There is no friend as loyal as a book. 
-Ernest Hemingway

"Will you ever fall in love?" Asher asks me, yet again, another love question but this time we're in the safety of our Home Ed. class. 

I laugh, not about to tell him I already have. 

"I can't even fall asleep. But what about you, have you ever fallen in love?" I ask, raising  eyebrow at him, though my eyes are still on the pages.  

"No." He answers simply.

"Ever had a girlfriend?" 

"No." 

Gasping I close my book. "Why not?" I exclaim, nearly shouting. 

Talk about shocking. 

"I don't know. I never asked, never got asked." Gold shrugs like this isn't a big deal. 

"But you're so beautiful." I whisper. 

"What?" He asks, not having heard me all the way. I fight down a blush and shake my head. 

"Nothing...it's sad." 

"What is?" 

"You could ask me about love, and I'd could really only talk to you about heart break." I answer after a minute, having to actually come up with something before winking at him. "That'd be me breaking others that is."

Asher snorts, but says nothing else.

Surprisingly I don't get bored just staring at him, so I swing myself up on the counter next to his bowl. Looking like he wants to say someone he comes to stand in front of me, unintentionally standing between my legs.

I raise a eyebrow, grinning. "Already between my thighs Gold, didn't peg you for the type. 

"Oh please," Asher rolls his eyes, surprising me but flushing despite it. He's the one that came to stand in front of me while I was sitting on the counter -he should have known the comments that would come from me. "Bite me." 

My eyes widen, knowing that he must be in a mood to be anything but polite. 

Still...he did tell me to. 

Before he can react I grab his biceps, hook my legs around his waist and sink the sharp teeth I got from my father into the crook of his neck. 

Gold cries out, hands landing on my waist as he picks me up and off him. I smirk as he holds me up, surprised yet again as his barely seen strength comes out to play. 

"Didn't feel as good as you thought?" I ask smugly, glancing at the red bite mark on his neck. 

He turns red, slamming me back on my feet before storming away. 

I giggle lightly, biting my lip as I watch him go. That felt better than I thought it would.

Wolves.

Tsk.

Now we're at lunch and I notice Asher trying to pull up his jacket as Link talks to him, trying to cover where I bit him. 

After they're done talking I lean over the space between us, my hand on the lunch table to eliminate the space between us,

"Don't cover my mark Gold. If you do, I'll just add something a bit more obvious." I whisper, my smirk deep as I flash my sharp teeth at him. 

Mint green eyes widen and his hands fly to his lap, doing nothing to hide my bite. 

I sit back, feeling victorious and end up smirking for the whole hour. 

The rush for him to leave is obvious, but I don't stop myself from latching onto his thick wrist. "Oh and Gold? Come over tonight, we need to work on ideas again. I have a lemon zest cheesecake I wanted to try."

"Okay..." He says, slowly gaining a smile. "But no biting."

I wink, smirking wide enough that my sharp teeth flash at him. "You're getting absolutely no fucking promises from me." Asher flushes at this, tearing my grip from him and hurrying out of the cafeteria.

How did I not notice how cute he is when he smiles and blushes at the same time?

Well, now I just need to make him do both more often.

"Is that...is that a bite mark?" My dad asks slowly, peering at the mark on Asher's neck. 

I smirk at this and nod while Gold shuffles uncomfortably, alarmed by the sudden glee in my dad's tone. 

Being the same height as my dad, if not a little taller, doesn't stop the growing intimidation the man child gives out. 

My dad's smirk mimic's my own, and I'm sure Asher is freaked out by our matching set of sharp teeth. Then he raises a hand, and we high five loudly, fist bumping a second later. 

"Oh no," Mom says, walking in the room just in time. Both me and Dad glance at each other, before standing still like nothing was happening. "Nothing ever good comes the both of you high fiving like that. What happened?" 

Since it's obvious neither of us are going to answer, the nice guy behind us does ever so politely. 

"She bit me and for some reason, your husband is happy about that." 

"Xavier!" She scolds him, slapping his arm. I shy away when she turns towards me, but all she does is sigh deeply. "Why did you bite him?" 

Dad opens his mouth, probably to say something he shouldn't, but without looking Mom raises a finger at him. 

This silences him instantly but doesn't stop him from glaring at her. 

"He told me to," I say simply. 

"I didn't actually want you to bite me. You practically mauled me." Asher says, voice deep with distaste. 

"Oh please," I roll my eyes. "It was a koala hug for better access, don't act like I tried to kill you." 

"With those teeth, might as well have." He mutters, then turns his eyes to my parents. "Did you teach her not to bite people?" 

Mom sighs, running a hand over her face. "I tried, but her dad didn't help that discussion. Anyway, we're going to be late meeting your Aunt and Uncle for dinner. We're gonna take off soon." 

She turns away, only for Dad to clamp his hands on her shoulder and bury his teeth deep into her neck. 

Mom squirms, and I scrunch my nose. 

"Gross," I say, not bothering to hide my disgust. 

Dad pulls away smirking, looking over to a shocked Asher. "Does that answer your question?" 

"Yeah." He breathes, looking straight to the ground. 

My mom scolds my dad all the way out the door. 

I glance up at Gold, who makes eye contact with me once before blushing heavily and looking away. 

I pause, tilting my head again. 

Why does that affect him -it's not like I bit him the same way my Dad bit Mom. It was because he told me to, no other reason.

At least he's blushing again, but where's that smile.

Thankfully the kitchen timer goes off, signalling the need to take the cake out. 

Snapping my head up I glare at the unexpected Asher, "Don't even fucking think about it. Just go sit in the living room or some shit." I demand.

His beautiful mint green eyes narrow at me. "You've never made me leave before."

