Bella stood there in her bra and pyjama bottoms. Alex studied her carefully, making sure to not miss a single mark. Bella nodded, her gaze asking whether she should carry on or not. Alex nodded, one arm folded across his chest, holding the elbow of his other arm, where the hand was covering his mouth. He was overwhelmed by sadness, trying to hold it in so he didn't choke on the tears that he refused to show.

Bella lowered herself slowly as she pulled down her pyjama bottoms, revealing her slightly, curved figure in just a bra and a pair of boxers. Alex carried on studying every single inch of Bella's body. Neither of them knew what to think of the situation, neither of them wanted to misinterpret a stare, a movement. Alex began to take steps closer to Bella. He took her face in his hands, holding her tight.

"You really are so beautiful. You don't need to do any of this."

Bella pulled herself away from Alex's hold and looked downwards to the side, a tear forming in her eye. Alex reached out, resting his hand underneath her chin, trying to pull her face back to look at him but she refused. Alex removed his hand and placed it by his side. He threw his head back and sighed as Bella let the tear fall gently down her cheek. They both stood there in silence. Again.

Alex suddenly crouched down and looked closely at Bella's legs. He put his hands on them, touching the scars, running his fingers over each one. Bella gasped as goose-pimples appeared all over her body. Alex ignored them. He pressed his lips to her legs, kissing the scars. He examined them. Some had been truly deep lacerations, that once healed, she had gone over again. Some had been little scratches that he guessed, maybe she couldn't find it in her to do anymore. Some scars were spread wide and distorted, as if she'd picked them every time they had begun to heal. Whatever the reasons for the scars, he didn't care. He just cared that they were there, all over her. Her thighs were smothered.

Alex moved his way up to her hips, placing his hands on the small of her back and holding her steady, he focused on the few scars on her abdomen, as well as the main ones on her hips. They were the worst that he had seen, close up, so far. The scars were thick and very deep, almost grey from where Bella was obviously feeling the cold. He kissed them, each one as Bella looked down and gasped. He kept his eyes on the scars, despite Bella's breathing suddenly getting heavier.

Again, Alex moved up Bella's body. This time underneath her breasts. Scars outlining them underneath perfectly. This girl didn't stop at anything. He thought of the many nights she must have laid on her bedroom floor and just.. destroyed herself. It was as if she was a self-destruction unit, that was set up on a timer to go off every night. He carried on kissing the scars, not noticing that Bella was biting her lip even more. He reached her arms, where he then stood up completely, running his hands up the rest of her back. Dragging them over the clasp of her bra, making silent wishes in his head, forgetting them for now as they failed to be the most important part of the situation.

Bella tried to hold her arms by her side, but failed when Alex forced them towards him. He ran his fingers up her arm and over the scars. Not one piece of skin uncovered. Fresh cuts that had obviously been bleeding not too long before. He remembered the spot of stained blood on the wall. Had that been where she had been leaning up the wall in her night? Had she tried to get rid of the blood? Alex pulled Bella towards him and kissed every single scar. He kissed up her arm and he kissed back down it, running his lips over every single scar.

Bella couldn't tell whether she was meant to be feeling the way she did or not, but all she knew was that it made her feel something inside that she hadn't felt in a few months. And she hoped Alex was feeling it too, because she was feeling it in.. every. Single. Place.

Alex finally glanced at her, her eyes focused on him the whole time. He placed her arms back in their original spot, before staring at Bella, both of them biting their lips.

"Why aren't you running away? You should be scared by.. well.." Bella stammered as she fretted to say the next few words, not knowing how to explain what she was trying to say.

"By what?"

"By all of this."

"What are you talking about?"

"The scars, Alex. You know what I'm talking about. You've just spent half an hour, tracing every single one with your fingers, and then your lips. You've just spent half an hour examining them. You've just spent half an hour.. focusing.. on them."

"Correction. You."

"What?"

"I told you, you're beautiful and I will do whatever it takes to prove that to you."

"But why?"

"Because I want to see you recover. I want to see you get better. I want to see you eventually stop all of this. One thing I don't want to see is anymore cuts or scars or marks of any kind at all. Please. Just try and promise me."

"You know I can't promise anything, Alex. I'm a coward. I can't stop for shit. The most I've lasted since I started is three days. I can't do it, and I don't even know why."

Alex's phone started ringing. "Excuse me -" he answered his phone, still standing in front of the scantily clad Bella, not turning his head away from her gaze. "- yeah, I'm fine bro. What do you want? I'll explain when I get back. Well, I tried but you were taking ages and I just needed to.. get out." Alex faltered, not wanting to explain what he really felt over the phone. "Yeah, of course. Yeah. Alright. See you later. Bye." Alex hung up the phone-call, watching Bella who was staring at him curiously.

"Who was that?"

"Oh, that was Jack. They went out last night, for a "walk" apparently -" Alex air quoted "- that just happened to turn into a trip to a pub, then a nightclub and they've literally only just returned to the hotel."

"What was he saying?"

"He just wanted to know where I was, sweetie. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere and I don't plan to for a while." Alex smirked slightly and pulled Bella towards him, embracing her and taking in her scent. Bella lifted her head and he looked down at her, leaning closer and closer.