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~Marcus' POV~

Now I stood in front of Anna's house door, all giddy that I would get to see her after a month.

My brother had sent me on an errand for him which took me too long to complete since it was in another town.

I rang the bell and waited for somebody to open the door. When the door opened, a very serious Timothy faced me.

"Hey." I greeted. "Is Anna home?" On the mention of his sister's name, he looked worried.

"Good thing you came. Come in." He let me in and closed the door behind me.

"You look serious. What happened?" I finally asked.

"Its about Anna. She has locked herself in her room. I don't even know if she's eating anything or getting any sleeping. She never comes out of her room and when we knock on her door to even get a slight clue it seems like she's dead in there. Its been 9 days! Please do something about that. Maybe she'll listen to you if not us."

What?

"Alright." I nodded and ascended the stairs, immediately. The thought of the girl I loved being in any sort of trouble hurt me.

I walked to her room and knocked on the door. No response. Not a surprise. I knocked again but this time I heard some sounds like she just moved in there.

"Anna. You in there? Open the door." I called. No response again. " Please?" Again. I decided to just bust open the door but thought about knocking another time. "Anna. Open the door. Or I will open it myself." I threatened.

Who were I kidding? She never feared anything.

"Alright. I'm coming in!" I exclaimed and pushed open the door. My jaw dropped, my eyes widen and my anger rose.

There sat Anna on the floor with a cutter in he hand ready to pierce her skin. Not to mention a bulk of syringes and small bottles, of maybe drugs, scattered around the room. She looked skinny maybe because of lack of food and the dark rings under her eyes indicated her lack of sleep.

I strode to her and yanked the cutter out of her hand, throwing it out of her reach. I grabbed her collar and shook her violently.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?!?!" I was way beyond angry now.

How can she do that?!

She looked up at me but didn't say anything. Her eyes were dead. No emotion. I shook her a little more to get her back to her senses.

"Say something!" Nothing. " Answer me!" Something in her sparked.

"Get away from me!" She tried pushing me away but my grip was hard.

"You answer me first!"

"I don't have to answer you! Who do you think you're?! Huh?!" Her voice was coarse. It pained me.

"Just tell me what's wrong so I can help you. Anna. Please." I pleaded, loosening my grip and sitting down in front of her.

"You can't help me. There's nothing wrong." She replied quietly, looking down.

"Where did you cut?"

"I didn't." She was lying obviously.

"The truth."

"I don't have to tell you anything." She spat viciously.

"Yes you do." I grabbed her arms and stood up along with her.

"What are you doing?" She asked scared. Why was she scared?

"I can't see you do this to yourself."

"Why?! Let me do whatever I want! You don't have a say in it?! Why do you even care?!"

"Because.."

"Huh?!"

"I-."

"You what?!"

"I LOVE YOU!" Well that was not the way I expected to confess. 😑

"W-what?" She seemed a little taken back. I took a deep breath and calmed down.

"I love you that's why I can't watch you do this to yourself." I was now desperate to make her understand that what she was doing, is wrong. No response. As expected. "At least tell me where did you cut? I wanna help."

"I didn't."

"How can I believe that?" I narrowed my eyes at her when she looked away.

"I won't lie to yo-you." Yet she was lying through her teeth.

"And how would I know that you're not lying right at this very moment?"

"I....I-I.. Its that I-I love-e you.." She hung her head in shame. My once enraged eyes softened. But then something happened. Blood started trickling down her sleeves. She tried getting away, to try and hide, but I was quicker. I pushed up her sleeves and my suspicions were confirmed. She did cut. On her upper arms.

"I have lost all faith in you Anna. I'm disappointed." I let her go and started walking out of the room without her but stopped as she tugged at the back of my shirt.

"I'm won't lie again. Please, I will answer anything. Just give me a chance. Don't walk out on me. Please."

"It isn't convincing enough."

"Then what do I have to do? Huh!"

"Simple. Stop this madness and let me help you."

"B-but the pain..." Her eyes teared up. She must have really suffered. I tried another trick that I knew might work.

