do happy, but she like that. What she did learn though, was his protective nature over spiders and she giggled at the thought.

-*END OF FLASHBACK*-

Shuddering at the thought of how many spiders were in the attic, without any hesitation she opened the window leading to the roof and began to gingerly climb it. And no dear reader, she wasn't going to throw herself of the roof. Penelope often came to the roof when she wanted to escape something. And this particular something was demon shaped and wore glasses.

It was only when she found out he was a demon that he had treated her so differently. No longer did he call her by her actual name, but instead chose 'mistress'. He stopped hugging her soon after and now as a seventeen young lady, he hardly made any contact. The only contact she had with him was when she snuggled next to him as he read to her. It's not as though Penelope craved human affection, but considering she lived in a moderately large estate with only Claude and her maid for company, she couldn't help but feel lonely. Especially since Claude refused to be near her anymore.

Leaning back so that she was staring at the moon, she wished her nanny hadn't have died. Penelope had been so shocked by her death, as she was only in her thirties. But according to Claude, it had been an accident. An accident with a carriage in the middle of town. Although, Penelope found it slightly suspicious since there was never and article about it in the newspaper. At the time, Claude had made an excuse about the newspaper not finding it interesting, and as naive as she had been she believed him. But after the night she found out he was a demon, her trust for him had slightly faltered. Hearing a noise from below, she stood up quickly and began to run to the other side of the roof.

Thanking the gods that there were some ladders that led down to her parents balcony, she hurriedly pulled her dress up and began to climb down. Reaching the bottom, she opened the double doors easily and entered quietly. However, as she shut the doors behind her she felt an ominous presence. The doors were always locked at night, and the room had gone extremely cold. Lighting a nearby candle with the matched that her father had kept in his draws, she watched the room become slowly more visible.

No one was there and she gave a sigh of relief, walking to the door that led to the corridor, she locked it from the inside and hoped that Claude wouldn't be able to get in. So, realising she would be there for the rest of the night, she went and sat on her parents bed. It had been a long time since she had been in this room, and if she concentrated hard enough, she could actually smell them. Smiling fondly, she laid back down and glance around the cream room. The wallpaper had always intrigued her and she found herself once again trying to name the cream coloured flowers that littered the walls.

As a child she would often come in here while her mother dressed and play at her dressing table pretending to be a princess. It always resulted in her mother laughing at the sight of Penelope with bright red cheeks from too much blusher. Then being forced to wash it off by her father. Her father, although caring had never been a man for jokes. He would always find the serious side to everything. He hated that she would run around the garden when she was younger and once even slapped her for talking about fairies, saying that they were a made fantasy, and she was too old to be thinking of such things. She had only been eight at the time. Claude, on the other hand, had been ready to hit her father and she saw it in his eyes. However calm his posture was, his eyes were like an emotional gateway. One that she could see into. Even at eight years old, Penelope had managed to calm Claude down by hugging him and although she had tears slipping down the bruised cheek, her words had somehow caused his anger to turn to concern for her wellbeing.

Thinking back, it was rather odd that days later after her father had hit her, his favourite cane had snapped in two. In fact. As she thought about it, every time her father would hit her, which wasn't often but did occur, something bad would happen to him. Such as his favourite books falling into the fireplace and on one occasion which had been a week after he shouted at her and had hit her harder that should have been intended, her father had been mugged in London, where he would work in the week. He had come home with a black eye, a fractured rib and a missing tooth. Now as she thought about it, she wouldn't have been surprised if it had all been Claude's doing. She would ask him when she wasn't in a mood with him, as he had displayed his protective nature for her before, and that had been extreme.

A sudden noise from downstairs which sounded like a crash caused Penelope to jump out of her memories and thoughts. Two more louder crashes followed and for a moment Penelope considered going to have a look. But then she took into account that Claude may be mad and was taking it out on the furniture. It wouldn't have surprised her really. So feeling scared, she got under the blankets and closed her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the growing sounds from below. It reminded her of that dreadful night she nearly died.

A/N

Hope everyone is enjoying this, I have actually (by some miracle) planned out the rest of the story! So hopefully there will be a lack of writers block. Anyway I decide to write this becaue I feel like there I'd a lack of Claude x Oc fanfiction. So I wanted to contribute! Anyway, if you are enjoying this, I will have some more chapters out soon! Feel free to review!

And thanks to S-Lioness for reviewing, as this won't be a One-Shot anymore!