Priest. (Nevermore Academy/Xavier Thorpe x Reader)

Chapter 4

Nevermore Academy
September, 2021

*****

"A little bit to the left, Xavier," Y/N said, staring intently at him as he effortlessly pulled her bed towards the wall and away from the door. They were straightening out the final details of her room as they waited for Scarlett and Ajax to get back from picking up pizza and paper towels. With every moment that passed, Y/N realized Xavier was very, very attractive. "Perfect, right there!"

Xavier straightened himself out as he stepped away from the bedf rame, but something caught his eye in one of her trunks. He walked over and pulled out a large sketch pad.

"Oh, don't look at that--" Y/N said walking over, but Xavier was already flipping through. He stopped on a charcoal sketch of a tall, dark haired man cradling a small girl in his arms. It was so well done, it looked like it could be an old photograph.  

"This is amazing," Xavier smiled to her, "Who is it?"

Y/N was quiet as they both stared at the sketch. 

She spoke quietly, "I have this weird ability to feel life forces, or auras -- whatever you wanna call them. I felt yours when you walked in, and I can feel all of Nevermore right now, every student's force. Sometimes, if you give me a map, I can feel the place and the people in it. And sometimes, if I have a picture... I can feel it," Y/N explained slowly, reaching her hand out to carefully touch the pad, "This is my father."

"Where is he?" Xavier asked, still smiling and studying her art. 

"I don't know, he went missing five years ago," Y/N gave him a small, helpless smile.

Xavier didn't falter, "What's a 'life force' feel like?"

Y/N shrugged, looking away from her dad's sketched face, and Xavier's cute tied-back hair, "Usually, they all jumble together unless I focus on one. The best way I can describe it is if you're looking at a really smudged mirror, you can see all the smudges, but sometimes you can focus on your reflection and it clarifies. When it does focus, it just... feels like people. Like with you, when you walked in I could feel that you were a magician, and a psychic. You come from money, you've been to France and loved it, you like the smell of pine and vanilla."

"You feel all that?" Xavier looked at her with a crooked smile, studying her eyes -- which in this lighting, looked less bleach-white and more of a cream. 

Y/N looked back at him with a nod, "Yeah. If I know someone really, really well I can even feel their feelings, and see their memories. I do it with my mom a lot."

Xavier closed up the pad and tucked it back in the box, "I'm an artist, you know."

"I did."

"From my 'aura'?" Xavier asked with a cheeky grin. 

"From the paint covering your jeans, smart ass," Y/N adjusted her own jeans, conscious of the fact that they were dirty from cleaning so much. 

"Oh, right," he laughed and nodded, "So, what else do you do?"

"I read a ton, and write... a lot. I like gardening, too."

"The botanical program here is great," He sat down on her couch, and she started picking books out of her trunk and sorting them onto the shelves, "Have you gotten your class schedule yet?"

"Uh..." Y/N turned around, looking at every surface in the place until she located a few papers on the kitchen island, "Yeah, here," She brought it over to him.

"Oh wow, we're in almost all the same classes -- wait a sec, you're in advanced witchery? I didn't think they had the class anymore?"

Y/N shrugged, "My mom told Weems about all my weird abilities and she thought some one-on-one time with a local spell caster would help me cultivate them," she spoke as she went back to unloading books, filling up a second shelf of classics and poetry collections.