Sakura looked at the cab driver as he asked what they were looking for at the dojo. "I live there." She said simply and looked worried at Colton who seemed to be in pain.

After a few minutes of driving they reached their destination. Sakura payed the cabbie and gave him a little bit of a tip. She kept her eyes on Colton who still seemed to be in much pain. She opened the door, and let Colton in. The dojo looked pretty good, the hole in the wall was covered and painted. All of the mess was cleaned up and fixed. Her grandfather's katana rested in it's rightful place next to her bed. "Well this is my humble abode." She walked into her little apartment, the bed had just enough room for one person. "I know the bed isn't big, but I'll give it to you for the night."

Sakura was concerned for Colton. "Just let me at least look at your injuries." She said as she stepped towards Colton. She wouldn't leave him be until he let her look at them.

Colton wasn't hurting. It was the mental agony of being in a car once again, not that he had had any traumatic experiences in cars. It was more of a fear of cabs and the fact that they never seemed to drive like they were paid to, and preferred to chat. He hated cars and cabbies alike.

He seemed to hate a lot tonight.

They hopped out and Colton wanted to kiss the ground. Out and alive. Well, not... Not quite alive... But you get the idea. Colton looked through the glass of the dojo, and over the training room. A wall had recently been redone, so it seemed. Renovations? Expansions? She opened the door and walked in. Colton didn't follow at first. He wanted to go home. Go sleep. He wouldn't get to sleep if he walked in there.

Colton stepped inside the dojo warily. The place smelled of blood. "Do a little remodling recently?" He was unsure of the situation, to say the least. She was a dojo instructer. That meant she could kick his ass if she wanted. What a way to emasculate a guy by saying nothing.

"That's all right... My apartment isn't far from here..." Colton shared. The apartment was a good four miles from the Unmei Dojo. It was the church that was just blocks from here. He could stay in the church tonight.

"And, I'm sure they're just bruises... I'll be ok..." he said, shying away from her. It was more a self conscious factor than anything. He rather enjoyed keeping his shirt on. Had he big, sexy muscles, maybe he wouldn't mind. Because he lacked them, there was a definite problem in this situation.

Sakura heard Colton ask her a question, she didn't want to tell him the truth. "There was a break in a little while back. The culprits smashed through the wall." She turned around so he couldn't see her eyes, she wasn't good at lying either.

She turned and looked at Colton. She had the look of a teacher trying to look at her students injury. "Please just let me take a quick look at them!" She reached and touched Colton's sensitive shoulder. "If it hurts a lot then it's more than just a bruise." She let one hand slip under his shirt feeling his chest. She couldn't stop herself from doing that. Colton's chest was a little warmer than that of a corpse.

Colton nodded. That didn't explain the blood... Perhaps they broke in and cut themselves? Colton didn't press the topic further. Instead, he kept his eyes downcast and stared at the floorboards.

Colton winced again when she touched his shoulder, and backed himself against the wall. "No, no... I promise, it's nothing... Bruise and some rugburn... Nothing bad." And that still didn't seem to be enough. She slipped her hand up his shirt, and he grimaced.

"You don't want to do this..." he whispered, not holding eye contact. There was something he wasn't telling her, and something she wasn't going to get out of him.

Sakura stared at Colton as he stared at the ground. She smiled as he spoke. "I do want to do this Colton." She said as she slowly started to pull his shirt up over his head. She did so slowly and carefully not wanting to hurt Colton.

As Sakura slowly took off Colton's shirt she saw what looked like a bruise. It was all black and blue. The injury looked really bad by how discolored the bruise was. She gently ran her hands across his sides.

((Sorry for the short post. tired))

"No, you..." But words couldn't stop her. Colton folded his arms across his chest, attempting to hide himself. He was uncomfortable--scared, even. The injury on his shoulder was more than a bruise. Splinters were evident, and the skin was scabbed over, indicitive of a quick, painful rub. Colton didn't look at it.

"Sakura, please..." Colton whispered. "You... You don't know me. And you don't want to." He couldn't back himself up any further. If he could, he'd've tried. He gently grabbed her shoulder with one hand, and reached for his shirt with the other.

