Handle With Care

Checking the Wounds Again

The front door suddenly opened, and I looked over my shoulder to see Tajax and Elric step into the house. At the sight of them both, my eyes widened again, and I quickly turned my face away as Tajax huffed and sped past me, taking the stairs two at a time.

I heard Elric sigh, and close the front door behind him. His much lighter footsteps led over to the couches, and I peeked out of the corner of my eye to see him lean his hip against the arm of the couch I was sitting on.

"Is everything okay with him?" Esther asked the vampire. I was grateful that the subject was veered away from me, eyes no longer boring down on me, making me feel small, and vulnerable. Elric smiled slightly, running a hand through his unruly hair, and letting his hand rest at the back of his neck.

"I've talked with him. Hopefully he understood this whole hunting conflict," he replied. He sounded tired, as if he had be having the same conversation with Tajax for a while now.

"I would still give him his space, though," Elric added, noticing Esther and Jasper exchange looks.

"You sure I shouldn't go and talk to him...?" Esther asked hesitantly. He seemed unsure of the idea, either because he didn't want to have Elric tell him he couldn't go and see his brother, or because he was uncertain with the way Tajax emitted such an irritated aura. I couldn't tell.

"No, just leave him be. He'll come around," Elric replied, smiling reassuringly at the blond. Esther nodded, looking down at his hands that had started playing with one of Jasper's. I watched, shyly, as Jasper gave the older-looking vampire's fingers a squeeze. His hazel eyes raised up to meet with Esther's light green ones, and they both smiled.

I got another sense that I was invading on something a little private, something intimate, something only meant to be shared with those two, and those two alone. Swallowing tensely, I looked down again.

My gaze fell on my own hands, which had gone to clutch at the fabric of my pants. They were a little boney, like Nimr's, and a bit long, like Elric's. But even though that's what I associated them with, they weren't like anyone else's hands in this entire house, perhaps not even in this entire world.

They were hands that were dirty, with nails a bit longer than most's, and had tendons that poked out a bit as they ran over my knuckles and down to my wrists. But with all of that, they had one thing about them that made them hands I wish I didn't have.

They missed the touch of another. They missed holding another's hand, whether larger, or smaller. They missed the feel of ruffling a certain someone's hair, of grabbing a certain someone's wrist to tug them along, of tickling a certain someone's sides to emit that certain someone's contagious laugh.

They were hands that were lonely. Hands, that knew they would never feel the touch of another the same way they used to. Hands that had been forever changed, even though they looked like any other ordinary hands.

I wished that I still had the hands I had before I was fifteen.

Something touched my right shoulder, and I flinched, gasping. I quickly looked up to see Elric standing there, one of his own hands resting on my shoulder. He smiled, a smile that held both amusement, and a bit of... something. I couldn't place what it was, but it seemed to be the opposite of amusement. It seemed sad, but that didn't sound like the right word to use for it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said apologetically. Was that it? A smile mixed with amusement and apology? Maybe....

"I-i-it's fine..." I stammered, my muscles bunched and taut as I looked back down, afraid of holding his gaze. I still didn't really know whether Elric thought I had insulted Tajax. Even though he did say that Tajax's anger wasn't because of me... I didn't believe him.