Max

"So your kid got pregnant?" Jaden asked, his tone uncertain as he asked. He was disappointed with this. It was always awkward when your soulmate had children before you met. It felt mildly like betrayal.

"He's not technically mine. He's adopted but one of the three alive if my kind." Max explained Solemnly. 

"Oh." Was all Jaden had for a response as he stirred around the ice in his latte (iced obviously)

They were sitting on a bench at a park by far from his school, not that he told Max this. He didn't... she was still technically a stranger, even though she knew where he lived and had dropped by more then a Few times... he really didn't know why he didn't want her to know where he went to school. He made sure to hide his text books and toss his report cards.

Maybe it was an intimidation that she would see his average marks and be disappointed? Or maybe it was because of the feeling of there being such an age gap? Even if there's wasn't. She knew what he talked about most the time, understood references and acted like a person his age more often then not. She didn't talk about work. God, he wasn't even one hundred precent sure what her work was. More then once she had made it sound like she was some assassin with the small details she'd give. But she also said she quit, or it sounded like she quit or was fired but assassins can't be fired can they? But yet again he was pretty sure she had a part time at some restaurant. He didn't know what one but she'd also mentioned that. Maybe she's lying? She could be... but she always said she wouldn't lie to him and even gave him this look when he did. The whole, sensing when he lied was getting a little old. He shouldn't get that look for lying about not having homework to do. It was just stupid. It didn't mater how small of a fib it was, she always caught it. Like saying he like Reeses over KitKats because he was pretty sure she didn't like peanut butter with the look she gave the orange package when he offered her to have one of the two. Honestly, why does he get in trouble for trying to please the other?

"The baby died at five months old." Max said quietly almost to softly for the  Brunette to catch her words.

Jaden blinked as he tore his eyes away from the street ahead of them to look at Max who was siting stiffly strait next to him, eyes trained on something on top of a building he couldn't see.

"Do you know why?" Jaden asked, eyes filled with concern. The deep blue color that reminded Max of the sky when you looked strait up during the day to see the darkest point where the atmosphere was thinnest around you, only so muck light reflecting off the air to disguise the darkness of space that consumed the heavens.

But still too many blondes....

She shook her head. "Grey was just holding him. Masson was fine, had just finished a bottle and was taking a nap. He was weeper in a blanket, being held in Grey's arms. He wasn't sick, he was fine. And then... and then Grey yelled for me. The baby was still warm but there was nothing we could do. He wasn't human. He was still half one f us so we couldn't have brought him to a hospital if we knew something was wrong. Maybe he just, being a hybrid killed him." She explained in the same soft tone. She finally looked away from the buildings to looks at Jaden. "But maybe it was me. I could have done something. It could have been my fault somehow."

Max had never shown great signs of emotion. Not to Jaden anyway. She of course she showed emotion. Laughed, smiled, glared. But none of it went past her expression. It never hinted to what she was thinking on the inside. Her eyes where a cement wall and wouldn't let anyone in. It's what had convinced him that she very well could be an assassin. The way nothing seemed to gaze her whether it be good, scary, or dangerous. But this now. To Jaden this was scary, sending cold shivers down his spine as he stared back at her grey eyes.

They were so clear, so open and startling he almost squirmed as he saw the deep guilt that rooted deep inside of her. It was the look of someone who had done a lot of bad things and regretted many of them. Someone who hadn't understood the consequences until it was too late. Wise, sad eyes that had seen far more things then he ever would... even if she didn't remember, her soul had still seen and experienced it. Her mind may have forgotten but her spirit never would.

She had convinced herself that the infants death was yet another horror she had committed.

She never said a word for what she was. From what she was truly born. With the simple gaze Jaden ever so slowly unraveled the story set behind a normally hardened gaze.

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond. He was seventeen. Barely over the age of Consent. He wasn't out of high school, was considered to be part of a lazy, useless generation. And yet here he was, being exposed to one of the curses of the world. The person who had been predestined as his soulmate.

"Max... it's- it wasn't your fault." He said staring back. He wouldn't break this contact first. It was the first realistic sign of trust being given to him. A first action of true meaning.