arrogant girl, love yourself so no-one has to. (OPEN)

Belle looked down at her legs and sighed miserably. They were covered in scratches and scars and just she generally looked a mess. Usually, she wouldn't wear shorts outside. Heck, she generally wouldn't even go outside! But it was night, so there wasn't likely to be anyone around.

Anyway, she needed to be alone. She couldn't be alone with the people she'd grown to call her "parents". They weren't her real parents. They never would be. But they were close enough... Or, they would be, at least until she could leave home. They'd sort of given up on keeping her inside now; when she had to leave, she had to leave. That was it.

Her long, skinny legs were currently dangling into the water. It was numbing. With the full moon only three days ago, she was sort of still in a lot of pain. It was tempting to completely submerge herself in the water. 'It'll numb the rest of you,' she said quietly, kicking her legs out. But it was more her brain that needed it, and she couldn't do that. So letting the cool water around her legs slowly spread up her body was a lot easier.

It was dark, and quiet and calm. There was a light, cool breeze that ran through the leaves and branches of the tree that Edward was perched upon. Climbing trees never used to be a thing for him, but now that he had almost mastered it, he loved doing it every chance he got.

He looked around below him at the water as the moon reflected upon it and the small ripples of water caused the reflection to change. Taking in a long deep breath, he allowed the cool air to fill up his lungs, and close his eyes as he did so.

When he opened them, and looked down once more at the land below him, he saw a girl sitting with her legs in the water, looking rather sad, from what he could see of her. Frowning, he stood slowly from his perched position and began to climb down the tree.

As his feet touched the ground, Edward began to re adjust his clothes before walking over to the girl who sat by the water. "Good evening." he said walking up beside her.

Belle shivered a little in the coolness of the wind. At that moment, she resented not having brought a jacket with her, at least to have kept her arms covered. They were the worst affected areas, see. Whenever she had a transformation, she'd try and hug herself, which was ever proven futile. As the air sliced past her arms, she winced, and pulled them across her chest.

She had thought she'd be the only one here, what with the lateness of the hour and all. Closing her eyes and bowing her head, Belle muttered under her breath. "It's always you." Sighing, she lifted a hand, and moved a few strands of hair from her eyes.

The unexpected voice of the guy behind her had Belle jumping up, bringing her legs out of the water, and standing there with guilt in her eyes. "My foster-parents sent you, didn't they? They want be back home. I don't care. They can want all they like. I'm... I'm not s-scared of them," she said defensively, but her voice visibly faltering at the 'scared'.

Of course she was scared of them. Why wouldn't she be!?

Edward was taken a little by surprise by the girl's response to him speaking to her. He had no idea what she was talking about, but he stayed as calm as possible when answering. "I'm sorry, I really have no idea what you're talking about." he said. "My name is Edward, and I was just out here for some air."

Seeing the slight horror and fear in her eyes, Edward gave her a gentle smile and held out his hand, showing he wasn't here to hurt her. "I don't believe we've met."

He wasn't sure why the girl was so afraid of him. Well, she had just sort of exploded on him about her foster parents, whom he had never met and was sure he may never meet them.

Edward slowly began to move to the ground and took a seat, showing her that he really was not here to take her back to wherever she was supposed to be, and then he patted the spot beside him.

Blushing faintly, Belle looked down at the floor, clenching her fists tightly to stop herself from breaking down in tears. "I-I'm sorry... I just, whenever I go out and I'm not supposed to, they... They send people to find me," she mumbled, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

She shakily shook his hand and smiled, letting her hair fall into her face. She knew her bare arms would show the scars of transformations. She knew he might run away. But she didn't care. "Belle. Belle Ballard."

Belle remained stood for a while, leaning forward onto her toes and rocking back onto her heels. As he patted the spot beside him, she let her legs buckle and she fell to the floor at his side, in no pain, but still cowering a little. "I really am... Sorry, about... That."

Edward gave the girl a small smile, showing that he wasn't upset by her sudden outburst. "It's alright. Don't worry about it." he said still smiling at her kindly.

When she took his hand, he noticed, just barely in the light of the moon, scars. He frowned, wondering what they could be from, but nothing came to mind. Edward only hoped they weren't from her family beating her, or something horrid like that. "It's nice to meet you, Belle." he said.

Edward merely shrugged as he leaned back on his elbows, and stretched his legs out in front of him. "No worries. I just hope that you're alright." he said looking over at Belle, who sat cowering slightly beside him.

Belle shook her hair from her face ad brushed it behind her ears, forgetting about the scar down her jawline until her hand brushed across it. Sighing, she looked back down. "Okay... Uh, thank you, I guess..."

