The two hadn't said a word to each other since Frank's begging at the restaurant. Autumn felt horrible and awkward for making Frank go quiet after his sudden mood shift. It was obvious that whatever was going on in those woods was deeply personal and was clearly troubling him.

He had said that there was nowhere else but there for him and, while Autumn wanted to know what that meant, they didn't want Frank to feel coerced into telling them something he wasn't comfortable with confiding in them. Autumn had known of people who hid their pain through smiles, glitz, and glam and it appeared that Frank was no acception.

Autumn opened their mouth to speak, to apologize for having made the night awkward for their nosiness. Then Frank spoke, stopping Autumn mid syllable.

"I'm sorry," he sighed as they made their way down a bridge with light traffic, "I know that... That man you met at Harris' was scary... He scares me too. Which is exactly why you shouldn't get too involved with what goes on back there."

Autumn looked to Frank as he stared down at his feet. His eyes looked sad, but his face kept up his tough exterior of the cool guy. Autumn wished he'd be a little more open about what exactly it was that was troubling him. He was the one who made a fool of himself to get Autumn to date him, so it made them wonder why the forest was what was holding him back.

"So then..." Autumn trailed off before taking a moment to gulp, "So then... Why did... Did you want to go out with me... If you don't want me to know about what's happening to you, then why go on a date with me?"

Frank stopped walking to run his fingers through his golden hair and look out over the bridge to the river breath it, the current flowing toward where the forest was.

"It's been years since I knew what 'normal' felt like," he began as he air-quoted normal, "that man... Keeps people like me from being close to people like you, because he's paranoid. But I don't want to be kept away, I want to be apart of the world you live in. I want to be surrounded by people who live unafraid of being punished, I want to go on dates without having to ask permission from others, I want to feel human."

"But... You are human," Autumn pointed out confused, "aren't you?"

A cold silence passed between the two once again. Frank stared out at the water below them, their reflections staring up at him. Autumn began to worry that they had said something even worse when Frank's usual calm face began to contort into a mix of negative emotions. It looked like his eyes were beginning to well up with tears, his pale face flushing red, and his hands gripping his wrists tightly.

"How human can I be?" Frank finally asked as he rubbed his eyes roughly with the palms of his hands. "I live in the woods, take orders from people who are higher than me in class and rank, and have to beg to have my way. I'm the furthest fucking thing from human!"

Autumn then jumped back as Frank began to sob into his hands. They hadn't expected him to suddenly burst into tears and wasn't sure how to handle it. The only man they had ever seen crying ever was Chet when they were both still teenagers and it had been after Grace rejected him.

Trying to remember how they comforted Chet back then, Autumn shakily lifted a hand and gently set it down on Frank's back. They slowly rubbed his back as he went on crying and tried to think of something to make him feel better.

"I'm sorry," Frank sniffed, still not have calmed down from his sobbing, "I'm really sorry... I'm ruining this date."

"No, no!" Autumn immediately soothed as they rubbed Frank's arm. "You're not ruining anything! I had a great night, really! I shouldn't have pressured you to tell me what was bugging you."

"No," Frank breathed as he ran his fingers through his hair, "you're right to be suspicious of me... You must think I've been stalking you or something..."

Autumn couldn't argue with that. They had thought it was strange that Frank was at every corner they turned and that he wanted to date them of all people. Not to mention there were his ties to Mr. Brighten and that scary man that made him even more suspicious.

However, they did have to admit that he was being rather gentlemanly tonight. From how he was when they met to now, it was a surprise to Autumn. A pleasant surprise, but it didn't shake off that uneasiness they felt about him. Still, just turning their back on him when he was like this didn't feel right and they decided to stay. Any human would like someone to stay with them in this situation.

"It's getting late," Frank sighed as he finally relaxed himself, "I should get you home."

"W-Wait," Autumn stopped Frank before he could begin heading toward their apartment, "I want you to see something first."

They held up his hand and pressed theirs to it. They then placed their other hand to Frank's chest. When Autumn was going through changes as a teenager and was being targeted by the bullies at their school, Dweni had sat them down and had done the same thing. Telling their parents was the most terrifying thing they had ever done, but Dweni's strange ritual had made it easier for them to come out. Even if they felt excluded by others, they at least had Chet and their family. They were different from what society deemed normal, but they were still human.

"Can you feel my hand on yours?" Autumn asked.

"What are-?" Frank started.

"Answer the question." Autumn demanded.

"Y-Yes?" Frank answered.

"Do you have a heart beat?" Autumn asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you cry when your sad? Or smile when you're happy? Or do both during bittersweet moments?"

"I think I do?" Frank looked at Autumn like they had grown a second head. "What are you trying to-?"

"Are you loved?"

Frank froze. "W-What?"

"Are you loved?" Autumn repeated, looking Frank directly in the eye. "Do Faith and Laila love you? Do the people at the club love you? Are you loved by anyone back home?"

Frank flinched at the mention of his home and Autumn wondered if they overstepped. Instead, Frank's face began to soften as he thought it over and looked down into Autumn's eyes.

"Yes," Frank answered, choking down the tears, "I'm... I'm loved..."

