Mein Liebling

Untitled Part 6

Dinner goes well, everyone actually seems to... get along. Edward chooses to sit next to you for some reason, with Dempsey at your other side. They both seem to be civil enough, but glare at each other occasionally. Mostly... when the other makes you laugh?

Strange.

Men are a curious breed.

One thing is for sure, each and every one of you is looking forward to the same thing this evening. With the power being back on, and the tower in the process of being build, only one thing occupied your minds: a hot shower.

The men all shower first, the building has a rather large set up, like a locker-room almost. It's fine for them, but you obviously don't want to risk bumping into anyway in the foggy, steam filled chambers, so you wait. They had insisted on you going first, but, you didn't want to feel rushed.

Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo all come back downstairs.

"Richtofen's in the library again," Dempsey tells you, "Buried in his books, avoiding human interaction, the usual, so the shower's all yours doll."

Unable to contain your excitement, you grab your things and rush up the stairs, earning the men's laughter behind you.

The water gets hot, almost too hot, but it soothes your aching muscles and helps to clear your overwhelmed thoughts – if only briefly.

You close your eyes, feeling the water run over you, trying to empty your mind. A vision of Edward flashes, his pupils wide, hovering over you again. The sounds he had made, the things he had said, the way he made you feel.

Your eyes shoot open again and you immediately turn the water all the way on cold. Gasping, you fight to catch your breath, the temperature shock a little too drastic, but it manages to distract you.

After dressing in shorts and a tanktop rather than your previous pants and full gear, you find yourself moving toward the library. Not in search of Edward specifically, but in search of information, and if that happened to lead to Edward too ... then what's the harm in that right?

Thunder shakes through the building, followed by a flash of light, and then the sound of rain trailing down the windows. You love storms, the sound of them, watching them, all of it, but this was the last thing you needed right now. That tower needed to go up as soon as possible and you needed to get out of here, not just for the sake of your group and potentially even the world, but... honest, for the sake of your sanity. Being cooped up in here with these characters, these now apparently real men – especially Edward, was driving you mad. I mean you would have to be mad with the thoughts you were having right? You don't even know each other, most of what you know is from actually playing his character in the game, which is strange enough.

So why are your feet taking you towards the table in the back? Why are you knowingly walking toward the most likely place to find him?

The thunder sounds again, hiding any potential sound of your footsteps from alerting Edward to your presence as you round the corner. He's hunched over, his elbows resting on the table, head in his hands as if deep in thought. His gaze is cast downward, at the mess of books and papers with scribbled notes strewn about the table and surrounding floor.

"You've been busy."

You don't mean to startle him, but he starts upright, clearly shocked to see someone approaching him, even more shocked when he realizes who.

It takes a moment for him to fully register as he glances around at the scattered array of study materials. "Ah, vell I've been told zhat learning can be quite enjoyable."