Belle was already contemplating telling him. He seemed okay. And she was pretty sure he was in her house. He seemed to have already noticed her scars anyway, though, and looking down at her arms, she stood stiffly, knowing her voice would waver.

"I'm..." Belle didn't actually know how to finish the sentence. Would she say 'I'm not fine. I'm awful, but thanks anyway.' Or would she lie? She was always encouraged to tell the truth. But lying was just... "I'm fine."

Edward couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't fine. Her voice was shaky and there was something else about her that made him feel like she was completely, and utterly not ok. Though not wanting to distress her anymore than she already seemed to be, he smiled at her and nodded.

"So, you go to Beauxbatons, right?" he asked, trying to change the subject. He still cared about Belle and whether she was alright, even though he barely knew her, but he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. "I'm in Angelique, going into my sixth year, by the way." he said giving her a gentle smile.

She seemed sad, and hurt, Edward noticed, and though he put on a smile for her, he couldn't help but feel that he should do something.

Belle knewshe was pretty much rumbled from the start. It was always her eyes that have it away, really, and whenever they flashed like they were right now, it was a sign that she was hurting. Of course, she didn't expect the boy to know this, not at all. He didn't know her, so it was going to be fine. Hopefully.

"Yes, I do. Angelique, just going into my fifth year," she stated. "I thought I had seen you before. Maybe around the common room or something," Belle added with a light shrug. She didn't usually remember people by their faces, but someone of her own house was bound to make some kind of impression.

"You don't believe me, do you?" she laughed lightly, leaning on her elbows. "I'd tell you, but you might run away.". It honestly wasnt that uncommon of an occurrence.

"Ah, fifth year. Not a bad year to be honest." he said with a nod. Aside from his home life going to shit, he found fifth year rather enjoyable. To his own surprise the O.W.L.'s weren't so bad either.

"Yeah, you most likely would have seen me around there. That's where I spend a fair amount of time." he shrugged, glancing over at Belle.

He could tell something was up, that's why he didn't believe her. She was wearing a similar expression that he did when something was wrong, except now he had almost mastered at hiding it.

Shaking his head, he said, "I know that look, the look on your face, in your eyes. I've seen it on myself many times." He tilted his head slightly in confusion when she told him he would run away. "It's up to you, but I really don't think I would. I'm generally a very open person to people of all sorts."

Edward gave her a look that told her she didn't have to be afraid. "Look, to put it plainly, I wouldn't care if you were secretly an Alien with three eyes, green skin and five, I don't know, extra hands. I don't judge people by appearances or any of that, just personalities." he said, smiling to reassure her.

"I hope it'll be alright," Belle said, a twinge of nervousness to her voice. The thought of OWLS coming up this year was rather scary, to be honest, and she didn't know whether she could handle them. Especially if they were to take place after the moon.

"I spend most of my days there too. More relaxing than anywhere else, except maybe the library," she said with a light-hearted smile. "I thought I might've done."

For some reason, Belle blushed at his words, whereas she usually paled and ran away. "I... I... Well, I guess a lot's 'wrong' with me. People just leave it. They see the scars everywhere and think 'weirdo', before running off. That's why I thought you would." Belle wanted to say what was on her mind. Most people thought they were open-minded, before she told them.

"I live with these people who seem to hate me for being who I am. I whine a lot. People at home call me, sort of, a freak. I don't go out much. I'm scarred. And scared, too." She sent a glance to the sky before taking a shuddering breath, partly due to the cool wind that swept past her barely covered shoulders. "Can you keep a secret?"

Taking notice of her nervousness, Edward gave Belle an encouraging smile, saying, "It's really not that bad, at least if you study. I studied a little, and I got through." He tried to give Belle incentive to believe in herself.

"Well it's a nice place, that's for sure." he said looking around, admiring the place. "Ah the library. That was my best friend last year. I usually like to read, but not as much as most people think, unless it's about Dragons." he said nodding to himself.

Edward tilted his head a little as Belle explained her story. "What's life without a little weird? That's why I didn't run off. Plus, I have scars of my own." he said beginning to roll up his sleeve to reveal the long and deep, claw marked scars that ran from the back of his left hand all the way up to his shoulder.

"I don't think you're a freak." he said kindly. "Yes, you can trust me, I promise. If I'm good at anything, it's being decently nice, and keeping secrets." he said, not being at all modest.

Belle let out a slightly nervous laugh, the mists appearing from her lips in the cool air, the way it always did. "I'll try to study as hard as I can, then," she smiled, looking down at the ground. Certain restrictions would of course be in place, at least a few days worth of reading up would be lost a month due to being in the infirmary, but she really would try.

"The library's just so quiet," Belle said, slightly airily. Of course, her own bed was her favorite place to be. Just the squishiness of the mattress was enough, really, as opposed to the lumpy one she slept on at 'home'. "Not fiction, then?"

