Written in the Stars of Heaven

“That’s it! You’re sleeping outside! Let go of that pole!” Leona yelled viciously, ripping the flexible tent pole out of my grasp.

Blinking, I wiped my wet hair from my face. All of my ponderings about Nikolai and my future had distracted me so much, I’d missed the hole the thing was supposed to go into and tore a portion of the fabric. Oops.

Before I could regain my wit, she’d stomped over and kicked me in the face with her heavy boots, exactly where the huge man from before had punched. My poor cheekbone was going to be severely discolored in the morning. For now, it was just throbbing and I thought I might have felt something warm trickle downward, mingling with the rainwater.

“Leona!” Nikolai barked angrily, doing his best to stay calm. “Leona, leave her the hell alone and get your tent fixed!”

“I’ll kill her, Nikolai. I swear to God, if she sleeps in here with me, I will strangle her.” A purple vein stood out on her forehead as she hollered. Strange, the things I notice at the most inappropriate times. I mean, my life was being threatened and I was paying more attention to a protruding vein.

Nikolai rubbed his temple with long, graceful fingers, obviously about to lose it.

“She can sleep with me!” Blaze offered suggestively, winking at me. I had to hold back the gag that inspired.

“Where would I sleep?” Avan protested, displeased for some reason that he was being evicted from a stupid synthetic ‘house’ by a moron.

“Everyone will stay where they are,” Nicolai stated, still rubbing his head, looking at nothing in particular. Sometimes it was easy to forget he was blind…

“But Blaze has gas!”

“And Avan mumbles.”

“Enough,” the Russian interrupted. “Leona, can you behave yourself?”

“Hell no! This bitch isn’t setting foot in my tent one more time!”

“Hey, it’s not like I had a lot of options,” I protested. In what world would I actually want to sleep near someone like her? The answer is ‘none’, if you were lost.

“Make her sleep outside, like the dog she is,” blondie snarled.

“Everyone, shut up!” Nikolai let out a string of curses in his native language, the accent strong even in his English. I’d say he was probably about three seconds from serial murder. The four of us his prime targets. “Melani, you’ll just have to sleep in my tent, so get over here and help set it up. You and Leona need to get over yourselves because I’m done with the fighting. Avan and Blaze, just get to work.”

The tone he used left us all in utter silence as we scurried around to obey and not upset him again. Even I managed to stay quiet the entire time, and that was some feat.

Fifteen minutes later, we were all beyond ready to crawl into sleeping bags and pass out, but dinner was a more dire need. Avan passed out hotdogs again, which we ate cold and very quietly. When we’d finished there, we went to our respective tents.

Unrolling the sleeping bag that I’d somehow managed to let get wet, I wondered when we’d finally be out of the rain and reach the promised Jeep. I couldn’t begin to express how sick of walking all day I was.

Nikolai, having already made his bed, was pulling his mud-caked, drenched jeans off along with the dark blue parka he was wearing. This left him in light blue boxers, different from his Scooby one’s I’d seen before, and a black t-shirt. Oh, and when he reached up to run his fingers through his damp hair (he wore a hood the entire walk, save the battle, unlike some smart people. Namely me), that shirt rode up a little, revealing tanned abs the gods would be jealous of. Like, very defined washboard muscles! And you know that little area on a toned man, right around his hips? That indention of sorts, that disappears seductively below the waist of his pant? Oh yeah, Nikolai had one! It was seriously so hot, my breath caught in my throat as I stared like an idiot.

I peeled my eyes away before I began drooling, but not before I noticed his Tattoos. They were made of three different colors, swirling together regally; turquoise, navy, and teal. You’d think that it would look stupid, but it so didn’t. They were masculine and gentle, and beautiful, and exotic… Which reminded me what I’d been told about how Tattoos reflected the wearer perfectly. These designs were Nikolai, the art form.

Pulling my own coat off, I realized yet again how cold I was. The top of the dress still hadn’t completely dried and had that sticky, damp feeling that the water and my own body heat caused. Talk about uncomfortable. And the skirt of it was a lost cause, hardly white anymore, and saturated completely in cold rain water. Plus, my sleeping bag was wet too, despite the fact that it had been in a waterproof bag the entire walk, which only I could manage to do. Tonight’s sleep wasn’t going to be anything like what I’d hoped.

