4 AM Forever

Loose ties and Bookends

The smell of pancakes and bacon invades the room. Kassie rolls over and finds Cherish tangled in the blanket, her and Olivia shared, on the floor. Olivia sprawled out on the bed. She smiles knowing some things never change.

She quietly steps over Cherish and slips out of the room. She makes her way back to the main room. Behind the kitchen island stands Mikey.

"Pancakes?" He asks with his back still to Kassie.

"Yes please." She says sitting on one of the island stools. She looks him over. His tank top from last night was gone once again and he wore shorts. That seemed to cling on for dear life.

He turns to face her with a plate with two pancakes, eggs, and bacon. She breathes in and the smell only gots better.

"You know, um, last night-" she begins but he puts his hand up. "First eat. We'll talk in a few." He says turning back around.

She takes a moment and looks around the apartment once more. The walls, painted a dark brown. Mikey had made a makeshift bed on the couch. From the hallway there's a low moan and Cherish appears at the entrance, squinting in the light. Kassie laughs with eggs in her mouth.

"Hey drunkie. Want some?" She says as Cherish sits down next to her. Mikey slides a cup of coffee in front of her with two little pills. He was definitely on his game.

"Thank you." She says running her fingers through her hair.

"Where's the third?" He asks smiling. "Still sleeping. Where's the other two monkeys?" Cherish asks putting the pills in her mouth and chasing them with the coffee.

"Ashton is still asleep and Luke is in the shower.. Taking his sweet ass time." He says ruffling his hair. Kassie spies the tattoo on his upper arm.

To the moon.

A click sounds from the hallway and shuffling comes as Olivia walks into view. She also squints and slowly sits down on a stool.

"Who's the evil genius, that made the morning so friggin bright?" She asks, as Mikey also slides coffee accompanied with the two pills.

"that would be Freyr, the sun Fay." Ashton says walking into the main room. He scratches his head as he walks to the fridge and opens it.

The girls look at each other.

"Wait really?" Olivia asks. He laughs, "No, Freyr is just a light Fay." He smiles. "Ass.." She mutters under her breath.

"Today is a busy day. We have to take you to the library. Time to learn ladies!" Aston says taking a piece of bacon off of Kassie's plate.

"Ugh, learning... I just got outta school!" Kassie says covering her face and groaning.

"Come on, it'll be fun to actually know what is happening." Cherish says.

"So it's settled." Ashton smiles.

***

"I thought we were going to the library, not the Haunted Mansion.." Cherish says looking at the have shambled building in front of them. With iron fences clad in ivy vines the place did give off an eerie feel.

"Come on." Luke says jumping up and down. They get out of Olivia's car and meet the boys.

"Very nice, second date and it's to a creepy haunted house." Olivia says poking ashton on the chest as she walks by going up the stone steps. Everyone follows after.

"Ironwood. Fitting." Cherish says pulling her sweater closer to her.

Luke opens one of the doors and instead of a run down shabby building, crystal hung from the high ceilings, marble pillars and floors shine in the natural light coming from the sky light.

"Holy shit. Are we in Narnia?" Olivia says looking around.

"Not quite. You are in Ironwood Institute. Follow Mundanes." Mikey says walking toward a stair case.

***

Walking into the library everything seemed like a fairytale. Belle's huge library laid at their feet.

The boys explain, most of the Grace Period the Fays had with the humans. Years of Peace till that one human betrayed Orliath.

They explained that each Fay had powers. Some different than others. The girls would learn those later.

"Almost done, you need to understand our ways. So we'll start with that, then move to language." Ashton says grabbing a heavy book and puts into Olivia's arms then loads another one ontop. He stepped down off the stool and stood in front of Olivia. She took in the smell of his cologne, kinda musty with a spray of floral. He gives her a smile and takes the books from her.

"What was the first?" He asks navigating the book stacks.

"Pardon?" Olivia says looking at him.

"You said this was the second date. What was the first?" He clearifies.

"Well I did sleep in your bed." She says as they come to the table area.

Walking back to the table she walked a little closer to him, not wanting to loose that sent.

Mikey was explaining to Cherish that the Fay could not be seen by mundane a unless they wanted you to see them. Or if one spat in your eye. She shivered with remembrance of last night.

"Alright. Here's the rest of the lore."

"Ugh more?!" Cherish and Kassie moan.

"Now, come on. You'll want to read this." Ashton pushes the book in front of Kassie.

He flips it open to a family tree. Beautiful names etched in gold across the tainted paper.

Olivia and Kassie search for their own names but fail. Two names look familiar.

"Elvey. That's my moms name." Olivia looks at Kassie.

"And Kalen is my dad's. And look it's connected. They're related! We're related!" Kassie says gasping. It was so surreal. Olivia blinked back tears.

"Wait where are we? Those names aren't ours." She says looking at Ashton and Mikey.

"Those are yours. They are your birth names. Olivia to Eolande. And Kassie to Nerida." Luke finally speaks up.

Olivia and Kassie smile.

"Your names comes from flowers." He adds.

"Ashton's name is Oren, meaning Tree or pine forest. Mine is Aileen meaning light,-" "Not so light to me." Cherish says to Olivia. "-and Michael's is Gealach meaning Moon." Luke finishes. Kassie smiles. Now she knows what the tattoo means.

"Alright now that you know most of the basics, it should be easy from here on." Mikey says closing the book.

"So wait can we give Cherish a name?" Olivia says looking from each boy to the other. "We actually have a phrase for persons like her. Strainséir Álainn, or Aethelwyne." Ashton says and the foreign words roll off his tongue flawlessly.

"Your language is so beautiful, it literally could make a girl swoon." Olivia says.

"What do they mean?"

"Beautiful stranger and Friend of the Fay." Luke says picking up books and putting them onto a cart.

"Man, that's some Lord of the Rings shit." Cherish says and a faint smile appears on Luke's lips.

"Aethelwyne. Momma likes." She says smiling.

"I think you girls earned some free time. How about getting some food?" Ashton says rubbing his hands together.