—A/N—
I know I said I wasn't going to post for a bit but I had made this chapter already and I really wanted to post it.
Fun fact about Valentino; I had gotten his personality from the person I had talked about in the previous chapter, kinda the reason he's my favorite. I do miss that person, I'm glad Valentino can be my reminder of him though
Tw for this chapter
I hope you enjoy this chapter, please vote and comment if you can! <3
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~1 week later~
This past week had been pretty stressful. Even after Lucifer and I had sent men to the location we had tracked down they still couldn't defeat them and we lost half of our men each. The new weapons did take out a good majority of Dante's men though so that could make things a bit easier now unless he somehow gets more.
Ellie wasn't able to sleep for days, Owen and I took turns sleeping with her since she kept waking up in the middle of the night from nightmares about what happened. Lorenzo kept her distracted with helping her read some books he brought from her library which worked. She refused to leave the house or have any of us leave so we would have to sneak out.
Right now I had been sitting in my room while scrolling around through my phone. Owen was sleeping and Lorenzo was at home doing whatever he was doing.
I decided to check up on Ellie since I hadn't seen her in a few hours and she never left the room. So I turned my phone off and got up from my bed, running my hands through my hair before opening the door and leaving my bedroom.
I walked through the hallway and up to Ellie's door, only to hear her crying on the other side. I didn't knock, I put my ear against the door to see if anything was going on but it was only her sobbing. So I knocked on the door but she stopped as soon as she heard it.
"Ellie, are you alright in there?" I asked, hearing her footsteps run over to the door.
"Y-Yes I'm okay.." she said, sniffling.
I tired opening the door but it was locked, "Open the door, princess."
"I-I'm umm— changing.? Yeah, I'm ch-changing." she stuttered.
I could tell from the amount of nervousness in her voice she was lying, "Piccola, you don't cry and change at the same time. Please let me in, talk to me Ellie."
She didn't say anything but I knew she was still standing by the door, waiting for me to leave. I sighed and took out the key from my pocket, putting it in the key hole and turning it only to find it not working. Ellie was holding the lock so I couldn't open it.
"Let go of the lock, Ellie. I know you're crying, I just want to help you."
She still didn't say anything, the lock still wouldn't open. After a few seconds of trying not to break the key, she finally let go of it and I quickly turned it. I opened the door only to find her running into her bathroom and quickly shutting that door too.
I shut the bedroom door just in case she tried running out from the bathroom and walked over to it. I tried opening the door but of course that was also locked. Big surprise there.
"Ellie you already know what I'm going to say." I said against the door.
"P-Please leave, I'll come out soon." she said.
I sighed once again, "Amore, come out so we can talk."
"I'm fine, I-I'll come out in a bit, I ne-need a shower." she said with a shaky voice, I just knew she was holding back sobs.
"Right after you just changed?"
It was silent for a long moment. I heard her footsteps walking away from the door before returning shortly after. The lock on the door had made a clicking sound and the door was cracked open, Ellie peaking her eyes through the gap.
Her eyes were teary and her lip quivered, she was shaking and I knew her heart was still broken. She finally let her tears out and let out a soft cry, "P-Please don't be mad..." she whispered.
"Why would I be mad at you?" I asked.
She looked almost hesitant when she started opening the door more, I looked down to finally see what she was talking about.
Her wrist was filled with fresh scars, blood seeping out of each one. A drop fell to the floor and the cries became just a bit louder. I couldn't help but stare at what she had done to herself, I didn't expect it to get this bad or else I never would have left her by herself these past few days.
"I-I'm sorry.. I don't k-know how to cope an-and I..." she cried out.
"Shh.. it's okay, Ellie. Come here.." I whispered, opening my arms.
She slowly walked into them and held on to my shirt tightly as she sobbed. I wrapped one hand around her body and the other hand was petting her head.
I tried my best not to cry, I had this same problem a few years ago and seeing it happen to this innocent girl just hurt my heart. I don't want her to think this would be the way to help her.
"I d-don't know what to do.." she whispered into my chest.
"I know, amore. This isn't the way to go though, hurting yourself will only make everything so much worse."
