KINETIC

When Leo reached the door to leave the room, he could see that Rene was on her knees on the floor.

Leo bent down and picked her up, holding her in a princess carry while he walked out the room. He didn't say anything to anyone, he just walked away.

The others didn't know what to do. They knew that Leo had stopped because of what Snythe had said and they were feeling guilty about being the reason Leo couldn't punish Trent.

Leo was quite a distance down the hallway with Rene before any of them started following behind him.

Leo approached his rooms door, but because he was holding Rene, he couldn't open it. "Would you please open the door for me?" Leo asked her.

Rene reached out for the door handle but hesitated, she was still in shock from everything that had happened, and although Leo had saved her, she was afraid he might take advantage of her, or potentially hurt her in some way.

She was afraid, not because of who Leo was or what she thought of him. She was simply in state of mind that prevented her from easily trusting someone else.

Leo could see the worry on her face, "You don't have to worry. I won't let anyone hurt you. You're safe with me until you feel well enough to go back to your own room and friends." Leo said while attempting to force a friendly smile.

Rene believed Leo's words somewhat, and knew that she shouldn't have anything to worry about from him. His smile was clearly forced and she could tell... the anger in his eyes was still there.

Rene reached forwards slowly and opened the door. Leo walked into the room with her in his arms and closed the door behind him using his foot. Clay, Cain and John took this as a sign that Leo wanted to be left alone. Or as alone as he could be, since Rene was with him.

Leo's room had been mostly fixed, except the dent in the wall, just like Clay said. There were some improvements as well.

Leo still had his bath, bed and desk in the room, but now there was a white L shaped couch and some single chairs in the right corner closest to the door.

Leo took a moment to take everything in. He was surprised by the couch being there but he got over his surprise rather quickly and walked towards it, placing Rene down on it.

Leo then sat down next to her and leaned back. ~Sigh~ Leo let his head lie back on the backrest, making it so he was looking up at the ceiling.

"Thank you."

Leo heard the voice coming from his left. He looked towards Rene and could see that she had tears in her eyes.

"They said t-that I shouldn't have h-helped you... That I w-was getting in their way." Rene said amidst sobs while burying her face in her hands.

"You don't need to thank me. You should never have been put in that situation in the first place. Besides, you saved me first. Thank you for that." Leo gave her a genuine smile this time.

His anger was fading, mostly because Rene was taking his mind off everything. He was still in a bad mood about everything, but not as bad as before.

At first Leo was angry that Trent had sent those people after him, but after he metered the room... His anger was mostly directed towards what they were doing to her.

Now that she was safe, Leo's anger was slowly fading away. Not all of it though, only most.

"Anybody would have done the same." Rene replied. Her crying had mostly stopped now, she too was calming down.

For Rene, the shock of what had happened was starting to wear off and she was feeling very grateful towards Leo for helping her. This is what allowed her to start calming down as well.

"I'm not so sure about that... There's plenty of people who would ignore others suffering if it didn't give them some kind of gain."

There was a period of silence until Leo spoke again, "How did they get you into their room?" Leo asked.

"They grabbed me in front of... In front of my friends..." Rene said, her tears returned for a moment when she repeated the last part.

"They didn't do anything when you were taken?"

"They acted like nothing happened. They didn't try to stop them or even say anything in protest. They just let them take me..." Rene started crying again at this point.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but like I said, without anything to gain, most people won't lift a finger to help others. Clearly those people aren't your real friends..." Leo said while shaking his head.

There was silence again and only after about a minute did Leo ask, "Are they your roommates as well?"

Rene nodded. She was still crying, but not the type of crying where there's alot of sobbing, it was a silent cry, the type where you haven't got the energy to do anything but feel pain.

"I see. Well I won't send you back to their room just so they can allow you to be taken or hurt again in the future." Leo said.

Rene looked up at Leo with a look of confusion on her face. "What do you mean? There's nothing that can be done, I've already heard that others tried to change rooms and weren't able to get approval. The only way is to become an assistant or ranker."

"That may be true for most, but I'm sure I can figure something out. I do have the most authority within this building, apart from Lieutenant Anders that is. But He's never here."

"But what can you do about it... I don't want to force others to change roommates because of me."

Leo smiled. 'She a kind person. Worrying about others instead of herself. It's a trait I admire in people... but unfortunately, it can lead to self ruin.'

"I'll have a new room constructed, right next to mine. That way you won't have any roommates like those ever again, and nobody could hurt you with me around." Leo proposed his solution.

"Really, you would do that for me?" Rene was baffled. She had met Leo less than an hour ago if you exclude the time that she had healed him. 'Why would he go to all this trouble for me?' she asked herself.

"Sure, why not? You're in this situation because of me, so it's only right I help make things better." Leo said while shrugging his shoulders.

"Thank you so much." Rene gave Leo a big smile, it was the first time Leo had seen her smile.

She was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair that reached the small of her back. Her eyes were a deep blue colour and she was 1.65 meters tall.

'She's quite a good looking girl.' Leo thought. Leo was currently feeling something he had never felt before. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but it was a strange feeling.

~Cough~ Leo cleared his throat and his mind with a cough. "Until your room is ready, you can stay here in my room, that should be fine right?" Leo suggested.

Leo's face was feeling kind of hot, but he didn't know why. It was only happening whenever he looked at Rene.

"What? You want me to share a room with you?!" Rene asked, her eyes opening wide in shock before she turned her face away and covered it with her hands. Her cheeks could be seen turning red.