Nikolai noticed these same things only seconds after I had and a crease formed between his brows as he stopped to assess the situation. Sometimes it came in handy that he could see me, despite his blindness, for whatever reason.

“Let me go see if Leona has anything that will fit you,” he murmured, grabbing for his pants again. Might I add here that he didn’t seem to think being in his underwear around me, alone in a tent, was that huge a deal. Just common stuff, carry on with your business folks. Too bad I couldn’t share the same perspective.

Pulling my mind off of the state of his dress, I laid a chilled hand on top of his warm one, protesting his idea. “Whoa there, Boris. I’m not so sure if that’s a great idea. I mean, I’m all for pissing her off, but she threatened my life! This poor excuse for clothing will dry eventually.”

He didn’t stop like I’d hoped, but he didn’t seem revolted by my hand either, so it wasn’t totally a lose-lose outcome for me.

“Melani, she won’t touch you. She’s too afraid of me.”

Shaking my head at his naivety, I retracted my hand and asked, “Wow, you’re in denial. Do you honestly think she behaves that way around you because she’s afraid of you?”

Now he just seemed confused, pausing his actions. “Why else would she? They‘re all afraid of me.”

Wow, he was so hopeless, it was almost cute. Almost. “Nikolai, she hates me so much and behaves tough around you because she likes you. Like, likes you.”

His handsome features twisted in confusion, like he thought I had lost it. “You can’t be right. Why would she like me?”

“Boys are so dense,” I sighed. “She’s attracted to you and your personality probably has something to do about it.”

“Why? I’m mean to her.”

“Some girls get off on that,” I answered simply.

“And why would she be attracted to me?”

At this I gaped. What kind of idiot question was that. “Have you seen yourself?” Immediately, I knew my foot had taken a one-way trip to my mouth.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t. Not since I was thirteen.”

“Nikolai, that was horrible of me to say. I swear I didn’t mean-”

“No, no,” he cut me off, but his voice was gentle. “It’s alright. I’ve come to terms with it.”

“Clearly, you’re good at that. So come to terms with the fact that Miss Homicidal’s got a crush on you.” No one ever accused me of being subtle, for obvious reasons.

He stared at a spot on the ground for a moment, then continued to get his pants back on.

“You’re still going there?” I figured I’d gotten him to lay off after telling on Leona.

“Yes. You need something dry.”

He didn’t give me an opportunity to say anything else, unzipping the door and hurrying to close it so the freezing air and rainfall wouldn’t make me colder.

A few minutes later, he returned with a pair of sweats and a white hoodie, a rolled up sleeping bag under his arm. It’s official. Nikolai is my hero.

“Did she try to kill you? Or kiss you?” I smirked, loving that I had something to tease him about now. The faint blush that colored his tan cheeks made the effort well worthwhile.

“She glared a lot and threw these at me. The bag, was a spare that I made Blaze bring, so hopefully you’ll stay warm tonight now.” The accent was stronger, so I knew that he truly was flustered. Wonderful!

“I’m sure I will be. You’re a much more hospitable host than my last one. I was secluded to the corner, with no pillow or anything,” I smiled in earnest.

Nikolai shook his head and pulled his pants off again, unaware of the predicament he was causing by doing so. How was I supposed to strip down to my underwear and change with the epitome of hotness only a foot away?

“Um, Boris..?”

“Huh?” he grunted, plopping down in his sleeping bag and pulling the edge up close to his face.

“I need to change.”

He let out a curse in his native language before telling me, “I’ll turn over. Leaving again isn’t an option. You aren’t the only one who’s had a rough day.”

Sighing, I pulled the hem of the dress (bright green bra only a little visible in the shadows the moon cast) over my head, glad to finally be mostly rid of wet clothes. Hurrying so I wouldn’t die of hypothermia, seeing as how the tent wasn’t weather-proof, I pulled Leona’s clothes on. They were a little big, but I definitely wasn’t complaining. They were dry, and they were comfortable.

“Alright, done,” I announced, shoving the wet bag out of my way and replacing it with the one Nikolai delivered.

“Goodnight, Melani,” he murmured, already almost asleep.

“’Night,” I replied, crawling into my toasty cocoon.

I wasn’t totally sure, but I thought I might have heard him whisper ‘thank you’. But I was probably imagining in my exhausted, overexerted state. I didn’t have time to ponder it any further before a thick blanket of sleep overtook me and wrapped me in its refreshing embrace.