He paused, seeming to be caught off guard. "Bean.." he shook his head, adopting a stony expression. "I did what I wanted."
"Why, though?" she asked, her voice sounding heavy with sadness. "I know you're not a bad person. Why would you do this?"
She looked down at her heart with a small frown. "You were going to take it from me," she said, her voice small. "You had a knife. I didn't know who you were."
"You didn't think to tell me that night at least? If you truly believed I wasn't a bad person, you would have told me that night."
She hesitated, looking down at the ground. "You said you had never met anyone who had gone through the same thing you had... I thought... I don't know... I thought you wouldn't want to see me again."
He looked a little surprised, going forward and gently taking her hand, placing the heart in it, his palm under hers as he watched, maybe a little sadly. "No, Bean. I.. Of course I would have wanted to see you still."
She looked up at him in surprise, her hands coming up to hold his, her heart clasped between their two palms. “I know I have a heart,” she said quietly. “But it doesn’t mean anything. We’re not so different, you and I.”
"No," she replied, her free hand coming up to cup his jaw. "Xavier, you're good. You are good, no matter what you think. You are good enough."
He watched her gently, before giving her the heart shard. His gaze was nervous. "I'll never be able to show my face in the city again."
Her whole face fell as she looked down at the shard. Her shoulders slumped and she looked up at him, her thumb brushing his cheekbone. "Why'd you have to do it, Xav?" she asked, sounding a little choked up. "I don't want you to go."
"They're really looking for you," she said slowly. "They know what you look like, Xav... I don't even know how I'm going to bring the shard back to my father without him trying to find out where you are..."
He looked thoughtful, going to speak before a sharp voice cut in. It was Scarlet. Her hood was pulled up but her eyes were bright in the dimness. "I'll turn it in."
Xavier looked over with a frown, his brows furrowing. "That's my sister. Scarlet." She approached the two of them. "I can give the shard to the guards. They'll return it without suspicion."
She looked confused, looking up at Xavier before looking over at Scarlet. "But... no. You're just going to let yourself be caught?"
