A/N: this is a long one so get comfortable x

***

"Her thighs are huge, man," I heard another guy say after that 'slut' comment. Who were these dudes talking about? My heart caught in my throat and I suddenly felt very small in the leather chair in a mumbling, chaotic theatre.

"I want that ass, too."

"Nah, it's pretty flat."

"Still want to tap that."

All of a sudden, I felt a poke on the side of my stomach and I jerked. Oh hell no. They were talking about me. I spun around, my heart racing in my ears.

Four guys sat behind me, looking down at me with lazy, sleazy smirks. The one sitting right behind me wearing a black cap and a sweatshirt winked at me, kicking the back of my chair again as if to make some sort of point.

"You're more beautiful in the front than the back." His idiotic friends guffawed.

"Say another word and I'll cut your fucking balls off," I snapped.

The guy's laughter cut short and he blinked. The other one sitting right next to him scoffed, looking me up and down. "You British, madam?" he mocked in a terrible attempt at my British accent.

"Big words for a lady!"

"You think you're a smart ass English woman? You think you're white, you fake Indian."

"I don't think I'm anything but what I am. I don't need to explain myself to incels like you." Stop aggravating them, Arshia. I could tell that I was, with the way their faces hardened. I needed to shut up. I turned back around. My chair was kicked on harder and more frequently than before, my back thudding.

"Fat bitch."

"Ugly ass."

I tried to ignore it but my hands were shaking as I stared down at the glaring phone in front of me.

"Wait until my husband comes back," I warned without reason.

"Which one? Looked like you had two."

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, slut? Unmarried and watching movies with random men?"

What in the actual hell! They were seriously assuming things about me now?

"They've both got more manpower than the four of you combined," I snapped.

The cap guy shot up from his seat and sneered at me. The people around us were starting to stare, the hushes falling over everyone's chatter.

Arshia, you fucked up! I swallowed, hard, and waited for the guy to come lunge at me when Romir, Pravin and Saanvi came back.

"What the hell's going on?" demanded Pravin.

"These guys are being pieces of shit," I said, trying not to show too much relief.

"So which husband is gonna save you?" one of the guys mocked.

"Your flat chested ass isn't worth it."

That was it. I got up and brought my hand back, connecting it with his cheek. The sound resounded in the air. He turned around at lightning speed and lunged at me but his friends were holding him back by the jacket.

Romir interjected by sticking out an arm to act as a barrier between them and me. The snacks were placed on the seat, discarded and forgotten.

His features were schooled to calm. "You should leave," he said, "before I decide to call the cops."

Romir sat down in his seat like he hadn't just been cursed at. He gestured for me to sit back down. Pravin, Saanvi and I exchanged glances. Preethi came back in that moment, only to pale.

"What's happening?" she whispered to me. I could only shake my head.

The guy that I slapped spat in my direction but it landed on Romir's shirt. He took a look at it and swiped at it with a tissue before shoving it back into his pocket, like nothing had happened.

What the heck? He was just going to pretend like none of this was happening? A part of me, the part that made my gut churn, told me that this was all my fault. Had I just sat there and taken it then this wouldn't be happening. Romir opened a packet of nuts only for it to be snatched out of his hands and chucked in my direction.

"Choke on that, bitch."

Romir's jaw clenched as I stumbled back a little. Preethi grasped my upper forearm, lips trembling. Why did she look like she was going to faint? "We have to get Romir out of here," she whispered. "We have to go or—"

Before she finished her sentence and could ease my sudden wariness, I heard a shattering scream; people were starting to run out. Turning, I saw that Romir had grabbed the arm of the guy that was reaching toward me and pulled him down. He fell onto the seat beside Romir with a loud crack. His back banged against the arm rest which broke off.

Romir, without any expression whatsoever, fluidly snapped the guy's arm and a sickening crack echoed in the air. I watched with my ears buzzing, my gasp getting lost in my throat.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

"Holy shit, Romir," hollered Pravin, voice shrill. He tried to pull him back but got punched by one of the guy's friends in the process.

"Pravin!" Saanvi rushed over to him. I was frozen to the ground, watching the scene before me unfold.

One of his other friends wrapped his arm around his neck in a choke hold. Romir placed his chin down, stepped to the side and then his other fist came swinging back, slamming against the dude's groin.

The moment he bent over to groan in pain, Romir swiftly elbowed his face, the crack of his nose causing him to fall back.

"We have to go," hissed Preethi.

"We can't leave Romir here alone," I protested.

"Us being here isn't going to help him!" She paused and gave me a look that told me she knew something. "Trust me when I say he'll handle it."