"Life without a little weird sounds like a lot of fun," Belle said, trying to keep her tone void of emotion, but the slight crack in her voice and the frown sort of gave her away. She looked at his scars and gasped, her eyes running over each one individually.

"Th-thank you," she smiled, wringing her hands in her lap. "The reason I thought you were coming to get me is because, if you look at the moon, it's almost full. They don't like me going out then. They think I'll hurt people. They think... They... They hate me." Her tone was flat this time. She was used to explaining. Her 'parents' (they're not her real parents, thus the inverted commas) genuinely found her to be a bad person. And it didn't even sting any more.

"Just do your best, and you'll do great." he said with an encouraging smile once more, as he took notice in her nervous tone. He couldn't escape the feeling that this girl had been through so much, and seemed to get so little in return.

"That it is. I like quiet, never used to...but now...now I..." he faltered, feeling lost for words. Now that he had run away, everything had changed, he had, more or less learned to accept the silence that surrounded him each and every night. "Er, well I like a mix of both."

Edward glanced down at his hands briefly and took note of their shaking. He began to clench and unclench his hands, as though trying to stop it, but, still they continued to shake. "Weird can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it." he sighed, offering a small smile as she looked over his arm.

"They hate you?" he questioned, disbelief and shock written all over his face and in his eyes. He supposed he knew what that was like, especially after his father broke his arm. "I can't imagine why anyone would hate you. You can't help what you are. No one is perfect." he said, giving her a small smile.

No matter what this girl was, no matter what anyone was, he didn't believe that she deserved to be treated with such, as she said hate and what even seemed like fear. "I suppose, I may not know exactly the same pain that you're going through, but I know what it's like to be hated by your own family." he said.

He wanted to show her his broken wrist, but decided that it was best not to. He didn't want to turn this conversation into something about him. "I'm really sorry, about everything that's happened to you, Belle." he said sympathetically, though there was honesty and truth behind his words.

"Thank you," Belle said, though the disbelief was quite evident in her voice. She was an intelligent student, sure, but she was also likely to stress out one hell of a lot and slip up due to this. It happened a lot, seriously. She looked over at him, trying to catch the boys gaze. There was something about him that made her feel... Sort of comfortable.

"it's okay, sometimes people need a bit of quiet. Just to get their minds around stuff, you know?" Belle said, having a feeling that Edward might understand. The thought she saw in his eyes sort of told her that he did, or at least had the emotional capability to know what she meant.

Belle shook her head, almost amused, before she realised he probably didn't know very much how being so "unnormal" was actually a really big issue for her. "Yeah, but in my case, weird isn't a good thing. Not at all." she have a small shrug, to show that it was an irrelevant subject. Or really to show that it wasn't something she wanted to talk about yet.

She didnt say anything at his next words, just nodded. They evidently did, or they would let her have some kind of freedom. Or they wouldnt treat her a piece of dirt, telling her to not speak or to go away. They would get her the wolfsbane that she so desperately needed to stop it hurting. But nooooo.

"Do you have any other injuries?" Belle asked, the words spilling from her lips before she was able to stop them. She slammed a hand to her mouth, already hearing the scolding in her mind. 'Stupid girl, you don't ask questions unless someone has told you to. Shut up and stop brig such a nosy brat.' "S-sorry," she whimpered, cowering.

Edward gave Belle a smile in return. "Yeah, I know what you mean." he said nodding his head. Ever since he left, he had actually started to enjoy the silence of being alone. The fighting that had continued in his house made Edward appreciate the value that silence has.

Tilting his head in questioning, Edward wondered what she meant, though he had a theory. He didn't question her further, seeing the way she shrugged at him. If she didn't want to talk about it, he would understand.

He watched Belle with shock in his expression as she covered her mouth, eyes widening in slight fear after asking him about injuries. "It's ok, Belle. Don't be afraid to ask questions." he said, giving her a smile to show that there was no harm in her asking.

"Here." he said, holding out his other arm and rolling up his sleeve to reveal the bruises along his forearm, his wrist and his elbow. "My father broke my arm not even a day or so ago before I...er..." but he didn't finish his sentence. Maybe he shouldn't tell her he's a run away, not yet.

"Y'know what they say, silence is golden," Belle said, never having known what that phrase meant up until about two months ago, where the only place she could be alone and yet still completely safe was in the library.

She tried to get the nagging voice out of her head, getting her breathing back to normal. She closed her eyes and when she opened them, tried to catch his gaze. "S-sorry. I'm not normally allowed to ask questions," Belle mumbled, bringing her shoulders forward in a stance that made her look almost scared.