"It's su-supposed to make it better..."
"But it never does, trust me it only makes you feel worse."
"I-It should've been me... M-Martin had th-things to live for.."
Those words immediately broke my heart even more, "Don't you ever say that again, you both had great things to live for."
She picked her head off my chest and looked up at me, "A-Are you mad.?"
I shook my head lightly, "No, I'm not mad at you for this. I understand you're going through a rough time and it hard to find ways to cope but we'll help you, okay? You just need to talk too us and ask us for help, promise me you'll do that and never hurt yourself like this again."
She nodded her head slightly, "I p-promise."
"Thank you, now, let's get you cleaned and bandaged up."
I let go of her body and took her hand, leading her out of the bathroom and out of the bedroom. I walked her over to my room and opened the door, allowing both of us inside before I shut it. We headed over to my bathroom and I turned on the light and picked her up, setting her down on the counter.
I grabbed some of the soft tissue and took one of her wrist. I tried to get rid of as much blood as I could before moving on to the next one. She still continued to cry but I didn't want to stop her, I wanted her to let it all out.
I rummaged around through one of my cabinets and pulled out the cream I needed, opening it up while Ellie watched.
"This is going to sting just a bit but it's going to heal you, okay?" I informed her before doing anything so she was prepared.
She nodded her head, I didn't expect a verbal answer but I didn't push for it either. I placed a good amount of cream in my fingers before lightly rubbing it on to her cuts. She tried to pull her arm away but I kept a tight grip.
"If you tug, it's only going to hurt more. I know it hurts."
She continued to cry but this time complied with me. She only tensed up a bit instead of tugging. After I finished with one wrist, I moved on to the other and she did the same this. I put the cream away when I finished and took out a bandage wrap, wrapping it around her wrists and securing them.
"All done, you're okay." I said, wiping the tears away from her face.
She reached her arms up for me to pick her up. I smiled at how adorable it was and picked her up like she wanted me to. Her arms wrapped around my neck and her legs wrapped around my body, her head in the crook of my neck. I walked us out of the bathroom and over to my bed, sitting down as she straddled me.
I felt her place a kiss on my neck, her hands slowly creeping from the back of my neck and into my hair. I petted her head as she continued, but the kisses started to become a trail which led me to realize what she was trying to do.
If this was at any other time, I would've allowed her to continue. But I knew she didn't know what she was doing, she was trying to cope but this isn't the way I wanted her to do it. I refuse to touch her in an erotic manner when she's in such a vulnerable state, all her emotions mixed up and confused.
I slightly pulled her away from me, enough to make the kisses come to an end and her eyes looking up to me with tears slowing coming out of them.
"Princess, we can't do this." I said calmly.
"W-Why not.?" she asked, her voice shaky yet quiet.
"Because you're too vulnerable right now to have any intimacy like that, maybe later, okay? Just not now, I won't do that to you."
She pouted in slight disappointment but she knew where I was coming from. Instead of kissing my neck this time, she decided to go after my lips. I kissed her back passionately, I wanted to show her how much I loved her.
I pulled away soon after and kissed her nose, she sniffled and smiled at me. I could never get tired of seeing that adorable smile, her sparking eyes and feeling those soft lips of hers. I would hold her forever just to keep her safe from the world, a girl so precious like her doesn't deserve any of the pain we've seen her go through.
"I-Is Lorenzo coming over today?" she asked as she calmed down more.
"Actually, we're going over to his place. We're going to have a fun little sleepover in the living room, with any snacks and drinks of your choice." I said with a smile.
"Really?" she smiled, her eyes sparkling.
"Mhm, and Lorenzo isn't going to leave, he's going to stay and he promised so if he broke that promise tell me."
She giggled, "Okay."
"I'll go wake up Owen and we can get going now if you want, I know how badly you've been waiting to see him."
Ellie quickly jumped off of me and allowed me to get up from the bed. I stood up on my feet and watched as Ellie was waiting patiently to take my hand, I held on to it and we walked out of my bedroom. Quickly we headed over to Owen's room and I knocked on the door.
