"Well I hope you know, bastard of the devil, that I slept with the woman you claim to be yours."
Titus counted in his head patiently, "She slept willingly or was she forced?"
Duggard laughed, "Does it matter? She felt so nice moaning my name as she enjoyed your absence."
Titus grabbed his knife from his belt, "Those are fighting words."
Duggard coughed, aiming a gun at Titus's heart, "She wouldn't stop weeping."
Time was up.
He mumbled as he looked towards the stars, "Forgive me, dear Zyla. I'll have to kill one more man."
Titus dodged the bullet and stuck the knife through Duggard's lung.
Duggard fell immediately, looking at the knife in his stomach, "S-shit."
Titus went over to grab his coat and shirt off the ground. "Take out that knife and you're asking for death."
"You're a monster," Duggard wheezed, starting to cough up blood.
"I know."
Titus looked up and saw Easton on the edge of a building holding a sniper. He whistled and his motorcycle came to his side.
"Doll?"
It spoke, "Yes, master?"
"Shoot the man on the roof."
"Very well."
Easton came falling down and Titus hopped onto the bike, petting the head, "Good girl."
"Thank you, daddy," it responded.
If he was to go, he was taking every last one of those disasters to hell with him.
• • •
"Sir, you have guests approaching from behind. They appear to be both Valerian's men and those from Worthy Corps. Would you like me to auto drive?"
Titus glanced behind him, "No need doll."
"Very well."
"Pull over, Titus. You know what's going to happen," one of the men said into a megaphone.
Titus pulled the hood over his head and turned around in his seat, laughing, "I'm charmed fellas. Didn't think I had such a large fanbase."
"Last warning, Titus. You have ten seconds."
Titus lost his smirk and threw a knife into the man's throat, causing him to fall off his bike and get ran over by a tire. "That's my line."
They all started shooting at him and he turned around in his seat, "Doll, I'mma need you to go a little faster."
One of the thugs came up beside him.
Titus sighed, "What, you want to bleed out of your neck too?"
"No," a feminine voice said.
He looked over his shoulder and saw a woman who didn't look too happy, "What are y-"
She jumped onto his motorcycle and hooked her arm around his neck, "You killed him!"
He rolled his eyes, "Oh boy. Break doll!"
The motorcycle stopped and Titus threw her onto the road.
Before one of the men could run over her, he pushed her onto the sidewalk and immediately got shot in his arm.
"Shit," he hissed.
The woman laughed, "You're still too fearful to kill a woman. That's what makes you weak."
Titus threw a wire over the armed man's neck before putting a bullet in his head, then walked over to her.
She immediately backed away.
He chuckled, "If I'm weak, why are you afraid?"
She remained silent.
"Go home," he said and got back onto his bike, "and move on. Valerian chose his fate, but that does not determine yours."
She blinked back her tears as he drove off.
While he was constantly trying to lose the men behind him, his motorcycle spoke up again, "Daddy, Zyla is at your house right now as we speak."
He looked afraid, "What?!"
"Would you like me to warn her to leave?"
"No," He sighed and slid more bullets into his clip, "I'm on my way there. Secure the entire house and yard. Understand?"
"Very well."
• • •
I cried into Yolarie's shoulder endlessly that night. "He's not coming back to me."
Yolarie rubbed my back, "He did the right thing."
I curled up, trying not to sob, "Is it wrong?"
"Is what wrong?"
"To love someone when it feels bad."
She sighed, "It's not wrong. You can't help how you feel, even if others see it differently."
"But after everything he di-"
"Love can blind someone," she said quickly, thinking about her girlfriend.
"I knew Auri wouldn't live long enough to spend the rest of my life with, but it still didn't make me regret a thing."
"Why not?" I looked up at her.
"I don't know. I just knew that I'd rather spend that short time with her than forever with anyone else."
My eyes widened.
Is that how I felt about him?
She tucked me in, "Anyways, this is the last place I'd expect you'd want to be. What if the SWAT just comes breaking down the doors?"
I covered my face with Titus's covers, "Who cares."
"Sometimes you feel like my fucking child," she laughed and thumped my head. "Get some sleep, pumpkin."
"Yes mom," I rolled my eyes.
She smiled and left the room.
I held my pillow, feeling my chest cramp as I cried.
Why did it hurt so bad to be here without him?
