Sometimes all your grief can say the same thing, demanding for you to listen. Grief is telling you that this isn't how it's supposed to be.

This isn't how it's supposed to be.

And the world laughs at her. Holds her by the throat and speaks.

But this is how it is.

Matthew edged his way around the potential collapse of the rest of the floor beneath him; he stepped across the fallen flooring and made his way towards the woman. Eko had been staring comatose like at the world before her, trying to wipe away her tears with the back of her hand. She wanted to keep her composure but was failing miserably at the moment.

That's when she felt his presence pull around her. For the first time, Matthew found himself doing something so uncharacteristic of his nature up till now. He willingly pulled the crying woman into his arms to comfort her, not because it was the right thing to do as a human being, but because he couldn't resist being the one to comfort her.

Dazed at the feel of his arms around her, Eko peered up through the watery depths of her eyes at the fallen and softened features of the man in front of her.

He wasn't the cocky man she had gotten to know; there was no sarcastic or flirty comment. No speech, no words, showing her that he didn't have an answer for everything but the look he held explained everything that he wasn't saying, the very same that told her also he knew exactly what she was feeling.

That there would be no words that could ever describe the loss she felt when she no longer belonged in a world she once knew, nor was there a home that existed any further from this moment. Being here after the carnage of the attack had only solidified that for her.

Not many truly could show compassion during this war the way that he had displayed it to her at this moment, almost sensing her pain and vulnerability with what had happened. Eko found that he understood everything he needed to know about her, and within that, she was lost again because it was so utterly overwhelming, all the tension, all the fear and all the loss they had been accustomed to.

She felt like she was collapsing from fear and guilt, and she didn't know how to move on from what was now happening, how committed to the lie of what and who she truly was. Shaking her head, Eko hadn't heard him gently whisper her name, feeling the gentle strokes of her hair, and instinctively she wrapped her arms around his neck and softly wept into the nape of it.

"This wasn't your fault," were the only soft and kind-hearted words she heard from Matthew.

"It's all my fault." Eko cried, and Matthew loathed the way he could hear her remorse through the muffles of his shirt.

"I could have protected them better-I-I could have done m-more," and that was true; it was so utterly true. If she had also just shown the world who and what she was, maybe she didn't have to hide her powers and perhaps she could have saved good people like Sophie, that took her place as the fall of a princess. Then that meant so many consequences to her actions, and not all had happy endings in their world anymore.

"I know." Matthew offered sympathetically, understanding more than anyone else, "but we can't save everyone, Eko. Life isn't designed like that. It's unfair and cruel, especially now of all times for us."

Rocking her to and fro, Eko stayed with him like this for what felt like ages. Grasping his shirt again, clutching the man tightly, he held onto her more than before. Fingers re-griped his arms around her, not once did she feel him move and pull away. If anything, he stayed with her, riding out the pain in her time of grievance.

Matthew then rested his chin on her head, allowing Eko to continue to cry, letting whatever she was feeling be felt so that she could move on from it. Unnoticed by the brunette at that point, Matthew had seen both Toni and Richie appear back in the doorway. It wasn't a sight to expect, but it did stop them mid-track, watching their best friend hold Eko in his arms.

Instinctively his eyes reach them, and their curious faces are only met with him nodding softly. He indicated that they would be out in a few minutes.

Toni holds up two fingers signalling the time before departure, and they exit the doorway without another word, returning to the balcony awaiting departure. It wasn't a place to make comments like they wanted to, that could wait till they were back and out of earshot of Eko, but Richie and Toni sure did look at each other with a slight smirk knowing they were thinking the same thing about him and her.

"Hey," Matthew's voice filtered into her senses, "come on. Let's go." Looking down at the woman in his arms, "we can't stay here."

"Stay. Please... I can't do this. I can't," she mumbled, "I can't be strong with this- not yet."

Matthew pulled back, forcing Eko to tilt her head with his thumb to bring her brilliant melancholy eyes to him.

"It is not about being strong," he began forcing Eko to study those words curiously. "It's okay to just breathe in this world if that's all you've done today. Then that's okay. You don't have to be strong every day. Sometimes it's just about getting through. That's what you have to remember. That's how we survive."

Then he noticed that her eyes scrunched at his words, unknowing to him that maybe just the universe had sent Eko someone who was exactly what she needed at the exact time she needed it in her life. She just wasn't going to figure out just yet how life-changing her time with him was going to mean.

The last droplets fell under those words, and this time he moved his thumb from under her chin and brushed the tears from her eyes, Matthew's hand cupping her cheek. What Eko found comforting the most was that his warm touch radiated within her. The soft encompassing hand and the blue steel eyes were staring at her with so much care, more than what she had seen in someone for a very long time.

"Remember, sometimes it's okay if the only thing you did today was breathe."

