My King

Chapter Twenty-Nine

John's PoV

      "I think there's something going on with my ability..."

     Those were seriously the last words I needed to hear right now. So far life just seemed to be one damn thing after another. If there's something wrong with Ash's ability it's probably better to deal with it now than later. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the worst. 

      "What do you mean 'there's something going on with your ability'?" I asked and she hummed.

      "It's been... getting stronger? I don't really know how to describe it. I've been doing things I never could before, like the fire. I've never been able to make fire before it's just not stable enough for me to replicate it but I did! And the claws, I was never able to actually physically change my body with it but now I can. I don't understand how though, my power level was already maxed out there's no way that I could be getting stronger. I know this is bad timing with everything but I just had to tell you and-" I put my hands on her shoulders and cut her off. 

     "You're rambling," I said and she looked down. 

      "Right, sorry," she muttered. 

     "Don't apologize. You do know this is a good thing right?" I asked and she looked up at me. "I mean, finding new uses for your ability is a good thing," I said with a smile and she relaxed. 

      "Yeah, you're right. I guess everything that's been going on has made me use shadow reality in a way I've never had to before." She smiled up at me. "It really isn't something to worry about huh," she said with a grin. With that taken care of we walked back over and rejoined the group. The bell rung and the others left to go to their last classes. I sat with Arlo and nudged him, he was spaced out again. 

      "You good?" I asked, worry laced into my voice. He snapped out of it and looked up at me. 

      "Yeah I'm fine. Sorry I've been so spacey lately. I just had a really weird dream and it's been seriously bugging me," he explained. I nodded, I've had some strange ass dreams before so I understood. 

      "Makes sense. So, you wanna go to class or just stay here?" I asked and Arlo hummed, leaning into my side. 

      "Just stay up here, I don't feel like dealing with people after Diane," he responded and closed his eyes. I wrapped an arm around him and pulled him closer against my side. I nudged him awake and he grumbled at me. 

      "Wanna lay down?" I asked and he nodded. he got up for a minute and I changed the couch a bit. I made it longer and wider so we could actually stretch out a bit. I added a couple of pillows and fell over onto it. Arlo rolled his eyes at me and crawled onto my chest. I was surprised at first but was happy to let him lay on me. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his hair. The smell of strawberries reminded me of that night and I couldn't help but smile. I made a quick mental note of his love for strawberries. 

Arlo's PoV

      I closed my eyes and listened to the steady sound of John's heartbeat. I was so exhausted recently, maybe it was just everything that's happened recently finally catching up with me. I felt so strange whenever I was away from John, like I was being watched. When I was with him though, everything felt right. I hummed softly and felt him rubbing small circles into my back. He really was a total softie when he wasn't brutalizing people. Unable to stay awake I slowly drifted off.