King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Three of Hearts

West was staring down at his hands, wondering just when they had gotten so torn up and bloody. Or why the woman who's tiny hand was holding his as if he were fragile, wasn't running away from him screaming. By all rights Maddison should be horrified, she had watched him beat several men bloody. And West knew that if she hadn't been there, he might not have stopped.

 He shook his body, discarding those thoughts like drops of water, and tried to focus on what Maddison was saying. They were in her garage turned bedroom again, but this time she was dabbing at his hand, using those funky looking bandages to seal the cuts on his hands. She wasn't talking, which was just adding to Westley's anxiousness, and he wished he could peer into her head so he could kow what she was really thinking.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." West finally apologized into the silence, thinking that she wasn't speaking because she was too horrified.

Maddison looked up from his hand to frown at him, not understanding where the apology has come from. "A little blood has never made me faint or sick. Besides, my feet get torn up worse than this when I'm doing pointe work anyways." Maddison waved off his apology, oblivious to the fact that he wasn't talking about having to patch up his hands.

West just looked at her, seeing that underneath her random nature and playfulness, there was a very stable and reliable woman. Any of the girls from his schools, except for a few exceptions like Alice, would have been screaming, crying, throwing up or passing out. Maddison however, was simply wiping the cuts on his hnads clean and taping them up. None of them were serious, but they covered his hands so collectively he looked shredded. And he didn't remember doing that kind of damange to himself.

"Can I ask you someting? Other than asking you if I can ask I mean?" Maddison queried, sneking glances back up at him as she finished off with his hands.

Westley felt his dark stillness start to spread under his skin. He figured she was gonig to ask him about his past, the fighting, everything. She was first hand witness to the fact that he wasn't all sweetness and puppy dog tails, and by all logic she had to be dying to know more. He was just trying to decide if he wanted to go through all of it with her. Still, he could always walk away. With a reluctant shrug, West nodded. "Yeah you can ask me anything. Just warning you that I might not answer." he admitted.

Maddison chewed at her thumb nail and then smiled. "My sister Siobhan's twentieth birthday is coming up, and she's planning a big deal party. Wanna go with?" she asked, making West actually gape at her is surprise. She wasn't curious about the fighting? She actually wanted him around? "Now don't get me wrong, as much as I liked.... a couple of weeks ago, I'm talking about us being friends. We can take things easy." she flushed as she said it, looking away from West's golden eyes in awkward embarassment. Althought she really wouldn't complain if he wanted to...no, Maddison wasn't that kind of girl and she knew it. But neither was she dumb enough to just let this strange, feral man walk away from her life. He was just... different than guys like Rafe. When he looked at her, it was like he was constantly waiting to see what she was gonig to do next. He hadn't thus far looked at her like she was strange, embarassing or uncomfortable to be around.

The pleasant but blank look on West's face was making her nervous though. Because it was obvious he was thinking about something. She looked down, feeling a flush creep up her cheeks as she struggled to not think about whether or not he wanted to carry on like they had a couple of weeks ago. On the inside of West's brain, he was realizing something and trying to decide how he wanted to proceed. He remembered from the club that Siobhan was her younger sister. Which meant that Maddison was older than he was, a fact he rather didn't care about, but it also meant that she probably expected him to be her age or older. Not a nineteen year old still in highschool. But right now wasn't the time for that revelation, he decided.