Eight more steps...

Elena walked up the (what seemed) rather steep steps, but this was only due to the fact that she was extremely tired. The sun would be rising in just small number of minutes, but she could only seem to drag her feet. Any normal vampire would have been running to safety, but Elena always found it hard to care most of the time.

Seven more steps...

She had not been to St. Mary's in weeks, or rather the city of Demaitre for that matter. Although, she had not been far from it. She had escaped just beyond the outskirts of the city where she knew no one who decided to look for her would find her. Not that anyone would actually look for her, or even acknowledge the fact that she was gone. But, just in case...

Six more steps...

The reasons that she had decided to go away were that of too many. Everything had become too overwhelming once again: no family, no real friends, etc etc. Every time Elena would look back on this she just felt all the more ridiculous. But this always happened. It was like she would just become temporarily insane or just out of her right mind.

Four more steps...

She spent her time in abandoned buildings and on top of them, contemplating her attempts at suicide. She would cry, think, cry more, think some more, sleep for long periods of time, then stay awake for much longer, and feed on anything that happened to be bravely walking nearby, which wasn't much. Not that she would ever go through with her attempts, she never did. Truth was, sure bad things had happened to Elena, but deep down she knew it was never enough to just kill herself. But she couldn't help feeling that without her family, there was no purpose in life, no reason to continue living. Or maybe she was after all just a cowardly girl, but she would never admit that.

Three more steps...

Though, this time, as she sat on top of the buildings, clutching a silver-bulleted gun, or just awaiting the rising sun, thoughts other than the simple reasons of why she shouldn't kill herself popped into her head. Colton...he was still very much her friend, wasn't he? Nothing more than a friend, unfortunately for her, but definitely still her friend, right? What if he needed her, what if something bad would happen to him again, who would comfort him? He could probably easily find someone else who would be there even more than she could. But what about Celeste? She was so cute, just like her own sister had been. They were her own real friends at the time, and for once she had finally had real friends who hadn't yet disappeared...

Two more steps...

So, in the end, Elena couldn't do it at all. She would lay and weep for hours, constantly thinking about how horrible she was. Then she would weep for being so pathetic. Then weep some more for still weeping. In the end, it was a long time. And in the end, she had decided to come back, she had to come back. Only she hadn't slept in two days already, but she had to come back now of course. She felt waiting any longer would just drive her to complete insanity.

Just one more step...

She made it. Elena leaned her form, which seemed to be extremely heavy, against the big wooden doors. She looked behind herself, and although her eyes seemed foggy and it was hard to see, she knew she couldn't waste anytime. She pulled on the door's handle and put all of her weight against the door. It slowly slid open, and she used all the strength she had to push harder. Suddenly, as the door continued to slide farther, she could feel her body falling, as she had expected. Only she hadn't expected her head to come in sharp contact with an edge of the nearest pew. She couldn't even manage to let out a cry of any kind of pain. She jerked her legs from the door, suddenly thinking of the sun, so that now it closed with a bang, and in the next instant, she was unconscious.



|Yay, backness|

Under normal circumstances, Colton would have been asleep. The fact that he kept rolling off the bed with his disturbed sleep made that just a little more difficult. If he was not awoken from the fall, or from the nightmares that plagued him, perhaps he would have been asleep.

Colton was drifting out of consciousness when he began to fall again. This time, however, he awoke before he hit the ground with a start, though a loud, resounding thud was heard regardless. The door upstairs had shut. Someone was here, and they had fallen.

Colton, looking for an excuse to get away from the nightmares, stood up slowly, and threw on a shirt. He'd go exploring to find what made the sound.

Walking upstairs was painful. It was almost daylight, and the sky was starting to illuminate with the sun. He should have turned around and gone to sleep, but no. The body on the floor of the church caught his eye.

He recognized that body.

"Elena...?" When there was no response, he started towards her, slowly at first, but faster when he realized she was unconscious, and that the sun was dawning closer. There was a small pool of blood under her face, and a knick on her forehead. He could only assume it was from the fall. "Elena... Wake up." He shook her a bit, softly at first, but then more urgently when she didn't respond. "Elena, come on..." She didn't wake up.

Colton picked her up, surprised that he could, and carried her back down to the catacombs. Had the sun come up, she'd have turned to ashes... She was lucky he had been there. Colton stared down the 'first' hall, trying to remember where her room was, before it dawned on him: he had never been to her room, which made finding it all the more difficult. Colton sighed slightly, and carried her to his own room, hoping she wouldn't take it the wrong way when she woke up.

