Always Forever (Catradora)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Xeva

"Okay... It's okay.." Xeva muttered to himself, pacing throughout the corridors of the crystallized castle they all currently resided within. His ears twitched nervously as he bit his lip, repeatedly trying to convince himself that things were going how they were supposed to.

He paused in front of the door that led to his mother's room, allowing himself to stare in a bit of a silence as his thoughts began to overtake his mind... he honestly hadn't been expecting this all to happen so quickly. He wasn't even sure how he felt about the whole situation; his thoughts kept clouding his brain, with his emotions smothering every sense he had once had. There was this undeniable presence of a feeling he couldn't truly understand...

He felt...

Bad.

Sighing, Xeva ran a hand through his hair absently, about to walk away from his mother's room when his ears perked up slightly. It was quiet, almost nonexistent, but Xeva could hear it nonetheless. His body immediately tensed up, his teeth digging into his lip as he gnawed absently at the skin that resided there. He wished to retreat to the depths of the castle, dipping into the shadows and becoming nothing more than a memory to the people around him... but he couldn't.

Instead, he slowly shifted his weight to his other leg as he turned his body towards the person who had decided to approach him. He could feel himself shrink back at the sight of him, his ears flattening as he did so. His presence alone made him extremely uneasy... his eyes narrowed as the other came to a halt in front of him. For a moment, there was a silence between the two.

Zell allowed his robes to shift slightly as a grin began to spread its way across his lips. The silence only seemed to grow as Xeva stared at the other, not daring to break eye contact.

Finally, Zell seemed to decide upon the words he planned to use to speak to the other. "You did well completing your mission..." he hummed, almost in a cheerful manner, taking Xeva by surprise. He wasn't there to yell at him? Something didn't feel right.

Instead of answering, Xeva watched the other in silence, his tail flicking back and forth as his mind whirled with different ways to respond... all colliding and interjecting each other with different possibilities and outcomes to what he said. The thoughts themselves gave Xeva no room to breathe, threatening to take over his senses the moment he let his guard down... threatening to break into a rage that would result in his downfall. Instead, Xeva allowed a calming breath to travel throughout his body, deepening before floating out of him aimlessly.

Then, he decided he was ready to reply. "Thank you sir, I appreciate your acknowledgments," he replied tautly, his tone even and void of emotion as Zell nodded slowly in response. His yellow eyes seared into Xeva, chewing away at his nerves and his muscles... as if daring him to move without them. Daring him to make a simple mistake. Xeva could only imagine what was traveling through the other's brain at the moment... Probably nothing but hunger...

It was all he knew.

Xeva blinked slightly, realizing that his arm was raised in a salute... an action he couldn't recall making himself. His lips threatened to twitch downwards, but he kept them still in fear of a consequence from the action.

Zell himself seemed to be in a state of deep thought... tossing around different ideas and plans of how to speak to his son without ever truly figuring out the right way to do so. How could he know, after all? He'd never truly been a father to anyone... it wasn't in his list of things he'd done or planned to do. Xeva's gaze was set as Zell blinked absently at him, before biting his lip as he chewed on it.

"You are to keep an eye on Catrina whenever I am not around her. Do not let her wander off or do anything I wouldn't permit," Zell commanded, his eyes setting icily on Xeva. His hands clenched as he spoke, catching Xeva's gaze as he could see the other clench and unclench them repeatedly. Xeva's face stayed stoic, his eyes shifting carefully as he allowed a sigh to reach his lips.