Owen had opened the door surprisingly quickly, he had a towel wrapped around his waist with droplets all over his body, a separate towel in his hand drying his hair. I felt Ellie's hand squeezing mine as she looked at him, her face immediately turning red.
"Oh hey guys, sorry I just got out the shower. Did you need something?" he asked.
"We're getting ready to head over to Lorenzo's place for the sleepover, mind get ready once your dried off?"
"I'll get ready in a few minutes, meet you guys downstairs. I'll tell him we're on our way." Owen said.
I gave him a nod and he closed the door, my eyes looked down at Ellie's red face.
"Like what you saw? Should've asked him to drop the towel for you." I teased.
She quickly looked up at me and started punching at my chest playfully while I chuckled. She suddenly ran away from me and I started chasing her all around the mansion until it was time to head out.
~~~
After the last few minutes of driving, we had finally made it to Lorenzo's mansion. I had already parked the car and we all walked inside through the doors.
"Lorenzo, we're here!" Owen called out as we walked farther inside of the mansion.
"Living room!" we heard him call out, Ellie immediately running over while Owen and I walked behind her.
Once we finally reached the living room, we saw that Ellie had her arms wrapped around Lorenzo, hugging him tightly. He was hesitant for a bit but ended up hugging her back. I felt a sudden nudge coming from Owen as he looked over at me and I looked over at him.
"Is that a fashion choice or.?" he asked as he pointed to the bandages around Ellie's arm.
"Whatever you do just don't bring it up around her." I replied.
He didn't say anything more, understanding what I meant by it.
I looked around the living room to see that Lorenzo had gotten it all ready for tonight. He had a whole mattress on the floor, pillows and blankets placed neatly on it. There were already snacks put out on the couch and drinks in little holders. I didn't expect him to even remember about our plans tonight but seeing this just made me smile.
"You guys can take a seat you know." Lorenzo said, still holding on to Ellie.
Owen and I walked over to the mattress, I sat myself down while Owen dramatically plopped himself back first onto the mattress, "Damn this is comfortable."
Lorenzo and Ellie had also taken their seats on the mattress soon after, except he forced Ellie to stay in between his legs and her back pressed against his chest. I had the slight suspicion he was just trying to hide his friend but what do I know?
I grabbed the remote that sat right next to the floor, "Are we starting now?" I asked.
"Yes, the maids will bring us dinner later so we won't have to pause and all that hassle." Lorenzo said, wrapping his arms around Ellie who was playing around with her hair.
Owen had scooted himself closer to them while I tried to find something for us to watch. I didn't want Ellie watching any horror or documentaries as that might just scare her. After the time just an hour ago, I wanted to take her mind off of the world and just make her feel comfortable with us.
"What kind of movie do you guys want to watch?" I asked as I scrolled through everything.
Owen was about to say something before Lorenzo immediately stopped him,"Owen if you say Disney just know I will superglue your mouth shut and possibly break your neck."
Every time when we had hung out to watch something, Owen would force Lorenzo to watch childish Disney movies just to, and I quote; "activate his inner child". I thought it was pretty funny every single time and it had been a while since I was able to hear it again.
I'm glad our bond was growing strong again.
"How about something comedy-like, is that good for everyone? Well, everyone besides Lorenzo?" I asked.
Lorenzo rolled his eyes and I chuckled lightly. Owen and Ellie both shook their heads at the idea and I went to the comedy section of the movies. Owen had already started munching on the snacks as I could hear from behind me, I could also hear him offering some to Ellie.
Still trying to find a movie, I felt the mattress shaking just a bit more than usual. I could feel a hand on my back and something pressed against my lips. I looked down at it to see Ellie's hand holding a popcorn and trying to feed it to me. I opened my mouth and she put it down, I chewed it while she giggled.
She pushed herself up a bit and gave me a kiss on my cheek. I looked down at her beautiful face before placing one on her head, looking back at the TV and scrolling through. She continued to feed me until I finally found something and put it on.
"Valentino?" she called out in a whisper-like voice.
"Yes, piccola?"
"I love you guys." she said as she laid her head on my shoulder.
"We love you too, princess. So very much."