Rule Breakers

When he didn't respond, Maddie grew worried. She had never seen a broken person before, not this type of broken. The kind of ruined that when it opened, it threatened to consume them. Drown them in their own negative thoughts.

Maddie tried to recall a few of the things Sariah had said to her when they were growing up. Things about hope and strength and never giving up.

The one that came most to mind was the one Maddie said when Malvoes hugged her in turn.

"'When you break into a thousand tiny pieces, and you're lying there, thinking all that's left is the darkness, I'll be there, sometimes unseen, putting you back together. And at that moment, you'll be reborn and understand faith in all its forms. And still, I will be there, basking in your glory."

"Oh no, that's okay," Maddie reassured, running her hands through his hair. That had always calmed her down as a child when her adoptive mother would do it.

"I'm glad you trusted me enough to tell me about it. I think, had I been in that situation, I would have done the same thing to protect the people I loved."

Maddie's smile turned demure, and she cast her eyes to the left, feeling her cheeks warm with that familiar tinge of rouge.

"Thank you. You're not bad yourself," she said awkwardly. She wasn't sure how to reply to that kind of compliment.

"You would have done the same thing if this situation were reversed." She said this as a fact. To her, it was. She was almost certain most people would have done what she did.

To Maddie, people were inherently good, and the bad ones had something redeemable about them.

"It's tomorrow. It's, like, five thirty, probably."

She let him go, realizing she was still running her hands through his hair. With the moment over, that felt a little too intimate.

"You're a big sleepy-head," she grinned animatedly. "I'm practically always up at this time. In winter, it's all cold, though, so I don't usually like going outside. But this time of year, it's nice!"

She had a real easy time going on a tangent.

"I'm all excitable and active in the morning," Maddie chirped, dancing about and shimmying her hips to prove the point.

"Gosh, I could just start so many conversations!" She looked over her shoulder at him. "It's okay that you're a grumpy-Gus in the morning, it's kind of cute."