"Come on, let's get out of here—" Cody rasped, and took Sky's hand, pulling her with him as he made his way through the crowd, out of the kitchen.

Sky followed.

Her breathing was coming in short, shallow exhales. She barely realized the tears that kept flowing down her face. There was blood on Cody's face, on his hands, his blood, and Hawk's blood, and Sky smelled the heavy, rich scent, could almost taste it on her tongue, the blood that was on her hands.

I caused this—

It's my fault they fought–!

She couldn't breathe, a horrible weight was crushing her chest. Cody led her through the crowd, up the stairs, just to get away from the people, from the music, from the party that was still going on, and from Hawk - away from Hawk, whom they had left on the floor, bleeding, lying in the middle of beer and shattered glass.

Sky's heart hurt.

Yes, it had been Hawk who had started the fight, he had attacked Cody who had done nothing wrong, but still—

It hurt to see Hawk getting beaten up like that. Sky hadn't expected the sharp, brutal violence of Cody's response. She hadn't known he could fight at all.

It was because of me. He did it to defend me.

And then they were in a quiet, dark room and Cody slammed the door behind them, collapsed against it, and let out a series of sharp, strained exhales, as if he was trying to breathe the fight out of him, the shock, the adrenaline. He kept clenching and unclenching his bloodied fists, and Sky noticed he was trembling. There was blood on his face, on his lips, on those soft, beautiful lips.

Sky's legs almost gave in as she leaned her back on the wall. The shock of what had happened was only now hitting her full force - first seeing Hawk with Maya, then the fight—

She started sobbing uncontrollably, ragged breaths breaking through her aching chest. She had been so happy, she'd been having so much fun, and now—

Everything was ruined!

"Shit—" Cody cursed, and then he was standing in front of her, gently pulling her hands off her face so that he could see her. "Sky, are you– are you hurt?"

She managed to shake her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I– I didn't mean for you to get hurt— I'm sorry, I'm so sorry—"

"It's okay—" Cody said, taking her face into his hands. "Look at me, Sky. I'm fine. You don't have to be sorry."

"But you—" she sobbed. "You're bleeding—"

With a frown, he brought a hand to wipe the cut on his lip, as if he'd already forgotten about it. "This? Hey, it's nothing. It really is. I've had worse."

"You— you sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine," he assured her, his voice soft and gentle when he brought his hands back to her cheeks, to brush away her tears. "And Hawk is fine too. He's going to be okay. No one is hurt."

Sky tried to get her breathing under control, but it was impossible. She was still sobbing, her body was trembling, as if even here in this quiet, dark room, there was a wind blowing through her, chilling her bones.

"I— I don't care if he's hurt. He— he fucked Maya Riley in the bathroom," The tears were making her voice wet and thick, and saying those words out loud made the pain in her chest a thousand times worse. "Screw him! I— I don't wanna talk about him, I don't wanna even think about him—"

"Okay, okay—" Cody's hands fell from her cheeks to her shoulders and held her steady as if he was trying to keep her from falling apart. "It's okay. It's okay. We don't have to talk about him. Just breathe. Okay? Breathe with me."

Cody's eyes were soft and kind, he held her stare and breathed slowly, in and out, just breathing, and Sky followed, focusing on his rhythm, forcing the air to flow into her aching lungs, and out again, in a slow, controlled pace - but it wasn't helping. Her heart was still breaking, the pain was still gripping her chest with iron claws and she needed more, she needed something that would make this all go away, so she wouldn't have to think about anything at all.

"I need something—" she sobbed. "Please. Please, do you have anything—?"

Cody frowned and shook his head. "Sky that's not the best idea—"

"I— I still had some pills. But I lost my stupid cape—" Sky's voice was breaking, she could barely get the words out. "I– I don't know where I left it. They were in the pocket. Cody— please—"

Maybe it was her tears, maybe it was the pure, raw desperation in her voice that got to him, but Cody stopped objecting. He gave a sharp nod, the line of his jaw turned hard as he let his hands drop from her shoulders to go through the pockets of his worn leather jacket.

"You sure?" he asked, finding a small minigrip bag with tiny, white tablets. He held it in his long fingers, waiting for Sky's say-so.

"Please," Sky breathed. "I need it."

His beautiful face was all dark shadows when he opened the small bag and took one pill, and Sky couldn't help but think that he was like made for these moments, these dark, desperate midnight hours when everything was black and white and a thousand shades of gray, that maybe this boy only really existed at night, and everything else was just a fantasy, that maybe only on these moments she got to see the real Cody.

The boy who would fight for her, who would kiss her when she asked him to do so, the boy who would save her when she was drowning in her despair, save her with that tiny, little miracle on his fingers, the sleep-bringer that would take away all the pain in her heart.

