being nearly dead

Dinner and a black dress

Nix had personally managed to evade Felix's intrusive questions, using the excuse that he had to tend to Ava's situation. Whatever that was, none of them really knew. He closed her new bedroom door behind them and saw the slight smile on her face.

"What?"

"I like them..."

He sighed and went to the bathroom. He got a modern first-aid kit which surprised Ava above everything else and sat next to her on the edge of the bed. "For the most part, I don't think Felix hates you..."

"What about the rest of them?"

"Still deciding..." he cut off her stitches with miniature scissors and threaded the needle carefully. She leaned back and lifted her shirt for him to clean the wound again and re-stitch it all. He worked more quickly this time as he got the hang of it again.

"Why did you leave?"

He taped over the gauze. "I don't understand," he said simply as he took his bloody utensils to the bathroom to clean them and wash his hands.

"Cara said you haven't lived here for sixty years, so, you lived here once and left. Why leave your family?"

"Complications," he said from the bathroom as she lay back on the bed.

It was properly comfortable. "What kind?" she wasn't giving up as quickly as he would have wanted her to. She knew how to work around that now.

"The family kind."

He wasn't being especially helpful which only drove her further. "Fine then, Silas, what's wrong with him?"

"That's a long list, a file really, multiple and coloured coded," he re-entered the room to see her with her legs swaying in the air.

"Right..." she sat up. "Where would it start?" she crossed her legs on the bed.

He simply shook his head. "Come, Felix is annoying but right. We can't go to dinner with a bloody shirt," he held out his hand for her to take when he saw she was hesitant.

She sighed and took his hand, still brandishing the bloody shirt. He pulled her to the first room to the right, the one Luna had poked ever so lightly. "Luna's room? I don't think she'd like me taking her clothes..."

"Borrowing," he corrected, "I've asked her already."

"How?"

He just pointed to his head and opened the door, pushing her in. The room was dark, black-out curtains were hung up. Nix went to them and pulled them open. Soft light ran in to illuminate the filth.

  Clothes were thrown around the room while posters from all different decades were plastered over each other on the walls. Her room was unmade, the comforter was half on the floor and a pillow was thrown across the room.

He crossed to her wardrobe and glanced back at Ava a few times, searching for something in particular it seemed. She only really owned black clothes so that was what he sifted through. It all looked the same to Ava who stood by the door. "What are you looking for?"

He took something out and handed it to her, the fabric was thin and black and she wasn't sure what exactly it was. "Good enough..." he told her and nudged her out the room without much decision.

***

Felix was first at the table, bored out of his mind. Then Cara stumbled down and sat across from him. They knew their places. Luna's seat was beside Cara and diagonal to Silas at the head of the table, opposite her was Nix. This was how it came to be. Nix sighed as he led her down the stairs, remembering what would happen. He pulled her aside at the bottom of the stairs.