𝕱𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖑𝖞 𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊 - a Leo Valdez slowburn

Chapter seven

Chapter seven. 

[Aiden is a straight-A idiot]

"Funny how

the world could be ending

and I could feel like everything was great

simply because of a single smile."

Many things will stay a blur for Leah from the last few days. She did remember that she'd met Aiden on the thirtieth of March. She also remembered that she had blacked out at least three times studying with him. And lastly, she remembered that she was attacked by a soul-sucking demon called a Sluagh because she had a deathly aura. Yeah. That didn't sound like the best experience, or good news in general.

She and Aiden had researched as to why the Sluagh would attack her, and what the "deathly aura" meant, but there wasn't any information they could use and could access. Maybe there was a whole library on the subject, but that didn't mean there was anything valuable about it on the internet. The closest Aiden got to finding about it was an anti-depressant they could pick up tomorrow if they ordered it before eleven PM today. Needless to say, that wasn't what they were looking for. 

Leah reassumed her position on the couch after getting coffee for her and Aiden, something that had become quite the habit the past few days. 

"So..." Aiden looked up at her, who was currently sitting on the floor while he sipped his coffee. He raised an eyebrow. "So, what?" he imitated. Leah shook her head. "So," she started again, "when are we leaving?" Aiden let out a small sigh. "Ah, yes." He frowned. "Well, you wanna leave tomorrow? Your uncle should be coming back any day now, if I'm correct." Leah tapped the red pencil on her chin. After some hesitation, she nodded. She brought out the map that they'd drawn their route on. 

"So, quick rerun." She stopped for a few seconds before continuing. "We take the train to London, then go through the underwater Tunnel, whatever you call it, to Amsterdam." That earned a grumble, and eventually a little nod from Aiden. He took off where she stopped, shuffling closer to her. 

"Then we take the train to Paris, because we thrive off capital cities and I desperately want to see the Eiffel tower." That earned an appreciative hum from Leah. "Yeah, same, to be honest. I'd love to practice my French." Aiden raised an eyebrow. "You speak French?" he asked incredulously. Leah chuckled. "Yeah, don't seem like the most academic person, right?" She shook her head. "Reason I love my mom; she actually cared about my education, something the American school system clearly did not." She sighed, then picked up the pace. "Let's continue."

Aiden nodded. "Well," he restarted, "once we've passed Paris, we go through to South-East France to Italy, pass through Milan, then Venice-" he paused a bit to take a breath. "And after Italy we travel through Austria, Hungary, and then we advance to Romania, with our first stop being Oradea." 

Oradea was a Romanian city on the border of Hungary. The reason Leah and Aiden picked that particular city was that it was big, both economically and physically. They would then from there on go to Transylvania and scout over there. Aiden tapped the red pencil against his chin. "And where does the newcomer come in place?" he asked Leah. She sighed, threw her head back against the back rest. 

"I thought, 'hey, the Fates must force them to find us, right?' and then I ignored that someone new had to join our little group." Aiden chuckled. "Yeah, sounds like the idiotic thing you'd do." "Hey!" Leah hit him softly with the by now rolled up map, but she couldn't keep a smile from curving onto her face.