Mio Sole

16 [Aleksandr]

**June 21st, 4 pm**

   My growing infatuation with Aurora is not normal. It's not normal for someone to be as innocent as her, it's not normal for someone as twisted and cruel as me to be interested in her, and it is absolutely not normal how attractive I find it that she has a side just as broken and violent as I am.

   But goddamnit if the idea of her sucker punching Archer isn't the hottest thing I've ever heard of. I have no doubt the idea will live rent free in my mind for days.

   She was barely conscious the entire time I was working on her hand, and didn't stay awake long afterwards. I almost woke her just to make sure she didn't have a concussion, but Niklaus told me it wasn't necessary. He told me—strictly to keep me from waking her unnecessarily—that she was tired because of a panic attack she'd had as soon as she pulled into his driveway. I pressed him for more information, but all he would tell me was that she needed to rest.

   If I didn't know he was right, I would have woken her myself to press her for information. Instead, I told Nik to leave her clothes to change into when she woke up, and redirected us to the living room so that we wouldn't wake her.

   Zahra seems thrilled at the idea of Aurora being here, and heads into the kitchen to bake croissants as a treat for when she wakes up. Zahra and Wilhelm had found out they couldn't have any more children just after they'd had Nik, and Zahra had never gotten over the fact that she could never have a daughter. I think that in her mind, Aurora is the closest she will get.

   Stefan and Sebastian are playing a video game in the living room TV while Nik and I play a game of chess at a small table on the corner. This will be our second game since we banished ourselves to the living room, after me badly beating him in the first.

   "I wi-HOLY SHIT. When did you get there?" Sebastian screams from the couch. The sound is startling enough that all of us look up and follow his gaze to see Aurora on the couch, looking just as startled.

   "Like 10 minutes ago," she says. Niklaus' clothes are baggy enough on her that the neckline of his white button-down shirt falls off her shoulder, and she has to readjust it when it falls low enough to show the entirety of the lacy red bra she is wearing under it. The sight of the thin fabric covering her luscious breasts sends a trail of flames down my spine. She glanced nervously at Sebastian as if she's afraid he might yell again. "You literally said 'hi' when I walked in the room."

   "Checkmate," I say to Niklaus, standing from the seat without a look back. I take a seat on the edge of the couch next to where Aurora is sitting cross-legged. I extend my hand, waiting for her to place her own in mine as silent permission for me to check her knuckles.

   I unwrap the bandage as carefully as I physically can as Niklaus puts the chess pieces away. The bandage flutters onto her sweatpant-clad thigh, revealing the freshly formed bruises now covering most of her upper index and middle fingers. I bend her fingers gently to test them. "Does that hurt?" I ask softly.

   She shakes her head, and I try the next finger. She shakes her head again, her wide gray eyes meeting my ice blue ones. I wrap the bandage back around her hand, though there's really no reason for it anymore. She flexes her hand again when I let it go.

   "So, was it worth it?" Sebastian asks, setting his controller on the coffee table.

   Aurora shrugs. "I'll tell you that when I know how bad Archer's eye looks." Sebastian laughs at her statement.

   "You don't have to go back there if you don't want to," Niklaus says, sitting on the edge of the coffee table in front of Aurora and leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees and interlace his fingers. "We can have the guest room prepared for you, if you want to stay here."