Sky didn't ask what it was, and Cody didn't say. He simply brought the pill to Sky's lips, a silent question in his dark eyes, and she opened her mouth, letting him place the pill onto her tongue.

It didn't matter that she had no water - she was used to taking pills like this already. But even after she had closed her mouth, Cody's fingers lingered on her lips, then fell to her neck, stayed there, hot fingertips trailing the neckline of her shirt, and his eyes turned down to follow the trail of those fingers. Sky saw how he swallowed, the line of his jaw turned even sharper—

— and then he pulled that hand away and leaned it on the wall next to Sky's head.

"I'll pay you tomorrow," Sky breathed. "I promise."

"Don't worry about it," Cody shook that off, bringing his glance back to her face, but he stayed close to her, standing almost between her legs as she leaned her back on the wall. He wasn't tall for a guy, but he was taller than she was, and in this dark room his beautiful face was all sharp angles and dark shadows, his eyes weren't hazel anymore, but black. He had lost the stetson during the fight, and now in his black, long-sleeved T-shirt and the long leather jacket, he reminded her of Neo from the Matrix, another beautiful creature of the night, and it was impossible not to look at him, not to want to have him close.

"I didn't know you could fight like that," Sky sighed silently. This drug was clearly working faster than the ones she'd had before. She was already feeling calmer, the cold grip around her lungs was easing and she could breathe again.

Cody let out a laugh, but it was one of those sad, bitter laughs without any joy.

"Sky, look at me," he said, and she didn't know if he meant the fact that he was short, or the androgyne, almost girly touch of his features, but she understood when he said: "If I didn't know how to fight, I'd have my head down the toilet every single day."

"What was that style?"

It hadn't been karate, she knew that much. The way Cody moved when he fought was smooth, it was a constant motion, it almost reminded Sky of Capoeira, but it wasn't that either. The force behind his kicks had come from his hips, his abs, his whole body had been a weapon, his elbows and knees too, and the strikes had been so surprising that they had caught Hawk completely off guard.

"Mostly Muay Thai," Cody shrugged. "Some kickboxing, some... stuff that I just... picked up somewhere."

Right. With a painful twist of her heart, Sky remembered the broken bottle.

The way Cody had brought it to Hawk's neck, had really freaked her out, even if that moment had barely lasted two seconds. She had seen the fear in Hawk's eyes, had noticed how he'd gone completely still under Cody, as if he'd been frozen on the spot. But Sky also remembered the trembling of Cody's hand when he had thrown the bottle away, the way his cheeks had lost all the color when he had realized what he'd been about to do.

"You could have killed him."

Her words were soft and silent, as motionless as the darkness that surrounded them.

Cody looked down and a shadow fell over his face.

"That was... too much. I'm sorry."

"He started it—" Sky stopped talking mid-sentence. The memory of Hawk aggressively demanding that she spoke with him while he still smelled like Maya's cheap perfume and sex, was so painful she didn't want to call it back. She didn't want to know what he had tried to tell her, what lies, what painful insults he had prepared for her this time when she was already falling apart.

"He had it coming." was all she could say about it. "But I don't wanna talk about him anymore."

That was the truth. She didn't want to talk about Hawk, she didn't even want to think about him. She wanted to forget him, forget the pain he had caused her, forget how he managed to break her heart time after time after time, even when Sky was already sure that there was nothing left to be broken.

"Okay," Cody said softly. "You want to go home?"

"No."

She leaned the back of her head on the wall and breathed in, just breathed for a while, letting the calmness of the opiate ease her nerves, her heart. The constant bass beat resonated to her body through the wall from downstairs, but it wasn't loud in here, just background noise. The wall was cold against her, but her cheeks were hot, the world was black and white and full of soft shadows.

She was drunk, but not too drunk. She was high, but not too high. Her breathing had calmed down, the excruciating pain and the panic were dulled into an ache she was already used to carrying in her chest so that now she barely noticed it.

Cody's scent was an intoxicating mix of his worn leather jacket, the spicy aftershave, and a hint of tobacco. She breathed it in and brought a hand to his cheek, to wipe away a blood stain, but it had already dried on his skin. Their eyes met, and there was something in the way he was looking at her, something beautiful, something that Sky had never seen there before. And when he leaned closer, he was slow and careful. He leaned his hands on the wall on both sides of Sky, and the way he brought his lips closer to hers was a silent question. He stopped there, waiting for her to tell him no, to push him away, but her veins were full of his scent, and her heart was beating fast in her chest, making the blood rush through her body, turning everything in her hot and flushed.

"You can kiss me if you want to."

Her words were nothing but a soft sigh. His black eyes searched her face, hesitating. A second was as long as a lifetime.

"Do you want it?"

"Yes," she breathed because it was true. "Yes, I want it—"

Cody let out a silent groan, and then his lips were on hers, hot and hungry and soft and needy, and Sky whined into the kiss when he pressed her against the wall.

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