Love Like Winter ❄️ Xavier Thorpe

Chapter Twelve: First Love

Soundtrack:

"Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional
"Love me Harder" by Arianna Grande/The Weeknd
"Slow Down" by Chase Atlantic
"Dirty Thoughts" by Chloe Adams

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A/N: This chapter contains some smut about halfway through. While it is rather tasteful compared to some things I've encountered, I just wanted to put a warning ahead of time if you aren't into that kind of thing.

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I follow Xavier into the school, which we don't normally do; he leads me up the stairs to his dorm, which we'd literally never done.

"Xavier, what are you-"

"Shh, just stay close behind me."

The corridors are basically a ghost town, not even the housemaster is at his usual station. Xavier and I carefully creep through the hallways until we get to what I assume is his door. He opens it and quickly pulls me inside before shutting the door behind us. When he turns on the light, it appears that he doesn't share the room with anyone. The side opposite of his is blank and empty, while the walls on Xavier's side are covered with sketches and drawings.

He locks the door and brings me over to his desk where there is a sketchbook laid open to a drawing of me sleeping.

"Is the big surprise that you watch me sleep?"

He rolls his eyes and laughs. "No, Anna. I mean, it's hard not to watch you when you sleep though, you look so peaceful and beautiful ... hence the drawing. But, no, I wanted to show you this because I think my powers are evolving."

Xavier flips through his sketchbook to a page that shows a drawing of him and me in the woods the night the Nightshades set us up. "I saw this happen before it happened, but not in a dream like I usually do. It was like a vision. This isn't the only one I've gotten either."

"Xavier, that's amazing!" I say while looking through the rest of his sketches.

Most of his sketches are of me, but I flipped back too far and start seeing sketches of Wednesday, so I just shut the book. "You didn't tell me you had your own room."

"No? I guess because I don't normally spend a lot of time here when I'm with you," he raises my chin to meet his eyes and presses his lips to mine. "After Rowan was killed last year, they just never gave me a new roommate and I wasn't exactly going to complain."

I plop down onto his bed, which is much more comfortable than the futon we normally slept on in the shed. "You mean to tell me you normally give up sleeping on this bed just so you can sleep beside me in a shed on a futon?"

He shrugs and smirks. "I'd give up way more than just a bed for you. Hell, I'd give you a kidney if you needed it."

Warmth spreads across my face as I grin. He comes and sits beside me and even though we've spent countless hours together in his shed, there is something different about being on his actual bed with him.

Xavier lays back against one of his pillows and pulls me down beside him. "You're spoiling me with this bed, Xavier."

"Your bed isn't comfortable?"

"Sure, my bed is fine, but it doesn't have you in it."

He takes his finger and starts tracing little patterns on my arm. "Now you see why I'm not usually up here."

I lean up on my elbow and press my lips against his.

"You're shaking," he says softly. "We don't have to do anything, Princess, I just like being with you."