Catalyst

Chapter 35

warnings: language, violence

Chapter 35:
402 A.V; Month 11; Day 14

There was knocking on the outside door, not the bedroom door. It roused me out of sleep about the same time Andon sat up as well, looking confused.

"I'll give you one guess," he grumbled and pulled himself up. It most definitely wasn't Priam. It could've been Sabre or it could've been anyone else. I pulled myself up too and walked out behind Andon. When he opened the door I was surprised to see my brother standing there.

"Did I interrupt your beauty sleep?" he asked Andon in a bored tone.

"You interrupted mine," I stated as Andon let him in. Jamie looked at us both in our disorganized sleepy states and then his eyes focused on something behind Andon. As Jamie frowned and folded his arms over his chest, I realized he'd looked at the empty wine bottle.

"We're adults," I said, because Jamie was about to say something, "He didn't get me drunk or force me to drink anything." Jamie's expression softened just a bit, but not much.

"I just came to see how you were doing. It seems you're doing just fine," Jamie stated.

"You could've stopped by to check on me in the hospital," I muttered.

"I knew you weren't going to die and that it'd do me good not to see you in a hospital bed, but like you are now, like you always have been." He gave me a cold look and turned away. Both Andon and I let him go.

"Why even bother trying to act like he cares?" I mumbled.

"I think he does care, Alloy, and I think he's trying to protect you in some way, but it's all wrong." I turned to him with half a grin.

"Your efforts to protect me at first weren't too logical either." He gave me a frown.

"Logic isn't at the front of someone's mind when they are protecting someone they care about, Alloy."

"I know," I told him, stepping close, "How about we lay down for a couple more hours."

"You do have to fight this evening," Andon said, "I would like to make sure that you're healthy."

"Cuddling with you would keep me healthy," I told him, wrapping my arms around his neck, "A couple more hours won't hurt anything." He smiled.

"Of course," he said and guided me with an arm back to the bedroom.

I was able to go back to sleep, but when I was in lighter states of sleep; I could feel him moving around. Finally I sat up and looked over at him. He was lying on his side, facing away from me, but felt me sit up and peeked at me over his shoulder.

"Sorry," he said quietly, "I should probably just get up."

"You're fine," I murmured, brushing hair out of my face, "If it helps, you could cook me something." He grinned and pulled himself up.

"Of course," he said, kissed my cheek, and got up off the bed.

I watched him walk away before flopping back down onto the mattress. Just as I was falling back into a light sleep, there was another knock at the door. I heard it open and heard the quiet murmur of voices. The tone told me it was Storm probably back from observing Maxine. Wanting to hear everything from the beginning, I walked out. Storm was sitting at the table as Andon cooked, but looked over at me as I walked out, arms folded over my chest.

"So, did you stay in the room last night?" He nodded.

"I did. And it was quite an interesting observation." He stopped talking and I knew it was for dramatic effect, to make me ask what he'd observed, but I couldn't keep myself from asking.