"V!" I call excitedly as I finally find him, breathing roughly with a lean wooden staff clutched tightly in his pale hands. "Guess what I got on my test!"

He draws a sleeve across his forehead, tearing his gaze away from the tattered sandbag that's spilling gold out in front of him.

"Last place?" He guesses, and I shoot him an annoyed look as I hold up the sheet of paper reading my rank.

"I got fifth!" I say happily as I start flapping the piece of paper in front of his face, ignoring his squeezed lips when I accidentally hit him with it. "Fifth place!"

"Out of six people?"

"Seriously!" I exclaim with an annoyed look on my face, staring at his anticipating expression for a long second before sighing. "Fine. It was out of six people."

He bursts out laughing.

I'm about to smack him when the laughter suddenly dissipates from his face, so quickly I raise an eyebrow in surprise. Then my eyes are wide in shock as he pushes me back towards the corner.

And in that split second, I hear a series of explosive sound of wood striking flesh and harsh groans.

I stare shockingly at the six people rolling on the ground, their faces contorted with pain. Each of them hold some kind of weapon— and each of them are clutching their necks.

The six people are the Chosen.

"Dammit, V." One of them curses, and I see the angry red mark from where the wood struck the skin. "Dammit."

V looks emptily at the knives and blades glistening between their fingers, and his face twists with anger. Even with the idiot that I am, I know that they were trying to use that on V.

"I told you to leave me alone."

V's eyes freeze over with ice as he approaches the one that had cursed, his voice completely flat and emotionless. The wooden staff glows a dull brown, freckled with specks of blood.

"I told you to leave me alone."

And then he slams the end of the stick into the Chosen's hand, and I can hear the sound of bone crushing even through the terrible screaming that fills the room.

"V!"

My voice is urgent, gets even more frightened when a girl with her hair streaked gold screams at him with her eyes open wide.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Then she lunges at him, at a speed so fast I barely see her. But even before I can think a single thought, V has his fingers wrapped around her neck.

"I told you to leave me be." He repeats, tilting his head to the side and watching the knife slip from her fingers with stone cold eyes. "What have I ever done to you? What did I do?!"

"You should've stayed in your place." She hisses back, and I can feel the look in V's eyes turn from distant to stormy turbulent. "Orphans don't deserve to be part of the Chosen."

He stares at her with a look that could kill before throwing her carelessly over his shoulder, seeming like he could care less where she ended up at.

Then I flinch as clammy hands wrap around my arm, and V breaks his gaze from her the moment I feel something icy cold at the soft skin of my neck.

"I guess it's just right." A male voice says inches next to my head, and I my eyes flicker down to the knife he's holding right up against me. "Orphans belong with orphans."

"Gosh, what's up with you and orphans?" I hiss as I throw back my elbow, even though I miss like an idiot. "Did one shove a stick up your nose or something?"

"You—"

Then the sensation of having a knife pressed against my skin disappears as V twists and pins the boy's body down to the ground. Without a single change in his expression, he pulls back his arm into an impossible degree.

"Wait! V—"

Snap.

I stare blankly at him, shocked by the flat look he keeps in his eyes the entire time the boy writhes and shrieks underneath his hold.

"I'm just doing exactly what you would've done to her." He says quietly into the boy's ear, who probably didn't hear anything because he was yelling so loudly.

Who is this?

"V!" I yell, genuinely believing he would've broken someone else if I'd said that a second later. "You need to stop right now!"

And then to my astonishment, he actually stops. He just freezes all of a sudden, still pressing down on the sobbing boy with a blank expression on his face as he stares at me.

Somehow, he seems shocked as well.

"I—" He looks over at the collapsed Chosens, each of them either crying or avoiding his gaze in terror. "I just— wait. Eleven."

"Eleven?"

I swallow. His expression is the closest I've ever seen it come to crying— his bottom lip trembling, eyes curved down in a vulnerability that I've never seen him show before.

