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It was just after 3:00 AM, and the playground where Vanessa had chosen to tend to her shredded knees was eerily quiet. No breeze upset the swings. No children shrieked or laughed on the jungle gym in the background. She sat on the edge of a merry-go-round, with her sweatpants curled up above her bloody knees.

Little shards of glass glittered in the light of her cellphone flashlight, sparkling up at her from tender skin.

'I thought you'd like me better if I started sleeping with other women.'

Blake's voice cut through her memory over and over again, and it hurt more than the wounds in her legs. Vanessa grit her teeth and tried to force it from her mind.

Tears and mascara stained her cheeks. She let out a shaky breath and slowly, carefully, started picking out the glass imbedded in her knees.

Vanessa heard Titanlåvenite coming before he spoke, and was only mildly startled to find herself suddenly with company. She twisted on the merry-go-round to look at him, eyebrows flying into her hairline. Vanessa did not need to be able to feel his energy to know that he was an agent of Chaos. There could be no mistaking Titanlåvenite for anything else-- except, perhaps, a small mountain.

She pursed her lips, and wondered if she had enough time to reach for her henshin pen before he attacked. Fingers fluttered for a moment near the zipper on her jacket, and then reconsidered.

Despite his size, the Mountain did not seem especially aggressive. He'd even asked why she was bleeding. Vanessa knew better than to trust him, but she had always been the friendly sort.

"I knelt in some glass," she murmured, turning her attention back to her bleeding knees. Vanessa held her cellphone at an angle, and continued picking the little shining pieces out of her skin. She hissed in pain, aware of the soldier behind her, suspecting that he might stick a knife in her back.

It would go nicely with the one Blake had left there.

The attack did not come.

Instead, there was the sound of pebbles (why anybody thought these a good idea for playfrounds, Vanessa would never know) crunching under feet as Titanlåvenite moved to crouch in front of her. Vanessa blinked at the Mountain's outstretched hand, breath leaving her chest in an uncertain rattle.

'I can carry you.'

Vanessa's gut instinct was to refuse, lips pursing into a line that lent itself more to confusion than suspicion. The walk home from Blake's basement suite seemed longer and more sinister in the dark. She was bleeding at the knees and barefoot. There were several more blocks to go, but she wasn't afraid. She wasn't weak.

She was furious.

Vanessa opened her mouth with the intention of telling Titanlåvenite to go away, and then surprised herself by bursting into tears for the second time that night.

"You're so nice," she sobbed, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hands, accidentally flashing Titanlåvenite with the beam from her cellphone flashlight.

"Thank you," she said after several deep breaths, slipping the little electronic into his massive hand. "Hold it at an angle, please. I've almost got all of the pieces I can with my fingers."

"I'm sorry!" Vanessa said, voice expelling from her throat in a great rush of air, the guilt she felt over accidentally blinding the Mountain magnified by the pain that already pulsed in her heart. She reached out, touched his big hand with ginger fingers, and angled the flashlight just right.

Little pieces of glass, caught in the skin of Vanessa's knees, glittered under the light. Moved by Titan's compassion to the point of absolute trust, Vanessa dipped her head and continued cleaning her little wounds with her fingernails. She hissed and bit her lip, but the whole process was faster with use of both hands, and she was not concerned with being gentle.

The way the glass felt as she picked at it, grating against her skin, was a welcome distraction from the injury that Blake had done.

"What's your name?" she asked of the Mountain, smiling a little now that she was quite certain he wasn't going to try and kill her. It was absurd, that she would find kindness and comfort in the company of a man who so clearly belonged to the enemy. He was dressed all in black, big enough to wrestle bears, with a skull on his shoulder-- Vulcan knew that the Mountain couldn't possibly have been anything other than an agent of Chaos. But he was sweet too, and Vanessa badly needed a friend.

"I like your skull." She pointed at his shoulder, the tips of her fingers red with the blood from her knees. "What'd you have to kill to get it?"

"Oh."

Despite the parts of Vanessa that frowned upon unnecessariy cruelty, she could not help being dissappointed to learn that Titanlåvenite had not ripped off the head of the creature that sat on his shoulder with his bare hands. In her imagination the skull should have represented a sort of promise-- warning somebody the likes of Vulcan that they might suffer a similar fate, if they dared take up arms against the Mountain. It was perfectly sinister and evil, and would have made hating Titanlåvenit a whole lot easier.

What kind of bad guy rushed to the aid of a crying girl?

... what kind of hero shed tears over a boy?

Vanessa exhaled slowly, embarassed by her weakness, and shook her head when Titan offered to carry her again. It was sweet of him to worry, but pride kept her from accepting too much of his help. It was enough that he was willing to hold her flashlight. Enough that his concern, though probably misplaced, was very obviously genuine.

She tilted her head to the side, examined Titan with a thoughtful expression on her pretty face. Vanessa could still feel the knife in her back, but she had calmed enough for now that tears no longer streamed down her cheeks. Knees mostly cleaned of glass, she unrolled the cuffs of her sweatpants and pulled them to her ankles.