Romir got punched right in the nose himself, and he stumbled back. I shrieked. Saanvi and Pravin backed off, the latter limping.

Romir grunted, cursing under his breath. "Leave," he hissed, gesturing toward the door.

Saanvi looked at me. "Come with us!"

I shook my head, gawking at the scene before me. As they rushed out with some of the other people running past at the commotion, I watched as Romir grabbed one of the other guys and punched him repeatedly—his eyes were dark, face impassive.

Another one of the dude's mates came up from behind to attack Romir.

"Romir, watch out." I pulled away from Preethi. I didn't know what the hell I was doing or thinking, but the adrenaline coursing through me forced me to help.

Heck, I'd never lifted a finger in violence in my life.

I picked up the broken arm rest and smashed it against the guy's face but seeing how that only made him stumble back, I jumped on him. The force of my weight tipped the both of us back onto the floor. My head banged against his chest, throbbing.

I was lifted up into the air like a sack and moved aside gently. Romir nodded at me in thanks as the guy moaned, rolling around on the floor.

The guy with the cap came running at him from behind. "Behind you," I yelled.

Romir dodged to the side, grabbed the back of his neck and slammed his head onto the top of the seats. Like a boomerang, the force made cap guy spring back, sprawling into the seats behind him.

Romir took that opportunity of weakness and grabbed the nuts from before and shoved it into his mouth. He slammed a foot right down on his neck causing him to choke.

He was making gagging, coughing noises that made me flinch. Romir watched him with no regret, no guilt, no...remorse. All I could see was cold, sinister rage.

As if his impending death meant nothing.

As if he'd done this before.

"Romir," I began, my voice an unrecognisable, shrill mess. "Romir, stop! He's going to die!"

At my voice, at my words, Romir turned to look at me. Those hazel orbs were lifeless. Dead. Then he blinked. He lifted the guy and did the heimlich manoeuvre on him and easily enough, the nuts came flying out.

"H-Holy shit," the guy croaked, limping away from him. "Holy shit."

The other two guys, the one that had his arm broken and the guy with the broken nose, backed away, bloodied faces etched with fear.

I stared at the back of Romir's head, wondering what the hell just happened. He single-handedly fought all of them.

One of the dudes that got punched whimpered. "We were just joking around!"

The guy with the cap—who didn't have his cap anymore—shuddered. "Who the fuck are you?" A large amount of bloodied spittle dripped down his mouth and onto his stained shirt.

Yeah, who the fuck are you?! I screamed in my head.

I watched as the few remaining people around us gawked openly. The guards were trying to make their way through the crowd to see what had happened.

Preethi hurried over to Romir but I stood there, gaping like everyone else. As a handful of guards came rushing through the doors, Preethi gasped.

"Come on!" she hissed.

"Tell the cops who I am," he told them in a low voice, "and I'll hunt you down and finish what I started."

They all blanched. With that, he let Preethi drag him and I away from the scene and through the back.

That was a mess.

***

We hadn't said a word as we parked near the back of the public toilets; the parking lot was empty and there was nothing but the dim street lights keeping it alive.

Romir's jaw was bloodied and bruised, his knuckles mauled with cuts and grazes. The worst of them all was his nose that was vividly broken. I opened my shaky mouth to tell him this when he reached up and snapped it back into place with a loud pop.

I screamed. Who the fuck was this guy?! "What are you doing?"

"What do you think?" he winced, spitting out some blood onto the pavement.

"Are you crazy?" I began, the words flying from my mouth as I paced. He glanced up at me as if he was getting prepared for a boring lecture. "What if someone had called the cops on you? Who's to say they haven't? What if someone took a video and decided to—I don't know—post it on YouTube or Facebook or something?! Do you know what you just did?"

"Are you done?" he asked.

"No, I'm not done. I—I can't believe—"

"This will blow over. We'll be going to England soon. Even if something does happen, by the time they figure out who I am, no one will be able to do anything."

That was a good point. We'd be in England and those guys, since they were pretty scared of the threats, would unlikely press charges. And by the time they got over the paranoia and fear and decided to go through with it, we'd be long gone.

Or at least that's what I hoped.

Preethi was pale but she wasn't nearly as lost as I was. I was still worried. I paced in front of him again as he leaned against the bike, like this was just another day. His navy shirt was dirty and bloodied.

Whose blood, I didn't even want to know.

"How did you know?" I asked Preethi.

"I saw those guys looking at you and laughing the moment we walked in. I was worried if Romir heard or saw it he'd do what he did."

Wait what? Is that why she kept looking at me? "I—okay. But that's not what I was asking." She and Romir exchanged a glance. "You said at the start that we should take him away and then that he could handle this on his own."

