Guardian [Completed]

Seventeen (Devina)

Sleep tried to hold me as its' prisoner one morning. I didn’t want to be asleep anymore but struggled to break free of the haze. I tried focusing on the dust mites floating in the ray of sunlight coming through the window.

After a couple minutes of willpower, I managed to break through. A pair of arms were wrapped tightly around my bare waist. I remembered how Josh had pouted to return to my bed the previous night. Torin had been sleeping with me since he arrived and it was just like when we were little. I was mad when Torin agreed to give his place back to Josh and went home with Thomas. No, actually, I didn’t “need to spend time with Josh”. I spent every minute of every day with him. Really I just wanted to be by myself if I wasn’t spending time with Torin.

I sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Josh asked sleepily.

“Nothing, Josh,” I replied.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Please don’t push it.”

So instead, he ran his hand along my side in soothing motions. After a moment his path shortened to trace the ink on my ribcage with his fingertip.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you about your tattoos and what they mean,” Josh mused.

“The one on my back is my coat of arms,” I said.

His hand moved to trace the ink on my back.

It was blue and silver with the Friedmann family crest of a ram rampant on a mount in the center. For supporters, it had a lion on the left and a unicorn on the right. “Friedmann” was on a banner at the top and my personal motto -- emitte lucem et veritatem, “send forth light and truth” -- was at the bottom.

“It’s beautiful,” Josh said.

“Thank you. My parents designed it for me before I was born.”

“Wow. That’s like a legit European thing.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, and we’re a legit, traditional, European family.”

“Does Torin have one?”

“Yes. It’s the same as mine with some heraldic differences since I’m first-born.”

“Wow.”

He moved his hand back to the ink on my ribcage.

“And this one?”

“Ich dien,” I said of the tattoo in traditional Sütterlin script. “It means ‘I serve.’ I got it shortly after I finished training and became an operative.”

“That fits you well,” Josh commented.

“The Queen of England has it on her coat of arms. That’s where I got the idea.”

Josh was silent a moment, then said, “Why would the Queen of England have German on her coat of arms?”

As I tried to think of how best to explain it, he must have decided it was a stupid question.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know much about the British Monarchy,” he said shyly.

“The Act of Settlement of 1701 was passed to settle succession to the English and Irish crowns. It decreed no Roman Catholic should ever ascend the throne from that point forward. The throne then passed to Electress Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James the first of England and wife of Ernest Augustus, prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, and her Protestant descendants. Thus the German and British crowns were united, further enforced when Victoria married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The current ruling house of Great Britain is Windsor. It is only named so because of anti-German feelings of the early 20th century. So the English and German crowns have been united for a few centuries.”

The long moment of silence that passed rang in my ears like loud bells. I turned to Josh. He was looking at me in complete bewilderment. I had thrown out too much information. I twisted my lips to the side.

“Sorry... ‘The creation of the House of Hanover in the English monarchy’ would have sufficed.”

“Jesus Christ, I wish I had your brain,” Josh said, his voice raw with awe.

He pecked my lips and I smiled.

“So smart,” he admired.

I shrugged.

“I’ve taken a lot of European history classes,” I said.

“Still smarter than I am.”

“Nah.”

“I know you have one more tattoo on your right foot.”

“I do.”

“What does it say?”

“Custos Morum.”

“Which means what?”

“Guardian of morals.”

Josh smiled.

“I like that one a lot.”

“Thanks.”

We looked at each other for a moment. I grabbed his left wrist.

“You’ve got the Libra symbol,” I prompted.

“The stars represent my family members, including myself,” he explained.

“That’s sweet.”

“Thanks.”

My hand went to his side where he had another tattoo in the same place I did.

“What about this one?”

“The anchor and ship tattoos don’t really have a story. I just like nautical stuff.”

“Fair enough. Any others I don’t know about?”

“Nope. Just three.”

“We both have three and one of them is in the same place.”

“Weird.”

“It is weird.”

In the past few days, I was really starting to appreciate how beautiful Josh was. His eyes were incredible. Sometimes they were brown and sometimes they were green. And sometimes they were both. If you looked closely enough you could see freckles spattered over his nose and cheeks. And of course that amazing jaw. It was similar to mine and Torin’s but more angular. He was truly one of a kind.

“What are you thinking about," he asked.

I blushed a bit.

“Nothing,” I replied as I got out of bed. “Come on, let’s get food.”