Test Run. Even Slower Than he Thought?

Luis clawed around his mind. Go help her, and increase her dependence, or leave her to deal with it, and see her isolated. No, even if it wasn't official, this was a partnership. Luis began after her. "Raya!" He called towards her. Seeing her against the tree, he stops at a distance. "We're partners right? Well that includes trust. You gotta trust me not to-..." He almost use the word hurt. That was void no though. "You gotta tell me what's up so we can take care of it right?" He finally added.

Raya panted softly and held her stomach tightly, her fingers digging into it to the point that they were hurting her. She hiccupped softly and jumped when he ran over, glad that he had the sense not to run up to her. She paled slightly and looked away, brushing her arm across her eyes with a sob. "I can't," she cried. "I can't tell you... you'll think I'm weird and gross and ugly, and you'll cut me too, like she did," she wailed quietly, collapsing to her knees and putting her head in her hands to cry hard, her stomach tense. The tanktop had come up just enough to where some of the scar was showing - not much, but it was definitely enough. "Please don't hurt me," she pleaded, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked up at him with round, begging blue eyes.

Luis glanced down at the small bit of Raya's scar that had managed to peer through. He had the mind not to look at it for too long. "Raya, I turn into a metal light-bright. I'm lucky you even talked to me." He said, half joking. After a short moment of silence, Luis sat down where he stood, crossing his legs. "Ain't anybody gonna try and hurt you, so forget about it." He spoke in a quiet voice. "In the mean-time, we can just chill-out here until you want to tell me what's up, or let me take you home." He added in an similar tone to his last. He wanted to approach her, but it seemed very much like she didn't feel like being touched, or maybe even looked at.

Raya brushed her hands across her eyes after a few moments, clearly soothed by his quiet voice. She looked up at him with round, puffy blue eyes from where she'd been crying, wrapping her robe around her tightly. She sniffled softly and hugged her knees to her chest, her fingers going down to find her scar and rub it quietly. It was still hurting, but it wasn't as bad now. She shifted a bit when he joked about being a light bright, a tiny smile on her lips. It vanished quickly, though, replaced by a worried frown. "I'm sorry," she mumbled quietly. "I... overreacted. I didn't expect you to hit me there, and it's still sore sometimes," she told him, forcing herself to take deep, even breaths. She didn't want to panic again. "I... I guess I could tell you... maybe. I, um, have a scar there, where you hit me, and it's kind of touchy," she mumbled. It really was, mentally and physically, it still hurt. "I doubt you want to sit here and listen to the whole story, but I was an orphan and I lived at an orphanage that ran down until I was the only one left. The lady that had to stay with me was abusive, and one day she snapped and took out a steak knife..." she broke off, hiding her face quickly as more tears burned her eyes, her little body trembling.

Another mental sigh. Saying Luis was no good with these situations would be an understatement by a cosmic scale. Still, he listened closely to the girls story, drawing the conclusion that it was her that didn't want to say it all. He could have sat there all day on the subject. He brought one knee up, relaxing his arm on top of it. He would probably kill the woman if he thought it would make her feel better. "You're never gonna see that old cow again, right?" He spoke, still softly, but obviously distressed. "And if you do, don't even sweat it. Mine's bigger anyways." He chuckled.

"No, but..." Raya started as she sniffled and hiccupped. "But it hurt and it left a big, ugly scar on me and it won't go away no matter what I do," she whimpered, wobbling on the edge of scooting back away from him or getting closer. In the end, she decided that she would rather have some form of comfort. Sure, his voice was helping, but she needed to be touched to help her. She crawled over and sat down a tiny ways away from him, not touching. She sniffled again and brushed a hand across her eyes. "I'm sorry I messed up," she mumbled, still feeling like he was mad about it. She was too tired to fight again - all she wanted was to curl up somewhere and take a nap. She looked completely exhausted, so much so that she still hadn't pulled her shirt back down. If she was more awake, she'd have done that by now, since she still didn't want him to see.

Luis noted the girl getting closer to him. "You don't need it to go away." He said in regards to the scar. "You look just fine with it. You shouldn't let it bother you too much, and in time it won't." Luis' head went through the girls speech once or twice before responding again. "And of course you messed up. This is training. If you didn't mess up from what we were doing, we would train harder until you did. It's more than avoiding mistakes, it's correcting them." Luis took to a knee, and looked down at the girl not far from him. "Whaddya say we call it a day. Get ya somethin' to eat? Take you home so you can rest?" He spoke, more making a schedule than asking. "Can you walk?" He asked, extending a hand to the girl.

Raya sniffled and brushed her hands across her eyes, making sure her nose wasn't running before she looked up at him. "I do?" she asked, looking down at her stomach and blushing a bright red before she pulled down her shirt and covered it up. As she listened to the rest of what Luis had to say, she brightened up quite a bit and even smiled some, her blue eyes freeing themselves of tears as she reached up and took his hand. "I am kind of sleepy and hungry," she admitted, not even about to try and see if she could walk. Her legs were too shaky and she knew it. She hugged her robe close to her, seeing as the sun was going down and it was cooling off. "You don't mind carrying me, do you? Am I too heavy?" she asked, her blue eyes round. The question wasn't sarcastic, even if it was silly. She was very light, and most people could pick her up without a problem. But still, she was concerned for him. "Did I hurt you while we were practicing?"