"That was before I accidentally shoved the cake all the way to the back of the oven."

"You what?" He asks, border line appalled as he connects the dots. "There's no way you're getting that without burning yourself."

"I know, which is why I told you to fuck off." I snap. "So seriously, fuck off and no buts, what ifs or maybes.  Just go somewhere you won't see."

Then, to my utter displeasure he simply walks to the other side of the counter. 

I growl at him, making Asher raise his hands innocently. "What? I won't see, you'll be crouching down."

And me being me, I don't have the loosened pride to admit me burning myself is not what I don't want him to see.

It's the after math.

So, so thankful I slept and took my medicine last night.

Either way as I scowl, slip on the oven mitts and oven the oven my tremors are back, though I desperately try and control them it gets so bad that while pulling the cake back the top of my arm presses into the rack.

The growl I release is deadly and I'm shocked at how much I sound like my dad.

After detaching myself, putting the cake on a cooling mat and slamming the oven shut my tremors take my mitts off for me.

Even my knees feel weak.

My thumb is digging into my palm before I can stop myself, centering me on reality.

While I was with them I was pushed and fell, in a rushed attempt to defend myself I broke a porcelain dish and stabbed him. The glass dug so deep through my palm that I needed stitches, but I got away, I got away and that's all that mattered.

The only time I purposely made myself bleed, the only time I wanted to be in pain, the pain that saved me.

Now it's sort of like a reverse button on my triggers, so if I press hard enough into it then I will snap out.

And I do it with a gasp, blinking rapidly until faces disappear and I focus back into by surroundings -this time with a bloody palm.

"You hurt yourself." Asher says, voice more observational and curious than judgmental, but it doesn't make me feel any better. "Are you-"

"You broke a mirror and threw a lamp at my head, if I were I wouldn't be asking any questions right now." I practically snarl.

"I was going to ask if you're alright." He tells me softly.

"Oh." I sigh, taking a quick calming breath before I look up with a grin. "Yeah, I'm fine. Promise, wanna go grab me a band aid from the first aid kit Gold?"

"Yeah, anything to help." He grins. "Where is it?"

"In my bathroom, behind the mirror." I say. He's quick to find the blue box and return with two bandages and neosporin -which I rolled my eyes at, but then we go back to my bathroom so he can have actual light to help me by. 

"You know," Asher begins while spreading the healing cream- -which I think is bullshit, I've never seen the difference between wounds I put it on and ones I don't- -over the wound. "For someone so small, and for how innocent you look it's actually quite alarming how much of perverted demon you are."

"She-Devil." I correct, brushing off the comment.

It's the truth, so why bother?

Gold laughs, shaking his head slightly with that fucking cute boyish grin on his face. "Tell me something about your family Blue, I don't know anything other than a few things I'd rather not know." 

Aw, he's pink again.

"Well when we were babies my dad was a stay-at-home Dad while my Mom kicked ass in the courtroom." Asher smile widens at this. "So when we would go out he'd have one of us on his chest and the other on his back in the backpack shit they put babies in -I don't know." I giggle at my own stupidity. "And people, mostly chicks, would come up and look at how cute the one on his chest was. It helped that my dad's not ugly. They'd be cooing over me and Dad would do a one eighty and they'd freak out because you know what's better than one baby? Two babies." 

"That's adorable. I can only imagine how cute you were as a baby." Gold gushes. "You must have been such a cute baby Blue, even with those sharp teeth."

If you think hard enough, you'll remember.

"I know right?" I dramatically sigh. "What happened?"

Asher rolls his eyes at this, but I only smirk, ignoring the pain in my body. 

"I think," He leans closer to me. "That what happened was you grew up to be beautiful."

I blink, fighting down a blush of my own and bite my lips. 

Unfortunately, and fortunately, him leaning into me made him slip between my legs once again -since he was leaning against my bathroom wall bandaging me up once. His hands were on either side of my hips and his chest was a breathing distance away from my own.

Our faces were close.

"B-beautiful?" I stutter, eyes widening. 

His own mint eyes darken into a forest green and his eyes flicker down to my sharp teeth, I lick my lips, forcing my canines back into my mouth, but then his eyes don't move.

He's looking at my lips.

"I always, I always wonder how much stupid banters mean to you." Asher whispers. "Because you seem to like it."

"Our little, stupid conversations mean more to me than you think." I whisper back, holding onto the edge of the counter.

"What do they mean to you?" 

At this point we're sharing breath and our noses brush, he's forced to look back at my eyes.

"Not telling." I tease him, biting my lip once again. 

"And why's that?" He breathes, sending warm air across my mouth. 

I giggle lightly, and can tell he licks his lips. "I'd rather show you."

Leaning in first, I make the first move and gently brush our lips together -giving him plenty of time to pull away as I do so I could look at those mint green eyes, or maybe ask.

But the thing is...he never does.

Instead he softly cups the back of my neck, pressing us closer and kissing me back even harder.

My crush is kissing me, and he's the nice guy, so there's nothing rough about it. 

Nothing harsh, or overly desirable, nothing fierce with passion.

Just him and me kissing.

And somehow it's so much better than that.

That is until I pull away biting on his bottom lip and Asher gasps into my mouth, I'm prepared for anther kiss and lean in-

"I-I can't." The golden boy says, pulling away from me viciously. My head spins from the movement. "I'm sorry I lead you on."

"W-what?" I ask, taking a sharp breath. "Lead me on? You just, you just k-kissed me."

"I know." He hangs his head. "It was a mistake. A mistake. I'm sorry Eliza, just -I'm sorry."

"You're s-sorry? What does-" 

I'm cut off by him slamming my door shut and am frozen in my spot until I hear his truck's engine roar.