Pirate City

Chapter 22 healing

Angel's POV

Why would I give out our location? We're supposed to be safe here. He knows Stephano, which means he knows about i corvi. He knows where our safe house is. He knows too much.

God this is all my fault.

"He's not dead," Luna stated, her words slow with concern. I stood staring at Matteo who was lying broken on the white linoleum, his cobalt eyes barely visible through the narrow slit in his eyelids. I'd grown soft with Luna, this stuff never used to bother me. "Is he?" I hadn't realized she was asking. A strand of hair fluttered beside his nose as he let out a shuddering breath, showing some sign of life. He always showed up at the worst possible times.

"No." He deserved it. We may be somewhat friends, or, used to be, but he deserved it. Used to be a little more, actually. 

But fuck that now. He always was a selfish, insensitive, meaningless cunt and he deserved every bad thing he got. He shouldn't be here, he shouldn't be anywhere near me, he shouldn't be anywhere near Luna.

So why do I feel something? Guilt, perhaps. Why do I feel guilty. 

I walked out of the cramped room, trying to appear as stoic as possible. I walked into Luna's room, going to the closet at the back to retrieve her clothes. Matteo must have come back at some point and given her more, she had meticulously organized a couple hundred pieces of clothing. I could have provided that for her. 

I'll admit, that closet was one of the bigger ones of the house. It could very easily be another bedroom, but she seemed to make good use of the space. It was clean, everything in the house was clean, and she had obviously spent some time organizing her clothes. It made sense, with so much time on her hands there wasn't much else to do and I certainly wasn't much help; I wasn't used to living with other people so we had remained relatively separate. Seeing how she was treated, that's subject to change.  

I picked out one of the many dark hoodies hanging behind a glass door and a pair of grey sweatpants tucked into a smooth white drawer; I figured, because of her injuries, she would want looser clothes.

I knocked twice and the bathroom door opened, Luna stood with her hand on the doorknob, her wavy hair still damp and one arm keeping the towel wrapped around her body. She kept her eyes away from mine, taking the clothes with her free hand and shutting the door. It felt wrong to leave her to change with Matt still in the room.

I brought my hands up on either side of the doorframe when it finally opened, looking at how the muscles in my arms snaked down from my wrists to my shoulders in the mirror. The shoulders on my t-shirt fit tight against my bronze skin, highlighting the muscles in my arms.

"Aren't you shaken up?" I asked, confused by her relaxed disposition.

"Can you tell?" She turned to look at herself in the mirror and fixed her hair, I kept her gaze when our eyes met in the mirror. The light lit up little spots in her eyes, something about them seemed to have changed. Maybe it was just the lighting but they were tinted slightly green. I shook my head and stared at her, my eyebrows drawn together. Despite everything that happened she looked completely unmoved. 

"I'm confused." I stated plainly, shifting my eyes back over to myself. "How is it that you've gone through" I gestured vaguely in the air, "all that, and stayed.." I paused, trying to find the right word, "composed?" 

She shook her head and smiled weakly, "Poor choice of words." God I love her accent.

"Alright, how do you do it then." I met her green-brown eyes again in the mirror and brought my arms down from the doorframe, sliding my palm down my shoulder, "The mask, I mean. You're awfully good at it." Was her accent rubbing off on me? 

She shrugged her shoulders, staring into my eyes. 

She didn't deserve this life. She should be doing whatever the fuck kids do around our age; falling in quick love, going to school, not whatever this is. I don't want her here, Im guilty for needing her, and I know she hasn't really been given the choice to leave. I need her, but she needs someone too.

Someone who can protect her.

I have displayed time and time again that I can't do that.

"Do you want to stay here?" I asked. She hesitated, "You can say no, or more time to think. Sorry, I shouldn't have asked this is horrible timing,"  She stepped back towards me and rested the back of her head against my chest, still keeping eye contact with me through the mirror. I swallowed hard, trying to make the heavy beating in my chest a little softer.

"I think we both know the answer to that." Her gentle hands trailed up my hands and further onto my forearms, her fingertips barely brushing against my skin. Goosebumps formed on my arms as she traced up and down, keeping eye contact through the mirror the entire time. She smiled when she saw them. Where was all this confidence coming from? 

She looked so small against me as I gently crossed my arms around her body, the navy fabric of her hoodie folding around my arms.

I sucked in sharply, bringing an end to our little moment. It was still too dangerous for us to see each other like that, there was still hope to back her out of this. If only there was something I could-

"You're bleeding," I pointed out the obvious gash on her shoulder, mostly hidden by her hair and hood.

"It'll heal," She broke eye contact, crossing her arms over her stomach. It didn't look too bad, it would likely heal on its own, but even looking at it was painful.

"It's pretty deep." I turned her around to face me and guided her face up with my hand, inspecting the mark and her neck for anything I might have missed. Kind of. 

"Thats what she said," Matteo mumbled triumphantly, still lying on the floor. I snapped towards him, about to tell him off, but he was limp on the ground again, the same dead expression as before. 

She paused a second to recollect her thoughts, an amused smile spread across her face. "It'll heal." I lost my words as her eyes met mine again, there was something so genuine about her smile. Her lips were gentle, but her eyes were dim, tired. The adrenaline was starting to ware off.

Her eyes flickered down to my lips, she didn't move. I looked down at her lips too, my ability to refrain from the temptation slowly wearing away. My hand lifted slightly, as if being guided by a string, the urge to bring it to the back of her head and guide her face towards mine growing irresistible. 

I snapped my hand back down, suddenly breaking gaze. What the fuck was I doing.

If I kiss her we both die. I still want to. 

Is that selfish?

I'm so sorry for posting so late, a lot of crazy shit has happened lmao. Anyways idk if I should bring more spice and tension between them, I'm thinking of doing some more character development and obviously some emotional repercussion on both ends. Lmk if you want more spice or anything you want to see in any of the characters. Stephano and the crew have kind of disappeared from the story so I think I want to bring them back, maybe I can integrate some character development with them too. 

Anyways I'm rambling, hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to comment edits or suggestions. 

Until next time,

-Ti