When Life Stops (On Hiatus)

Chapter 4

With her body being shook by a pair of strong arms, Willow was startled awake. Looking around with her eyes wide open and every muscle in her body tense, she only let herself relax when she was met with a pair of cerulean blue eyes. Happy, playful cerulean blue eyes to be exact.

It was Corey in front of her, his head tilted which had his hair go rather messy. A small smile was on his lips as he looked down at Willow.

Nothing was said between the two for a couple moments only until Willow spoke up with her hand rubbing at her eyes.

"Yes...?"

"Dinner's ready if you're hungry." Corey told her, and once Willow parted her lips he continued.

"It does seem amazing, and if you don't want North to shove it down your throat I'd suggest you give it a try."

That had Willow concerned. Show food down her throat? Like birds and their babies... Disgusting, that was the least she could say about that.

Finally shaking her head free of her thoughts and mentally slapping herself for taking that one sentence of Corey more than literally, Willow put a smile on her lips and spoke up softly.

"That doesn't sound so pleasant, I'm up and ready to eat anyway."

With the smile on his face growing slightly bigger, Corey nodded and stood upright, making him appear like a tree in front of the much smaller framed girl.

After poking the comfortably sleeping Pistachio awake, which had the little dog growling until he noticed it was his owner, Willow pushed herself to her feet. Picking Pistachio up and letting him settle in her arms, she followed Corey as he led the way to the kitchen to pick up some food.

***

The smell of food, of a proper meal had Willow realize just how hungry she was. Her last 'meal' before the world ended had been a pudding, not the most nutritious choice certainly.

As soon as she entered the kitchen full of seven guys or so, she was handed a plate filled up halfway with rice... And what seemed to be a blended tomato?

"Exactly what is this?" Willow asked, keeping her voice low and her tone gentle. She didn't want anyone, absolutely anyone to think that she was being unappreciative or so. However, that didn't put down her curiosity. She still wondered what the hell it was supposed to be.

"Rice." North grunted from where he was doing the dishes... Or at least shoving the leftover bits of rice into a bowl before he wiped the plates and bowls clean.

"I could tell that, thank you very much." Rolling her eyes with a small scoff, Willow certainly was acting a bit out of character but she still kindly took the spoon she was handed by Victor. It seemed like North had gotten himself a special Willow, the pissed off one which only came out once every 500 years.

Honestly though, finding a way to actually piss the quiet girl off was a talent, a kind not many people possessed.

Bringing her first bite to her lips, a small sound came from Willow that kind of resembled a moan. Eyes, at least seven pairs of them turned towards her at an instant. Different curses, mostly 'fuck's, were whispered under breaths but a specific gaze caught Willow's attention.

Dark eyes staring down at her like she was a prey.

"Tigrenok..." Raven mumbled under his breath as he put his meal down, approaching the girl whose eyes were wide open like her mouth. She gulped as Raven, stride by stride, began coming towards her.

"Nope, you're not ruining her innocence today!" Luke suddenly chimed in and pushed Willow towards his back, stepping forward to look up at Raven.

They seemed to be doing the silent eye-to-eye communication thing and it only took a couple seconds before Raven pulled back with a loud huff, eyeing Willow as he did so.

The poor, in complete shock girl hadn't even realized that Silas, Axel and North had left the room until she was met with Luke's eyes staring into her's.

"Sorry about Raven... Uhm- he's kind of like that-" Letting out a nervous chuckle, Luke scratched the back of his neck and then looked down at Willow's plate.

"You done eating?" He asked with an eager looking expression, but suddenly coming back to life, Willow shook her head with a squeak and turned her back to the blonde that had her heart going crazy. As a small chuckle came from behind her, she was shoving the meal into her mouth and down her throat, ready for the day to end so she could sleep.

What were all these guys... Almost all these guys doing to her? She barely even knew them, and she had identified herself as demiromantic since forever.

Perhaps she had been wrong with the identification, that was a high possibility. It still didn't explain how she had started liking these guys when it hadn't even been 24 hours since she met the first one of them.

(Demiromantic: someone who only develops romantic feelings for another person when they have a strong emotional connection to them.)

***

Once everyone had gotten something into their stomachs and rested a bit, it was Marc who called a family meeting.

"I'm not a part of this... Family though-" Willow whispered as she looked at Brandon who had told her to come with him to the said meeting.

The tree with sun kissed hair chuckled a bit, and then he shook his head. "You're sleeping here tonight, am I right?"

A nod of her head. Nothing else.

"Then it's not up for discussion, if you're staying here tonight you also get to join us in the meeting. The things that we talk about, they may also be related to you."

Seeing how she most likely wouldn't be able to fight against Brandon, despite thinking she was the one that was right, Willow nodded her head.

A small smirk made its' way onto Brandon's face and after offering a hand, which Willow took for whatever reason, he led the way to the living room.

Everyone, all thirteen of the guys were seated down somewhere. Mr Blackbourne was the first one that began eyeing the duo as they walked in, followed by the rest of them all at once.

Somehow they're amazingly in sync with one another... Unlike the French government during their revolution...

Marc finally began speaking after Willow and Brandon had both taken their seats, taking out a piece of paper at the same time.

"Tonight, the sleeping plan will be like the following. If you have any objections, let me know."

No one said a word but a couple of the boys nodded their heads, and then Marc went on with the list.

"Victor, Brandon, North and Silas. Second floor bedroom two. Corey, Raven, Kota and Willow main bedroom. Owen, Sean and Victor living room. Luke, me, Axel and Nathan. Second floor bedroom one. Anyone?" He looked up from the paper in case someone raised a hand to object, but once no one did so he smiled a bit.

"Alright then, good night everyone."

***