commander

nina

Nala

I slept well, my body tired from last night. My leg ached the way a sore muscle would, not a stabbed muscle. My shoulder hurt, though, because I laid on it all night.

Torra was up before me. He was gone when I had waken up, a note left in his wake. I'll be back with breakfast soon. Don't get up. If that wasn't an invitation, I don't know what was.

I got up, walking slowly at first, then normally with a heavy limp. I made it to the bookshelf and back, at least twenty feet. I also looked through his closet, which I could walk into. He had lots of blouses, most of the same style. Some were embellished with embroidery for special occasions. Some were hung with jackets, embellished with the same patterns. They seemed so extravagant, especially for Torra.

The door creaked behind me, Torra running and scooping me up from the ground. "I told you don't get up! It couldn't be any more clear!" Torra was mad, but still in awe that I could stand and walk.

He walked me out of the closet and spun me around. I was so scared as his hands slipped on my thigh I almost choked him. "Torra!" I squealed until he let me down on the bed. "It's too early for this!" I complained as I sat on the bed, only bandages covering my chest. "Can we go to my room? I want clothes." I shivered as cold winter air seeped into me.

"Andi's here. She'll take what you will want." Torra placed the plate of food in front of me. "Eat. You'll need energy. Aurora called a meeting." Torra grabbed a brush and started to fix my hair.

"About what?"

"She wants to keep her power." Torra started braiding my hair. It felt nice to have his hands in my hair in such a casually intimate way.

I forgot. I had everything now. While I was dying and fucking, everything was mine. "Oh God." I started panicking. My hands shook, my legs tightening with fear. What if I wasn't good? What if there was civil war? What if.....anything? 

I pulled my legs in, my brain muting pain in my leg. I rocked back and forth, Torra trying to take control over my reality again.

"Nala!" His voice was blurred, the sound echoing in my brain. "It's okay, love. It's okay, Nala." Torra hand given me space to breath, but he pulled my body into his, his hands holding my naked body against him. "Nala. It's me, love. You're okay." Torra kissed my neck, the only space he could reach.

"It's you." I whispered to myself. "It's Torra." I held tight to his arm around me, holding on for dear life.

"This is the second time in a week. And you've barely been awake this past week." Torra kissed me, my shoulders, my neck, my ear. "I would like you to talk to someone. Your mother, mine, Andi, Angelica, even me. Anybody." Torra clung to me tightly. "I hate seeing you like that. I want to do something, but  you haven't told me."

I wanted to cry. I was scared during these episodes, but who knows what he saw me doing. I could look crazy. Or like death. I scared him and hurt him. "I'm sorry." I teared up and hugged him, my eyes creating a wet patch on his shirt.

"Don't be sorry. Just get better, feel better. I don't like these episodes." Torra kissed my hair, making me feel better with his touch. "We do need to go, though. I'll call for Andi." Torra got up and went out the door, yelling for a messenger. I laid on the bed on my side, touching my fingertips together in a rhythmic pattern to calm down.

Torra sat on the bed next to me, running his hand over my skin. A knock rattled the room, Andi signifying her presence. Torra stripped his jacket off and laid it on my naked lower half. Andi pulled a rack of clothing, all of it mine. Sasha carried a chest of other things, who knows what. Andi pushed the cart against the wall and Sasha dropped the chest right next to it. While their backs were turned, I pulled the covers over me.