Something was very wrong.

I could sense it as Aris walked over to the car, opening the front door and slid into it.

All was quiet for a while before he spoke in a barely audible whisper. "She has two kids."

"Aris?" Nia asked, her eyes wide with concern. "What?"

Aris was deathly quite for a while, before his shoulders started shaking uncontrollably as he broke down.

He wailed. Tears streaming down his eyes. Deep, ragged bretahs escaping him as he struggled to breathe. Sobs racked his entire body.

I felt a pang in my heart as my suspicions were confirmed.

"She...she said...she has a family there," he spluttered, tears punctuating his speech. "She said she didn't...didn't...want....to-" he sniffled loudly. "Me."

He was barely comprehensible over his loud cries. His face was agonized. His green eyes dark, hollow. Like an unending chasm had opened behind them.

"She said...she said my dad forced her to have me," he lay his head on the car seat as sobs racked his entire body. Stuttered. Like he had been holding it back since forever.

His spirit sounded broken.

And with that, something inside me broke.

"Aris," Nia whispered, her eyes glistening as she leaned over and hugged him close. His body trembled, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably as he cried. Like something inside him had died.

I wrenched my eyes away from him and gazed outside the window at nothing. It felt like someone was squeezing my own heart.

"She said...she...doesn't...have space-" Nia gently stroked his back as he started crying impossibly harder. "She's my mother! How could she say that? How can I not mean anything to her? How can I be so easy to dispose?"

He took in a deep rattled breath, the agony in his voice tangible.

I closed my eyes, feeling my heart spiraling into a chasm as the pain in his voice seemed to penetrate through it.

"They look so happy..." his last words ended in a whisper. "How the fuck can she be happy when she abandoned her son like that? What the fuck do I do now? I have nowhere to go."

It seemed like Nia was at a loss for words. She hugged him close. Gently patting his back. Moving to and fro as she tried in vain to soothe him.

"She has her family Nia," he said, each of his aching word laced with agony. He looked tormented. Defeated. "She has a happy family. I have nothing. Not a fucking thing!"

His voice ended in broken whisper again as Nia glanced at me helpolessly. Her own eyes welled with tears and spilt as she held back a sob. "I'm sorry Aris. You don't deserve this..."

The air in the car felt suddenly solid. I opened the lock and stepped out, unable to take the stifling heat. I slammed the door hard behind me, rage burning my insides.

I gazed at the buiding for a while, envisioning walking up to them and making his selfish bitch of a mother see some sense. I didn't care why she left him. I didn't care that she had been unhappy. Nothing gave her the right to shatter Aris' life like she had.

In that moment, I could envision the entire house burning. Tongues of flames entwining with each other in a passionate dance of death as they annihilates the home that had broken Aris' heart. It would be fair. The pile of bricks held no importance for me when compared to his anguish.

I balled my fists and forced myself to look away from the building. I could feel the swirling warmth of the Starlight in my chest and was afraid I would burst into flames any moment.

I started walking away from the car, aimlessly. I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I needed to get away form there. I just knew I couldn't take another second of Aris broken down like that.

I understood what Aahan meant. Understood why he didn't want to see him like that.

All my anger at him had vanished, leaving in it's place a deep abyss.

*

I lay in my bed that entire night. Staring up at the ceiling, my mind racing.

I had left the car and taken a bus back to Asteria. Staying in my room ever since.

It killed me to picture his agonized face. Hear his racked sobs. Devastated me that there was nothing I could do.

I raked a hand through my hair, closing my eyes and taking deep breaths. I wanted to do something. To comfort him somehow. But I had no idea what to do.

His reaction to finding out about Crystal still bewlildered me, but I had long forgiven him. I still felt slighted, but I couldn't stay mad at him when he was shattered like this.

I made up my mind and got up. I didn't know why but I wanted to do something. Anything.

I made my way to his room and knocked gently on the door. There was silence for a long time and I wondered if he had fallen asleep. Just as the thought formed in my mind, the door opened and a haggard looking Aris opened the door.

His eyes looked tired and bloodshot and I could tell that he had been crying. His eyes hardened as he saw me, a slight blush on his cheeks told me that despite his pain, he remembered our last interaction. "What?"

"I need to talk to you," I said. "Not here."

I glanced around and saw that Aahan was asleep on his bed. I looked at Aris. "Please."

He stared at me for a while before nodding ever so slightly. I stepped back as he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him, sniffing. "Where?"

I led him upstairs to the roof. I didn't know why but I felt like I needed to be under the open night sky. I remembered the last time that we had been here. The last time that I had told him about Ezra.