Dropping her eyes down to his arm, Belle gasped again. She took his arm gently, the way the nurses did to her when bandaging her up after a bad transformation. She looked over all of the bruises, and lightly trailed her finger along one, not caring about the slight tingle she felt in the pit of her stomach. "I-... I'm so sorry, Edward," she breathed, biting her lip. If she were at school, she would use a healing spell. But she couldn't; she was too young.

"Ain't that the truth now?" he said, with a silent laugh. Silence used to be his enemy, but now...now it was his best friend.

Edward dipped his head slightly, and looked into Belle's eyes when she opened them again. There was so much emotion in them, not all of them good. Sadness, and even fear seemed to be among them. "Don't apologize. My rule is to never apologize, and never regret anything. Everything happens for a reason." he said, smiling at her, hoping to give her some encouragment and some relief from what she was going through.

"It's no big deal..." he said, but then he frowned at his own words. It was a big deal. His own father had broken his arm and left him to fend for himself. "Ok, well it is a big deal, but it's over now, and he can't hurt me anymore." he said firmly, a sort of confident fire raging in his eyes and body.

He saw Belle look over his bruises and touch them lightly, causing a light shived run down his spine at the touch. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing compared to what you must go through."

"Yes, that's why I said it," Belle said, not catching up on the rhetorical-ness of his question. She looked at him, trying again to catch his gaze. She wanted to see what his eyes said about him; they were supposedly the windows to the soul.

His words, although clearly meant to be lighthearted, stung slightly. Everything happened for a reason, so she was meant to be put through the pain of losing herself every month? She was meant to have been bitten? Her parents were meant to die? Tears sprung to her eyes as she looked up into his, and smiling weakly, Belle said, "Okay."

The look in his eyes made Belle want to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him into a massive hug. Whoever he was talking about was already a dreadful person in her books, and considering herself a very non-judgmental person, that really did say something. "I should very much hope not, other people's pain makes me feel sick to my stomach."

"Perhaps not, but the pain you feel and the pain I feel are very different," Belle mumbled, not lifting her eyes at all. Her touch was constantly very light as she tried not to hurt him. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you..."

As Edward took notice of Belle's sad look in her eyes and her weak smile, he couldn't help but feel a little bad for what he said. It clearly had a big impact on her, and her life, and whatever it was that had happened to her. As curious as the young Angelique was, he didn't ask Belle what had happened to her that made her so sad. He was afraid of making her more upset than she seemed to be.

"Thank you Belle. For your kindness. It's hard to find people with the ability to be kind to someone." he said as he glanced up and looked in her eyes. There was something there, that made Edward believe that though she had been through a lot, whatever it was, she was still strong and kind and that's what made him like her so much.

Giving her a gentle smile, he lightly placed his other hand over hers. "Thank you. And though I don't know exactly what happened, I am truly, and deeply sorry that you went through it. But you should know there are people out there who care for you. It just takes time to find them." he said with a small nod.

He knew from experience the amount of time it took to find those few people who loved him and cared for him and didn't judge him. He knew and hoped that Belle would be one of those people.

Belle let out a light chuckle at his words. There really was no reason for her, of all people, to be in any way judge-mental. "It's okay. Really. Who am I to judge people for who they are?" she asked, her tone constantly almost light. "...wait, do you know what I am, Edward?" she asked, his name rolling off her tongue easily.

A light shiver went down her spine as he put his hand over hers, and she looked up into his eyes, not sure what she was meant to do. "People don't care about me. At the end of the day, I'm just another... person." Belle hesitated upon saying the word. She wasn't really a person at all. More a monster.

Belle didn't allow her gaze to go anywhere other than his eyes; which, she noticed, were a very nice and rather striking shade of blue. "I'm a werewolf, Edward," she said, almost solemnly.

Edward wasn't entirely sure what to say at that moment. He had his suspicions as to what Belle could be. Whatever she was, Edward didn't care. He liked her for her personality, and if he was to be honest, she was really pretty. "I think...I might know..." he said looking into her eyes.

"Whatever you are, you deserve happiness and you deserve to have someone care about you. Well, more than one someone." he said giving her a smile and lightly squeezing her hand. He couldn't imagine someone like her not having anyone to care for her. She was such a nice girl, but also a scared girl, by what he saw. Scared of what, he wasn't sure just yet. Rejection maybe...never finding someone to care for her, maybe.

The Angelique wasn't surprised with her answer to what she was. It was one of his suspicions, judging by her scars. "I know." he said continuing to stare into her eyes. He smiled at her, showing her that he didn't care, that it wasn't about what she was that he cared about. "I don't care what you are, just your personality, which so far is winning me over." he said with a small laugh, trying to calm the mood.