Sign of Life / MIW Adoption

.fourteen.

I smiled as Chris wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly to him. I opened my eyes as I felt movement beside us to see Vinny sitting back down. His eyes met mine and he gave a smile, "Hey, Kitten's still awake."

"She has been awake the whole time, Vin." Chris said.

I moved my eyes up to Chris and raised my head. Chris looked at me and gave me a little smile as he lifted his cell phone from my lap, the screen lighting up to allow him to hit the pause button to stop the music playing in my right ear. Chris showed me how to use his phone to listen to music and watch music videos. I listened to a lot of Motionless in White and snuggled Bash while Chris snuggled me and just let myself sink into happiness during most of the ride. I was in a type of heaven that I didn't know could exist. I pulled the black headphone out of my right ear, "Am I supposed to sleep?"

Vinny raised his eyebrows, "No. You were just so still and quiet. I thought you were asleep. You can do whatever you want now, Melody."

"She really does act like a kitten." AJ said as he set his phone down beside him and stood up, "But she's really just like a toddler."

"I know she didn't have the best upbringing and it's majorly affected her mental growth. This is one of the reasons I was afraid of accepting her at first. There's no telling what kind of trauma she went through. I was afraid she wouldn't be mentally stable." Ricky said behind me.

Chris rubbed my arm and sighed, "Andy said she's a little stunted, but fine."

"Oh, yeah, totally fine. It's just she looks like a teenager but acts like a five year old. I've never seen anything like it in this realm before. She's not like any pet-" AJ was cut off by Chris' low growl. The growl startled me and I gasped, making Chris go silent. AJ held his hands up. I felt Chris look behind me at Ricky before looking back to AJ, "Melody was never a pet. She was never trained to be a pet and if anyone ever tries to put her in the same category as a pet, they will learn to never make that mistake again."

I felt my chest explode with butterflies. I buried my face completely in the top of Bash's head and closed my eyes. Chris might attack someone who calls me a pet. I heard the door slide open before AJ gave a reply, "I'm not calling her a pet. I was saying she is different than the humans from this realm. It's a good thing, Chris."

It was quiet after that. Chris took in a deep breath and stretched his arms out and above his head, leaning back a little until his back popped. He gave a groan and shifted me to the side before he stood up. I looked up from the top of Bash's head at Chris. He gave me a little smile, "I'm stiff from not moving for the past four hours. Do you want to raid the front of the bus with me?"

I shook my head. I wanted to stay in the back. Chris nodded, "Okay. I'll be up there for a little bit. If you want me, you can just yell my name and I'll be back."

I nodded to let him know I understood. Chris turned and left the room. It was dark down the hallway in between the bunks so I wasn't able to see all the way to the front of the bus. Ricky closed his laptop and set it on the couch to the left of him so it was out of the way. I sighed and looked over at Ricky.

"Come here." Ricky said, giving me a little smile as he opened his arms up. I smiled and climbed into his lap, letting him pull me where I needed to be as he wrapped his arms around me. I leaned into him and started to play with the strings on his hoodie.

"Ricky?" I asked softly.

"Melody." Ricky chirped back.

I moved my eyes from the black string of Ricky's hoodie that was wrapped around my fingers to Ricky's blue eyes, "What happens if you get tired of me?"