Nodding at his kindness, she whispered the softest and sincerest "Thank you," causing his heart chords to spark a fraction. The devastated eyes bore into his own, and he knew something was different at that moment. Something shifted; truly, Matthew didn't know if he welcomed it, but it had happened, and within that feeling, he desperately wanted to kiss this woman with how she was looking at him; some form of savage nature turned in him.

Eko couldn't explain it either; for some inexplicable reason, amongst her grief, the atmosphere between them changed. It charged with electric, exhilarating anticipation. Her breathing altered from his proximity, and her heart raced.

Arms tightened around her waist, almost as though he was pulling her in. Like a moth to a flame, Eko was being drawn in the longer she was staring into his steel eyes. Her grip tightened against his chest, and she swore she could feel his heart pound against his shirt like her own was doing.

"We should go," Matthew only murmured, realizing this difficult moment, for this was not like the other times that he wanted to kiss the hell out of her. This was something far more different, far more carnal, and far more enthralling.

With that, he instantly pulled back, and it allowed his arms to drop from holding Eko.

"Right!" She nodded with a different resolve, a mischievous smirk, "because you were just about to kiss me, which means submitting."

Like a flip of a switch, the cocky girl was back, alive, and she was different to the woman who was emotionally raw moments ago. Matthew was fascinated that she could change her temperament as fast as she humanly could to stop feeling what she had.

His lips quirked in half a smile, "I told you I wanted you to beg me properly before I ever did that."

Eko winked, "sure," and she puckered her lips, blowing a kiss; her inner goddess swayed in a gentle victorious smile.

"Here I was comforting you, and you do that," this time, he took her hand and pulled her out from the wardrobe.

Eko smirked, "it got our minds off a serious situation."

"With a sexual draw card."

"You weren't saying no." Again the temptress pushed his tethered self further to the edge. 

The comment forced Matthew to stop midway through the room and glanced back at Eko, that was looking at him in that sultry, smiling look she held. "What am I going to do with you?"

"A few things," the offer came allowing him to lead her forward carefully through the debris of the room. Soon enough, they exited onto the balcony, and Matthew pulled Eko ahead before himself and Toni. The loud clap of thunder roars overhead, and the engines and flood lights drown their senses from the once mere silence of a moment they were in just before.

Stepping forward, Toni began locking himself onto the swinging safety hook and then instantly, he was hauled up to the ship above them. He pulled himself forward, dropping the line back down again.

Matthew stepped forward, clutching onto it.

"Here." Eko nodded, stepping headfirst, hands around her as he clipped her into the harness, and their face to face again, flood lights spinning around them.

She could smell the collagen Matthew was wearing, almost an insatiable smell that, had any other moment been different, she could have succumbed to him.

"I'm not saying no," Matthew tempted with those words. Steel blue eyes flicked up to Eko momentarily, studying her reaction, and he was met with a smile and another sultry purse of her lips, "and I will fuck you- however." He locked the last clip onto her harness. "Even if I don't know you enough, I do care about this situation that you are in."

Eko bit down on her lip within those sincerest words, and his eyes were the darkest slate; there was that electricity again before them. All the men give the same look, Matthew's was just hungrier than others, more possessive, and she reeled in whatever feeling this was. How is it she is thinking about sex at a time like this, but then she knows that look?

"Tonight," she cocked her head, "you win."

Matthew smirked, "our bet is on hold; we'll play again tomorrow. You're not in the right state of mind."

Eko went to respond, and if only she could have, their moment was interrupted; her feet could feel the vibration against the balcony as the tremors began to intensify.

Breaking his contact with Eko, Matthew's eyes widened, and he looked down. Eko followed suit as she looked around, noticing with great trepidation how the building began to collapse around them.

Steel eyes flick back to Eko, assessing the situation and then above him.

"Fuck!" Eko shrieked in surprise as she felt the balcony lift.

"Go!" Matthew screamed, her senses heightened when she realized his hesitancy. She watched as he looked upwards towards the ship before instantly backing away from Eko and the balcony.

The brunette felt the tug of the line because of the ship and watched as the wing gave way; they could see it from above as it began to crumble.

"Move!" Toni's voice penetrated the air, ordering his best friend to run.

"Matthew!" Eko shrieked, "grab my hand!" Stretching it out towards him to take, but the line was quickly retracted, and she felt the jolt of air leave her body as she was winched back up to safety.

He was there one moment and gone the next, and with her heart pounding against her chest, she heard the fall of the palace without ever watching the crumbling destruction of her home.

Memories that were buried in those walls are now gone, the times she spent with her mother taken from her in an instant. The last memory she holds was of the decoy Princess amongst the ship that was slain because their enemy came for them, for her, for whatever fucked up morally wrong reason it had been for.

VOTE TO MAKE SURE MATTHEW LIVES..... otherwiseeee the guy's gonna die...and Eko will solely blame you for it.