• • •
[Start the song]
I almost fell asleep until I heard Snowball bark.
"Shhh, stop it boy!" a man said.
I looked up from my pillow and saw Titus climbing through the window, moving his puppy to the side slowly with his foot.
He must have thought I was sleeping.
I turned over, and the next second I felt fingers dig into my sides, tickling the hell out of me.
"Peek-a-boo!"
I laughed and held the pillow to my face.
He stopped and removed the cushion from my face, wiping my tears with his fingers, "Hi, baby."
Baby...?
"Hi..."
I didn't know whether to slap him for scaring me or kiss him for being alive.
But it was always that way with us two wasn't it?
I did both and he laughed, moving himself over me. I watched as his eyebrows furrowed a bit in wonder as he looked at me.
He wiped the remaining tears away from my cheeks, "Bad girl...you were crying for me, weren't you?"
I looked up at him as the moonlight shined through his curtains, and placed a hand to his cheek.
I knew he had asked me not to cry, but I couldn't help the tears that rolled.
I needed him.
I had to tell him how I felt, even if I was afraid to bring the word love out of my lips.
"You're my everything too, Titus."
He searched my eyes and smiled, "I thought so."
He took off his heavy clothing and boots and laid on top of me.
"Rough day?" I asked him teasingly.
"For the both of us," he responded and closed his eyes.
I giggled a bit. It felt so comforting to have him near. I couldn't imagine a life without him anymore.
He was my sword.
My shield.
And my heart.
I ran a hand through his hair as he slowly fell asleep on my chest, and Snowball jumped into the bed to stick close to us.
This felt like family.
"You came back to me," I whispered and kissed Titus's head, tracing his scars with my fingers.
I finally had all of him.
• • •
I woke up early and saw Titus sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Titus?"
He didn't look back at me, "Yeah?"
I sat up and covered myself as I kissed one of the scars on his back, "What's wrong?"
"I have no other choice but to turn myself in."
I stopped, "What?"
"And I know if I do, I'll never see you again. It'd be wrong of me to ask you to wait for me until I'm old and gray."
"Titus," my voice broke and I hugged him from behind, "please be quiet."
He fiddled with the necklace around his neck, rubbing the bullet between his fingers as he took in the sight of my name on it, "You'll be free from me, Zyla. I deserve this."
My heart stopped, "Are you serious?"
He stared at the ground before putting his head in his hands.
It got silent and he began to bite his lip. A habit he had mindlessly picked up from me when I was stressed.
"Titus...I'm pregnant."
He exhaled, "I know."
"Huh?"
He stood and started laughing, "I notice more about you than you realize, cocoa puff. The cravings, the motions, and that damned devilish attitude."
"This isn't funny."
He grabbed me up from the bed and held me, bringing one of my hands to his face to kiss the pulse on my wrist, "I know. Just be a good girl for me, okay? Be strong."
I felt my heart sink and I ran my thumb along the scar of his face, "I don't want to go on longer in this life without you."
"You won't have to. I'll always be here with you. May not always be in flesh."
Why is he saying all this like a goodbye?
I didn't want to think about it any longer and chose to kiss him instead, running my hand along the tattoo of his arm.
Our tongues intertwined and moans were shared until he took a breather. "Always thought I had one wing until I met you."
I smiled, "Are you going to get the other one done?"
He put me down on my feet. "No. You're my other wing."
I blinked.
"Come on, let's go for a drive."
• • •
"Titus, this is dangerous. What if they see you?"
He stayed silent.
"Titus, you're doing it again..."
He sighed and placed me on the bike, getting behind me, "Remember how to drive, sweet girl?"
I looked back at him and placed my hands on the handles, giggling, "Of course."
Just like old times.
He smiled, and when I turned around, it quickly went away.
He placed the helmet on my head.
"I want you to go as fast as you can, alright?"
I rose an eyebrow, "You're not going to be the gas?"
"Nope. Let's go."
I revved the engine and started speeding through the streets, "Wooooo!"
He laughed and held my hips.
I put my hands up suddenly, feeling the air.
"Zyla!" he took the handles and shook his head, "You had one job."
I pursed my lips, "Oops, sorry."
He kissed my shoulder and placed my hands back on the handles, hearing a helicopter.
It was his time.
"I love you," I heard him say for the first time, before he let go and jumped off the motorcycle.
I was going too fast to even stop.
"Titus!!!"