Until The Clock Stikes (NACS Remake)

Chapter 7

Lucy crawls into my bed sometime after three in the morning, I stir, turning over to face her.
"Please don't tell me it's the dream about the willow tree again." I beg, opening my eyes.
It's moments like this that I remember Lucy is only sixteen years old. Her eyes are swollen and pink from crying, her hair is stuck to her face.
"It's a nightmare." She protests, pulling herself closer to me.
"Oh, Lucy." I sigh, petting her hair.
"Tell me the story." Lucy says in a small voice, muffled by our hair and blankets.
"I don't remember it anymore." I say.
"Liar." She counters. "Please." Lucy adds.
With another sigh I try to pull the memory of father telling it to us.
"If you listen closely to the trees and the breeze swaying softly in the wind, you can hear the fairies singing. In times of great need they open their world for people, to live or simply heal. Among the fairies is their queen."
My father's voice overlaps mine as I speak the words but the memory fades as Lucy softly snores into my neck and I am taken into the darkness.
When I wake up, Lucy is gone and she's left a note.
'Mia, meet me in the tailor shop at market.
Love, Lucy '
The letter is short and to the point, much like Lucy.
I meet her at the tailor shop as she asked, I can hear her voice ringing through the rows of fabric and as I turn the corner, I smack into something hard. I trip over my foot in an attempt to back peddle and fall backward embarrassingly. Arms wrap around me, saving me from impact.
"You nearly died." Timber, with a hint of amused.
Thomas's warm eyes meet my own as I finally look at my savior. His arms are still wrapped around me, our faces are so close, we are sharing breath.
"No need to thank me mam." He says with dead seriousness, unravelling his strong arms from my frame.
"What are you doing here?" I ask him as Lucy turns the corner.
"Ah there you are. Can you please get us the dresses for Mia Johnson now?" Lucy asks him, her gaze dancing between our close frames.
"Do you guys know each other?" She asks, blinking strangely.
"This is Thomas. He's my really good friend."
Lucy looks stricken for a minute, sensing that things were getting awkward, Thomas slips into the back to get my dresses.
When he returns, there are pins in his mouth and a pin cushion in his hand.
"Now." He says through clenched teeth. "Try these on to see if we need to make any alterations."
I lift an eyebrow and grab the dresses from him. "You sew?" I ask him, impressed. "I didn't know that."
"Sweetie, there are alot of things  you don't know about me." He wink and smiles, with the pins in his mouth he looks dorky.
He works quickly when I try on the dusty blue dress, his deft fingers pin and tuck.
I watch him as he works, his angular face is beautiful, Thomas' eyes are slits as he works, showing of his thick eyelashes. Heavy eyebrows are pulled together in concentration, his tongue sweeps across his bottom lip.
"I'm going to get some food." Lucy mutters, leaving Thomas and I alone in the cluttered shop.
Thomas pulls his pin-free mouth into a line, trying not to smile.
He steps back and looks over his work, eyes sweeping over the front of the dress.
"How's that feel?" He asks me, his warm eyes meeting mine.
"Good, the fabric feels a little tight around my armpit though." I tell him, he pushes off the wall lazily.
Placing his hands on the seam of the neckline, with a few pulls, the fabric becomes more comfortable.
"She seemed upset." He says out of the blue.
I'm confused. "Yeah, I have no idea why."
With a sigh, he pins the fabric in place and moves around my being to unzip the back.
"Step carefully out of this one, and put on the other one."
The bronze dress reminds me of rippling water. I try to grab the zipper but Thomas stops my hand, holding it to my side.
He pulls the zipper up delicately, he is so close, I can feel his breath on my bare skin as the zipper inches up.
He spins around me again, working on pinning it in place.
"She got really strange when she heard we knew each other." I say, he's kneeling in front of me, and he looks up with a lazy expression.
"She was flirting with me." He says, placing a pin in his mouth. Christ.
"What do you mean?" I ask, my voice is tight.
