He wasn't sure why, but her words sent shivers down his spine. When she pulled back, she didn't spare him a glance as she slowly led them back down the way they'd run before and slowly back in the direction of her house. Mason gasped quietly as he saw the blood all over her back from the knife slash before, but Sky didn't respond at all - neither to his gasp, nor the pain she was likely feeling.

When they reached the main alley, she held out her arm behind her and pressed him against the wall so he wouldn't do anything reckless while she scoped out the situation. After deeming it safe, she grabbed whatever part of him she could find, which just so happened to be his hand, and started pulling him along quietly behind her.

Despite the unexpected contact, all Mason could think about was the overwhelming urge to run from whatever danger might still be out on these streets, but knew he should rely on Sky's apparently unmatchable street wisdom.

Reaching the other side of the alley they now crept along in what small shadow the wall offered them. After they were a few hundred metres away from the site of destruction, Sky slowly started to speed up and before long they were running, albeit slower than before so there was no chance of Mason tripping over to keep up with her larger paces.

As they rounded the corner to reach the alley which ran behind the mansion, neither of the pair had ever been happier in their life to see a garbage dumpster. Needing no instruction, Mason crawled back onto the mansion grounds through the hole when Sky let go of his hand and pushed him in front of her so she could check the situation behind them to make sure they really were safe.

They were.

A few seconds after Mason had crawled through and was free of the bush on the mansion side, Sky followed through behind.

They only stared at each other as they each brushed the leaves and dirt off their bodies. It was Mason who broke the silence.

"Your back needs attention," he said at last, referencing her knife wound. "You won't be able to reach that spot yourself."

"How do you know what I can and can't do?" she snapped at him in response, fury rising up within her, though it was uncalled for and even she knew she couldn't control herself. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have had that wound in the first place."

For a few moments it was almost a standoff between a fierce, panting lioness and a nervous cheetah. Although they both knew it could have ended up much worse for her back and also for her if Mason hadn't been there, they both knew she just didn't want to admit to it. The fact that Sky had almost suffered such an embarrassing defeat was too much for her - and 'defeat' was putting it very lightly indeed.

A few seconds passed in this stare down before she turned on her heel and headed back towards the mansion, leaving Mason momentarily confused. That was until he once again saw Sky's bloodstained shirt.

"Sky!" he whisper shouted as he ran to catch up with her. "Sky, I don't care how much you hate me, but you need help fixing that up," he almost pleaded with her. "That's not just a simple cut."

Mason was talking non-stop beside Sky as he tried to make her see reason, but Sky walked in silence towards their windows. Mason was afraid he'd lost the battle when she grabbed the rope and was about to hoist herself when she hissed and fell back onto her two feet.

"You'll open up your wound again like that," he said sadly, already starting to see a fresh flower starting to spread slowly on her back. "I'm asking you to please let me help. Even if it's for my peace of mind rather than for your health."

Sky looked at him then. "Only because I have no other choice," she mumbled eventually, clearly still angry. "But I can't exactly walk in like this."

Mason nodded his head rather vigorously. "First thing's first," he said as he slid his jacket off his shoulders and handed it to her. "I'm going to try and get the entrance free of staff so no one sees you, but put this on just in case someone sees you from behind, but don't stop if they call out to you."

Sky didn't have the heart to tell him that the staff largely tried to avoid her rather than call for attention but she took the jacket nevertheless. She laughed a little as she held it up in front of her. "It's so obvious this is not mine," she said, as the jacket cut off above her waist.

"Not important," he glared. "Just put it on."

Just as Sky was throwing it around behind her to slide it on her shoulders, she hissed in pain once more and that's when Mason realised she wouldn't be able to move her back too much before it was patched up. "Stop, stop!" he said quickly. "I'll do it."

Quickly taking the jacket back from her, he walked behind her and got up on his tiptoes to slide the jacket over her shoulders.

"Follow me."

With Sky for once following Mason, they crept around the side of the mansion and towards the entrance, luckily without incident. "Are you going to keep an eye out or shall I cough or something for when you should go?" he asked her.

She gave him a deadpan stare. "How about I try and keep an eye out but you cough before just in case?"

Mason nodded with pursed lips. "Sounds good. Once I have the stuff I need I'm going to knock on your door so open it for me, OK?" Sky didn't respond and Mason didn't really expect her to, so he only said one last thing before he made his way inside. "Just don't peel off your shirt before I get there, because otherwise the wound will open again."

Sky was about to retort that he didn't need to tell her that, but he was already through the door by the time she opened her mouth. Shutting it, she just waited for the right moment to go inside.

