A huge pile of clothes fell on her foot from the closet. She felt a warm pressure on her leg.

Her friend laughed and moved them away, she wasn't amused herself.

She didn't like to be laughed at. Not over something silly, over accidents. They happened.

Her leg felt cold now that it was exposed.

The weight on her bed had shifted again.

Bed?

She wasn't on a bed. She was on the floor surrounded by clothes...

Things started getting hazy and she started drifting away.

..........Null?

"You're... here?"

Over a week and not a word.

After being so vague last time and not finishing his sentence, he had dissappeared. Again.

It had left Sebille questioning the end to what he was going to say. She'd come up with hundreds of endings but had no idea, if any of them were even close. He was that unpredictable.

She hadn't known if he would return... And now here he was, sitting on her bed.

"Women really like it when you enter their room... and their bed, without their consent, you know..." She was still sleepy but the irony in her voice was clear.
" ..."

She, again, hadn't meant to sound so sour, since she really was happy that he was back but... She had been a little offended about him leaving again.

"...Especially in the middle of the night."
" ..."
"Makes us feel really safe. ... That anybody can just walk in, you know."
" ..."

"But you're back... nothing wrong, right?"

She wondered where this patience came from -her patience. She never used to be patient and she had always wanted to know everything, but now... She didn't really want to know where he had been and it was only important that he was here now.

His voice barely a whisper, he spoke:
"I want to protect you."

Protect? Her?
Really... that's what he was going to say? That was so... so... corny. But it still made her feel warm inside. Not something she had been expecting and definitely not one of the endings she'd come up with. She hadn't thought that she'd need to be protected.

Sounding a little disbelieveing she answered:
"From what?"

No.

"I don't have anything I need to be protected from."

No.

"Unless you count an occasional, pretty harmless stalker..."

No!

This wasn't what she wanted to say. This wasn't what she wanted to say at all. This was her cynical side coming out at a time it wasn't supposed to.
He'd opened up to her and this is how she paid him back?

" ..."

She'd probably hurt his feelings.

...

"I'm sorry... I'm a modern girl..."
" ..."
"...Old fashioned romance is lost on us."

"You want to protect me.... I'll let you protect me, okay?"

If that's his way to convey his feelings, she would most certainly let him. Heck, he'd already been protecting her for quite a while... mainly from her own clumsiness, though.