"She called me cute." He said, pinning the seem he was kneeling for, with a heave Thomas stands.
"Oh."
"I don't suppose you have an opinion on the matter." He says casually, unzipping this dress now, knuckles brushing against my back.
"I-" the front door rings as Lucy rounds the corner of cloth stacks, she's smiling.
The temperature in the room quells again, letting me breath as I unzip the rest off the dress myself. We sit in the break room of the tailor shop with Thomas. Now that Thomas pointed it out I miserably note that Lucy is actively flirting with Thomas, who politely smiles and blushes, leaving his cheeks with a sort of rosacea. He bashfully looks down and my brain tunes back into the conversation.
"I couldn't possibly stay in the castle." He tells her.
"What?" I ask dumbly, missing something.
"You ditz." Lucy laughs. "I was telling Thomas that the Prince was holding an intimate get together tonight."
Since when? With who?
I must look pretty surprised because Lucy giggles again, resting a hand on Thomas' shoulder.
"You should come." She says to him.
He turns to look at me, his brown eyes search my face.
"Should I come?" He asks me, tilting his head to catch my gaze, which is fixated on the hand on his shoulder.
"Oh yeah." I say enthusiastically.
Lucy prattles about how she's glad she'll know at least one other person there.
"I'll be there too." I say, raising an eyebrow. "Won't I?"
"Oh!" Lucy sounds surprised. "I didn't think you'd want to come. Since you said parties weren't really your thing. You make friends with the most awful people too."
Thomas' face pulls into something that looks like anger.
"I don't think I'll make it." He says, shrugging off her hand.
He glances over at the clock.
"Looks like my shift is up too." Thomas bites his lip. "Do you need a carriage back to the castle or do you want to walk with me?" He asks us, but his eyes are on me.
I glance at Lucy, who is red with rejection.
"I think I'll take the carriage." Lucy says. "Mia, please try to convince him to come tonight, with all of us there it'll be a blast."
We use the back door and before Lucy turns to hail a carriage, she plants a kiss on Thomas' cheek.
He lazily turns too me, eyes wild.
"Come along, darling." He draws, linking his arm with mine, we head down the path into the foliage behind the market.
The path we walk was worn in by use and the birds chirp musically in the trees.
"I won't go if you aren't going to be there." He tells me after a long silence.
"No it's okay, Thomas. If you want to see my sister again, go." I say impassively.
He stops, pulling me back to him, it doesn't hurt, but his roughness surprises me. This is Thomas. Mild mannered, goofy Thomas.
In an almost snarl he retorts.
"Your sister isn't- ." He breaks off, sighing. Now more softly, he slides his hands on my face.
"She isn't you, Mia." His gaze is so intense, he bends down. Everything in my being tells me he is going to kiss me, but he hesitates, sighing. Thomas presses his lips to my forehead, leaning into me.
I'm surrounded by his scent, he smells like sunshine and old books.
"Okay." I whisper with a chuckle.
"I'll see you there."
He walks us further down the path and his cottage comes into view.
"You want come in for tea?" He asks but I decline and head to the castle because I need something to make sense.
Will is talking intimately with Lucy, she smiles and without any warming, plants a kiss upon his lips. He lightly presses her away from him, talking with a worried expression, Lucy looks hurt and I catch the tail end of his sentence before she runs away.
"- confused on how I felt."
He watches her leave and turns guiltily to me.
"Did you hear any of that?" He asks.
I shake my head, it's mostly the truth anyway.
"Mia." He starts, haltingly. "Did ever care about someone. But still didn't know what that meant?" He asks me, eyes searching.
"Yes I do."
With another pause, Will wraps his arms around me.
"Mia, I understand that this is going to be really random. But can I kiss you?" He asks me, voice urgent.
"Why on earth would you want to do that?"
"Purely scientific reasons." He assures.
I nod.
He grabs my face, hands placed almost exactly where the burn of Thomas' hands were.
And his lips crash down onto mine.