Chapter Twenty-Two #2
“I think she’s fallen asleep,” he says, quietly enough not to wake her.
“I’m not surprised, that must’ve been exhausting. I know that I’m always super tired after a flashback,” Mayhem admits.
He’s not the only one of us familiar with flashbacks.
“She obviously trusts you though, brother. She never would’ve fallen asleep on you so soon after otherwise,” Killian points out.
“I don’t deserve it.”
“No, you don’t,” Reaper says bluntly, “but you’ve got it, so don’t fuck it up, or I will eat you.” The grin he gives Storm is not pleasant at all and can only be described as a predator looking at his prey.
“I promise,” Storm sincerely replies, before looking back down at Farren, “I’m done pretending like she didn’t walk in and completely turn my world upside down, like she hasn’t had me wrapped around her finger since day one.”
“Fucking finally!” Mayhem exclaims, and then quiets as Farren shifts in Storm’s arms. “It took you fucking long enough.”
Storm’s smile is genuine as he starts to get up, managing not to jostle Farren as he does so.
“I think we’re done for classes today. Let's get Farren back upstairs.”
We all stiffly get to our feet, showing that we’ve been sitting here for a while and we’re lucky that combat class is now a three-hour lesson.
I doubt she would want anyone seeing her like this.
Actually, now that I think about it, I realise she wouldn’t want anyone to see her being carried, either.
“Storm, I don’t think we should carry her through the halls. Not only will she not like people seeing her like that, but also it could get back to the Headmaster, and who knows how he could spin it against her,” I point out.
“I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll take her in my shadows,” he says casually.
“Are you sure?” Kill asks. At the questioning looks from the rest of us, he adds, “It’s quite an intimate thing to do and leaves you vulnerable. Once you take someone in your shadows, without the intention of harming them, they’ll be able to call to them when they’re in need.”
“Wow,” Rival says, his wide eyes once again focused on Storm.
He shrugs like it’s no big deal and starts gathering the shadows around him, “She owns me anyway.”
With that prolific statement and an amused grin at the shocked looks on our faces, he lets the shadows consume him entirely as he disappears, no doubt almost to our room already.
“I’m not sure I know how to process any of this,” Mayhem admits as we all make our way out of the changing rooms as quickly as possible.
We stop at the guys changing rooms quickly to grab our stuff and then practically run to get to our room, ignoring everyone who tries to talk to us on the way.
I’m not rushing because I don’t trust Storm with her.
Nope, I’m rushing because on a typical day, I don’t like being away from her, but on a day like today, when I know she’s hurting, I fucking hate it.
I’m almost certain that the guys reasons are not dissimilar to mine.
When we get to the room, Farren is still asleep, and Storm is lying her down on the sofa.
I quickly grab a blanket as Kill steps forward and takes off her shoes, Mayhem gently moves the hair off her face, Rival strokes her cheek looking both relieved and terrified, and Reaper crouches in front of her, stares at her for a second as if to reassure himself that she’s okay and then leans forward gently kissing her on the forehead.
“Thanks, guys,” she mutters, shocking us all since we had no idea she was awake, but her breaths soon even back out, and she’s once again fast asleep.
We all settle down around her, putting the tv on low so that we can at least pretend we’re watching it and not all stuck in our own heads.
It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest when Poca appears, although he does make me jump slightly.
He whines as he sniffs her and then licks her cheek.
I still have to fight myself to stop from freaking out every time he does that because he should burn her with hellfire, but she’s never so much as winced.
He sniffs her entire body, no doubt searching for injuries and then, satisfied that she isn’t hurt, curls up on the floor beside the sofa.
“I don’t think we should ask her what it was about and what happened,” Rival suddenly says into the silence.
“No, she can tell us when she’s ready,” Kill agrees.
After that’s settled, we all watch the TV, none of us willing to move away from her.
Storm could’ve put her in her room, but like us he needed to see that she was okay too.
So far, his emotionless barrier seems to be staying down, and I’m hoping with everything I am that it stays down.
We need a leader that is capable of everything, of feeling alongside the rest of us.
With the Headmaster determined to fuck with us at every opportunity and the games quickly approaching, I truly believe that although Storm was a great leader before, with his emotions fully switched on and, more importantly showing, he will be an amazing one.
I have never doubted that he cared about us but seeing him be himself again would be amazing.
At some point, the sun goes down, and we decide to order food.
We don’t bother waking Farren, wanting her to sleep for as long as possible and hoping that the smell will wake her.
She’s so exhausted though, that she doesn’t even stir, so Mayhem wraps her plate and puts it in the cold storage in case she wants it later.
As the evening progresses, I feel my eyes get heavy.
I really should go to bed. I’m going to have one hell of a kink in my back by the morning if I stay here, but I can’t bring myself to move, and no one else does either.
My last thought before I finally succumb to sleep is that Farren has made us stronger.
She has quickly become the glue that sticks us together.
∞∞ ∞
Farren
D eja vu hits me when I’m woken up by banging on the fucking door again.
I groan as I roll over and realise that I’m not in my bed at all.
Suddenly all of the events of yesterday come rushing back, and my eyes immediately search the room for Storm.
When I find him, he’s already looking at me and smiling, a real honest to goodness fucking smile.
As I gape and his eyes become amused, which is not helping my shock because when the hell did he start showing his emotions?
He gets up, the banging still sounding in the background.
“Good morning, gorgeous. How’re you feeling?” He asks, no snark in his tone and completely ignoring the banging.
“Like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Like in that famous Earth Realm book,” I ramble.
“You’ll get used to it,” he grins.
“You mean, you showing your emotions? You’re not going to hide from me again?” Embarrassingly, there’s a thread of panic in my tone by the end of the sentence.
“I’ll never hide from you again.”
I nod, unable to get any words out, as I sit up and glance around at the rest of the guys, all spread out in the room and starting to wake up thanks to the incessant banging.
“They didn’t want to leave you,” Storm explains, “I better get that.”
Then shocking the shit out of me, he dips and gently kisses my forehead.
My eyes don’t leave him as he strides towards the door, by the time he gets there, his mask is back in place, but he doesn’t seem as tense as he has been since I’ve known him.
I swear if he doesn’t drop that bloody thing again, I will make him somehow.
“What!” He barks, pulling open the door and then adds, “Sorry, Magnus, you woke us.”
“The Headmaster has managed to go above me and everyone else who disapproved of sending you out again so soon,” Magnus rushes out.
Storm sighs heavily, “When?”
“Now.”
“What the fuck, you have to be fucking kidding me!” Loki grumbles.
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do. He was insistent that you went out today,” Magnus’s worry is obvious.
“Okay, don’t worry, we’ll sort it. Thanks,” Storm says, closing the door.