Take One Last Breath

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^*Kori’s POV*^
I was hiding behind Hanna for protection against all of the pancake batter flying through the air when Ville’s voice cut through the chaos.

“Morning.” I looked out from under Hanna’s arm to scream at Ville to throw me a skillet, but stopped along with everyone else at who was standing beside him. Austin. She looked like she was about to dart off, but as soon as the pancake batter stopped flying, she froze as still as I was as I stood up straight from behind Hanna.

“Austin?” Bam questioned, and she smiled just the slightest bit, but it seemed off. I felt that rage going through me again, angry as fuck that she had just run off, possibly gotten herself into god knows what.

“Austin you-…” I stopped as I stepped around Hanna and up to Austin, emotions pulling me in every which direction but the angry one I wanted to go with. “You…” She was here, and okay, and I hadn’t seen her in what seemed like forever… As my breathing got choppy I couldn’t find the anger that had been so evident a second ago. “You’re okay.” I threw my arms around her, all the anger gone, and replaced with relief. When she called I wasn’t sure to really know if she was okay or not. She could’ve been kidnapped, and someone could’ve been holding a gun to her head.

“K-Kori I can’t move my arms.” She whispered, her voice slightly strained and I pulled away.

“Shit, sorry I just…” A smile came to my face, because no matter the fact that I could’ve killed her with a hug just now, she was alive.

“Woah, woah, woah, you’ve been staying with…” Bam’s voice was confused as I looked back to see him looked at Austin and Ville with a confused as fuck expression. “You’ve been here all… We were about to have to go on a wild fucking goose chase, and you were… You were right here! With Ville!” Bam smiled.

“Wait, Austin is the girl you came to look for?” Ville asked, sounding confused.

“Yea, she’s Bam’s cousin.” Novak said, and I felt someone’s hands on my shoulders and glanced back to see Hanna standing behind me before I looked back to Austin and Ville.

“You’re Bam’s cousin?” Ville looked over at Austin, looking slightly shocked and Austin nodded.

“So,” Ryan began, stepping up beside Bam. “How’d you guys get to know each other?” Austin looked down slightly, and Ville looked at her.

“Austin,” He began, his voice even sounding the slightest bit confused, and like he didn’t exactly know what to say. “You want to explain?”

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^*Bam’s POV*^
I couldn’t believe all that Austin said, as we all sat around the kitchen since Ville wouldn’t let us step foot into his living room all covered in pancake batter. I was sitting on the counter with Kori on my right, and Novak on my left, and Ryan was leaning back against the counter with Hanna next to Kori. I kept looking over at Kori ever so often, seeing her expression keep dropping just a little more every few seconds as Austin quietly told us all that had happened. It wasn’t until Ville mentioned something about drugs and pills until Kori finally just went blank faced altogether. Austin then started explaining more, basically going back over everything, just putting in some drug infused details she had left out. When all was said and done, none of us said a word. The room got so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and when I heard Kori sniff it took everything to keep from putting my arm around her.

“Things are going to be getting a lot better starting today. Now that you guys are here, I don’t…I can’t go back to that past again.” Austin said after a moment, looking down at the floor.

“You flew off…got hitched to Ville here, then flew off to Finland with him and…and had a major relapse and tore down all of the progress you struggled so hard to make.” Kori’s voice almost scared me as I looked over at her, and she had a hard expression, her lips pursed as Austin slowly looked up at her. “You just… You fucking worked so goddamn hard to get out of that shit, Austin. To get out of that life!” She got down from the counter, and I was ready to jump down at any second as Ville tensed up slightly. “You worked so fucking hard and you let one thing- one death make you rip it all apart!” She raised her voice Austin didn’t flinch, she just watched Kori. “You were stronger than-”

“Kori…” I cut her off, latching my hand onto her shoulder. She looked back at me, tears welling up in her eyes, and Austin’s as well. Kori jerked her shoulder from underneath my hand and I jumped down, because I swear she looked ready to punch Austin in the face, and I wouldn’t put it past her. But she just walked off. “Fuck…” I sighed, and didn’t waste a second before walking after her. “Kori,” I tried as she walked up the stairs, and I could feel the others watching us through the banister. “Kori, don’t-” I cut myself off with a sigh as she went into the guest bedroom she stayed in last night, and I followed her in. She went over and sat down on the bed, her head in her hands. I quietly closed the door and walked over to her, almost wanting to make a crack at her, but instead I just sat down and put my arms around her and she moved her head from her hands and onto my shoulder, burying her face in my tee shirt as she cried. I didn’t know what was so fucked up with her, but hell, on the other hand, before a few days ago I didn’t even know Austin had once had a problem. But, Kori didn’t get any sleep at all last night, because I dragged her into my room, and…neither of us got any sleep. She was tired and cranky. We both were.

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^*Ryan’s POV*^
I sighed after Bam ran off after Kori, and looked over at Austin and Ville.

“None of us got that much sleep, we got here really late…” I said and Hanna nodded.

“She’s just cranky, Austin, you know how she gets.” Hanna said and Austin nodded, taking a deep breath, and I noticed Novak looking at Ville strangely.

“Yea, I know, I just…I just never meant for any of this to happen…I planned on just…I don’t know.” She walked off, towards where her and Ville had came, and Ville started after her.

“Austin please-”

“No,” Novak said coldly, putting a hand on Ville’s shoulder, and stopping him. “I think you’ve done enough.” He said and Ville looked at him confusingly as he walked off after Austin, down a hallway.

“What…” Ville trailed off, looking at Hanna and I.

