5. Found You

So Scarlett lost herself, but Dalton transformed some on his own.
He watched her, sometimes, read in on the things she said, if only to make sure she was doing okay. So he noticed something about her, she was different. Scarlett was brutal, yet gentle. Sarcastic, stubborn, and a fighter, but she would never attack first. She did so much for everyone around her and asked for nothing in return, at least, she never asked for it up front. Dalton didn’t know how he felt about this, but he got along with her well enough. She was intelligent, she had intriguing ideas, and she was refreshing.
She was Scarlett.
That was the problem and the solution. This girl, plain, not stunningly attractive but not hideous, either, sad and tormented and misunderstood. She cried for him, longed for him, loved him like no other woman he had ever known before.
Dalton always felt rough around the edges, he knew he was creepy and undesirable, certainly nothing more than friend material, but wasn’t that was Scarlett was?
So he would just watch her, paying attention to her words even though they were never directed at him. (She kept those private.)
Then one day it happened. He loved her back, and he didn’t know why, but he didn’t care. He just wanted her to be safe, and to be happy.