Hah. The self-conscious and guilty mind.

Sakura looked up at Colton. She nodded and let go of his shirt as he placed his hand on her shoulder. He was wrong she wanted to know more about him. Even though her instincts were firing off warnings, she ignored them for the first time.

"You're wrong Colton, I want to know you." Sakura leaned in and kissed him on his cold lips. "I want to feel your body close to me." She kissed Colton again, and held it there for a long moment before breaking for breath.

Sakura never really felt this way for anyone. Why was Colton different? She couldn't understand why she felt this way for Colton, but she went with it.

Colton shook his head. "I'm not wrong..." She kissed him, and he shook his head to pull away. "Sakura, I can't do this..." But she persisted, told him what she wanted. Colton couldn't pull away as she kissed him again.

It was paralyzing, the kiss was. It had been years since someone had kissed him like that. Kissed him like they wanted him, like the loved him, even. It was almost too painful to think about. Last person he had kissed was dead, and the one before her, dead as well. He had a knack for getting people killed, it seemed.

When she broke the kiss, he pushed her back. "You can't know me, Sakura. You just... Can't." He looked at her pleadingly, like a little kid, scared to death of what taking another step entailed.

Sakura backed up she listened to Colton as he begged her not to take it any further. The problem was the more he resisted the more she wanted him. She felt he could be the one she let into her life. She looked into his eyes, her eyes pleading to be part of him.

"I love you Colton! Can't you see that? I want to know what it feels like to be part of you! Nothing can change that!!" She reached towards Colton wanting to feel his cold body against her own. She leaned close to Colton, "I need you." She whispered next to his ear.

"No." he protested, more firmly this time. She clung closer to him, and this time, he pushed her away forcefully. "No..." He slid from out of his corner and deeper into her office. What to say, what to say...

"Thing is..." Colton said, trying to think rationally. "Thing is... I'm... Not human?" Hah. It sounded so foreign in the air. They only said that in movies--in aliens taking over the world horror movies. Colton paused, then turned to face her. "I'm not... Not real... I... Look, do you have a mirror?" Colton tried. "Because, god dammit, I don't know what else to tell you. I'm not human. I'm dead."

The room was silent for a moment. Colton sighed and spoke again, more softly this time. "Trying to do... Or be anything with me... You'll end up dead, too." And there was guilt in those words. Guilt because of Jake, and then Hannah. And he wasn't about to try and start something with a mortal, and get them killed too. Colton folded his arms across his chest again.

Sakura listened contently so he was like Sergei. She could handle anything that could happen. "I don't care about that Colton." She said stepping towards him and gently carressed his cheek with her hand. "All I can think of is you." She wouldn't back down.

Sakura couldn't bring herself to back down to Colton. All she could think of was Colton. "I know what you are. The new wall is from a fight with one named Sergei. He wasn't like you he was more...psychotic." She looked down at the floor remembering the fight.

Colton became angered. Here he was, confessing everything, and she didn't even bat an eyelash? Who the hell robbed him of that shock! She should have been confused. She should have been scared. And, here she was, still trying to get him to see that it all didn't matter.

Was she still drunk? Maybe she was still drunk.

"He... He may seem psychotic, but it's all the same... We all kill people to survive." Colton said, whispering again as she came closer. "It does matter... It matters a lot..." Colton trailed off, weakly.

"What happened with Sergei," he asked, in an attempt to change the subject. He sensed now that the blood he had smelt before had come from this fight she was speaking about.

Sakura frowned, why couldn't Colton see that she trusted him totally? She knew the consequences of what she needed from him, but he kept on persisting!! Might as well answer his question. "Sergei and I fought throughout the dojo. Both of us bled, but he ran for some reason." She didn't care about anything he had to say.

She went to kiss Colton, but stopped herself. She knew she was being stubborn, but she needed his touch. She reached out and rested on his shoulder.

Colton nodded slightly, and spoke softly. "Are you ok?" So he was concerned about her, not just trying to make small talk.

