"Shorter, this has to stop!" Lux shouted. She was thankful that her parents were out for work or else they'd know that someone had been sneaking in while they were gone or sleeping.

"Just listen to me. Please." Lux tried slamming the front door in Shorter's face but he held it open. "Five minutes, Lux. Just give me five minutes."

She knew that he didn't even deserve two minutes and yet, for some reason she obeyed him again. Lux couldn't find the strength to tell him no. This boy was a weakness. He didn't even have to try to be. He just was. Shorter followed her up to the bedroom room. Like always, there was the opened laptop and textbooks. Scribbled on notebooks and ripped snack wrappers. Same old Lux. The familiar sight almost made him smile. He joined the girl as she sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for his explanation on why he showed up unannounced. "I'm sorry for everything I put you threw." Lux scoffed and shook her head. She's heard this speech a million times. Shorter sighed, wondering if this was a waste of time.

"Are we doing this again because you saw me with Yuji, two weeks ago?"

"So that's his name."

"Yeah. That's his name. But don't worry. I haven't slept with him. Unlike someone, one of us has self control." Lux scowled.

"Alright. I deserved that." Shorter stared down at his hands, trying to fester up the strength to speak. His mouth went dry and color left his face as his mind yanked him back in time. He took a deep breath before continuing. "It's time I told you everything."

"What?" Lux's mind automatically assumed the worst. She shot up from her sitting position and almost shouted, "You didn't hurt Sing did you?"

"No no." Shorter calmed her down, taking Lux by the wrist and leading her back onto the edge of the bed. "He's fine. It's about something else."

Lux crossed her arms to calm the anxiety that had just washed over her. Shorter wasn't above killing someone. Especially if that person was a rat. "I'm listening."

"You mean a lot to me." he began. Lux didn't believe his words but she continued to hear him out. "And I know I haven't acted like it. And I'm not here to give another excuse or to tell you that you just have to accept how I am." Shorter released a shaky sigh as he continued. "I haven't been open with you and I keep trying to bury all of the shit in my life since the first day we met and it's always being dug up. There's a reason why I've been so push and pull with you. And it's not just to keep you out of danger."

Lux observed the shakiness of Shorter's hands. She'd never seen him like this before. He'd try to always act so carefree around her. Now here he was attempting to be real and transparent for once.

The past two weeks, Shorter had wracked his brain trying to figure out the words to say when he finally spoke to Lux. Where should he start? How much should he leave out? Would this vulnerability he'd show change anything? So many questions and only one answer. Start from the beginning. "When I was around five, my family and several others were smuggled here by The Lee Clan. They're the ones who look over the entirety of the Chinese mafia. We were forced to work for them if we wanted to live "safely" in America. If we disobeyed, then we were killed."

"What did you have to do?"

"Everything. My mom was forced to work in one of the massage shops that The Lee's owned to launder money." Hearing that made Lux's skin crawl. Obviously, there was more going on in those parlors besides a simple massage. "My dad would collect tax for extortion, and when people refused to pay, he had to be the one to make an example out of them. Then The Lee's wanted more from my family. Nadia and I were still really little so we were going to be trafficked to smuggle drugs wherever they needed to go. Little kids were seen as less suspicious when crossing state borders, so the adults always brought the young ones with them." Shorter paused. He hadn't thought this far back on his life in ages. Once again the things he buried always reached up out of the dirt.

Lux reached out to hold Shorter's hand. Her touch always brought him comfort. This time was no different. "It's okay." she whispered, bringing his hand onto her lap.

Shorter moved in closer as did Lux. "My parents knew that we'd more than likely be killed. They begged for them not to take us. They said they'd die before ever letting anything happen to their children." Shorter glowered at the wording his father used. His jaw clenched as the memory replayed vividly in his head. "I remember two guys forcing themselves into our apartment. They held my parents at gun point. One told my mom to tie up me and Nadia while the other guy laid down a plastic sheet in the middle of the living room. Our wrists were bound but Nadia pulled me into her chest so I wouldn't look."

"Shorter... You don't have to..."

