Breathe.

Chapter 21

Zaiden sat next Vixen, he noticed that she was very jittery, playing her fingers and bouncing her leg, he got concerned, 

"Hey Vixen? Are you okay? you seem off edge"

"O-oh yeah, I guess I'm nervous to be at that restaurant, the guy Natasha mentioned kind of doesn't respect personal space, he has tried to touch me multiple times,"

Zaiden felt his blood boil, this guy was really pissing him off, he let out a breath to calm himself as to not scare Vixen with his anger,

"Well like Damien mentioned earlier, I'm here, I won't let him get close to you, I'll do whatever I have to, with your permission of course,"

Vixen was surprised that he would be so genuine and caring towards her, It made her curious as to what his intentions were,

"If you don't mind Zaiden, why are you going so far to protect me? I mean it's not to offend you or anything, I'm just curious, why help me?"

Zaiden hesitated for a moment, he hadn't spoken of this to anyone, not even Damien, but he decided to be honest with Vixen, he needed her to know that he didn't want to hurt her,

"Guilt, that's basically it, but.... if you remember what I did to you the first day we met? the way you looked at me, it immediately sent me in to a panic, it reminded me of my mom. I took way too long to get the courage to stand up to my dad, because of that she had faced so much, now she's suffering alone. I don't want people to face that kind of pain ever. I know what you faced was worse, and every time I see you breaking down, I just want to hold you and show that everything would be okay, I'm not someone who knows what love is, but, when I kissed you last night, I was begging you not to hate me, because I want to be by your side, I want to take your pain away, in every way I can. I don't even care if I got hurt, I just want to see you smile again."

Vixen was dumbfounded, he had been holding all of this in, he was just as confused about his feelings as she was, he was genuinely caring about her, playboy façade aside, she looked at her feet as she spoke,

"I didn't know you were silently suffering this much, I'm sorry for not noticing, If it's any consolation I-"

(!SMALL TRIGGER WARNING, CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!)

LOOK !YOU'RE  A BURDEN TO HIM! JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER! KILL YOURSELF! HE WON'T LIKE YOU, YOU'RE DIGUSTING! WHORE! SLUT! BITCH!

Vixen felt a hand intertwining with her fingers, a powerful warmth consumed her, causing her to calm down, she turned her head to the figure next to her, Zaiden smiled, pain in his eyes, she calmed down enough to continue speaking,

"I-if It's a-any c-consolation, I-I feel safe w-whenever I-I'm with y-you, I-I don't trust a lot o-of people, b-but the m-moment I g-got to know y-you I was falling harder and harder for y-you, I'm still t-terrified of what I-I went through, but I-I don't want it to control me forever,"

Vixen smiled at Zaiden, her breath returning to normal, Zaiden's eyes widened as a smile made It's way on to his face. His heart was racing a mile a minute, he squeezed her hand, letting the comfortable silence filling the cab, as they got closer to their destination.

As the cab slowed to stop in front of  the restaurant the pair saw the silhouettes of their friends, Zaiden and Vixen hopped out of the cab and walked to Damien and Natasha, while their hands were still intertwined, Natasha glanced at their hands but didn't speak about it, but she did smile at a giddy Vixen,

'I haven't seen that smile in so long,'

"FINALLY! WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOREVER!"

"Well doesn't look like you minded the wait,"