Wolfsbane

37. Everything goes south of south

My eyes opened and all that I could see was dark fabric. Dark, warm fabric. What I had been resting my head against was hard. It definitely wasn't a pillow, it was Luca, who was definitely awake.

We were laying on the floor, in front of the fireplace. The bottle of Whiskey was on its last legs, it was on its side. The chess pieces were all over the ground, in a state of disarray.

I could feel my head pounding, the noise was ear shattering.

I pushed myself up, staring around the room. I could see that it was dark outside. The rain had stopped, all that I could hear was the sound of the wind.

Luca placed a hand on the small of my back. He raised his torso up, so that we were face to face.

"Hey" he said, he kissed me, I could feel him smiling against my lips.

"Hi" I said back, running my hand through his hair, it had fallen into his eyes.

"What time is it?" I asked.

Luca placed his hands on my sides, he ran his hands up and down my waist.

"Just after eight" he said

I nodded, I stood up, extending a hand.

Luca didn't take it. He simply hopped up on his own accord.

I retracted my hand awkwardly, feeling foolish.

"We should get going" Luca said, he was staring at his phone, I could see that he had at least 10 missed calls from both of his sisters.

That wasn't a good sign.

Alternatively, it was late. We could stay here.

My head was still pounding from the whiskey, even though I hadn't been that drunk. It felt like somebody was bashing a pair of symbols inside of my skull.

"How your head?" I inquired

"Good, considering you didn't complain about it the other night"

I bit my lip. I knew of course, he was making a joke. Possibly to disguise the fact that his head was killing him. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of my laughter. That laughter would prove two things, firstly, that I found him funny. Secondly, it would prove that he was...adept in the matters of...."head". Which he was, but I wasn't going to confirm it. That confirmation would do terrible things for his ego.

I simply settled for a playful arm punch.

"Ow" Luca deadpanned.

"Ha ha" I said "I know I'm not the best fighter, but you could at least pretend that it hurt"

Luca scrunched up his nose. "Hold out your fist"

I did as he said, balling my fist.

Luca stared at it critically, he looked at my hand, then at me as if he was confused.

He moved aside, staring at it from another angle.

"Anything the matter" I said, I shot him a quizzical look.

"Your form is completely off" he said wrapping his hands around mine.

"First of all" Luca said, he moved my thumb from the inside of my fist, pressing it against my knuckles. "You never have the thumb on the inside, you will break it. I know from personal experience"

I stared up at him. My brows raised.

"To be fair" he said "The other guy got out of that scrap much worse than I did"