He couldn't remember the last time that he was able to sit alone, without anyone trying to speak with him, without anything to distract him. He had almost forgotten how peaceful it was, to be completely and utterly alone. He sat there not focusing on anything in particular, but allowing himself to release anything that could cause him to feel. That nothingness, that loneliness, it never left him, but he had abandoned it for some time, how long he couldn't tell anymore. But it always welcomed him back, he was embraced by it. And he wanted to embrace it in return. With his headphones tucked into his ears, he allowed the music playing to play idly even though he wasn't listening, it was a sign for any intruder to know that he was listening, and yet again not listening at all. These were things that he picked up over time, it had taken him so long to be able to be invisible amongst others, to be nonexistent in the face of common habitation. This was something he had studied of another from his days in grade school, it seemed to work for everyone else, as if it were a set of caution tape wrapped around the individual, and it appealed to him. So he had adopted this habit, and it was comforting, knowing that he wouldn't have to be there in a sense. Even if he was.

He allowed the cigarette to burn in between his fingers, the coils of smoke floating amiss into the stillness of the air. It was getting cooler out, which also meant that he would have to return to school soon. His perception of time was already faltering, what day was it, what time was it.. it didn't matter for now, but eventually he would have to pick up his daily life as a student attending college. He wouldn't even bother if he didn't have to, but he had made a promise, and somewhere he had read that promises weren't meant to be broken, even if sometimes that they were.

There were so many guidelines that went unspoken in humanity. Sure common courtesy and morals were taught at a young age, but that ever-present question was the one he was always asked, and yet what he also inquired about, why? Living appeared to be nothing more than constantly hounding for the answers to some incoherent meaning. Existence in itself was something to question, such as why anyone was there, for what purpose, and why was it set up in such a fashion that no matter how hard you worked, you always struggled to gain more. This world was fucked. That's just how it was, and there was no easy route, no cheat codes, everything was set in stone. The only thing that could change that was if existence were to cease, and many people took that way out. So in this time, he could both exist and not exist.

He stands up from the wall edge he had been sitting on and removes his headphones in a swift motion, now having spotted the copperhead walking out from her place of work. The night was late, but he didn't care, he had to right what had happened almost desperately. He had waited a couple of days since the confusing incident to approach her. Upon Eiji's advice, he had tried to contact her via text, but all she said was that it was "ok" and nothing else. So he was taking to a more aggressive approach that would force her to be near him.

He crosses the street with a light jog and falls in step with her along the sidewalk.

"They say you shouldn't get in a car with a stranger, but how about an estranged friend?" He offers up causing her to jump at his sudden presence that she hadn't noticed sidle up beside her.

Cyren's emerald eyes snap up to his face in surprise, the energy around her that of bafflement as well as evasiveness. TJ looks up to the night sky, not chancing a glance at her and nods. He turns around on a pivot only for her to grab his elbow impulsively. He smirks to himself before looking back over his shoulder to her with a raised eyebrow. She stammers and looks down at her feet though her fingers still clutching to the material of his hoodie. TJ drops the smirk as she looks back up to him and then around searching for his car. Without a word he leads her back down the street and across the way. Helping her into the passenger side he can't help but chuckle once the door was shut and she could no longer see his face.

It amused him as to how she clung to his companionship, but it played in his favor at this point. She was easy to manipulate like clay before it was thrown into the oven, and that's exactly what he wanted to do with her. This was different. It was one thing to break someone down until they mirrored what you envisioned, but she was the living version of that. Another moldable impressionist, and he was willing to test out this new game. In fact, it intrigued him, if he did this just right, she would be his to do whatever he wished with. Being that everyone always tried to use him for their own personal gain, it was thrilling to have someone that was willing to be at his complete mercy. She just wasn't aware of it. And when he would make her aware, he would keep her and protect her, no one would be allowed to touch or hurt her again.

Ducking into the driver's side and buckling his seatbelt, he casts a quick side eye to her to ensure that she was buckled in herself and fires up the engine with the push to start button.

"Home?" He asks aloud, knowing full well that that was the only option but more or less to break the silence in hopes of regaining her comfort with him on a personable level at least.

Pulling away from the curbside, he begins the drive towards her house. She remains quiet beside him and looks out the window with a deep breath. As her eyes scan over the scenery now passing by.

"Not home?" He asks again catching her saddened expression in the reflection of the tinted glass only inches away from her face.

Cyren turns back to him and leans sideways against the seat to watch him drive with one hand on the stick shift and the other on top of the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the road, though he chances a few looks in her direction. She admires how his expression is always so smooth, his eyes cold but holding the spark of worry in the small knit in his eyebrows and his tightened jaw.

"Can we go somewhere else?" She asks insecurely, not wanting to impose on him, but also not wanting to return home, knowing that her parents would be fighting as they had been nightly recently.

TJ tilts his head in response, his eyes flashing up to the rear view mirror before he makes an abrupt U-turn on the empty street. She grabs a hold of the door handle to brace herself for the shift in the turn and giggles slightly. She checks to see a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

"You trust me to not kill you huh?" His tone deepens as his eyes narrow though transfixed on the road.