His fingers loosen, and the boy crumples with a pained groan.

"Let's go somewhere else." I suggest, glancing back at the other Chosens whimpering on the floor. They could take care of themselves— no question about that.

"...."

I'm partly surprised he accepts so easily, shifting off of the wide-eyed boy and shoving his hands deep inside the pockets of his dark jacket as he comes closer.

When I look at him to give him a soft smile, I see the Chosen sluggishly get to his feet behind him. His eyes are filled with hate as he glares daggers at V's back, one hand supporting his arm.

I don't move, knowing fully well that V was already aware of him. He hadn't exactly been quiet— and even if he had, I didn't think he would've ever have gotten V not to know.

So my mentality takes a huge strike when the Chosen gets his hand wrapped around V's collar and lands a blow on the side of his face.

A choked breath escapes his lips as the red-faced boy draws his fist back again, the look in his eyes matching V's from before.

What the heck?

And even worse, terror begins to cloud my mind as the other Chosens begin to move— seeing that just now. I instinctively tug my knife free from my waist, my hands shaking as I tighten my grip on it.

V.

For some reason, he wasn't defending himself. At all. He wasn't even moving.

He coughs when the boy slams his fist into his chest, and I can see red between his lips. Alarm clouds my mind when I glimpse signs of blood.

V had a lean figure— built for pure speed and precision instead of sheer bulk for taking hits. If he didn't start defending himself, he and I were both done.

Screw it.

When I see his head jerk back with a harsh chokehold, I aim my knife and hurl it as hard as I can.

I'm afraid to open my eyes, afraid to see who I've hit.

When I finally peek up, a relieved sigh shakes my body when I see my knife sticking out of the boy's arm. He crumples to the ground in pain, and I see V wink.

Wink.

__________________________

"Idiot. What's wrong with you?" I mutter as I watch him wrap bandages around his cut hands. "Did you die and. come back to life or something?"

"Congratulations." He replies, keeping his eyes fixed on the white gauze. "You should've gotten first on the exam."

"Don't tell me you did all that just so I could nearly slice your head off." I say, staring at him incredulously. "Are you serious?"

He suddenly takes my hand, his eyes steady as he wordlessly tugs my sleeve upwards. Biting down on the tube of ointment he'd been using, I see him tear a narrow strip of bandage from the roll.

"Wait. I'm not—"

Giving me a short look, he flips my hand upside down. I'm surprised to find that there's a long cut stretching the length of my forearm, even though I have no clue how where I got that from.

It's like as if he reads my mind.

"From the knife." He clarifies, chewing on his lips as he gives me short glances. "Did you not feel it the entire time? It's bleeding, Eleven."

"I— didn't feel anything." I say, feeling heat crawl up the side of my neck. "It's okay. It's just a cut."

"Infection." He suddenly says, and I look up with a surprised look on my face as he begins to calmly list off a bunch of diseases I don't know.

"Cellulitis, tetanus, impet—"

"Okay, okay. Fine, I get it." I laugh breathlessly at his serious expression. But remembering what I'd been trying to ask him earlier, I make my face grave again.

"So are you okay?" I ask, and feel his hand stiffen against mine. "Why didn't you do anything? And I know that you didn't just do all that to see if I could hit that guy or not."

"........."

"I thought I had to take a hit." He says, touching his scarred cheek and seeming amused when red comes off of his fingers. "It's been a while since I've felt this."

"What?" I exclaim, almost dropping the roll of white I'd been holding. "What do you mean? Had to take a hit?"

A conflicted expression suddenly shadows his face, and he closes his lips. For a silent second I swallow and turn back to my interlocked hands, thinking he wasn't going to tell me.

"If I didn't do that, what would you have thought of me?"

I'm completely taken aback when he says that, just blinking with a blank expression on my face as he winces.

I smile.

"What are you talking about?" I say jokingly, wrapping my arms around him even though I know he's not going to be pleased with me after.

"You're always going to be my lovely idiot."

*END*