The Leviathan's Rose

Chapter 13 - An Idea

a/n Hey look I had time to update!

You aren't failing us by taking care of yourself, don't forget that. 

Lottie's words had been turning in Jamie's head for a while. He wasn't able to focus in any of his classes because of it. The memory of Lottie's warm hands still ghosted over his. 

He was afraid. 

He always put Ellie before him his entire life. When Lottie first came into the picture, she was also supposed to put 
Ellie before her. He and Lottie were supposed to put their energy towards Ellie. Not each other. So why was it so easy for both of them to become intertwined with each other in a way neither quite understood?

Jamie lazily ran his hand over Vampy's soft fur. The black cat purred and stretched with the action. Raphael was with him in his room, flipping through some old fairy tale books Lottie had lent Jamie a while back on his bed. 

"I didn't know you could be so affectionate with cats." Raphael commented, his ringers skimming the edges of one of the pages. 

Jamie's weary eyes looked up at his friend. 

"I wouldn't call it affection." Jamie mumbled. He knew it was a lie. He'd been taught as a partizan that actions of affection left a window of vulnerability open. I'm just petting a cat, that's all. 

Raphael scoffed. "But you're so gentle with him. It's cute." 

Jamie flushed from the comment. 

"All I'm doing is petting a cat." Jamie said, continuing to stroke Vampy's soft fur. Vampy's green eyes closed in delight. 

Raphael rested his chin in his palm. Grinned wryly. 

"You also walk down a hallway like a normal person and still have people swoon over you." he said teasingly. 

Jamie averted his eyes from Raphael and picked Vampy up to cradle the creature in his sinewy arms. The cat purred. 

"They do not swoon."

"Oh shut up! They so do!" Raphael's eyes were about to bulge out of his head.  "Take one look up from your schoolwork sometime and count how many people are already looking at you." he laughed. 

Jamie rolled his eyes and played with Vampy's paws. Raphael's laughter soon dimmed down, leaving them both swimming in a comfortable silence. 

Jamie had invited Raphael to his room for some company. He considered talking to Saskia, partizan to partizan, about what taking a break would be like. But if he was being honest with himself, he didn't want to talk to someone who knew all of the major consequences. Not yet at least. He wanted a friend. 

"Hey Raph, can I ask you a question?" Jamie asked warily. 

"Shoot." 

"Well," Jamie started, keeping his shaking hands busy by messing with the fur on Vampy's belly. "What do you think about breaks?" 

Raphael quirked an eyebrow. "Like Christmas break coming up soon or relationship breaks?" 

Jamie sighed. "Like a break from.. everything. From school and work and...everything." 

"Oh I do those all the time. I call them naps. You don't have to commit to anything when you take a nap."

"No," Jamie said. "I mean real breaks."

Raphael's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Like a vacation?"

Jamie groaned. "I don't want a vacation- I'm not talking about a vacation!" 

Raphael held his hands up defensively. "Okay, okay, I understand. Just- let me get this straight. So you are thinking about taking a break-"

"-Not entirely,"

"Let me finish what I was saying. You are thinking of taking a break, but not a vacation, right?"

Jamie nodded begrudgingly. 

"So what you need to do and find a time for it. But it might be hard to convince Professor Devine to let you take time off when Christmas break is already coming up- hey! Maybe you and I can go to my house in LA then!" 

Jamie scrunched his nose. "I don't know. Los Angeles is so far away from here. I'd rather stay closer to Lottie- and Ellie." 

He was embarrassed to admit that he was only really thinking of Lottie instead of Ellie first. 

Raphael shrugged. "Understandable. I mean the flights are long but when you're on a private jet that's comfortable it's not so bad." 

"I know what a private jet is like Raph." Jamie mumbled. 

"I know, I know. But I'm just saying that maybe a new place to travel too might be what you need. One summer I absolutely could not stand being at home or any of my parents vacation homes. So my solution to that was a trip to Germany! And guess what! By the time I got back, I felt more refreshed than I ever had."

Jamie turned the thought through his head. Even if he did go to Los Angeles with Raphael, he'd be a continent away from Lottie and Ellie. If he brought them with him, he'd only be doing the complete opposite of what he intended to do in the first place. But did he really need to leave Rosewood Hall for a break? Couldn't he just stay there and keep a close eye just in case? 

Jamie sighed heavily, his chest collapsing with the action. 

"I want to be close to Rosewood but at the same time I don't." 

Raphael hummed. Jamie watched as the gears turned in his head before a light bulb went off. 

"Maybe you can get a single room!" he exclaimed. 

Blank eyes fell upon the overly enthusiastic boy. 

"Raph I already live in a single room. I only roomed with Percy for one year." 

Raphael waved his hand dismissively, batting away Jamie's drawl.

"No, no, not a room here. I'm talking about the single rooms like the ones I've been staying in. They're still on Rosewood Hall campus, but they aren't attached to the actual dormitories. At first they were built for the absolute off chance that there weren't enough rooms for students. Sometimes when students need to... recover," The word seemed sour in Raphael's mouth. "They go in those rooms. It's so that they can have space and privacy. A lot of kids go there when they get injured. You know, a broken leg, things like that."

What Raphael was suggesting didn't seem too bad. It wasn't a bad idea. 

"You know what Raph, you're not half bad at this."

"At what?" he asked dumbly. 

"At being a friend." Jamie said truthfully. A friend, not another partizan, but a friend. Just what Jamie needed. 

Without realizing it, Jamie's brain had made a connection between Haru and Raphael back in Japan.

Maybe I should talk to Haru about this too.