Nothing.

It's only been a few days since Kristian forced Hunter and her family to move away from her father. It has only been one day since her mother felt really guilty and secretly escaped at night, while Hunter was sleeping. Her mother took Gabe, her brother, with her, and they went back to her father's house. Her father was not happy. Not happy at all. In a drunken rage, Edward McCoy, her father, killed her family. Edward McCoy was taken to jail for a life sentence, leaving Hunter with a fortune and a broken heart.

At this point, Hunter was standing, crying at the grave of her brother and mother.

"This is all my fault," she muttered to herself, her voice cracking slightly, "I should've turned down Kristian's offer. I-I should have d-done something! You-you shouldn't have died, Gabe, mum. Pl-please come back."

She fell to her knees and gave a dry sob. "I'm sorry," she murmured, "It's all my fault..."

She looked at the gravestones of her family. It suddenly occurred to her that she had absolutely no one. No family, no one to care for, no guardian, no one.

"Come back," she urged, her voice barely above a cracked whisper, "please... s-say something."

She put her head in her hands and blinked back tears rapidly.

They said nothing.

Blaze loved coming to the graveyard. He loved being a living soul amongst the dead, though he was mostly convinced he wasn't really living at all. His jeans clad legs walked slow and steady, as though he had all the time in the world. For once, he had not carried his weapons with him, due to which he felt lighter and a little more free.

He pulled at his sleeves, nearly ripping them apart and not even aware of doing so. The Hufflepuff paused for a minute, nearly ready to collapse, but somehow stayed his balance. With some more effort, he continued along his way and after what seemed like ages, saw someone familiar.

It was Hunter McCoy.

Just seeing her from a distance made memories rush back and he hastily pushed them away far to the back of his mind. His first thought was to turn around and walk away, but his feet moved him forward of their own accord. He caught a bit of the girl's mumbling, and he was shocked.

Shocked that her family was dead.

Something pulled at Blaze's heart and he could almost feel it being twisted. He just stood next to her, unable to say anything and if she wanted to hit him, he wouldn't care.

After all, it seemed to be his fault they were dead.

Footsteps were heard softly treading on the ground, but Hunter paid them no mind. She figured it was just another person, mourning over the loss of their loved one. She lifted her cloak up, just in case the person decided to do anything, and took a deep breath to calm herself down.

She glanced at the person, and nearly lost her breath completely. Blaze Kristian. What were the odds? She turned back to face the graves. She frowned when she heard the sound of her brother's voice, echoing in the distance, even though she was sure she imagined it.

"Get over it. We're dead, sure, but we're happy." Even as a ten year old, Gabriel McCoy had no problem in being blunt and honest completely. She would have expected him to say such thing. A small smile graced her face.

She turned to Kristian. "Hey, fancy seeing you here," she kept her eyes trained on the ground, so he wouldn't see her eyes being red and bloodshot from crying. She let out a dry chuckle, "How likely would it be to see you here? The day I'm here of all days?"

She didn't accuse him of anything. "Thanks for getting me a safe place to live, but I must be getting back to my house now. My- my father's gone, for good now, and I've been left a fortune from my mother's grandparents, from-from their will."

Then she couldn't hold the pain anymore, and a single tear fell into her hand.

"As crazy as it sounds, I sort of like to come here," the Hufflepuff admitted, still being frozen to his spot. "I would not have come if I had known, because I happen to prefer to be by myself at this place. Being around another living soul kind of ruins the impact."

He did not know how to feel at the brunette's narration. Her father was where he belonged, but at the cost of the rest of her family. He wondered what it was like to feel sad about losing a loved one. Probably really painful, he figured. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't felt slight sadness about his parents turning out the way they did. But now, it was all just hate.

"I'm glad your father won't be causing trouble anymore," he said curtly, voice emotionless as ever. Blaze could not care for Hunter, he just could not. He was obviously nothing but trouble for her and for everyone. Glancing at her, he knew she was still crying.

"I can go away if you want to be alone," his voice barely a murmur. The demonic side of him was rejoicing that her family was gone for good, now she did not have to worry about anyone. He didn't have a good side, not a proper one at least.

His pathway is dark. Just like it was already chosen for him.

She shrugged at his words, "I can leave if you want, I don't really like to come here, but I just thought to bid them farewell, one last time..." She trailed off quietly, refraining from sighing heavily.

It was times like these when she wished that she could do Legilimency, even if it was just for a little while. She wondered what Kristian was thinking. Did he think her weak for feeling sad because her family died? Did he sympathise? She doubted it though. Her heart hardened at that moment, and that little bit of warmth in her heart... was gone. No one to care for, well, why bother to have a heart?