"Then you're no less a human than anyone else," Autumn soothed with a smile, "others will look down at you like you're lesser, that you're not human. But those people don't matter. What matters is that you feel, you have emotions, you have people who love you. You're not a thing, you're a human and you deserve to be treated as such."

Frank's eyes stared directly into Autumn's, his body trembling slightly beneath Autumn's hands. He lifted his free hand to Autumn's that was pressed to his chest and wrapped his fingers around the one pressed to his hand. His body was surprisingly warm despite the chill of the night. Autumn looked up at him confused for a moment before feeling their body catch fire as they watched his head inch toward theirs. His eyes were closed and his lips were beginning to pucker as they got closer to Autumn's.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Hold up! Wait!" Autumn cried out rapidly before releasing Frank's hand and pushing him away, his hand still gripping their hand on his chest. "J-J-J-J-Just slow your roll there, Romeo!"

Frank began to apologize, but Autumn stopped them with a shakey rapid wave of their hands.

"Y-Y-You're a great guy," Autumn assured as they took their hands away from Frank, "really, tonight was great and I had a lot of f-f-f-fun! B-B-B-B-B-But maybe we learn to crawl before we learn to walk."

"R-Right," Frank cleared his throat as he let Autumn's hand go and stepped back his face turning red, "sorry about that, I just got caught up in the moment."

"N-No, it's fine," Autumn reassured, still flustered by nearly getting their first kiss, "I-I w-was being too bold."

"No, no, don't blame yourself," Frank pleaded, "I was reading the situation wrong!"

The two then went silent again, both their faces glowing red. Autumn half wished they hadn't pushed him away and just allowed Frank to kiss them to relieve the tension and awkwardness of the situation. Then there would at least be a reason for the silence. Still, Autumn didn't want to just give their first kiss away to anyone, especially someone they still didn't know that much about.

"I... I-It's getting cold," Frank spoke, making Autumn jolt from the sudden sound of his voice, "we... We should get you home."

Before Autumn could say anything, Frank began to speed walk onward to Autumn's apartment. They followed after, kicking themself for being such a cowardly idiot.

The silence was one of the most horrifying moments of Autumn's life. They wished Frank hadn't gotten as flustered as they had, praying he had been his usual Mr. Coolguy self after Autumn had rejected his kiss. They didn't want to embarrass him, they just weren't ready to kiss him. If they hadn't completely wrecked this night and he decided to take them out again, maybe they'd let him after the third or thousandth date if they were lucky and whichever one came first.

The sight of their building made Autumn's heart sink. They wanted to make Frank feel better about the whole night. It was their fault for making things awkward, no matter how much Frank protested that they hadn't. Autumn desperately tried to find the right words to put everything back to normal, to find something that Frank would get all smart assy about.

"I definitely picked the wrong night," Frank sighed, his breath billowing in the air, "maybe if the moon was full, the stars were out, a silver light stretched across the thawed river, and I sucked a racist bouncer's dick, you'd be all over me."

Autumn flinched before looking up to him. "I seriously doubt that," they replied bluntly, "your lips would taste like shit from the back of a horse's ass."

"Oh, believe me, DuPond," Frank chuckled, "I can make shit taste good!"

"You've eaten shit before?" Autumn smiled.

Frank stopped talking as he looked up at the night sky, thinking. "Yes." he answered after a while.

"What?"

"Yes, I have."

"Gross."

"Hey, don't knock ass till you try it!" Frank laughed as he gently nudged Autumn's shoulder, making them blush slightly.

"I'm not into ass!" Autumn exclaimed over Frank's laughing.

"Aw, not even mine?" Frank teased as he shook his lower body toward Autumn, making them blush even more as they tried to keep themself from laughing. "C'mon, you know you wanna spank it!"

"No thank you!" Autumn giggled as they tried pushing him away without touching his butt.

"Just a small little hit," Frank pleaded over Autumn's laughter, "just a tap, like you're spanking a baby!"

"Knock it off, you weirdo!" Autumn demanded.

"You'll just let my ass go unspanked tonight?" Frank mocked sobbed. "Even though she pleads for you?"

"Maybe next time she should buy me dinner." Autumn shrugged.

"Oh, so there's a next time?" Frank smiled as he leaned over Autumn.

"Only if your ass can keep a promise and kick a racist bouncer's butt?" Autumn chuckled as they and Frank approached their building.

"She'll definitely defend your honor," Frank saluted, "we swear by our motherland and the commushit!"

Autumn giggled at the poor joke. They were thankful that the night seemed to be ending with laughs instead of an awkward silence. They didn't even need to say anything either with the help of Frank's need to be funny.

Frank then stopped, Autumn freezing next to him as they both turned to Autumn's building. Their smiles faded and the world grew twice as cold than it already was. Through the fog of their breath and the blur of the world around them, Autumn watched in frozen terror as Mr. Elmer neared the ground head-first. His expressionless face facing them just before his head cracked open like an egg, blood splattering around his limp body as it hit the pavement with a sickening thud.

Every inch of Autumn was completely glued to where they stood. Their heart was racing rapidly and the sight of Mr. Elmer's blood began pooling toward their feet. It took a couple of seconds for the shriek in their throat to escape through their lips and echo throughout the dark city.