"You don't seem like the type to put other'slives in danger..." She giggles out, having taken his statement as a joke onlycausing him to huff out another breathy laugh that rumbled from his chest.    

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It wasn't often that he would have anyone other than Eiji or Kaeden in his personal space, but he found himself in the precarious situation of having a stranger now looking through everything that he owned in the four walls that he had built to be his safety.

Cyren walked around the room looking from the open closet to the desk, the dresser and television and finally at the bed where TJ sat on the edge with his elbows propped on his bent knees and his hands rubbing together between his knees. His eyes were glued to her as she walked about the small space looking to particular items placed on his desk or to the hanging attire in the closet that didn't vary much out of muted dark colors.

"I half expected you to have things on your walls, but it's very organized in here. I also thought that you wouldn't clean up after yourself so much. I was surprised the first time that I was here how orderly it all was. So you do all of the cleaning I presume?" She voices aloud now looking to the closet top shelf that held a few bins though the contents within she was unable to see.

"I don't like clutter." Is all he says, his eyes shadowed by his hair as she looks over her shoulder to him.

Spinning on her heel she clasps her hands behind her back and rocks onto the ball of her feet, seeing as how she was making him uncomfortable. He holds out a hand in gesture for her to sit on the bed and then returns to rubbing his palms together.

He hadn't anticipated bringing her back to his home, but she had mentioned not wanting to go home this evening and allowing his impulses to take precedence, he had wound up driving them back to his place. Luckily Kaeden wasn't home, so he was able to sneak them in fluidly without any further questions. He had escaped his roommate's scrutiny twice now but he felt that he would be pushing it. Especially since she was going to be staying the night and he had already planned to sleep on the couch, though her being in his space made him uneasy about if she were to go through anything.

Cyren slides onto the bed next to him and slides her hands over her jeans in a nervous habit, though allowing her eyes to still roam over the minimalistic room. TJ cocks his head to look to her hands smoothing over the denim over her knees becoming immediately peeved by the sound of it, his eyes narrowed on the small act of annoyance that was tearing at his patience and nerves. As if on a silent command, she stops and weaves her hands together, resting them on her knee and twists just enough to face him at an angle, unsure of what to do.

There was something about being at his house that made her slightly timid and yet he eluded a presence that held both comfort and yet a deep resounding fear in her. If he were to be a sound, he would be the piano keys of a soft melody, but punctuated by a deep bass that would be nearly impossible to hear playing in the background. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was just something there that terrified her and chilled her to the bone.

"Um... feel free to change into something more comfortable if you'd like. The shirts and everything else are in the dresser." He offers pointing absent minded to the dresser and turns his face away before getting up, needing to leave the room for a moment to collect himself.

His anger was flaring though he couldn't exactly calm himself in front of her, she had little habits that were starting to get on his nerves and he didn't want to lose it and end up hurting her in any way. His plan was becoming his obsession and he wanted to see it through to the end. Though he probably should have listened to Eiji about not being alone with her for some time, until he could figure her out. He just wanted to grab her and violently shake her to stop being so pathetic already, but what he needed was patience and finesse. Two things he didn't exactly have the abilities for, which would have been better suited for Eiji to handle. But sadly this was something that he had to take care for now, until he could introduce the two.

Dismissing himself from the room instantly, he makes his way to the kitchen and sets to grabbing a couple of vitamin waters as well as some rather basic snacks of rice cakes and mixed nuts. He had figured that she probably overdressed for the purpose of hiding herself, which would be from an insecurity of her body image. She wasn't overweight in the slightest, she was healthy, from what he could tell. He had to remind himself that he wanted her to be comfortable around him and not to press it too much. His tendencies had always been a bit blunt and aggressive, which in the past, she hadn't responded to well. He sets the items on the dining table and looks over them losing himself to his own thoughts for several minutes, trying desperately to wipe the image of bloodied corpses from his mind. He had to admit that she made him want to strangle her, but the other part of him really didn't want to do that. It was as if he were fighting an internal battle between primal instinct and learned mannerisms all over again.

He stood there frozen in his stance with his fingers pinching his bottom lip and his free hand tapping incoherently on the tables surface.

The sound of bones cracking. The sound of liquid splashing. The sound of echoing screams. The smell of iron. The sight of pupils dilating.

He shakes his head and clenches his eyes shut. He wasn't getting enough sleep, he knew that already, especially if he couldn't control his train of thought now. When he needed it most. Had she only responded to him sooner, he wouldn't have had to go out of his way. She was obedient and yet disobedient in a way that pissed him off, why couldn't she just, do as he wanted. It was infuriating him that these things couldn't be corrected immediately. But he was almost positive that she was like him, she had to be, she would be.

"Teej? You alright?" Cyren calls to him in a sweet chiming voice.