But did he actually care, or was he just drugged up on the feeling of someone confessing a want for him? Was it a fallback for him?

Colton winced as she rested her head on his shoulder, but didn't pull away. Gently, he wrapped his arms around her and held her for a moment, unsure of what he wanted.

"Hannah died two days ago..." Colton observed. Just two days ago. "I can't do this now... It's..." Colton couldn't think of what it was. Disrespectful to her? Painful for him? "It's too soon," he decided on.

Colt pulled away slowly at first, gradually moving faster as he crossed her room once more. He picked up his shirt and hugged it against his chest, glancing over his shoulder to Sakura. "I'm sorry..." Colt muttered, before leaning back against the wall.

Sakura felt Colton pull away from her. Why did he mention the girl Hannah? She had no idea, but she listened realizing that it was too soon for him. She sighed heavily and sat down on her bed, tears starting to flow. "Alright Colton. You can leave if you wish." She turned away from him so he wouldn't see her crying. She just wanted to be near him, that was all she asked! She started tremblling as quiet sobs rocked her body. She didn't care about the consequences of her actions her tonight and Colton knew it.

Colton was caught between a rock and a hard place. Part of him wanted to sit down with her, explain why he wouldn't go through with it, and make she she felt better... But the other half wanted to leave. Run out of there, tail between legs, and never look back. The likelihood he'd have to see her again was slim... Maybe he could just avoid her for the rest of her existance.

But neither seemed right. Niether seemed appropriate. He could hear the soft sobs. He knew what he was doing... This was what it was like to break someone's heart. Did Hannah feel like this when she broke his heart? So guilty? He doubted it. Colton heaved a sigh.

"Do you have a pen and some paper?" he asked softly, as if not wanting to disrupt her sobs. "I'll leave you my number... So you can call if that guy comes back... Segei, you said his name was?" Colton tried to sound concerned as best he could. It wasn't an emotion he ever got to portray. Usually, everyone was concerned for him.

Sakura turned and looked at Colton, her eyes all red from crying. "There're paper and pens in the office." She managed before turning around and trembling slightly. She'd wait for Colton to grieve Hannah's death. "I'll be here in the dojo if you decide to come back." She smiled weakly at Colton and turned around listening for his footsteps out of the room.

She couldn't figure out why she wanted Colton so bad. Maybe it was the danger involved in it. Maybe it was just his good soul, she didn't know, but pushed the thoughts down into her subconscious.

Colton nodded. Office. He pulled his shirt back over his head as he exited for the office. Pens and paper were easy enough to find, but Colton preferred sticky notes to paper, because they were so easy to attach to things. Walls, desks, phonebooks, you name it. Colton was a Post-It note-aholic.

Colt wrote down his cell number once, decided it wasn't legible, and tried a second time. He deticated a few extra moments to trying to make the numbers clearly and signed his name by it. He tore off the sticky from the pad, and walked back in to Sakura's room.

"Here... If that guy starts picking fights again..." Colton held out the sticky, trying to smile. It was hard to smile right now. He had too many reasons to frown.

Sakura took the sticky note from Colton. "Thank you, I'll be able to take care of myself." She smiled and got up, the time for crying was over. She walked Colton out into the practice area. As she opened the door for him, she planted one last kiss on his cheek. Just something to remember her by she thought.

Colton nodded, and followed her out. He grabbed his suit jacket once more from the floor, and followed her out into the training area. She opened the door for him, and reached up to kiss him on the cheek. Colton reached out and held her once more.

Colton rested his head against hers, and whispered in her ear. "Sakura... You may be a strong woman, and I have no doubt in my mind that you can take care of yourself... But you're not immortal," he reasoned with her. "You can't... If he comes back, call me. Please."

Colton released her, and backed out of her dojo slowly. He stood on the sidewalk a moment before starting for the church. He'd try and sort everything out there.

Sakura felt better now that Colton was holding her. "I'll call you if he comes back." She promised as Colton backed out of the dojo. She needed to get some rest so she decided to lock up and take a nap. She locked the dojo up and laid in bed thinking of Colton.