Colton placed her down on the bed, and covered her up. Of course, this left him without a place to sleep, unless he curled up on the other side of her. Though the idea of sleeping on the floor was no appealing, he wasn't about to try sleeping with her. Again, he reminded himself quietly. Perhaps she wouldn't mind, since it would be 'again'?

Colton hunkered down on the floor, and covered himself with a jacket. After a few minutes, he had drifted off into sleep. This sleep went in and out, the uncomfortable floor making sleep come all the more difficultly, but he did not leave it. Well, he didn't leave it till about 12 in the afternoon, when his sleep still wasn't coming, now derived solely from the floor, and he gave in to curling up on the unused half of his bed.

If she didn't like it, fine, he told himself. He'd just not save her the next time she decided to faint near direct sunlight...

Elena's sleep was dreamless. This was probally because she couldn't waste any of it on REM, since she hadn't slept in two days. Being a mortal that probally might now have been that bad, but for a vampire, particularly Nephim, it was. However, when she finally awoke, her first thought was that she was in a dream.

As Elena stirred and began to open her eyes, she felt the sharp pain in her head, wondering how that had gotten there, but the wound had healed already, and she knew the pain would soon completely fade away too. Her eyes flickered open and she found that it became easy to see again. After she noticed this though, she quickly took in where she was...Colton's room? When she turned over to see him sleeping next to her, she definately recognized it as his room. She was surprised to see him there, sleeping so soundly...but how did she get here?

Elena sat there for many minutes pondering deeply, until it finally came to her. She remembered going into the church, remembering feeling accomplished when she had made it. But she never made it to the catacombs, she had fallen and hit her head. That's why there was a pain there. But, wait, shouldn't she be ashes right now then? The sun was about to rise, she hadn't made it. Colton must have found her and took her to his room. He had saved her. He saved her life, probally risking his own at the time.

Tears suddenly flodded Elena's eyes. She couldn't help it. She had been trying so hard to die the past few weeks, and she had almost very well done it accidentally. But Colton had saved her, the one person she had came back for.

She sat up on the bed, deciding not to wake him. Elena was not sure what time it was at all or how long she had been sleeping. She definately felt very awake now though. The tears continued to stream down her cheeks, but her crying was silent. She looked over at Colton. She had missed him. She suddenly felt extremely stupid for ever leaving. What had happened since she had been gone? She hoped things had been better for him, but somehow she felt that was highly unlikely.

Colton hadn't been so lucky. He had spent most of the rest of his night having flashbacks of Hannah; flashbacks of himself. Of Anton. He didn't like this, and would wake every few hours, and drift back to sleep. When she awoke, he did not. He was still so tired, still needed the rest that wasn't coming easily.

Perhaps it was ironic that guilt was the key factor to drive him from sleep this time. Guilt because of Beltane, and guilt because of Elena. Guilt from Tiffany. Had he moved on too quickly? Too recklessly? Had he even moved on at all? Was that fair to Elena, or to Tiffany? Was that fair to Eric? How about Hannah? What did Lily think of him now? What about Celeste; didn't she deserve better than him?

He felt so unfit, and waking up to see Elena crying only made that worse. Perhaps, he thought, if he shut his eyes and went back to sleep, she'd leave, and he'd be able to convince himself she was just apart of another dream.

But she hadn't been here in weeks. She wascrying, obviously had been overcome by exhaustion, or been unaware of what she was doing, and fell flat on her face... Perhaps he was overanalyzing? Maybe he should just try sleeping. But Colton couldn't do that. He sat up slowly, and tried to smile at her, though he was too tired and too depressed to make any real effort for that. "... You ok?"

Simple enough, right? He knew she'd be asking him the same thing. He knew, so he set about forming some little lie to tide her over... She shouldn't have to worry about the mess he made. She was a part of that mess, though, wasn't she? He'd have to lie... She couldn't know what a dilema he had caused.

Elena hadn't noticed Colton was awake until he finally spoke. It startled her at first, since she had been consumed so deep in her thoughts and her eyes were now flowing with tears. When she finally looked at him, her hands shot up to her eyes, trying to stop crying and wipe the tears away. "I didn't mean to start crying, sorry..."