"If you can't do it, I will leave and never come back." Even I, myself was a little startled by the intensity of my voice.

"F-fine." She said letting go of my shirt and slid back on the ground.

"And stop stuttering please. Its too funny." I chuckled lightly and sat with her, pulling her in my warm embrace.

"Ok."

"I will have to keep a keen eye on you to make sure you don't do anything like this again."

"I am sorry." I kissed her head and let her go.

"I know. Now, hurry up and change, then come downstairs and eat something. You're too skinny for my liking." I explained dragging a chair to the side of the room and sitting on it watching the girl in front of me.

"Um....a-are you go-gonna watch me change as-as well?" I smirked at her flushed face.

"I would love to but I trust you enough to let it go. But nah, I'm gonna sit and watch the show." I leaned in the chair and made myself comfortable.

"OUT!!" She yelled with the usual spark in her eyes. I smiled in victory.

"Hai, hai." I sometimes spoke Japanese to impress her, since it was her mother tongue. I left the room and went into the living room and ordered pizza and plopped on the couch, talking to her brothers and being told that it was really something that I could change Anna's mind and stop her insanity.

Minutes later Anna joined us. I needed to get her to talk her problems out so that's what I did. Food later.Her brothers left quickly.

"Answers. Now."

"The question." Smartass.

"What caused this?"

"After I got out of the hospital, the nightmares went on extremes so I couldn't sleep. Also the pain got worse every passing minute. You weren't there so I had to used morphine to nullify it."

"How much?"

"Half a syringe, three times a day. 6 days."

"18 TIMES!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"

"I couldn't think of any other thing. I could even sleep."

"That's life-threatening amount." She looked away.

"It was helping though-" She stopped herself when I gave her a look.

"Where else did you cut?" I asked lifting her sleeves again and observing her cuts in a better light. "You didn't even clean them properly! Your medic skills suck!"

"I didn't cut elsewhere.." I nodded and took out the alcohol swabs out of my pocket. I always kept them. I cleaned her cuts and rubbed an ointment which I also kept with me at all times.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Uh.. Last week.....?"

"Well then eat your fill today. I ordered pizza."

"Double-"

"Yeah double cheese, spicy chicken, fajita flavours."

"Yay!"

"By the way, where did you get all the syringes?" I asked when we were waiting for the pizza.

"Stole them from the nurse's tray."

"What?!!"

"Yeah."

"So you're not gonna cut again right?"

"Urgh! NO! Why can't you just believe me?!"

"Because I lost my faith in you."

"Well how can I believe that you won't hit me or something! You know I hate abusive people! Look you bloody rashed my neck!"

"Sorry! But I needed you to get back to your senses." I felt guilty for hurting her.

"How can I believe you?!"

"With this." I advanced in her direction and pressed my lips against her. For seconds there was no response then when she was starting to kiss back-

Ding Dong!

We both broke apart and angrily looked at the door.

"Damn whoever is there!" Anna yelled.

"Its the pizza guy." I informed her and she seemed to have forgotten everything that happened on the news of food.

"Yay! Pizza!" I got the pizza and sat back down with Anna.

"Eat up." I almost laughed when she took a whole slice of it and gulped it down.

"What? I'm hungry."

"I know." When she took a slice from the fajita, I asked her something. "So um....are we like..uh..dating..?"

"Only if you want to. I'm up for anything." She said smiling. I nodded.

"Then you are now my responsibility. Promise you will co-operate with any mission that is in your benefit."

"I promise."

"Good." I kissed her cheek and she giggled like a little girl. I was two years older, so she was a little girl to me but her temper and her existence was equal to mine.

As promised, days later Anna was almost back to normal and to show my love and appreciation, I gifted her an emerald necklace, which my mother and Anna's brothers helped me buy as a reward for saving her soul. Her scars didn't fade but she never seemed bothered by them.

All in all, she was my rival and my lover. Back with me.

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Marcus is my ideal man :D

Enjoy Reading~

Thank You~

Itachi_Warrior desu~ ^/_\^

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