"I am too," she agreed, her voice taking on the same emotion as him: none at all. Whatever being inside of her betrayed her, and that thing inside her that kept her alive couldn't help but break just a little bit at the way he spoke.

"You don't have to go anywhere," she said softly, standing up, realizing that she had been sitting down for over two hours, just mourning in selt pity. She wobbled for a moment to get used to walking again. "I've been here too long anyway..." She shrugged, "I guess I should just accept the fact they're gone, and that I should just get over it."

"Damn straight!" Her brother's voice sounded again. She paused for a second, looking around. She was just hearing things...

"No stay, you have a valid reason to come here. Unlike me who's seriously psychotic if since I like being with dead strangers," he chuckled humourlessly. "Can they even hear you? Do they even know you're here right now?" He didn't believe in heaven and hell and all that shit. It was no good.

Blaze's hand instantly reached out to steady the brunette, their gazes locked but let go just as quickly and looked away. "Two hours is not enough to let go of something like this," he stated, his voice taking on a hard edge. "There is no use pretending to be strong for such things, you need to be weak sometimes."

Although for him, it was easier said than done.

"What's wrong?" The Hufflepuff questioned with a raised eyebrow, noticing Hunter's searching movements. He needed-no, wanted to get out of here, away from her before he did something rash like hug her or comfort her. He wanted to do it, but his frozen heart was preventing him from doing so.

"Lucky that your family is dead, you can now worry about yourself." The words were out before he could stop them, but he knew it would have the desired effect perhaps.

Maybe now, she would hate him even more.

She stayed silent throughout his explanation, but when he asked her the question, she froze. "H-hear me? Of course not!" She scoffed, but they both knew that she was lying. Maybe she was going mad, maybe it was just shock. Whatever it was, it scared her. But just a little bit.

Their gazes locked for a moment when he reached out to steady her but then he looked away and let go. "I don't want to be weak," she argued, "They want me to be strong! They want me to get the fuck over the fact that they're gone and just carry on in life!"

"Well said, sis." There it was again. That... voice. The voice of her brother. She looked around again. "You're mad, Hunter. You can only hear me, and not see me."

She was going mad. That was it. "You're not going mad, I really am there! But only you can see me!"

"I just... I thought I heard..." She shook her head quickly. Her voice turned quiet, "I thought I heard my brother. I think I'm finally going mad."

Her voice cracked, and another stray tear fell to the soil on the ground, and then they were spilling out of her eyes, one by one. She tried lifting her arms up to wipe them off, but couldn't. Her arms felt really heavy and she felt as though she was about to collapse. Her legs went weak for a moment and she fell.

"Damn straight! I like this guy, Blaze Krisitan!" Her brother's voice said again, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

She found herself nodding subconsciously. "I think you're right. My brother wants it, anyway."

His eyes narrowed at the Ravenclaw's stuttered response, but decided to let it go. If she indeed was hearing voices, that was her problem, not is. Maybe it was the depression and shock hitting on her head, he thought before he mentally shrugged.

"Well McCoy, sometimes we have to be weak in order to grow strong!" Blaze snapped at her, running his hands through his hair. "And I told you, a few hours is not enough. You need more time to accept it; you did love them a lot after all, didn't you?"

He just shook his head at Hunter and scoffed with a light teasing tone, "I've always thought you were mad. Good to know that it's a recent revelation."

Blaze just stared as the brunette shed tears once more and his first instinct was to walk away, and leave her at peace. But he couldn't. He growled angrily at himself for his clear incapability, and once again tugged on his already ripped sleeves. Unable to take it any more, he gave into the temptation and pulled her to him.

The Hufflepuff's arms wrapped around her shoulders tightly and he buried his face in her hair. He wanted to whisper soothing words, but didn't know what to say. His grip on her tightened as though she would disappear any minute and ran one of his hands up and down her back.

"I'm done being weak!" She nearly yelled back, "I don't want to be weak anymore! I've been weak too long!" Her voice went quiet again. "I did love them. I-I still do, actually. I-I just can't stay weak. It's not what they want."

"STOP BEING WEAK THEN!" Her brother boomed, "Geez, we're just dead! We're not... zombies or anything."

Oh yeah, just dead, she inwardly snorted to herself.

She rolled her eyes at him, but her face betrayed her will by allowing small smile to sprout on her face. "Being sane is overrated anyway. And who doesn't want their d-d-dead little brother in their mind anyway?" She added sarcastically. Her voice slipped at the word 'dead', and the rest of her sentence seemed cracked compared to her usual words and she could practically see her brother roll her eyes at her. But she couldn't help it.

Stupid weakness, she thought bitterly.