"All I could hear was screaming. Then POP POP!" he mimicked the sound of the loud gun used on his parents. "Two shots. Those bastards laughed." Shorter's fist shook, all these years later and he still felt the anger and grief of that night that he kept locked away to be forgotten. "We were going to be left for dead. Neither of us spoke any English at the time. And we didn't have any other family besides each other. We roamed the streets for food, slept in rusty cargo trains, we were dying."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"I didn't want you to know, Lux. I didn't want you feeling sorry for me." Shorter lifted his sunglasses to the top of his head and wiped his tears with the sleeve of his hoodie. "A girl found us asleep at an old train yard. Turned out her and her mom were smuggled alongside our family. They took us in. Taught us English. The girl, her name was Kairi. We got close. She was my best friend. Then after her mom died, we had no choice but to make some quick cash on our own. Nadia already was earning a bit by getting paid under the table at some restaurants but Kairi and I weren't interested in that kind of work. We ended up finding ourselves back under the Lee's fists. Only this time because we were older, they had us selling dope out on the streets instead of smuggling it."

Lux sniffled and tried to hold back tears. Shorter came off as so happy and care free that she would have never guessed he had gone through this much. "How old were you?"

"Eleven or twelve. Nadia hated the idea of being looped back in with the Lee's but she knew that there was no stopping us. Kairi and I were good at what we did. We just kept falling in deeper. But no matter what, we swore that it'd always be me and her. Nobody could come in between us. She was the first and only person I ever fell in love with. She was my first everything. And I was hers." The weight in Lux's chest started to sink. It was hard hearing Shorter admit these feelings that he once had for another girl. She knew it was selfish and uncalled for to feel jealous but she couldn't help it. "Then when we were around thirteen or fourteen she started to get hooked on her own supply. She owed a lot of money. Her addiction got worse. There was only so much I could do to help her. When I wasn't out trying to sell both our shares of dope, I'd lay down in bed with her and just... hold her shaking body as she went through withdrawals."

"You've never brought this girl up before. What happened to her?"

"She couldn't stop her addiction. The debt got too big for her to pay. One morning, I woke up and she wasn't next to me anymore. She ran away without me and didn't even say bye." Shorter pulled out of Lux's tender hold and covered his face while he sobbed. "I couldn't protect her. She was afraid to get killed and I couldn't make her feel safe."

"Shorter that wasn't your fault." Lux pulled him in for a hug. He accepted and cried on her shoulder as she rubbed his back up and down, whispering that he's okay. And that she's there to calm him down. "You can't blame yourself."

"I can't go through that loss again." he looked up at Lux to see her concerned expression. Shorter pulled his sunglasses back down to hide his now puffy, red eyes. Lux gently lifted them back up. She needed him to know that showing this side of himself around her was okay. That he was safe. She wanted to be the person in his life that he didn't need to hide from. "I was only fifteen but I knew I loved her. I did for years. Feeling that type of way again it's... What if you leave me too?" his voice broke as more tears rolled down his cheeks.

Lux felt her breath escape her body. There really was more to the story. Shorter hid it because he didn't want to admit that he was afraid of getting his heart broken again. That history would repeat itself and that the girl he loved would once again run out of his life without a single wave or goodbye. That somehow it would be his fault. He barely picked himself back up once and he knew that there was no surviving a second fall.

"No Shorter." Lux cried, pulling him into a tight embrace. "I'm not going anywhere." she whispered into the crook of his neck. "And thank you for telling me. I get it now. But I want you to know that I'm always going to be by your side even when you don't want me there."

"It's still not an excuse and I know that. I don't want the shit I went through to be the cause of why I keep hurting you." Shorter held Lux by her cheeks, staring into her eyes as he made a promise. "You mean so much to me, Lux. And I promise that I'll start showing it this time. I can't risk losing you either. And I'm so so sorry."

