WHY DO YOU DRAW?

A TALA AND EMILY ONESHOT

RATED T

SELFHARM SITUATED

SUMMARY: EMILY WONDERS WHY TALA'S ARM IS COVERED IN DRAWINGS AND DOODLES. AND WHY ALL IN RED?

A/N: HI! I NOTICED NO-ONE HAD DONE A FANFIC FOR TALA AND EMILY SO I THOGUHT I'D BE THE FIRST ONE. PLEASE REVIEW!

"Tala?" Emily said puzzled.

"What?" the red-haired Russian asked the girl sitting at the desk next to him. Both had been kept behind after school. Tala had detention. Emily, being the clever clogs she was, was asking the teacher about extra-curriculum stuff.

"Why do you draw on your arm?" she asked, deciding it was best to be frank. Although Emily would never admit it, she had a minute, minute, crush on Tala.

To the girl's surprise, the red-head actually turned away and hung is head in what seemed like shame.

"Tala are you ashamed of something?" Emily queried.

"I'm a fild suisie." He mumbled inaudibly

"Huh?" she asked.

Tala spoke a bit louder. "I'm a failed suicide. I…. I cut my right wrist all the way down to the bone lots of times in the abbey. Then when I couldn't do that anymore I razored the veins in my left wrist. When I saw the blood it always helped."

The orange-haired girl stared at Tala in shock. She knew life in the abbey had been tough for Tala, especially with him protecting the rest of his team from Boris; this, however, put things into perspective. "Well O.K. but what's that got to do with drawing on your arms?"

"After that beybattle I had with Garland the first time the quacks at the hospital saw I'd been self-harming. Kai's got a sister who works there and they told her and she gave me a leaflet about self-harm stuff. The way they say of stopping cutting is the "Butterfly Project" when you want to cut you draw a butterfly there instead and leave it there for as long as possible. If you cut before the butterfly is gone then you kill the butterfly. But I don't really like butterflies so I draw things that are important to me. I draw Wolborg the most. And if I cut then I lose him all together. It helps a bit."

Emily knew she should probably end the dialogue there but there was still one more question without an answer.

"Why in red?"

Tala smiled, "Like blood. Then it's like I've cut but it doesn't hurt anyone and I can still see red."

For once Emily was speechless.

Then Tala leaned across her desk and kissed her lips. For a split second she was in heaven. But he pulled away and heaven was lost. "Why d'you stop?" she asked. "I know you've got a crush on me. But do you really want to date someone like me? A former cyborg with God-knows-how-many problems?"

"Fuck yeah." Emily replied breathlessly and kissed him; Tala kissed her back.

And from then on Emily's life was perfect.