4. Trent Phoebe{ManxMan}

•Prologue

They were all in my room, I didn't even know why or who decided that my room was a base of operations but it just was.

I looked up from my video game, Danielle and Travis were arguing, again. Kathryn was sharpening a blade from the floor, her hair tied back and looking pleased with the gleam of it as she held it up to inspect it. Xavier was on my bed, minding his business in silence, staring at a book.

Danielle wore jean shorts and Travis was pointing at them irritated.

"You can't just wear my things, Dany!"

"You haven't worn them in a year, why does it matter?" Danielle folded her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes.

I looked at Travis, his upper lip covered his bottom lip and from that alone I knew he was about to lie. I smirked and shook my head looking back at my game.

Two more people walked in and I had to look up, Marshall sat beside Kathryn and the two now inspected her various blades I hadn't noticed earlier and Scoot sat beside Xavier who scowled and moved away. Scoot followed grinning until he was also on the floor, huffing and deciding to put on his headphones and listen to music.

I really don't know who decided that my room was a place open to all. It was at this moment I decided to put down my game and go do something I'd been pondering the whole week.

Pushing my chair to turn to my desk, I charged my device and gathered some papers, checking they were the right ones I moved to leave.

"Where're you going?" My hand was on the door frame and I turned with wide eyes as my siblings all stared at me along with Marshall. Scoot was in his own world, making webs of fire in the air as his whole body emerged itself in music.

"Uh- library?"

"Why? Is there an assignment I forgot?" Dany moved towards me aiming to grab my papers and I held them up, being 15, the girl was obsessed with her grades and nobody knew but us.

I grinned down at her pouting face. "You and I both know, that I'm never up to date with such things."

"Then?" She glanced at my papers and Travis rushed over, I was quick and moved out of the room and away from him.

"Gaming stuff, don't worry about it." I walked away before they could stop me.

"What kind of game involves paper and a library?" I heard Travis muttering.

"No clue."

I made my way to the library, passing a few pack members and Claude who ruffled my hair and gave me a lollipop, he looked like he was about to go gossip and the lollipop was a bribe. I rolled my eyes and got to my destination.

Most of my life, anyone whose anyone would tell you how quiet I was, and alot of it had to do with how good of a listener I could be.

My face hidden in a game allowed for my presence to go unnoticed and for people to be free enough to say whatever they wanted to say without fear of being interrupted, and I liked to listen more than I liked to talk.

My affinity to listening meant that I knew, from a very long time how a story only ever could be understood by others as deeply as they understood themselves.

I got to the shelf his book was on and skimmed my finger along the edge, his name in bold calling out to me. I wondered for a moment if this time would be different, if perhaps I should try to open it and found my doubts clouding my mind once again.

I held onto my papers and thought of my uncle. My siblings would follow me soon enough anyway and this way they wouldn't know where I was. I took a lap randomly around the library to confuse them a bit, walked into the hall and entered a few rooms, laughing at the image of Travis trying to scent my whereabouts before I went back to the library and jumped out the window.

I landed in a crouch, blowing some of my hair out of my eyes, a few pack members paused to stare at me wide eyed.

"There's a door, you know that, right?" A pack member, Tom noted pointing to the direction of it and I chuckled feeling my neck grow hot.

"Yes, yes there is." I nodded firmly and we stared at one another, blinking in our obvious awkwardness and I turned and headed for the trees.

I cleared my throat and sighed hoping he was there.

I arrived at the cabin that had flowers of Blues and pink drawing the outline of the place and a man, humming and kneeling in his garden.

"Uncle Theo?"

His long white hair was tied in a pony tail, four braids along the sides of his head leading to the tie and he smiled, his grey eyes glinting in the light.

"Hey, is everything okay?" He glanced at the forgotten pages in my hand and I brought them up with a shy chuckle.

"Uh, yeah, I was wondering if you'd help me with something?"

"If it's homework," he made a cringing face and I smiled. "I must remind you that I did school like, thousands of years ago."

I chuckled and shook my head, before getting closer to him and kneeling.

"No, nothing like that," I assured him and pursed my lips then feeling all kinds of butterflies in my stomach. "Uh, it's for history," I recited my practiced speech to him. "We're asked to dig into the past of our families, focus on someone's past and write an essay about it."

Theo blinked and looked at the pages I had with various questions. He took them slowly. "Oh."

"I was hoping to do it on my dad."

"I see." I felt like a potato suddenly lodged itself into my throat at his response. "I don't know if any of what I have to say would answer some of these, but-" he looked at me and grinned before shifting to sit cross legged and facing me. "-how about it?"

He held his hands out and I stared for a minute unable to grasp how my little white lie had worked. I quickly moved to sit like him and I slowly slide his hands onto his. Our palms were warm and I smiled shyly at how big his hands were compared to mine.

"I hope you understand that, I can only show you how I saw him and what I know the way I know it," his gaze was warm and kind. "It does not always mean it is fact."

I smiled and nodded feeling ready.

And that was when I asked him to then teach me how to fight with a sword because of everything he'd shown me, the more my desire to know a man whose image in my mind was slowly fading and with each picture left behind, the closer I longed to be to him.

A\N
Written: 26 January 2022