Follow You ~ Denis Stoff (2016)

Crooked Love.

Small trigger warning: Melissa ends up cutting herself on purpose as more of a learning thing than a negative thing. At the first astrix (*) is where the warning will "take affect" I guess, and the second astrix is where it will be safe again:) I'll mention what happened at the end in an another a/n

"I'm sorry I scared all your friends." I muttered, not turning as Denis walked into my apartment.

"I don't give a fuck about them. You scared the fuck out me, Melissa." I remained at my place in front of the window, my hand on the pane of glass. "Melissa." He was right behind me. "Melissa McKenna Sawyer." He used an angry, low tone I had never heard before. I turned him. "Do not ever do that again."

"You knew I'd be fine."

"That doesn't change shit." He balled up his hands into fists, then turned and paced. "What the fuck Melisa! Just cause I know you won't die, doesn't mean I wanna watch you stab yourself with a butcher knife!" I sighed. "What's wrong with you?"

"I thought I made that fairly clear." I spat. I walked into the bathroom and sat on the closed toilet.

"Mel that's not something that's wrong. Seriously. What's up with. The feeling thing never bothered you until today and you stab yourself in front of my friends." I didn't say anything. "Melissa open the door." I still remained silent. "Do I have to sing?"

"No." I said quickly. "Don't use your power on me." I still had so many questions about his power. Where it came from. Why he had it. The only thing I had seen like it was someone who could make you love them with a simple touch. Their power was so strong it killed them.

"My sunshine," Denis started. I opened the door and glared at him.

"Stop." I commanded. He stood and smirked, grabbing the door so I couldn't close it again. "Now, what's the problem."

"You are." I pushed past him and walked to the cupboard with a lock. I opened it with the key in my back pocket and grabbed the only canister left. Empty. Fuck. "You're the problem."

"What?"

"Not like that." I turned around. "You can feel things and tell me your cold and burn yourself when you cook dinner and you can feel windows." I looked down as he approached. "You make it painfully obvious."

"What? I didn't think that bothered you."

"Yeah it didn't before but it does now. The only thing I can feel is the warmth of people. The warmth of you." He grabbed my hand. I pulled away and threw myself into bed. "I miss feeling the rain. I miss feeling the shower on my skin. I miss getting tired. If I didn't have to eat, I could literally run forever." Denis lied down behind me. I was facing the wall.

"Well you do have to eat. So stop running, Melissa." I rolled over to face him. "Stop running." He kissed my nose.

****

"Grab me a knife." I whispered.

"What?" He pulled away quickly.

"I wanna show you, Denis."

"I believe you?"

"I know. Of course you do. But I wanna show you." I repeated. Hesitantly, he got out of bed and grabbed a knife from the kitchen. He sat back down and I sat up crossed legged. I took the knife from his hand and held out my arm. Denis watched me so intently, with such concern. "Don't worry. I can't hurt myself." I pushed the knife through my skin, only feeling a small pin prick. As I pushed it further in, the pain disappeared almost instantly. It's as if my body realises something's serious, and remembers I'm not supposed to feel it. Thick blood slowly dripped from the cut, and Denis squished up his face like he wanted to look away but couldn't. I pulled the knife out, and the blood sucked itself back in before the skin closed up like a zipper, leaving nothing behind. "See. Nothing."

"You didn't feel anything?"

"Nope." I forced a smile. After a few more small incisions he seemed to warm to the idea that I was in no danger.

"Can you get tattoos?"

"I have one." I laughed slightly.

"What?" Denis looked at me confused. "Where?" I put my foot in his lap. Below my toes in big cursive dark font, said 'lost'. I got it before I was turned. From what I read I was sure it would just heal over and disappear, but it stayed, and over top I got the word 'not' in plain letters. "Not lost". I did that when I moved to California. "Oh. Cool. Do you wanna get more?"

"Maybe eventually." I shrugged, and put my foot back. I picked up the knife again and carved a small D into my arm, upside down so it was facing him. It healed quickly, but the scar remained. Denis leaned forward and kissed the spot. But I was confused. I felt. I felt the cut. And it burned like fire.

"What, what's wrong?"

"I felt that."

"Well yeah you said you can feel kisses I thought-"

"No. I mean yes I felt the kiss. But I meant the cut. I felt it. Denis." Simply saying his name made it burn. I took the knife and carved in the E and N. The same burn. "It fucking hurts."

"Well don't do it then-"

"Take the knife." I handed it to him, still staring at my arm, than now said DEN in what looked like year old scars. They healed, but stayed. They hurt. "Do the I."

"No! I'm not doing it if it hurts you."

"It didn't hurt the other times. I don't know what..." I trailed off. I coaxed him into doing a small line on my palm. Nothing. So what the actual fuck. When I finally convinced him to do the I in his name, I felt it again. He dropped the knife in shock.

"Why is it only my name that hurts." He said sadly. I took the knife and finished the name. He ran his fingers over it. Only there did his fingers feel like ice. I grabbed his arm. Warm. Its just that. I traced my fingers over the scars and they burned only slightly less than when they were cut.

*****

"I don't know." I felt myself grinning, as if it was some miracle that I had hurt myself. "I don't know." When I looked back up at him he looked like he was near crying. He got up and walked into the kitchen. He dropped the knife in the sink, making a loud clanging noise. I sighed as I stood, and walked over. "It will probably be gone when I wake up. I wouldn't worry about it."

"But why in the first place. Why did it only hurt when you did my name." His voice broke. I hugged him from behind, wrapping my arms around his waist.

"I'll look for anything about it in the book. But I don't know. It's okay." He turned around in my arms and I kissed his nose. "I love you."

"I love you too." He kissed me. "I promise I'll never hurt you. I promise okay? I'll never hurt you." He looked me in the eyes, so serious I was almost scared.

"I know, Denis. I know."

"Forever."

Okay so for those of you who may have wanted to skip the part between the **** (like i mentioned before the chapter) here's what happened:

Melissa shows Denis that injuries like small knife cuts cannot hurt her. They begin playing around a little. Melissa carves a small D into her arm, expecting it to go away, but instead when it heals it remains like an old scar, and hurt in the process. Out of curiosity as to why Denis' name seems to void her power, she carves the rest of it. It all hurts. Saying his name makes it hurt too. Melissa is confused and Denis is upset.

:)))