Her voice sort of trailed off at that last word. She had alot to be sorry for. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine...I guess I just hit my head...I hadn't slept in so long it seemed..." It seemed all the words Elena had to say were all coming out at once. Her mind seemed to be having difficulties in focusing on just one matter at a time. She tried to calm down, but with little success, she noticed she never really stopped crying yet. Her hands were shaking. All she could think of herself now was pathetic, she couldn't even control herself.

Elena wanted apologize for everything, she shouldn't be in his room, disturbing him. He shouldn't have saved her. She should be dead. She shouldn't have come back at all. She should have just been alittle less of a coward for once in her life...But, no! She realized she was now contradicting her thoughts for only a few minutes earlier. All the more to prove how pathetic she was.

Elena felt she should probally get out. She didn't want to disturb him anymore, and she was having the hardest time ever to just calm down. She shifted on the bed alittle, and slowly began to sit up more, sliding her legs down to the floor, looking away from Colton. "L-look Colton, maybe I should go...I, I didn't mean to...disturb you..."

Colton noticed her hands shaking, and carefully grasped one of them, before restating his question. "I know the fall didn't kill you, and you'll be alright... But I'm talking about this crying thing... What's wrong?" He was a little more awake now, and a little more worried about her. His self pity streak'd have to end for a while.

"No, don't go. Not until you tell me what's wrong." Perhaps he was prying too much? Colton didn't give that idea a second thought. She was crying; of course he had a right to ask. Anyone could ask. That didn't mean she'd have to answer, did it? No, he reasoned. She'd just leave if she didn't want to talk about it, and he'd let her.


((Wow. Short and bad... I'm sorry! I just wanted to get something up for you! I'm so sorry to make you wait!))

Elena stopped. She sat there with her back to him a few seconds in silence. After she calmed down, she dryed her face with her hand, then noticed that she didn't have her coat on for a change. There'd be no sense in going to look for it, it was definately lost, she would never remember where she left it, and it was probably time to get a new one anyway. Now she only wore a gray button up shirt and a black skirt. She really needed a new wardrobe, but she would never care enough about such things.

Elena finally turned back around to Colton, sitting back up on the bed. She probably looked horrible, and she suddenly felt very embarrased for crying in front of him. She attempted a slight smile. She decided she'd tell him what was wrong, just not everything. Basically a white lie, if it was possible for her to lie to him at all. "I'm sorry about crying, you probably didn't notice but I've been gone for a while." Her voice trailed off again...she couldn't admit why she had been gone. "I've just been going through alot lately, but I'm ok now, really." She smiled again, hopefully assuringly, but she knew her eyes probably still displayed how she really felt.

|Hey, it's no big deal. <3|

Colton's wardrobe wasn't much better. Typical plain white teeshirt and jeans. He really didn't like anything else, and so he'd understand her clothing choices just fine. It was the same with shoes, for him. When he went to work, he'd still be wearing his old worn Converses. Sure, he could buy dress shoes. Sure, those'd look nice. Sure, but it wouldn't be the same. Perhaps Colton was one of those anti-change people. That certainly shone through most aspects in his life, especially with regards to his love life. But we won't tell him that he needs to move on, because... You know. That'd hurt his feelings.

Colt nodded some, frowning slightly. He could read between the lines just as well as anyone else. "You didn't do anything stupid, though... Right?" Like try and kill herself? Because, dear lord, there was enough stupidity in this room without her bein here. Colton quickly realized, though, that that was a very stupid question to even be asking. She wouldn't want to talk about that. "Well! I'm glad your back..." He cut in quickly, before she had time to answer. Perhaps faster than she'd have time to hear? No... The damage was done.

"Um, if you still want to leave, you can... Not that I mind you being here. Heh, it's... It's not like I'll get any more sleep anyway." He grinned nervously, and looked down at his hand. One, only, and realized he was still holding onto her. Perhaps she wouldn't notice? It was nice to hold on to someone who needed to be held on to.

And with that, we're talking about him.

Elena's eyes widened alittle as Colton asked her if she'd done anything stupid. She was dreading that he'd ask something like that. He seemed to have enough to worry about in his own life, she didn't want him to start worrying about her...or think she was a suicidal loser he was probably wasting his time talking to.

She had begun to open her mouth to answer him, not knowing at all what to say, but if she had enough time to answer, it would have probably came out as a bunch of gibberish stuttering. Luckly, he quickly cut the question of before she had time to even make a noise. Elena smiled as Colton said he was glad to have her back, but she was smiling more because she was grateful she didn't need to admit why she had been gone.

