The Guy Down the Hall- F1

T for troy? T is for trauma

"I'm going to kill them for punching you before I ever could"

"How charming" Ilaria rolled her eyes, so freaking hard it actually hurt. Max tried to grab her by the waist, dropping his hard grip when she tried to slap him away.

It was an accident of course, the couple that was running recklessly at the bay happened to trip on Ilaria as she walked away from her shift, the pointy elbow of the girl hitting her straight on the cheekbone as they fell on the ground. Thankfully, and mysteriously, Max happened to be near by and quickly came to her rescue.

The past few weeks she has been lost, in everything. And without Charles by her side things became hard once again, as if she had just arrived from the States to Monaco.

Charles never came back to keep her company at work every morning, she never saw him walking in the streets or the usual places he would go to.

Max did keep her company though, their nightly routine of silently meeting each other at the rooftop of their building became a constant. Most of the times they wouldn't say a thing to each other but there wasn't any need.

"Can you stand?" Max asked, kind of a dumb question but he didn't know what to say. Ilaria nodded shakily trying to put herself to her feet.

Just as soon as she managed to get get upright her knees buckled again. Her vision went blurry as she tried to grab the nearest anything really to stop her from—

Max catched her before she could hit the ground, helping her small body steady herself. "So sorry— sorry..." she stutters not sure why her body was reacting this way right now, it was only a small punch, nothing more. "I—"

"It's okay." Max slips a hand under her legs and another behind her back, picking her up easily since she's much smaller than him. "It's okay. I got you"

Max made sure her summer dress was covering her ass the right way and her purse handing on his shoulder before he started walking towards their apartment.

"You don't have to..."

"But I want to" he adjusts her body, not helping but to shiver as her arms softly went around his neck clasping together as her head rested on his chest. "It definitely was a hard punch"

He wanted so bad to stop right there and touch her face, the ugly bruise growing on her cheekbone looking so painful he literally felt as if he was feeling it too. Max walked into his apartment instead of hers, placing her softly on his bed.

"Don't move" he said after taking off her shoes.

Ilaria nodded as her body slowly gets swallowed by all the pillows on his big bed. She giggled a little as she watched him leave the room in a hurry to then come back with an ice pack, a glass of water and painkillers.

He sat on the edge of the bed as she took the pills from him while he proceeded to place softly the ice pack on her swollen face.

"Thank you" she smiles. "You're a good person"

Max had never heard those words before. Growing up with a competitive nature and ruthless behavior did things to his reputation. Hardly any kids crossed his path when he was younger, plus having a psychologically abusive father didn't help in the least. He grew up thinking he was a bad person, thinking he would be anything like his father caused him to become closed off, cold even.

Ilaria watched how his eyes got lost for a second as he stared back at her, his face slowly falling from any emotion. She grinned sweetly at him, grabbing the ice pack from his hand and thanking again.

Max backed away from her personal space and sat down at the other side of the bed. He didn't know what to say and her saying nothing either gave him anxiety.