My Knights in Shining Armor

I Didn't Get to Finish My Pancakes

A/N it's late it's short it's crappy okay nice talk i blame writer's block and finals

oh also I'm in Alabama at my grandparents' house except these are the snobby grandparents that literally traveled to another country to buy a car only to get rid of it two years later bc they didn't like it anymore okay bye

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The other three teams disperse, pulling their phones out to use as flashlights, while Olly kneels in front of me.

"Cherry?" I inhale sharply through my mouth, slightly startling him, but he recovers quickly.

"I'm good," I manage to whisper.

Why, oh why did it have to storm that night?

"Are you sure?" Olly's voice is steady, yet I can sense the concern he has.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Let's count now, it'll distract me." I shakily stand up and take a deep breath before counting out loud.

"One, two, three," I start.

"Four, five, six," Olly continues.

We count together until we reach a hundred. After screaming 'ready or not, here we come' loud enough that the entire neighborhood could hear, Olly turns to me.

"I know you don't want to talk about this now, what just happened, I mean, but we will eventually, okay? It's not good to keep things bottled up. Here," he hands me a flashlight.

I take it, wrapping my arms around myself to stop them from shaking.

"Let's just go. Thanks for staying with me," I whisper.

Lightning flashes, and I flinch as the thunder rolls over the house almost immediately after.

Olly slips his hand into mine and squeezes it tightly before leading me out of the kitchen, flashlight illuminating the way.

"I have a few places we should check first, because almost every time we play hide and seek someone hides there. Okay?"

I squeeze his hand in reply. "Let's go."

We creep silently (or as silently as we can) through the darkened house. Every time I see lightning flash, I jump a tiny bit, but Olly keeps me grounded.

"You're okay," he keeps whispering. "You're okay, Cherry."

And for the time being, I feel like I might be.

The first spot we check is a large cabinet in a random room with only one window.

"This is a room we don't usually use, except to keep board games and such in it. We've managed to fit four of us in the cabinet before." Olly whispers in my ear as we slowly creep towards the dark wooden furniture.

"On the count of three?" I whisper back.

"Okay. One..."

"...two..."

"THREE!" We both shout, each grabbing a handle and swinging it open, shining our flashlights into the dark space within.

Heath tumbles onto the floor in front of us, landing hard on my left foot. Inside the cabinet, Cal is laughing hysterically.

"What the actual heck, dude?" Heath yells, rolling off my foot and standing up.

"I'm sorry, I just had to," Cal hoots, wiping a pretend tear from his eye. "So tempting."

"Why did we hide here anyway? It's literally been five minutes since we went to hide, and Olly and Cherry came straight here," Heath grumbles.

"Yeah, about that..." Cal says, hopping out of the cabinet before standing up next to his partner.

"This is kind of a staple hiding spot," Olly says, letting go of my hand to clap Heath on his shoulder. "We've hidden here so many times that we don't actually hide here anymore, because this is the first place anyone looks."

"So why did we hide here, dimwit?" Heath fake slaps Cal upside the head.

"Because I was hungry, duh. I didn't get to finish my pancakes, and I knew we would get found sooner if we hid somewhere dumb."

I manage a snort. "No wonder you need to wake up at 6 AM to work out. You eat too much!"

"Damn, Cherry, how much of that conversation do you remember?" Cal whines, stretching his arms up.

"Most of it, actually," I reply.

Lightning flashes outside the small window, but the thunder is long coming. I still flinch when it does, but I manage to subdue it more easily. I've noticed it's a lot easier to suppress the grief when I have such great people surrounding me.

"You okay?" Olly asks.

"Yeah, I'm- I'm doing all right. Let's just go find more people."

Cal and Heath head back to the kitchen ahead of us while we head for the stairs.

"What good hiding spots are upstairs?" I question, shining my flashlight ahead of me. I can barely navigate this house in the daylight, forget about finding my way during a power outage.

"There are a few closets here and there, and Dakota's bed is tall enough that you can fit underneath it."

"Wait, so what's the point of playing if you know literally every single hiding spot in the house, and it's just a matter of finding the right ones?" I ask as we reach the top of the staircase.

I can make out Olly shrugging in from of me as we head down the hallway towards our bedrooms.

"Now that you mention it, that does seem a little silly. I guess it's just become tradition after doing it for forever." Olly stops outside of Dakota's door, shining his flashlight, and I can barely make out the purple color Dakota painted his letter with.

"Let's go," he whispers, and slowly opens the door.

I immediately hear a shushing noise and a rustling before the room becomes silent.

"Gee," Olly says sarcastically. "I wonder if anyone is in here."

"I can hear you rolling your eyes, Olly." A voice comes from under the bed, and even though I know there are people under there, I still jump in shock.

"Good job scaring Cherry, moron," Olly mutters, reaching under Dakota's bed and hauling his younger brothers out. I see Blair's beautiful face first, before the rest of his sculpted body gets put on display.

"Hey, Cherry," he grins, standing to his full height. "How are you doing?"

"I'm... better, and you don't have a shirt on," I comment, shielding my eyes.

Don't worry. I was definitely peeking.

"What can I say? It was getting really hot under there, and Dakota practically fell asleep," Blair comments nonchalantly, heading to the wall behind me to flip the light switch on.

"If he fell asleep, why did I hear shushing?" Olly asks, crouching down beside the bed. He peers underneath the bed, before shining his flashlight.

"Because Blair is a jerk, that's why," Dakota grumbles, inching his way out. "I was perfectly content down there, and when he heard you coming, he decided to 'warn me'," he makes quotations with his fingers, "by shushing. Good job, bro."

"Whine, whine, whine," Blair mocks. "That's all this kid does."

"Oh, I'm the whiner? Who was the little baby that was disappointed about losing the extra bedroom to have sleepovers with Hea-" Blair cuts Dakota off by slapping a hand over his mouth. 

"You promised to never mention that again, remember?" Through his clenched teeth, I can see Blair trying to hold back a smile, but failing. 

Soon, all three brothers are laughing as hard as they possibly can, and I'm reminded for the second time that night how, even though I've known them for only a few days, the Knight boys can make me feel better, even in the worst of times.

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A/N no words i'm too dead

-i ate four full meals today and one of them was chick-fil-a i have no regrets