He offered her the chance to leave, but Elena really didn't want to. He was one of the reasons she had come back. Even though being with him now made her realize how stupid she had been for even thinking of killing herslef, it was also helping her to get over it now. She wanted to spend time with him, if he didn't mind.

Elena looked down as Colton did, and realized what he was looking at, also realizing finally that he had her hand held in his. She could tell he was nervous, and she gently squeezed his hand, showing that she didn't want him to let go. With that, she leaned closer to him, gently pressing her lips to his cheek, close to the corner of his lips. She pulled away, her cheeks flaring now, but she smiled sweetly. "I just wanted to tell you that I really appreciate that you didn't just leave me out there, in the church, and that you went through the trouble to get me in here so...thank you."

Colton had plenty of his own life to worry about, but since she was a member of his coven, she had an affect on his life. Since she was his friend, she had an affect on his life. That meant her worries could very well be his worries.

When she squeezed his hand, he smiled almost shyly. Had he the ability to blush, his face would have flared just as bright as hers at the press of her lips against his cheek. And he felt bad, really. Didn't he have a personal and moral obligation to Hannah? No... She was seeing Eric now. There was no reason for him to not move on.

Then why did he still care about her so much?

"It was no trouble... I mean... It would have been real bad if I'd found you now, all... Singy and stuff." Colton was still smiling that shy, nervous smile, trying to decide exactly what he wanted from this situation. It'd be a lie if he told himself he didn't care about Elena. Then again, it'd also be a lie to say that she was the only one he cared for. Morally, he thought it best to tell her to leave until he could figure out just what he felt for anyone. But he's not thinking morally. He's thinking here and now and those thoughts are telling him to return the kiss, and snuggle close to her, more for his own security needs than for hers, though he was pretty sure she was going through some disconcerting problems in her life.

Colton leaned forward and kissed her softly on the forehead, but unlike her, he didn't back away. He didn't want to. He squeezed her hand tighter and leaned his head against hers. Fuck morals and all the consequences. They both felt unloved and unwanted, and for just one night, they'd have each other. Who cared about anything—and for that matter, anyone—else at this point?

Elena almost laughed at Colton's reply to her thanks, but she just smiled. It was completely obvious he was feeling even more nervous now. Elena was almost shocked by herself, because she wasn't really feeling nervous at all, she actually felt more content than she had in a while, just sitting there with him. She found that lately, the times she felt most content were with him, which was why she probably desired his company so much. They were all alone, under the earth in the catacombs, and there probably was not anyone else around.

For some reason, all of these thoughts were extremely comforting to Elena. She espcially felt comforted when Colton responded to her earlier intimate action by kissing her on the forward. She smiled softly to herself, closing her eyes. A thought ran through her head about how lucky she had been to choose this coven to be in. Colton was her only friend really in Demaitre, and she had never met someone who had so much in common with her, or who she even really had any type of feelings for, since her own beloved family had since passed.

Elena felt the moment could only get alittle more perfect. And boy, was she feeling brave. The next action she did could either make her time with him perfect, or ruin it completely, depending on how he would choose to react. But Elena didn't even think of this, she was totally determined to do only one thing. She pulled back from him alittle, not letting go of his hand. Her violet eyes were looking straight into his own hazel ones now. She almost felt like she could melt. A soft, sweet smile graced her lips, and with her free hand she brushed alittle of his light hair out of his eyes. In the next instant, her own eyes were closed, and she leaned forward, pressing her lips softly to his, resting her free hand on his shoulder, and didn't pull back this time.

Colt was just as comforted by the thought of no one else being around, for an intirely different reason. If no one else was around, he could allow himself to get lost in the moment; let he and her be the only two people in the world. There was no Hannah. Lily was not angry with him, Bo didn't really kill him. He wasn't going to have to take care of Celeste when he got home tonight, his parents weren't dying under the pain of losing their only daughter. In fact, there was no other child in the family. There was only Colton and Elena and nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed.

She looked up to him, meeting his eyes, and Colton smiled somewhat, the smile betraying his nervousness. He had never had the chance to really appriciate the unique colour of her eyes before, mostly because they had never been this close, nor this personal. Before she kissed him, he knew what was happening. He knew, and before she kissed him, he'd have had the chance to pull away if it wasn't something he wanted. But he did want it, as immoral as it was.