Mason was lucky when he entered the entrance hallway. There was only one last maid just finishing her chores in the main hall when he walked in, and she looked up straight away upon hearing his footsteps enter.

"Welcome, Sir Mason," she said, giving him all of her attention. "Did you go out for a walk?"

"Ah, please, call me Mason," he responded, feeling awkward with the honorific. "And yes, actually, rather embarrassingly I suffered a bit of a fall. Into, um, a bush full of thorns. Do you perhaps have anything I could disinfect and patch myself up with?" he asked, making full use of the direction of the conversation.

"Of course," the maid said, beginning to lead him into a side room. "Do you need any help?"

"Ah, no," he said immediately as he followed her. "Some of the thorns are in quite... Intimate places," he made up, causing the maid to blush instantly.

"Ah," was all she said.

He let out a loud cough as he entered the side room with the maid in case Sky hadn't been aware of the situation inside.

"Would you also like something for a cough?" she asked him as she opened up and reached into a cabinet and pulled out a bunch of things.

"No, that's alright; I think I just choked on my saliva," he laughed nervously. "Have you also got any bandages in here?" he asked as he had a quick look inside the box she gave him.

"Bandages?" she asked, alarmed. "Was the fall that bad?"

Mason rubbed the back of his head abashedly. "Quite bad..." Without questioning any more, the maid immediately got out some bandages and handed them to him. "Great, thank you. Have a good night."

"You too," she smiled at him as he left to go upstairs.

As he reached his door, he had a quick look around to see if there was anyone who would be witness to his walking to and entering Sky's room. After feeling safe, he walked the few extra steps to Sky's door, and then walked past it a bit further to the bathroom where he got a towel and drenched it in hot water, twisting it out a bit before returning to Sky's door and knocking a couple of times.

No response.

He knocked again, more urgent this time, for the sound of knocking in this house was unusual and sure to attract attention. Luckily for him, the door opened this time, even if it was just a crack. He slid in quickly.

"Thank you," he said quietly as he shut the door lightly behind him. She didn't say anything as she made her way to a chair she had already placed in front of the bed, over which she had also already slung his coat over. She sat down, leading him to believe he was meant to take a seat on her bed, so he did, and he placed the medical kit beside him.

This was the moment he realised that he was about to ask a girl to take her top off. He coughed awkwardly and thought of a solution.

"Alright, so..." he started to explain, "this hopefully shouldn't be too painful. I'm going to put the wet towel to the cut to hopefully unstick your top from the wound."

Sky nodded. "Just get to it."

Doing as he just described, he let the hot water work its wonders for a couple of minutes before checking to see if the top was now unstuck – which it was.

"Ok, don't be surprised; I'm just going to lift the back of your top, so if you can just hold it over your shoulder so it doesn't slide back down and doesn't, uh.... Slide too high at the front." Sky didn't say anything and instead just nodded and did as he said.

As the knife cut wound appeared in front of eyes properly, he couldn't help but cringe a bit, for it didn't look comfortable. "Alright, this is going to burn. Just bear with me."

Sky hissed as he starting working on her wound, but that was the only sound which escaped her lips during the whole ordeal. It was once he needed her help to apply the bandage that he next spoke.

"If I pass the bandage around to the front, can you pass it around back the other side?" he asked her. Sky made an affirmative grunting sound and once again did as he asked, making the bandaging process nice and easy.

He nodded happily as he took in his work, and finally decided he was finished. "All done," he let her know.

Immediately, Sky stood up and removed her tattered top, revealing her toned body beneath.

"Woah, Sky!" Mason exclaimed in shock as he looked away. "I was trying to go through this whole event without having to make you undress yourself so it wouldn't be uncomfortable for you."

"Well, since you didn't ask, you wouldn't know," she said indifferently as she headed to her wardrobe. Mason quickly clambered to his feet as he kept his eyes averted so that he was ready to leave before she decided to undress herself even more.

"Well, I didn't know you would get undressed so easily for anyone," he said without thinking.

It was only when Sky turned to him with a glare and the feeling of a punched stomach arose that he realised perhaps his words were uncalled for even if they weren't meant completely seriously. He gasped for air.

"Leave," she said, turning away from him and beginning to remove her other layers.

With his hand still on his stomach, he walked hunched out of her room and back out to his. He couldn't help but feel a little angry at her ungratefulness even if he had said she should just go along with it for his sake.

With a huff he threw himself onto his bed, not even bothering to get changed before he drifted off into anger-fuelled dreams.