The altogether sincere discussion about how he'd stubbornly scarfed down what had been more charcoal than cookie bathed the kitchen in the kind of lightness that it would recognize from long ago. Playful children. But they'd grown up now, when amusement at failed culinary ventures weren't enough to sustain their happiness. Her spirit dropped beautifully, and it was such a reward for Keida to see her ripped from the safety of naivety to dread. How honest her emotions were, fanning quickly over her person. Of course, she'd never been taught to hide what she felt so others couldn't use it against her.<br/><br/>All the things he let her hear, all the almost-truths and the well-painted lies, she choked on them, but she still ate what he fed her. She still trusted him like she had when they were heads shorter. New, beautiful Haley, who wanted her blue-eyed prince to hold her hand and live out summer with her. She hurt Keida back without knowing, when she declared to him with as much gusto as she should have Cain. Maybe this was all going to be her punishment then, for being blind and innocent, when he had needed her to understand. She'd brandished his heart. Now she'd cut herself on it.<br/><br/>She melted under his touch. All these assaults on unused parts of her. She was a girl with all the nodes and nerves of a woman. Her parents should have prepared her better for men like him. It would almost be an insult not to devour her. He'd teach her body lessons her mind couldn't accept. She didn't know that the sadness she felt was fast translating to her escape into him. It was a dark courtship, but horribly effective. He was breaking her so he could build her into something entertaining. Hopeless. Maybe. But not for him.<br/><br/>He held her hard to him, so she could feel enveloped by him. All the comfort you need, and it has my scent, not Cain's. He was free to squeeze her, to let her know the close weave of arms around her could hurt, but that such an heavy, oppressing pain could be strong against her anxieties. And still, she was trying to think of ways her original plan might work. He smelled her hair when he shook his head. He let go of her, so he could lift her and set her down sitting on the counter.<br/><br/>"I don't want to hurt you, Haley." he said and put his thumbs on her cheekbones to look into her eyes. How big they were with budding tears. He was doing well. "But maybe I can help you." he said at last, straightening and nodding, determined, theatrical. He was still so much taller than her, looking down as though he was teaching some wayward runaway about life. "I could tell you how Cain likes his girls. What all boys like." he promised, and the evil in him lit his eyes to the most innocent gossamer imaginable. The wicked wings on the corner of his eyes tried to tell her he was a demon hungry for her purity, but those shadows were burned bright onto his skin with the friendly smile on the predatory lips.<br/><br/>"But I don't have much patience, you know that." Always the hotheaded boy, which made him funny as a child, but a dark force now. "So if you don't listen to me, I'll just let you make you own mistake." he leaned closer, and stroked her arms as he took a few breaths in her ear. "And then Cain will hate you." he pressed into her, which would part her knees slightly, where she sat. A finger curled under her chin when he drew back to look at her, his beaten little toy, ready to play. "Do you want my help, Haley?"