“We only got two or three hours of sleep before Bam started waking us up.” I said and Ville slowly nodded.

“I guess I’ll start making breakfast.” Ville said and I took a deep breath, looking around at the pancake splattered kitchen.

“Yea, you do that.” I said and smiled.

“And good luck.” Hanna chuckled lightly and Ville rolled his eyes. I patted Ville on the shoulder with a cheeky grin, getting some pancake batter on him as I followed Hanna off out of the kitchen, around the corner, and up the stairs towards the guest bedrooms. I had to admit, I was worried about Austin now that everything that had happened was out in the open, and we were aware of what happened when she ran off. Then there was this fresh thing with Novak. The whole way up here he was in a daze, and when we got here the first thing he said was ‘Where are we searching first?’ despite the fact that we were all exhausted. And now he just basically told Ville to fuck off and don’t get near Austin in just six words. But as I walked into my room, my brain was too tired and foggy to even try to decipher any of it.

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^*Knoxville’s POV*^
“Well, well, well, look who came out of hiding now that their son’s flown off to another country.” I said as I strolled into the kitchen, finding Phil sitting at the bar and April washing dishes.

“Well, well, well, look who came out of hiding now that Kori’s not around to kill him!” I gave Phil a look that told him I wasn’t amused and he chuckled.

“What are you doing down here?” April asked, drying her hands off.

“Bam’s not here, this is Castle Knoxville now.” I grinned with a laugh.

“It’s awful quiet around here without him tryin’ to tear the place down.” Phil said, looking around.

“I sure hope they find Austin, though. I can only imagine where she got off to.” April leaned on the counter and I sat down next to Phil.

“Yea, she’s a good kid. Kori on the other hand…” I trailed off.

“Oh shut up. Kori’s a sweetheart, you just got on her bad side.” April hit my arm and I scoffed.

“You mean she has a good side?” I asked, causing April to roll her eyes. “Hm,” I hummed. “Must be some kind of switch on her back or something I haven’t found yet…”

“Johnny, don’t be like that.”

“She can have a temper.” Phil stated and I nodded.

“Temper…” I said and shook my head. “She’s got some green beret tactics in her. Jesus man, I mean-” I cut myself off, not wanting to bring up my hand and possibly faint. Again.

“WHO’S READY TO COME WITH US TO FUCKING WONDERLAND?!” I jumped fifty miles high at the thick Finnish accent and then groaned as I saw Jukka and Jarppi. Jarppi had his arms open wide, his legs spread apart and Jukka was grinning like an idiot beside him.

“Oh my god, no! What are you guys doing here?! You’re supposed to be in Finland!” April yelled, and Jarppi’s arms fell to his sides.

“What?” He asked and Jukka looked around a minute and then threw his head back.

“We’re late, dumbass! I told you we should’ve booked a flight instead of flying here ourselves!” Jukka said and slapped Jarppi in the back of the head.

“Oh god,” I groaned, and let my head hit the table. Now the two people I tried to avoid by not going were in my haven. This was my castle while Bam was gone. “You’re not supposed to be here!” I whined, probably sounding like a little kid as I did so.

“Well, we’re here.” Jukka stated and I sighed.

“And we’ll only be a couple days before we’re able to fly back to Finland.” Jarppi said and I shook my head.

“Hell no, you two are flying back tonight.” I said, but Phil seemed to have something else on his mind.

“You two flew yourselves here? How the hell did you guys manage that?” Phil asked, and Jukka and Jarppi walked over and both sat down on either side of him, beginning talking fast in half English and half Finnish, and…half…gibberish? I had no clue, my last memory was slamming my face into the wall.

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^*Kori’s POV*^
I slowly started waking up, finding my face in someone’s chest, that wasn’t Hanna’s. I rolled over, rubbing my eyes, memories of what happened earlier in my head. I sighed, laying my head back down on the pillow, ignoring the fact that I was in bed with Bam. We both still had our clothes on, that was safe enough for me. I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, or what time it was. I did know that I was sick of things being kept away from people. I was sick of having things kept from me, and I was sick of keeping things from other people. I heard a groan from Bam and he stretched his arms over his head.

“About time you woke up.” I told him groggily, and his eyes shot open and he sat up.

“Oh my god I fell asleep, what time is it?” He asked quickly and I sighed as I sat up with him

“Bam, Austin’s been found, if we got found out now it would be fine.” I told him and he hesitated for a second, relaxing some before nodding with a slight smile as I leaned into him, still feeling tired.

“I guess you’re right.” He said and I nodded numbly into his chest, closing my eyes again. “Are you okay, Kori?” He asked, and I nodded again. “You sure?” I pulled away from him as he kept an arm around me.

“I’m fine I just…I don’t know…” I looked down, shaking my head slightly, remembering all I’d said in the kitchen. I felt kind of bad. She was…trying her best to get out of it again, I guess. “I was tired and kind out of it.” I looked up at him with a mischievous smile. “You kept me up all night.” I told him and a smirk came to his lips.

“You were the one nearly waking the whole house up.” He countered and I grinned as he leaned into my lips, his hands going to my face and mine to his shoulders, his tongue roaming into my mouth and just as I started pushing him back-

“Kori I need to ta-” Austin’s voice was cut short as the door opened suddenly and I quickly pushed Bam away and he sighed heavily, sitting back against the headboard, his hands over his face. I knew we had been officially caught as I watched Austin look at the two of us in a mix of horror, confusion, and with the expression of ‘Bam, you son of a bitch, I’ll kill you.’