She heard the angry growl escaping from Kristian's lips but couldn't look up for a reason unbeknownist to her. But she was surprised - no, shocked - that he pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. A moment later, after she recovered from momentary shock, she lifted her arms and wrapped them around his waist. She suppressed a shiver when he buried his face in her hair and a hand ran across her back. She rested her head on the crook of his neck, and murmured a hoarse, "Thank you."

"NO MUSHINESS IN A GRAVEYARD! EW, THAT'S WRONG!" Her brother yelled, but she ignored him for once.

"How is it weak that you were taking care of your family all by yourself? How is it weak that you were enduring your father's abuses? And how the fuck is it weak that you risked your life every time you went near the bastard?" Blaze retorted, the questions spilling out of his lips. "You are misjudging yourself so much at the moment it's making me sick."

He raised his eyebrow once more at Hunter, "I do not think I would want a dead person whispering things to me. But if it's okay with you, then I have no right to say anything." Was it really normal to feel like that, he wondered. He could not remember the last time he was depressed or sad, those feelings were so foreign to him. All he felt was a sort of death inside him, a broken soul that needed desperate fixing.

"You're welcome," Blaze whispered into her hair, his whole being feeling like on fire at the intense closure. Her lips against his skin was the softest of touches he had ever felt and he was beginning to like it.

And that thing of likeness was also beginning to terrify him.

Finally loosening his hold on her, the Hufflepuff didn't pull away completely and instead rested his forehead on hers. His hands reached to cup her cheeks and he exhaled deeply. "No more tears," he demanded, his voice a husky murmur.

"I'm weak because I didn't stand up to my father beforehand! I'm weak because I wasn't able to stop my father from abusing my mother, from taking a lot of money from us! I'm weak because... because..." she stopped, and sounding much like a little girl, fiddling with her thimbs, she said, "I can't be weak. I've learned to not be weak since I was six. I-I-I can't just... s-s-stop."

"Well, I just... him talking to me makes me feel as though he's still alive, I guess," she said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest. She subconsiously thought about what Kristian was thinking once again. She couldn't help it, because he always seemed invincible, like nothing could hurt him, like the emotions died in him.

It suddenly occurred to her that the emotions probably did die when his parents tried to kill him.

She didn't say anything to him at his words, but she tightened her hold on him and pressed herself against him, enjoying that weird sensation that came with the closeness they had. She didn't know what it was, but she had the absurd thought that she, Hunter McCoy, fancied Blaze Kristian.

Absurd.

A small smile set on her face when he rested his forehead on hers. She ignored her brother, who seemed to be making faces and yelling words about how 'disgusting' their 'public display' was. Then he huffed something about not being appreciated and his voice wasn't heard anymore.

Blaze- no, Kristian's husky voice soothed her and his hands on her cheeks made her have to suppress a blush rising to her cheeks. She nodded slowly, and reached up to wipe one remaining tear.

Her? Fancying him? Absurd.

"There is no way you could have done all that by yourself!" Blaze shouted back in frustration. "You did so much on your own already, how dare you think of yourself as weak?" He truly did not believe how she could not understand the importance of all that she had done to defend her family. "Sometimes you need help, that is all. But for you to have survived this long on your own shows just how strong you are."

He shrugged his shoulders, "I wish I knew what that was like, but I don't." The brown eyed boy had already built walls around himself ever since the fateful day with his parents. And ever since then, he had vowed to himself never to show any sympathy or care towards another living soul. After all, why be fair to the world when it wasn't ready to show him any kindness? That would explain the hardness of his heart, and he would do all he could to deny anything else.

Blaze was secretly relieved and annoyed at the same time that she did not pull away. On one hand, he rather enjoyed this foreign feeling of closure. It was too alien, but it felt like the most familiar thing. His hands' hold tightened on her cheeks, and as much as he wanted to say the right words, nothing would come out.

He just could not bring himself to ruin this moment by saying total fucked up words.

"Nice smile McCoy," he murmured with a smirk, his tone light than it ever had been in a while, his gaze fixed solely on Hunter's. His body did not seem to be obeying his mind, but he was not complaining. This moment right here was too previous to be let go off, and he wouldn't mind staying here however long.

He kissed her cheek gently, using his thumb to wipe away the remaining tears, pulling her closer to him than ever without even realizing it. He did not care as long as she did not let go.

She shook her head slowly, "I had help! I had... the neighbors, to get my family to a safe place. I also had... my mother, who always had the money so we can get food..." She couldn't say anymore, so she looked down and stopped, "I can't... I never got help, and survival was never an option. I couldn't... couldn't just take it, I couldn't step down... That's not strength, that's stupidity," She paused for a moment, before quietlyl muttering, mostly to herself, "I've no idea why the Sorting Hat put me in Ravenclaw, anyway..."