His eyes flit to the side with a small fraction of a turn of his face. The dark kitchen masking him perfectly within it, though his eyes seemed cold and sharp in the little light that was provided from the streetlights outside. She takes a sharp intake of air in her lungs and steps back, that intimidation set over her again as she cradles her arms to her stomach. His expression softens instantly into its resting dismissive aloofness, as if he hadn't noticed her recoil in the slightest. She exhales shakily as he collects the items into his hands and brushes past her, looking back over his shoulder to make sure that she would follow along. Her expressions contorts into pure confusion and she looks down, touching her knuckles to her lips, blinking rapidly at his shift so instantly.

Did that actually happen, or did she imagine it because of the low lighting. It must have been that, she wasn't good with the dark in the first place, and her mind must have played a trick on her from her skittishness. That's what she convinced herself, that's what she told herself as they entered the now well lit room and TJ deposited the things on the nightstand. He circles around her to close the door behind her and gestures for her to sit on the bed again. She obliges easily and sits on the side closest to the door and tucks her legs up to her chest, leaning back against the pillows. TJ looks to her dressed in his dark blue long sleeve and a pair of his black boxer briefs. His eyebrows knit in a small spark of amusement at her choice; out of everything that he owned, she picked that. He flips off the lightswitch and makes his way to the bed.

"Scoot. You're in my spot." He whispers and waves for her to move to the inside. "You're fine, that's the safest place in the whole house." He teases seeing her worried eyes snap up to him in the dark.

She slides over hesitantly and feels his weight on the bed beside her. The television lights up instantly and she's suddenly handed a Playstation controller and the remote. The glowing blue light from the screen allowing her the chance to see him pull off his hoodie and discarding it somewhere into the room, leaving him in just his sweatpants and completely shirtless, as if she weren't even there. He lays back on the pillows and reaches up over his shoulder to retrieve the drink intended for her as well as the food he had chosen. He passes them to her as she navigates her way to his Netflix account and clicks on it.

"You alright?" He asks quietly, seeing as she was still curled up in on herself settled more or less in the corner. "I can put up like a pillow wall for the meantime and when you're asleep I'll move to the couch-"

"No. It's fine. I'm sorry. I'm just being stupid..." She interrupts quickly, not wanting him to think that he was making her fearful.

She can't help but recall the moment in the kitchen and in comparison to now, he wasn't anything but respectful and calm, collected. She must have imagined it, she was sure of it. There was a disconnect in what she saw, opposed to what was and it was eating at her. Nestling down against the pillows she scrolls through his recently watched to get a feel of what he would be interested in to base off of her decision, being in charge was giving her a bit of anxiety, but she felt that she wanted to be able to do at least this much. Honestly with him beside her, it made her want to be better regardless of her sudden relapses of extreme paranoia. TJ exhales deeply and hooks and arm behind his head to set himself up better.

She begins to panic not wanting to take forever in fear that it would annoy him and decides on a snap decision, selecting a show she recognized that was more of an adult based cartoon that he had been watching already. Luckily the plot was non-existent and you could pick up anywhere as each episode was of its own comedic tale. She sets the controller aside as if freeing herself of it in her haste and immediately wraps her arms around her bare legs. TJ quirks and eyebrow in amusement of her discomfort and takes the controllers away to set them on the nightstand slowly as if to not spook her further. He pats the space between them and motions for her to move for a second. In her bewilderment she scoots back and he tugs the neatly tucked in covers down for her.

"You seem either cold, or insecure. So I'm giving you a safety blanket, literally." He whispers in explanation though remains on top of the covers.

She mutters a 'thanks' and stretches her legs out underneath the blanket against the microfiber sheets. In an attempt to get more comfortable she lays on her side and yet still tucks her legs up, allowing herself to settle into the nook between the wall and him.

She jumps feeling him shift beside her suddenly and realizes that she had dozed off almost instantly, the room was now dark and she couldn't feel the dip in the bed beside her any longer. She sits up immediately in her panic and searches the dark room in her sleepy haze.

"No, Teej?" She calls shakily, her voice a tremble on a whisper.

"Yes?" His voice responds raspy though she can't target where the source of it was coming from.

In front of the door she sees a subtle movement in the shadows that causes her chest to tighten.

"Stay...." She pleads almost too quiet to be heard.

The bed shifts again and TJ's eyes appear before hers, she gasps at his stealth and her eyes drop to the small smirk on his lips that reveals his teeth pressing into his bottom lip. She recoils back to give him space to slide into the bed again and presses her back to the wall.

"You're funny, Cy...." He exhales out with a small chuckle. "Easily frightened..." He adds in to answer her question prematurely. "But you fear the dark more than you fear me."

"I'm not afraid of you." She combats haughtily, feeling guilty that he had read that off of her.

TJ's chuckle rumbles in a small shake across the bed that seeps into her ominously, though the tone of it appealing. She tucks back into the covers now feeling insecure and slightly uncomfortable with his warmth radiating under the blankets to her. Her breath stutters in her throat and her eyes search for his outline in the dark illuminated by the blue lighting from the active nightlife just right outside of the window shining down into the room. She can see that he's lying on his stomach with his face away from her, his toned back contoured by the ominous lighting, though she can hear her heartbeat thrumming in her ears. Unable to suppress the rising panic clawing its way up her chest to her throat, she clenches her eyes