The tears continued to fall. Shorter wanted to stop crying but he couldn't. Everything he buried deep inside was now out on full display for Lux to see. Her reaction remained consistent with every time Shorter let her in on a little bit of his life. She understood and accepted it. She wiped his tears. She made him feel safe with her presence alone like back when they first started talking. Shorter knew he needed to change if he wanted to keep Lux in his life. This time he was going to really try.

Lux rested her forehead against Shorter's. She leaned in and gently pressed her lips against his like it was their first kiss all overs again. He pulled her slowly onto his lap, deepening their kiss. Shorter wanted Lux to stay in his arms forever. She fit in his hold like a puzzle piece that had been missing from his life. Lux pressed her palm against Shorter's chest, sliding it down then up under his shirt. She missed the feeling of his warm skin against hers. He slowly pulled off his hoodie and t shirt, discarding both onto the floor. He gave another quick kiss to Lux's lips before ridding her of the oversized night shirt she was wearing and letting it fall into the pile of clothes that accumulated at the corner of the bed.

Shorter ran his hands up and down Lux's bare back, feeling every inch of her body as she peppered his neck with kisses that trailed back to his mouth. He took ahold of her hips, pressing her down against himself, as she rocked her hips back and forth, teasing herself with the feeling of his clothed cock. The grinding of their bodies made Lux grow hot as she panted sweetly into his ear. Her soft whimpers made Shorter want to skip the foreplay and fuck her senseless like he had fantasized about on more than one occasion, but he knew it was best to hold back.

He stood up with Lux wrapped around his waist and guided her down onto the pillows, and swiping her plushies off the edge of the bed. Lux's body tingled with what she could only describe as a playful flame. The heat of Shorter's every touch trailed down from head to toe, especially everything in between. They had both waited on this moment for so long and yet... something felt off.

"Lux." Shorter spoke between her kisses, "Wait a sec."

"What's wrong?" she asked, covering her bare chest in embarrassment. Did I do something that he didn't like, she thought.

"No baby it's not that." Shorter whispered, running a curled finger down Lux's cheek. He sat up as Lux did the same. "I don't think we should do this tonight." Lux's face burned. She knew he wasn't attracted to her enough for this, she just knew it. "It's nothing you did, I swear." Lux pulled a blanket over herself so she could feel hidden. She didn't want Shorter to catch onto how humiliated she was. "I want your first time with me to mean something."

"It will."

"Lux, I'd prefer if we did this when we both weren't crying a few minutes ago. I can still feel the dried tears on our faces." he explained, "I don't want this to happen on a bitter sweet night."

Those words meant so much. He really cared. If Lux ever looked back on her first time, she'd be reminded of Shorter's traumatic past and that's not what he wanted for her. It needed to be perfect, and perfection takes time, and that was something they both had plenty of. "Thanks." Lux leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "That was sweet of you."

"Yeah." Shorter chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry for getting you all riled up."

"It's fine. I can forgive you I guess." She said playfully. Lux sighed then gave Shorter a soft smile. "Can I ask you for one thing though?" he raised a curious eyebrow. "Stay. Just spend the night with me."

"You sure?"

"Mhm. I've missed you."

The two rested comfortably together with Lux being wrapped firmly against Shorter's bare chest as she cuddled his arm that protected her and held her close. Shorter inhaled through his nose to take in this moment and lock it into his memory. He never thought he could feel the love of laying side by side with someone again. He smiled knowing that in the morning, when his eyes fluttered open that Lux would still be there in his arms, safe and sound. "Your hair smells nice."

"Pomegranates." Lux yawned.

"I like it."

"I'm glad." she drawled as her heavy eyes refused to open back up.

"Lux?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks for giving me another chance."

Lux turned her body around, staring back at Shorter with half lidded eyes. "Please don't make me regret it."

"I won't." he rested his hand on the side of Lux's cheek, stroking it with the pad of his thumb. "You're so beautiful." Lux smiled and brought the covers up to her now red face. "Never get tired of seeing you blush."

Lux peaked up from behind the sheets, "Shorter Wong you are-"

"All yours." he whispered, kissing the tip of his girlfriends nose. Those words made her the happiest girl ever.

"Yeah. All Mine."