Inbetween

14 - A feeling like I belonged in his arms

Nicky's P.O.V.:
Just when I thought it couldn't get worse after meeting Leo in some corner of his mind, it just got worse. I woke up to a flame flickering in front of me and eventually vanishing leaving a piece paper behind. To communicate with each other Shadowhunters send fire messages. Basically some messed up rune stuff.
My parents, my dad to be specific, had prohibited any kind of contact with others, but they didn't think of that. If they found out they would've punished me.
The note said in a cursive, swift handwriting:

Dear Nicolás, I presume,
I am writing you to talk about the matter of Leo's wellbeing. As you might've already heard of, Leo, my brother, got attacked by a greater demon. Matter of fact is that he got gravely injured on both physical and psychological basis. I think it's for both your best, that you instantaneously come to the Institute of the Upper East Side. In fact it's only of your concern and responsibility to talk things through with him or at least end things well for his sake. I take that Leo probably has to fully recover first, but both of you can't avoid this matter forever. Please keep in mind, that Leo is unstable right now and couldn't take any other loss. Consider his feelings as well. So I dearly recommend coming here when both you and Leo are ready. I will be awaiting you here.
yours dearly,
Alec Lightwood.
P.S.: I presume that there are going to be complications. If that's the case, I won't hesitate taking full responsibility and talking things through with your legal guardians and the Clave itself.

Quite shocking, isn't it? Caught me off guard.
He didn't demand for me to end things with Leo, but it sure seemed like he thought of it as the best way for the both of us. That concerned me the most for the couple of days following. I definitely didn't want to finish what had barely started, but was thinking that way selfish? Maybe. Would breaking up be better? Who knows. But what I know is that neither him nor me would take it well. Leo would shatter and I would probably too. After thinking  about it over and over again I went to the library to get my mind somewhere else. But after staring at the same page for almost 15 minutes straight I put the book down and left.  To get my mind clear I used to sit under that tall, old oak in front of our mansion on that huge meadow. And so I did. It was a sunny morning. My sisters were homeschooled, but I wasn't allowed to have any interaction with them. That sucked pretty bad. I missed them. I missed reading books with them or playing hide and seek in the huge mansion. If I could I would've drawn them, but father thought of art as something unnecessary.

The next days I spent most of the time at the oak reading a book until that day. I went back in for lunch when father stood in the library with my mum and Juliette. My mum sat next to my father expressionless. In her eyes was a sad look, almost as if she felt sorry for me. My mum avoided eye contact and stared at her feet. She wore a beautiful,
ocean-blue silk suit. Juliette on the other hand stood next to father. Her hand laying on fathers shoulder. Wearing the same uniform as always she pierced me with complete coldness. She almost smiled in amusement.

"Your dear sister told us about the "letters" you recently got', father said pronouncing ever single word. Father sat on his leathery chair. Leo's brother's  letter laid on his desk.
"You are a disgrace to our family thinking you could just escape from your own folks, your own blood. This will have consequences. Tomorrow you'll be sent off to your grandparents. Your grandfather will teach you manners and discipline you. At the beginning we allowed it. We thought every teenage boy would go through hormonal changes and might think such disgraceful thoughts. But we don't accept this!", he said slamming his hand on the wooden table. Juliette now definitely smiled.
"Go pack your things. Tomorrow at 6 a.m sharp. You aren't worthy our family heirloom. You'll give us your stele and sword. Now out of my sight", father continued coldly.

Back in my room I walked up and down thinking about an escape attempt, but couldn't come up with something. Then someone knocked at my door.
It was my sister Louise and our head-maiden Antoinette. Antoinette was the dearest person I've ever met. She always gave us sweets behind her back even though father had forbidden any kind of candy.
Louise jumped right at me almost strangling me.
We hadn't seen each other for years after all.
"You two shouldn't be here. What are you doing? Father won't make exceptions".
"Pack your things. Tonight. Pierre will drive to Paris to deliver news from father. He'll take you with him. Reach the portal and don't get caught. Don't worry, we've got your back", Louise said smiling.
"He loves you, Nicky. Don't you dare do something you'll regret afterwards. Now hurry, he'll be leaving in 2 hours", she continued and smiled even brighter.
"Don't f*ck it up, dumbass. Else I won't cover you anymore", Louise finally said messing up my hair and eventually left with Antoinette right at her heels.

I eventually got to Paris with my duffle bag full of handy stuff. I managed to sneak into the Louvre and took the portal. And there it was, Liberty Island. Due to the time zones, I arrived in New York when it was barely early afternoon. After looking at the Statue of Liberty carefully I got onto a ferry and landed somewhere in Manhattan.
A cab left me in front of an old church. It was an abandoned ruin. Wooden, rusty doors. Huge very detailed windows made out of thin glass. And the stone dirty and old. I turned around on myself a couple of times wondering if the coordinates I had been given were wrong.

I got closer to the entry and was about to knock when second thoughts came up.
What if he didn't want to see me? What if Alec was right and I should end things for good? I shook my head after an inner discussion and I was about to really knock, but the door opened from itself and Leo was right in front of me. Our noses where almost touching. I caught him off guard. He was giggling until he saw me. His smiled vanished and left a confused gaze. I got all read and butterflies in my stomach were going crazy. Leo immediately backed off.

"N-Nicky?That you?", he said and his smile reappeared. He hugged me tightly and all the doubt went away leaving behind only a feeling like I belonged in his arms.

Author's note:
Hi again <3
sorry it took so long, hope it's ok.
Tell us what you think about this chapter in the comments and feel free to vote/follow!
we have holidays now so we will write more hopefully XD
bye until the next chapter :D
Ps.: we're sorry this chapter is a bit floppy but we kind of lost the motivation haha