Inbetween

23 - As the world caves in

Nicky's P.O.V.:
After that evening Leo avoided the others at all cost.
We spent most of the day just snuggling. He hugged my torso and put his head on my chest hiding his face in my oversized sweaters. The ones I still had left since he kept stealing them. Waking up next to him wearing my baggy jumpers made me grin. (He didn't mind them being way too big).
Leo barely talked, but I wasn't mad at him. His own family just turned its back on him after all. Even though I wanted them to make up again I did enjoy Leo's attention. At night we snuck out to stargaze and I taught him how to spot Orion or other stars. I told him every single greek myth about the constellations and he seemed to be interested.

"Do you believe that we will end up stars shining on the dark night sky once we perish?", Leo said one night, "So we can stay together until eternity?". Insects were buzzing in the background and the cold night breeze blew into our faces.
He turned onto his stomach so he could look at me.
Like a child he began toying around with my hair, which made me smile.
"What are you so happy about?", he said and then smiled.
"Nothing", I grinned messing with Leo.

"Did I tell you about the Lovers?"
"No", Leo replied now entwining flowers into some sort of crown fully concentrated not even glancing at me anymore.
"They say that the Lovers had to hide their love since their families were sworn enemies. But they were madly in love to the point that both committed suicide just because people wanted to tear them apart. That's when they became stars so that they would never have to leave each other's side", I continued proudly.
"Sounds like Shakespeare to me", Leo still didn't look at me once still busy trying to finish his masterpiece. I chuckled and he couldn't help it but smile.

"Even if we don't end up stars on the night sky, nothing will come between us. Not even death. After all we've already made history. We will be  remembered as the Lovers of the 21st century. Just that I will make sure you have the happy ending you well deserve. We will live in a small but cozy flat in London. Go to uni together. Travel the globe. Do all the things we never could've done. Marry and maybe even have kids. As many as you want. We will live without any bother not even our origins or roots".
Leo was now putting his flower crown onto my head and grinned.
I sat up and took his face between my hands and cupped his cheeks. He finally looked me in the eyes and pulled me in for a long and intense kiss. I could feel his smile on my lips and the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy. We then fell asleep next to each other the flower crown resting on my head.

The next day we arrived in Idris. Leo was becoming more nervous than ever. He had once mentioned his stepfather being abusive but never really talked about it. Whenever he changed or was training I saw thin almost invisible countless scars on his legs.
I wasn't going to force him to tell me what happened but I wanted to help him at all cost.
Nor Leo or the others had told Maryse and Robert about me being with them even though they might've suspected it. Apparently Robert was on a business trip so every night I snuck into Leo's room and he told me about his childhood he spent in the Lightwood manor. Those nights were my highlight of the day.

Leo's P.O.V.:
When mum first told me about the Clave's ball I opposed to the idea of actually going there.
"I'm not going", I explicitly told my mum.
"We already got you a suit and maybe you'll even make some friends. Okay hear me out. We go there and if you don't like it we will leave. Deal?", she proposed.
"Okay fine only if I get to eat all the ice cream left overs".
"They are all yours", mum smiled.

The next evening we arrived at some huge manor owned by the Clave for official meetings and charity events. It looked like some castle both from the inside and the outside. At some point I lost count of the manor's rooms. There was a huge ballroom the size of a soccer field. In the middle was room for people to dance and at the sides were many fancily set tables. The walls were covered in expensive paintings and the room's wallpaper shone brightly because of the golden details. It made me feel like royalty being there. Before arriving there my mum forced me into a fancy grey suit and a tie tuck nicely into my suit. When we were about to leave Alec tried talking to me but I didn't pay attention to him. I put the "goodie-two shoes smiles" on and mum introduced me to some old folks and like I was expected to I greeted every single person at the ball.
Every once and then people introduced girls in my age to me but I could care about them although it was quite amusing see them try to flirt on me. If I could I probably  would've put a shirt one with printed "my boyfriend" and a arrow pointed at Nicky on, but sadly Nicky wasn't present. Or at least that's what I thought for almost the whole night.