She snorted, "You want to know what I feel, when I need hallucinations to make me feel as though my brother's not dead? That a loved one's not dead? Try sawing your arm off, now imagine that pain on your heart. You don't want that. Hell, I don't want that."

"I'm not a hallucination you doofus!" Her brother's voice yelled, "I'm actually here, I just want to drive you mad with my voice!"

She refrained from showing any emotions and simply ignored her brother... again.

"Nice smirk Kristian," She retorted, her smile never fading. Her voice was soft, gentle, very unlike what her usual voice was. She suddenly suppressed the urge to place her smile on her smirk, or in other words, kiss him. She had no idea why she would though, especially at this time, as they were in a graveyard. It wasn't as though she was attracted to him.

You fancy him, a voice chanted in her mind, but it wasn't her brother. No, it was... her. But that was insane! That was... no. Hunter McCoy? The person who only ever cared for her mother and brother? Hell must have frozen over...

He pressed his lips to her cheek, and it seemed as though fire exploded on her cheek, but somehow... she liked it. She loved the closure between them and pressed her face to his shoulder once more. Subconsciously, her lips rested on the crook of his neck.

"So what if you had help? That doesn't change the fact that it was your initiation and determination that kept them safe for so long," Blaze sighed, not wanting to yell at her anymore. What was the point of wasting his breath? "You were not stupid for defending your family," he told quietly in a tone that dared her to say otherwise. "You at least had that choice, I didn't. And you picked the right one."

He looked at Hunter and shrugged his shoulders. "I have not felt any sort of pain in a while. Even when people hit me or hurt me, I feel nothing. It's as if I'm dead on the inside. Believe me, I've tried hurting myself to feel something...but no such luck."

The Hufflepuff simply shook his head at her, his forehead still resting on hers. Even now, he was feeling nothing except for the adrenaline slightly pumping. It was the most human emotion he had felt in years and he was yearning for more.

Could he really be falling for someone for real?

Blaze closed his eyes and shuddered a little at the feel of the brunette's lips and brought back repressed memories. "There's nothing, Hunter," he swallowed thickly, his voice like glass, grip on yer cheeks still tight. "This is not me, I can't care for you," the brown eyed boy breathed.

"I am incapable of that completely."

She looked down, ashamed that she dared think herself as weak. Somewhere in the back of her mind, her father was yelling at her, yelling that she was too weak to fight back, and she just stood down and took it, she took the abuse. She couldn't say anything back to Blaze - no, Kristian - because everything he said was right. Hunter was strong, even if her father thought she wasn't.

She frowned at his words, "Self harming sucks. It never helps, no matter how much you want it to." She raised her arms behind her back subtly so he wouldn't see the deep scars she caused herself. It seemed as though she couldn't feel them at all.

She frowned, almost reading his mind, but instead just wondering what he was thinking... yet again. She's been doing that way too much lately. Was he feeling any human emotion right now? Was he mourning the fact that he can't feel human emotions? Was he... did he... feel anything else than luct towards her? She doubted it.

"I-I know," She replied quickly, lifting her head off his shoulder to look at him. She couldn't help but feel as though glass was breaking in the back of her mind. She loosened her hold on him, and eventually let go, even though her body was screaming at her not to. "I know you don't care for me. I don't either."

Her gaze on him hardened ever so slightly, it was barely noticeable. "I'm sorry to hear that," her voice took on a slight sarcastic edge.

But she didn't know why. Was it because... she fancied him? There it was again. Her weird, weird mind. Making her believe that she might actually fancy the bloke. But this was Blaze Kristian, the man with no emotions.

She had emotions, unfortunately. And she knew this emotion...

She fancied Blaze Kristian and she was in for trouble for sure.

"I just wanted to feel something McCoy, anything other than this nothingness," the Hufflepuff shrugged his shoulders as though it was a common thing. "I stopped doing it after a while, seeing as it was no good. I have to admit, the temptations were always there, but I mostly resisted."

Blaze wanted to say otherwise. He wanted to say he did care, but the words would not come out. Maybe because he did not want to get her hopes up with a lie. Yes, he was a heartless bastard but that was slowly fading away around Hunter. But why would she care for him? No one cares about him.

"I'm not sorry to hear that," he stated, his gaze boring into hers. "In fact, I'd be surprised if you did want anything to do with me. Let's face it, we would be quite disastrous if we ended up together."

He wasn't sure if he liked her. Maybe he did. But not for long. He needed to forget whatever 'feelings' he had and move on. It was a completely silly thing.

It was just a moment of weakness and that's it.