"I dropped a bottle of champagne," Vanessa said, voice soft, cheeks darkening at the memory, "... my boyfriend was, um..."

Vanessa hugged her knees to her chest, gaze flickering to the nearby monkey bars. When she spoke next, her voice broke on a whisper.

"I caught him sleeping with someone else."

She started crying again and then swore at herself, rubbing furiously at her eyes to try and make the tears stop.

"Thanks," Vanessa mumbled. "I'll take my phone back now."

She held out her free hand, palm open and outstretched, and managed to give a Titan a little smile. Her lip quivered, heart aching in her chest. "You're a really good person."

Probably she should have protested. Probably she should have pulled away from Titan the moment he reached out for her. He was a giant of a man, and the enemy on top of that. A soldier in her right mind would have denied Titan his embrace.

But Vanessa wasn't a soldier tonight. She was a woman with a breaking heart-- a taller, older, more responsible version of the little girl whose greatest confidant was once the homeless man who'd liked to drink whiskey in the shade of the lilac bushes that grew outside her apartment. Like Titan, Hairy Pete was good at listening. He had never touched her without solicitation, but Vanessa was beyond caring about something like that.

Shaken by the things that she had seen and heard in Blake's bedroom, moved by Titan's kindness, the volcano exploded against the Mountain. Her tears were violent, the consequences of a passion that Vanessa had never learned how to curb or deny. Fingers curled in the fabric of Titan's shirt. She clung to him, though she did not mean to, and cried until her mind was clear.

How long she let Titan hold her Vanessa could not say. Trembling, but calming down, she stayed with him until he'd taken away the worst of her pain. When she pulled back, moments later, there was something intent upon her face. She blinked up at Titan with her big bright eyes, eyelashes wet with tears, and started to unzip her jacket. Her dress was back at Blake's apartment, so there was nothing underneath to hide her bare skin, but Vanessa wasn't worried about being modest. She was curious about something else, mind full of what it had felt like to have Labyrinthite's fingers wrapped around her starseed.

"Here," she murmured, reaching for Titan's big hand with her slender one, guiding him towards her exposed chest, "touch it. Tell me what my life feels like."

If Vulcan had any doubts about the decision she'd made, they vanished the moment Titan started his protestations. The expression on her pretty face softened, but her heart lost none of its resolve. Titan certainly looked the part of the enemy, with hands powerful enough to crush her skull. But he'd held the volcano steady while she wept, and let her mark the dark fabric of his uniform with her tears. Vanessa had never pined after a knight in shining armour, but she thought that she must have found one in this gentle soldier.

He would not hurt her. She could feel it in her bones.

"It's okay," Vanessa told him, voice soft, pressing the tips of Titan's fingers to her exposed sternum.

When Labyrinthite had reached inside, all those years ago, Vulcan had never been more aware of her own mortality. The memory was faint, its potency reduced to little more than a flicker of fear by the passing of time.

"I want you to do it," she said, straightening in front of Titan, craning her neck to place a kiss on his cheek. The pressure on Vanessa's wounded knees made her pale slightly, but she did not mind the pain. "Tell me what it feels like."

Vanessa paused. Her heartbeat was a roar, both exhilarated and frightened by the thought that next crossed her mind. She wet her lips, and envied Titan for the strange gift chaos had given him. The ability to touch a person's life -- to cradle and cherish in the palm of her hand-- was almost worth corrupting for.

"... I want to hold it."

Of course he wasn't allowed to keep it, should he agree to do this thing for her.

It hurt.

Vanessa could not help the way that she tensed in Titan's arms. She made a soft sound when his hand entered her chest, and almost reached for him. Almost pulled him back. Her fingers twitched at her sides, brows furrowing as he pressed deeper and took hold of her life.

He's being so careful.

A feeling, like smiling. Only the pressure in Vanessa's chest was too great to force her mouth into something other than a tight line. She tried, for his sake, wanted to reassure him that this was fine. A pain that, unlike Blake's misuse, she had asked for- entrusted Titan to deliver without taking anything for himself.

It was selfish of her, really.

She could feel her starseed where it quivered within the tender cage of Titan's fingers. Vanessa was flushed. Her skin must have felt hot, she was sure- and Titan looked as though she had asked him to step into hell. It calmed her. Lessened the burn, somehow. Made it easier for Vanessa to bear the ache of his reluctant violation. And she was sorry that she had asked him.

She lifted a palm to Titan's cheek, managed a half-smile, fingers light as feathers against his skin.

"Thank you," she said. Vanessa could feel her life. And while she had to wonder what use heroes could be in a world where villains were as golden as Titan, she knew that she did not want to be anywhere, or anyone, else. She tried to press closer- wanted to hug him, and to cry again, but was prevented from moving by the grip he held on her soul.