Preethi licked her lips. "I've been friends with him since college. He was involved in a lot of fights. Most of them were pretty violent."

My blood froze within my veins. Romir? Violent?! He used to do this on the daily once upon a time? No wonder Preethi was so afraid.

She looked like she was going to say more but the look on Romir's face made her tighten her lips.

"We should get you to a hospital," she said instead, trying to change the tense atmosphere. I needed to distract myself from my own shaking hands.

Because who the hell was this guy?

"I'm fine."

"You are not fine!" I spluttered. "Look at you! You're—you're a mess!"

"I agree," said Preethi. "They should check those bruises out. And your nose. Your nose looks..." She swallowed thickly, glancing at it. It was red and already swollen. "...bad."

"Jose uncle will worry if you go home like this," I added.

Romir's expression changed, realisation flashing through his face. "Fuck," I heard him mumble under his breath. "All right. Let's go."

"Do you want me to come with?" asked Preethi.

Romir gestured toward me. "I have company." She squeezed his arm and hesitated before nodding at me. Then she turned and headed toward her car.

I climbed onto the back of the bike and we were off. Romir never complained or winced about his injuries, not once. I couldn't imagine how much it hurt having that helmet kept snug on his bruised face.

When we went into the hospital, after a long wait period and a whole heap of questions to answer that may have come off as a little suspicious, we were led into a public room.

There were dark blue single beds lined up on either end; some had bandages around their head and others their legs, both young and old. Some had curtains pulled over.

A nurse had him sit on the bed at the very front, attaching an IV fluid bag and then came back twenty minutes later. In her hand was a tray full of some medications and bandages. She first stuck a needle in the inner part of his elbow and did some tests before she went any further with the cleaning.

I sat there on the edge of the bed, fumbling with my fingers as I watched her clean the cuts, place some sort of saline water on a cotton pad and swipe at the dried blood.

There was an open cut still trickling near his brow so she used a gauze to add pressure and to stop the bleeding before applying some sort of ointment.

Romir flinched but didn't complain. The doctor came in later and touched his nose. The only sign that he was in pain was from the crinkle between his brows.

"You may need some tests done to see if there's anything broken inside," he said.

"No," he refused. "Nothing's broken."

"He's lying," I said, ignoring the sharp glower aimed at me. "He broke it but he put it back into place."

The doctor hummed and felt the sides of his nose and the nostrils again before nodding. "It seems to be back in place, yes, but there's a lot of swelling and bruising. I can't be sure. The test will be quick."

I shot a 'you better say yes' look at Romir . He didn't say anything for a long time before he rolled his eyes heavenward and tipped his head back. "All right," he deadpanned.

What felt like an hour or two later—the waits here were incredibly annoying—he had been called in for a test. An hour or two after that, the doctor came back.

"Good news. No broken bones. Just a lot of swelling and bruising. I'll be prescribing you some antibiotics for it to subside and painkillers for you to take for at least a week. For right now, my nurse will look after your other wounds."

"Thank you doctor," I said. He inclined his head and walked away.

The nurse applied some white paste onto his nose and then brought a small ice pack for him to press against it.

As I watched him, guilt tore at my insides. "I'm sorry," came the words out of my lips before I could stop them. Romir glanced up at me through his lashes, attention torn away from his hand that was being bandaged. "This whole thing was my fault. If I had just shut up then maybe you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"That would have been the wise choice, but so far I haven't known you to be wise."

I let out a breathy chuckle before regaining composure. "I'm being serious."

After a long pause he said, "That was the right thing to do. You stood up for yourself and for me. Thank you."

Did he mean when I tried to help him? My lips parted. This man...he didn't blame me? I was so sure he would have. "Oh. You're—you're welcome."

I couldn't help but watch him and the way he subtly nodded toward the nurse; the way his hips moved in a lazy gait as we walked downstairs to pay for the medications. The way he gestured for me to get onto the bike. Nothing in his demeanour suggested that he despised me or blamed me.

Had he changed or had I stopped looking at him through a narrow lens? After tonight I wasn't exactly sure who this guy was. I knew nothing about him. I had expected him to maybe tell them to calm down and then force me to leave or something but never a fight.

"Who are you?" I blurted as we were steps away from his apartment building. His back stiffened but we continued walking. It wasn't until we were at the elevators that he said anything.

He avoided eye contact with me, scrutinising the bandages on his hand. "A normal guy."

"No, you're not." I paused. "Was what Preethi said the truth? Or is there more to it than that?"

And it wasn't until he turned to me that I confirmed it. Romir wasn't the ordinary, quiet man he wanted me to believe he was.

He was something else entirely.

He was dangerous.