Luis couldn't help it, he laughed a little when the girl thought she'd hurt him. "Er- no I'll survive." He said, almost seriously. Picking the girl up, he bounced he a little sarcastically. "Meh, you weigh about ten lb's sopping wet." He said, smiling as much as his harsh expressions allowed. Turning, he began the trek into Death City. "Any place you like to eat? Plan on eating at home?"

Raya squeaked a bit when he bounced her and hung onto him tightly. "I do not! I weigh ninety pounds!" she argued, putting on a small glare as she rested her head on his shoulder tiredly. She closed her eyes and her breathing evened out a bit, clearly fighting sleep. "Um, I don't really care. Wherever you want to go is fine," she said, keeping her eyes open to laugh a bit at the sun as it started going down. It looked a lot like her, fighting sleep.

Luis spared a glance from the road, to the girl on his shoulder. She didn't look like she would make it to any dinner plans awake, much less with the ability to eat. "How about home then." He muttered, speaking almost exclusively to himself. He realized for a split second that this didn't look good from any point of view. He wondered if it looked more like he had beaten the life out of her, and was taking her to the infirmary, or that they were... Involved. He would let them think as they wanted. Only more fights he could pick later. The idea of a little violence brought a smile to his face. This girl might have softened him up, but his nature was still there.

Raya was asleep by the time he had spoken, her head on his shoulder and her legs loosely around his waist. Her arms were trapped snugly between them, and her lips were parted as she breathed. She would occasionally make a face in her sleep - her eyebrows would furrow up or her lips would tug either down or up in a tiny frown or smile. She mumbled softly as well, and it sounded like she was having good dreams so far. The sun was steadily sinking, drool dripping from its mouth and its light growing dim.

Luis sighed. He had no idea where this girl lived, and she wasn't awake to tell him. She might not even wake up if he tried. In the end he was found opening the door to his own apartment. It was incredibly clean, a fact that might surprise immediate perception. Fact of the matter was, it was clean because he spent very little time in it, and most of the time in it making it to his liking. Luis placed Raya onto a bed, and placed the covers over her. Leaving the room he leaves for the kitchen, assuming she would be hungry after her nap.

Raya had pretty vivid dreams as usual, some great and some horrible. She almost always dreamed of that night when the woman cut her, but this time, right before the lady pushed the knife into her skin, Luis was there and pulled her away. Then he transformed into his sword form and she took him and beat the lady until she was the one crying in the floor instead of Raya.
She woke with a little jump, not realizing where she was. She shifted under the blankets and got to her feet, leaving her robe behind so that she was just wearing her shorts and tank top, which was a big show of bravery for her. She looked over and realized that the moon was rising and laughing. She cringed when she saw the blood seeping out of its mouth and a burst of fear rose in her chest. "Luis!" she cried, running out of the bedroom quickly to go look for him.

Luis jumped at Raya's call. "Hey, hey, calm down. I didn't even burn it this time." He called back, as if she somehow knew his habits in the kitchen. Putting down his work, he went to see the girl. "You're at my place, just so you know. Safe, and sound." He added, turning the corner. "Made some food. Can't promise for quality." He continued in a blunt tone. It seemed some of the charm was beginning to wear off at this point. The meal was a simple combination of Salisbury steak, potatoes, and other simple bits.

Raya ran right up to him and practically slammed her body against his, wrapping her thin arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. She was shaking, obviously panicked and confused, before his words caught up to her and she took a few deeper breaths. "We're alone here? She isn't here?" she asked, her stomach growling loudly at the smell of food. She relaxed greatly and pulled away before he could hug her back or it got too awkward. "Sorry. I woke up and didn't know where I was," she told him, brushing a hand across her forehead as she tried to stand up on her tiptoes to see the food. "You made food this late?" she asked, looking for a clock.

Luis mentally rolled his eyes at the girl. 24/7 with her. He supposed it would be a while before there was any significant change though. "The only she here is you kid." Luis heard the girls stomach, and smiled. "And yeah, I cooked. For a good reason by the sounds of it." He chuckled, moving back into the kitchen.

Raya smiled a bit and followed him, looking at the food with delight. "Thank you so much," she said genuinely, with not a hint of over-excitedness or overexaggeration. She took one plate and walked over to the table to sit down, looking out the window at the bloody moon again with a small frown, clearly not liking the way it looked. She'd never liked it when the moon had blood in its mouth. It usually looked so... funny and friendly, but with blood it looked sinister. She blinked up at Luis with a small sigh and smile. "Are you going to go to sleep tonight? I can walk home," she said, though she wasn't too keen on the idea of going out there, especially not by herself. "It is late though," she added with a yawn that showed she was still very tired.

Luis let his mind wander through all the bad things that could happen to a girl that could barely run without face-planting in a city like Death City. The idea's brought a short-lived sour expression. "Heh, maybe you should crash here. You looked comfortable anyways." He added shortly, replacing his look of distaste with an odd sort of, perhaps worried, smile. Picking up his plate, he sat across from his meister in training. "You can crash where you were. There's a second bed-room." Luckily most apartments seemed to come suited for the student pairs in the city.

Raya blinked slowly and looked up at him with a small smile. "Thank you," she said gratefully, looking out the window once more at the bloody moon with a small shudder. "I didn't want to go," she told him, finishing her food and taking the plate over to the sink to wash it before she trotted back to the bedroom she'd come from. "I think I want to go back to sleep. I'm really tired, but thank you for the food and letting me stay," she told him genuinely, offering him a gentle smile before she turned around to lay down in the bed.