I wneyt and sat on the dusty ground, taking a deep breath and waited for him to sit. For a few moments I was sure he wouldn't, however, he sat cross legged in front of me, leaning back as he stared up at the sky. His jaw was set. Defiance reflecting in ever inch of him and I knew it was I who would have to speak first.

"I'm sorry. I left," I said as his jaw tensed impissibly further. "I..." I took a deep breath. "It was hard for me to see you like that. Knowing there's nothing I can do."

His gaze softened a little as he finally looked at me. The absence of joy in his eyes scared me. I was afraid he was broken beyond repair.

"When you told me about your parents-" I began, my heart thudding loudly in my chest. I had never revealed this detail to anyone in my life. My dad had an idea, but I had never explicitly admitted it to him. I didn't think he could take it. Knowing what I had been through.

"I could understand. Because...my step father was smilar. He-" I took another deep breath as he leaned in a little closer to me. I bit my lip. It felt like I was stripping in front of him. I felt naked. Vulnerable.

"Only his fits of rage weren't concentrated on just my mother," I stretched my left leg in fornt of me, rolling the seams till the skin up to my knees was exposed. Aris' eyes widened with horror as he saw the deep gash that time had been unable to erase.

My voice trembled as I went on. "He...was like a devil," I took deep shuddering gasps, afraid I was going to break. I felt a rising tide of feelings. "He threw me one day from the roof of our building," I had to bite my lip to keep from trembling as the tangible agony coursed through my body like potent poison. I felt like I couldn't go on, but for his sake, I did.

"My entire shin bone crumbled. If I wasn't a Nuvue, if I didn't have the mysterious powers that help me heal now, I would have been amputated."

I looked at Aris and saw his eyes glistening as a single tear fell from his them. My heart wrenched painfully.

I continued as I covered up the deep gash. "I don't mean to undermine your suffering or anything by telling you this," I said, struggling to keep my voice from shaking even as my heart seemed to rip painfully at the recollection of the memory that I stifled in the deepest chasm of my mind.
"I just mean to tell you that...that bad things happen to people Aris. Things they don't deserve. That you're not alone. That...you might feel homeless but, you're not. And, I don't know if it means anything but, I'll always be there too. Even if I might make you want to punch me or something."

He gave a watery chuckle, an odd expression on his face. Almost hopeful. I was astonished that even at this time, he could find in himself to believe.

"Thanks, Sunshine," he took a shuddering breath and wiped his nose on his sleeve, his voice thick with tears "Why? Why does that happen, Sunshine?"

I stared at him, having no answer to his honest question.

"I don't know Aris. I'm sorry that I can't do anything for you. I wish I could take away whatever pain you're feeling. But I can't. And that kills me. And it kills me to see like this," I finished in a rush, taking in a sharp breath as I felt my own throat clogging up with tears. "And I'm sorry I ever said those vile things to you."

He was quiet, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on his knees. He looked small. Tiny. Fragile. I searched desperately for a single sparkle in his hollow eyes. Even the light from the stars seemed unable to reach him. I looked for any visage of the cocky Aureus Greenwood who seemed to have a penchant for trouble. I searched frantically and came up empty handed. It was a different person.

He shook his head, his lower lip, trembling as he wiped away another tear. "I've come to believe maybe there is something wrong with me."

"Of course there is," I said, my heart breaking as I gazed at him. "But there are people who love you inspite of those things."

"I just...really had hoped," Aris whispered. "That I would meet her. That she would embrace me. That she would introduce me to her family. Cook me breakfast. Bake a cake for me on my birthday," His voice broke. He rubbed his eyes childishly, groaning. "God, I'm also so fucking dumb."

"Hope is not dumb Aureus," I said, slowly moving closer to him, drawn to comfort him somehow. "It's what keeps us alive."

He looked at me, biting his lip as a fresh wave of tears crashed through him. I got to my knees, moving closer to him and hugged him. He froze for a while, before his entire body started trembling with ragged breaths.
"I can't fucking believe I'm going to have to ask everyone to come to my dad's wedding," He sniggered through his tears. "It's so embarrassing."

I hugged him tightly, trying to comfort him. Breathing in his scent. Feeling his warmth. His broken heart beating against mine.

His warm body relaxed into my embrace and my racing heart slowed down slightly. I wasn't feeling threatened by his presence. I felt stronger somehow, because I knew he needed me to be.

"I'm not going to lie to you Greenwood," I said. "It really is."

He gave a watery laugh, his shoulders trembling as he finally hugged me back, resting his face on my shoulder.

"Thanks, Sunshine," he whispered after a while, his voice muffled.

I stroked his back in response, a small smile on my lips. "Anytime...stuck up, bitch."