The Survivor (Book 2)

Chapter 24

Jacob shuffled into the living room early the next morning, yawning and running a hand through his wild hair. He screamed upon seeing me sitting at the kitchen counter.

“Morning, sleeping beauty,” I set the sword down for the first time in the past twelve hours at least. “Told you I had to protect you.”

He blinked at me for a solid minute. “Is…Is Zack…?”

I nodded, frowning. “He left after you were already asleep.”

“Why do you have a sword?” he dragged his feet into the kitchen and dug around in the fridge for breakfast. “Are you my knight in shining armor?”

“Oh, humans,” I spun around on the stool, clutching the sword in one hand and dragging the tip across my lower lip. “You left behind some of the greatest weapons to exist, you know.”

“I didn’t,” Jacob chuckled and put waffles in a small toaster. “Want some?”

“Yes, please,” I set the sword back down, hopping off the barstool.  “Okay. Today we collect samples. Tomorrow we take you home. Then Beings go back to their world for a while to let things simmer down, and we’ll come back to Earth to be helpful again.”

“Wait,” Jacob poured two glasses of orange juice, placing one in my hands. “Humans won’t like your reinvasion.”

“It’s not a reinvasion if we created it,” I rolled my eyes. “And we all know you need our help.”

“I didn’t say we didn’t,” he shrugged and put more waffles in the toaster. “I just said they wouldn’t be happy. They’re complicated.”

I laughed quietly, and the human frowned at me. “Nothing,” I shook my head. He continued to frown at me, though. “I think it’s cute that you switch back and forth between the pronouns they and we.”

“I like playing pretend when I can always be something better,” he gave me a plateful of waffles, and I dug around to dress them to my liking. “And you guys are way better than just humans.”

“Yeah, but without humans, we wouldn’t survive.”

“But who wants to be the sidekick when you can be the badass superhero?” Jacob smirked. “You look tired, Treble. Do you want to sleep…in…?” he pointed back toward his room, and I quickly shook my head. “I didn’t mean it like that. Just…You’re tired, and there’s a bed…Literally right there.”

I sighed, “After I eat, and only for an hour. Eros won’t be up for hours anyway.”

Jacob nodded and sat down next to me with a higher stack of waffles. He went to town, devouring them like a twelve year-old boy. I giggled softly at the sight, and he nearly spit out his food as he laughed. “I’m hungry!” he defended after he swallowed a mouthful. “When I get hungry, I eat like a barbarian.”

I laughed quietly, finishing off my orange juice and throwing away the paper plate. I made it around the counter and most of the way through the living room with my sword in hand, when I decided to have a bit of fun with the human.

Jacob frowned at me when I turned around. “Please don’t hack me to bits.”

“I won’t,” I rolled my eyes. “I want you to hold this,” I held out the sword for him. He grabbed the hilt, dropping the blade straight into the wooden floor. Course, Aragon was a different world, and the floor healed instantly. “That’s adorable,” I giggled as I watched him struggle to lift the thing. I grabbed the sword from him, “All right, kelp-for-brains, put it down before you hurt yourself.”

“Kelp-for-brains?”

“That’s something Zack said to me the first time I picked up a sword,” I smiled at the memory that felt like millennia ago. “He was showing off.”