Colton let the affect of the kiss set in before he allowed himself to do anything. How many years had it been since he had actually kissed someone? Did he still know how to kiss? Foolish question, he thought, and he kissed her back, deeper than she kissed him, but still reserved. Holding back, mostly because he was still all so unsure of the situation. Just think, no one else alive. No one else to worry about.

With that thought, Colt released her hand and wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her close. Right now, he just needed close.

Elena couldn't be happier at the way Colton reacted to her kiss. When she felt him return the kiss and embrace her, it felt like everything had stopped. All they had was each other right now. She had to admit, she had thought about kissing him like this before. It seemed silly, but Elena was still a teenage girl, and she had always been one to day-dream. Somethings just never die over time.

Elena couldn't think about anything else. Not even her family. Any bad thoughts she had had that evening fled from her mind. Her body pressed against his as he pulled her to him, and her hands slid up his shoulders and around his neck. Elena suddenly felt like everything was going to be alright. What did she really have to be depressed over anyway? She couldn't remember, she didn't want to. The past was forgotten.

It was definately time to focus on her present situations, which didn't seem to be going so badly. Elena could only hope Colton was feeling as happy and relieved as she was. But, from the way he was returning her kiss, it definately didn't seemed he was disliking it. She knew he had been going through alot lately, and in that instant, she felt like she wasn't only doing this for herself. She wanted to make him feel happy to, to find some kind of happiness in her. And with that, she parted her lips, her tongue gently snaking across his own lips, then closing again, titling her head alittle, deeping their kiss.

Well, this certainly wasn't a depressing situation. Colton's nerves relaxed, and she could probably feel the relaxation compared to how tense he had been the second before. He held her snuggly against himself, and let the happiness of the situation sink in, and try to drown out the whining guilt somewhere in his gut. There was nothing wrong with what he was doing; Hannah had dumped him. Hell, she and Eric had probably been in something near the same situation. Why should he feel guilty?

So it was a mutual situation. The mutually needed closeness of the mutual depression buddies. The kiss they both mutually wanted and mutually needed to feel better. Somehow, that took the romance out of things, but it made everything so much better. And, really, Colton didn't need anything but the content this brought.

Colton ran a hand up to the back of her head, letting her kiss him, and letting himself enjoy it. He held their kiss, lips parted slightly, and pressed against her, his tongue gently brushing back against her lips. There was only so much happiness one could get from a simpe kiss, though. Only so much enjoyment. But, of course, he's never made moves towards anything more than what he's had in the past, so why would he start now?

Elena relished in the kiss. She was completely enjoying it, but after a few seconds, there was one thing that kept popping into her head. Like a human can't ignore when they are hungry, it's almost just as bad for a vampire. Elena couldn't ignore the fact that she was thirsty. She hadn't fed in a while, there had not been much to feed on where she had been. And now she was starting to take notice, since she was now well rested, and everything was going absolutely perfect. But, with her luck, something would always get in the way of the rare good situations of her life.

Completely reluctant, Elena pulled back from the kiss. She opened her eyes, giving Colton a slightly sad, sorry smile. She felt that if she waited any longer to go hunt, it would not be good, and she didn't want him to have to see that. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea of why she was leaving, though. "Look Colton, I'm really sorry, it's not that I'm not enjoying this or anything...because I am...but I haven't fed in nearly a week..."

Elena tried not to look too sad herself, because she definately didn't want to make him feel bad at all. But she was only sad over the fact that she had to leave, other than that, at the moment she still couldn't be happier. Her time with him had made her feel almost...rejuvenated. Other than the whole thirst thing. Her hands slid from Colton's shoulder, to around his torso, hugging him gently. "Thanks again..."

If Colton could blush, he would. She pulled away from the kiss, and explained as to why. She didn't need to explain, really. It was like when he ran out on her a few months back to pick up Celeste. They both knew they'd see each other again, regardless of the circumstances. He let out a slightly nervous, but understanding laugh at her explanation, however. He caught the irony in the situation as well. Nothing went perfectly, save imperfection.

"That's ok..." He didn't release her from his embrace, however. Colton nuzzled his face down into the crook of her neck and kissed her softly. Much more intimate than their previous goodbye kiss. "Come back later, if you want. I'll be here all night." Gently, and almost as reluctantly, he released her from his grasp. He knew what hunger pains were. He'd start getting his own before dawn, but right now, he was just too tired to want to try and get up. Happy tired, but still tired.

Colton gave her a soft smile, and sighed slightly. "If not, I'll see you later." And there was little doubt there.