Nightingale Academy

“Great job, Azure.”

“Well it wasn't my fault,” she retorts angrily. “I didn't hear her start to come out.”

I spat some of the blood on the floor and slid the floss out from between my teeth. I put a finger in my mouth and flinch at the sting. Azure places a hand on my shoulder and the other gently lifts my chin to look at her. She softly asks me to open my mouth as if talking to a child or a scared animal. I shake my head and gulp some of my blood down. My face contorts into an expression of disgust and the Klynski twins chuckle. I glare at them slightly before my teeth accidently scrape the raw gum and I squeeze my eyes shut in an attempt to hold down my tears.

Azure sighs and looks over at Amaranth. They share some kind of twin telepathic nod and Azure removes my bag and towel from my hold. Amaranth wraps one arm around my shoulder and slid the other behind my knees. He picks me up and quickly strides down the stairs and into the dorm's kitchen. He places me on top of the counter and pulls a mug out of the cabinet which he fills with tap water. I take it from his hands and take a mouthful. I quickly rinse and spit it out into the sink.

“I'm sorry this happened, Lilly,” he says as he adds water and salt into the cup.

“It's not your fault,” I reassure him. I doubt that after avoiding me this whole day he would intentionally cause me to bleed this way.

He hands me the cup and I rinse again, ignoring the stinging caused by the salt. “No, maybe not,” he sighs. “But Azure and I shouldn't have been standing outside the door like that.”

I spit. And you also shouldn't of been ignoring me for the last 30 hours either. “Why were you two standing there?” I ask instead, looking down at my lap. I take another mouthful of water and salt, not looking his way.

I spit again and he places his hands on each side of me on the counter. I gulp down the leftover salty taste and look straight at him, blushing due to his close proximity. “We were...” he hesitates, not sure what to say. He looks away, regretting his current position. Had he stayed in place he could have lied to me without staring me in the eyes.

“We were looking for you.” Azure pops up from behind Amaranth and grins cheekily. If this was her way of mending our broken seams than I'm just fine with that.

I smile back at her before it dawns on me that she had already known where I would be. She must have noticed my expression change and pushed Amaranth to the side, claiming his exact position in front of me. Her face leaned dangerously close to mine, something that I felt comfortable when with Amaranth, but the opposite when in contact with his sister, and probably anyone else.

I leaned back slightly and she props her head under my neck, her chin slightly pressing against my breasts and my cheeks immediately burn up. I look up and meet Amaranth's amused gaze. I internally scowl and look back at Azure.

“I'm sorry, Lilith!” she sobs. “I've been ignoring you this whole time and I ended up hurting you and caused you to cut you mouth!”

I frown and rest my hands on her back, patting her shoulder slightly. “It's okay, Azure. It only hurts a little bit now.”

She sniffled into my chest though I could feel no tears. “But I hurt your feelings also.”

I blushed. “That's fine. I'm over it. It's not the first time someone's ignored me before.”

She pulled away from my chest and looked at me angrily. “But I'm your best friend! And as your best friend I should never be doing these kinds of things like avoiding you and cutting your mouth!”

I rolled my eyes. “You didn't cut my mouth on purpose.”

Azure groaned and her forehead fell into her open palm. “You're not getting it, are you?” She looked back at Amaranth and she pushed herself away from me so Amaranth could stand in front of me again.

He caught my gaze and I blushed, looking away. I focused on my lap and tried to calm my heartbeat. Superhuman hearing, I reminded myself. His fingers touched my cheek and he brought my face back to look straight at his. His eyes, though looking tired and sad, showed great depth into his feelings. His face portrayed an expression of sternness, but his face was soft. “We're really sorry, Lilly. Less than 30 hours ago I told you I would never intentionally push you away from me, but I ended up doing just that. I tainted your trust and hurt your feelings. For all it's worth, I want you to know that I regret this and Azure and I had been standing outside the bathroom to apologise to you.” He runs his fingertips through my short bangs and sighs. “You mean a lot to us, though we probably don't tell you that a lot or show it very well, but you are our life now.”

I broke eye contact and looked down at my lap. My hands gripped the hem of my pants and I dipped my face lower and away from their view. A small patch of my shorts darkened and my body violently shook as I sobbed. I used my left arm as a muffler and bit down on my skin to keep myself from sobbing out loud.

“Amaranth!” I heard Azure whine. “You made her cry!”

I could see Amaranth start to panic, his hand lifted half way to my face and he repeatedly pulled it back and then forward again, torn between his decision. My body shook again and I pulled my arm out of my mouth to laugh.

“And now she's going insane!”

I laughed harder and threw myself on Amaranth. My arms slid behind his neck and my legs wrapped themselves around his torso. Pathetically enough, this is my first hug with anyone outside of my family, my first hug in these past few weeks, but most importantly, my first hug with Amaranth. I embraced him tightly and chuckled into his shoulder. After the initial shock, he to wrapped his arms around my body and held me close to him.

“Thank you,” I say, still sniffling. “You have no idea how much that means to me.” And they probably don't but Azure still came over and stole me out of Amaranth's arms. She spun around mid-air and hugged me to her tight. I giggled as she flung me around over her head and shrieked as she feinted a drop.

“Don't scare her like that, Azure.” Amaranth scolded her.

“Sure, sure,” she giggles. “You're just jealous because my hug is better than your hug. Besides, she totally loves this.” She threw me up again and I squealed. Being thrown up was starting to make me sick.

I was caught by Amaranth and he glared at his sister. “Please refrain from throwing her around so carelessly again.”

Azure rolled her eyes and waved him off. She winked at me causing me to blush. Amaranth growled at her anomalistically and set me down on my feet. He placed a hand on my shoulder and offered me the mug of salt and water again. “How about you rinse one more time and I'll take you to the nurse to get some antiseptic salve. We don't want you to get an infection.”

I nodded my head and rinsed one last time. Azure let us know she would be with Haven to fill her in on what happened and I nodded, leaving with Amaranth, my hand enveloped in his. I looked up at his face with wide eyes. He stared straight ahead as we passed a few students and teachers. He walked with aristocratic poise and held his head high. I sighed and looked back down at our hands. I knew this wasn't over yet. His demeanour said everything. He was somewhat like a wise or superior symbol to those like him in this school. He dominated all attention and he seemed to be on top of all news in this school though he never showed it.

I knew his secret (though only the aspects of his being since I haven't guessed exactly what he is just yet) and this must be some kind of punishable knowledge. He and others like him do well in hiding what they are from the humans and me finding out must be terribly inconvenient. And that is why I know he wont let this slide forever. As for right now, he is too occupied with me getting my mouth cleaned and checked for infection. I smiled slightly. Even if I am to be punished for knowing too much, I have Amaranth and the Amaranth I know has a heart. It may not beat, but he still has one and with that heart Amaranth loves me.