Catalyst

Chapter 25

warnings: language, violence

Chapter 25:
402 A.V; Month 11; Day 4

My sleep had been pretty black and deep. I was sure I barely even moved. I woke up still on my back, lying on top of the covers in a t-shirt and underwear. A vague memory of tearing off my pants resurfaced and I sat up. My head pounded for a moment and I laid back down, not caring what time it was. However, several minutes later, there was a raucous knocking on my door.

"Get up sleeping beauty," Priam called.

"Go away," I yelled back.

"No one told you to drink anything," he snapped, "Get up before I come in there." Not wanting him to barge in on me when I was in my underwear, I rolled out of bed.

"He's going to big bad wolf himself right into my goddamn room," I muttered, pulling on my pants. When I opened the door, Priam looked me up and down.

"You wore those clothes yesterday," he said.

"I don't know if I should be elated that you noticed what I wore yesterday or creeped out," I stated.

"Get changed," he growled and I slammed the door shut behind me.

"I'm getting in the shower," I yelled to him, thinking that it might help clear my head and I hadn't showered yesterday. I had to be presentable after all.

"Don't take too damn long, I don't want you wasting my time," he shouted back through the door.

I locked my bathroom door behind me and got in. I was just lucky the controls in the shower were pretty much the same as the showers at the UG base. After I was clean and dressed, leaving my hair down to dry, I stepped out of the room expecting Priam to be there, but he wasn't. Thankfully. It was almost noon, judging by the clock on the wall and I was still feeling a little hung over.

Priam was standing near the doorway with Jamie and Andon was milling around off to the side. Seeing Andon brought an unexpected wave of happiness, which was odd due to the amount of yelling we'd done yesterday.

"Now that you're ready, we can go," Priam muttered.

"We're not going to wait for lunch?" I asked.

"We went without lunch yesterday, Alloy. You should've been up for breakfast," Jamie said.

"Oh and now you're Priam's little minion too," I snapped, not liking the way he talked down to me. Jamie had superior moments, but he didn't purposefully say things to put me down. Then I had to allow sense to hit and remember that Jamie wasn't in control of his actions.

"Just let her eat some lunch," Andon said. The three of us looked his way as I was honestly surprised he'd said something. Priam was obviously thinking the same thing.

"You're not her trainer," Priam told Andon.

"Obviously, I am. You appointed me yesterday, remember? You can't retract things because you don't like them."

He said it with a point in Priam's direction and he'd stalled Priam just long enough for the food people to knock on the door. I glanced Andon's way, but said nothing. Why was he so keen to stick up for me all of a sudden? Priam made an annoyed noise as the food people walked by. I stepped towards Andon who looked liberated in a way.

"Normally you're not so vocal around Priam, unless you have to be," I told him. He eyed me a moment, not critically, but with a small amount of mirth.

"I told myself you wouldn't remember any of it," he said. My brain slammed on the brakes and all I could think was that I'd woken up with no pants on. I remembered taking them off, but had there been a reason? A blush crept over my face and his expression became confused.