Infatuation

“How is he?” I asked when Aric sat down by the booze table.

The scratches on his wrists were beginning to fade out. It was nice to see the golden complexion return to normal, but his eyes were tired, shadowed by tiredness. The last week had taken a toll on all of us, not just him.

“Asleep,” He poured himself a glass of bourbon. “That trick worked.” He spared me a faint smile.

I nodded, feeling a smile that didn't reach my eyes.

“I stole it from Mel...” I reached down to rub around the itchy cast my lower leg was encased in. “She used it on me back in Miami.”

“She told me.” He confessed sitting in the sofa across from mine, glass in hand.

He should stop drinking so much. All he did was drink when night rolled around. I was too empty to fight or argue, though. Let him do what numbed his heart. I couldn't drink my sorrow and worry away; I had to be preoccupied with a very revolted Nathaniel. I sighed recalling Reed had gone back to LA for a few days, at least. I wasn't sure how more pressure I could handle. It wasn't like she'd wake up because they kept arguing with the doctors and nurses.

“How's the leg?” He asked gesturing to the white cast with his chin.

“Itchy,” I grumbled, but quickly recovered. “But it's on the recovery road... how's your back?”

“Healing,”

I kept a deep sigh within myself. I hated this small talk with him. Aric and me were all about our hate-banter, that, and hot sex. Right now we couldn't do the second due obvious reasons, the first one... we just didn't feel it in us to argue. All this waiting for Melissa to wake up was driving us insane. So, we were talking small talk.

“How many pills did you slip into the water?” I lowered my head on the pillow gazing through my half-lowered eyelids to him.

Aric's dark hair was jumbled, all thrown around with no sense of direction. Appearances weren't important right now, I'd say. As he glanced from the window pane to me I flicked my eyes once.

“One,” He answered already opening his mouth to go on before I had a shot at stopping him. “Did you really want me to drown him in sleeping pills? I don't think it’s too healthy, not when he's been skipping meals. Not eating is already bad. Overloading his system with drugs is one more step to debilitating it.”

I blinked my eyes at his explanation—all in all, it was extremely detailed. The tips of my smile formed into a soft grin.

“Have you been keeping tabs on your little brother's routine?” He scoffed indignantly.

“It's not very hard.” He rolled the intense green eyes. “Wake up, shower, get dressed, drive to the hospital—” Aric inhaled deeply to go on. “Get dragged out of the hospital—by yours truly—come home, eat—or he should—go to bed, and preferably sleep—then start all over again the next day.” He drowned a great portion of bourbon. “Did I leave anything out?” He asked with a bit of bitterness.

No, he hadn’t. That was exactly how Nathaniel had been living the last week. He was quiet, angry, angst filled, and, simply put—devastated. I never imagined Nathaniel loved my best friend so much. I knew she believed it, I couldn't really see it until now. It was like his soul had been killed when she went into coma. I'd never say anything but his eyes… when he looked at her asleep, with all the tubes sticking into her body, the machines crowding the room—it broke my heart. I wanted to shake Melissa awake not only for my sake—for his, too.

“Cut him some slack.” I couldn't believe I was saying this about Nathaniel Belanger—in the Hive they called him the Devil's Reaper! “He loves her...” Even a Reaper's heart could be stolen, I guess. “What if...” I started only to stop myself from finishing the thought I'd been dreading all these days. “What if she doesn't wake up...?”

The cup was set down lighting fast and he was kneeling in front of me, on one knee. My heart did some strange flip-flop. I scrunched my eyebrows in wonder. A breath succumbed out of my throat shakily. Aric's hand settled on top of mine. I followed the movement of his tongue, tracing his upper lip.

“She's going to wake up. She will,” He nodded gazing at me with nothing but hope, honesty and compassion.

“You’re not going to pull out a ring, are you?” I joked, lighting up the mood. It was something he constantly made me do. When Aric got serious about a subject I felt the need to drive it the other way.

With a modest-sized smirk he took up residence on the couch’s arm. His two emeralds kept gazing down at me. My hands were beginning to feel restless so I tried shoving them into my pockets.

“I’m not obsessed with you, darling. Not enough to marry you.”

“Good, because I’d tell you ‘no’… but if the ring was nice I think I’d keep it.” Again I dodged the bullet—crap. I really had to stop thinking about bullets. They were evil—though there was that saying: Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Or put your BF’s in comas. This reminded me… “I’m not sorry,” I sat up for this, leveling us as much as I could. Aric frowned. “About killing Riley—I know she was your sister and I’m probably supposed to say I regret doing it… but I don’t. She shot Mel and—”

“It’s okay,” He muttered. “That you’re not sorry, I mean. You just spared me the trouble of doing it myself. That was the plan all along. Kill my Father and them—the twins. I had to get rid of the three of them or there would always be a possibility of The Order getting back on its feet, that would just be bloody horrible, wouldn’t it?” In the middle of all he was saying, I found something to giggle over—obviously I didn’t, but it didn’t mean I didn’t want to. “Why are you smiling?” Whoops, so maybe I wasn’t in control as much as I believed.
“Well it’s…” I tapped my finger on my knee. “It’s because of your accent—it’s just funny.”

He perked an eyebrow at the information.

“Funny? I thought it was sexy…” Just like that we’d walked into teasing-territory. With his face getting much closer to mine, his fingers moving down my neck. “That’s what you said last time.”

I sagged under the warmth of his breath.

“No,” I placed a hand to his chest, careful not to push too hard, he was still hurt. “I said accents turned me on when they were sexy.”

“Right,” He said like we’d agreed on that exact thing. “Since you’re always turned on when I’m near you,” Aric’s hand curled around mine, parting it from his chest. “I logically assumed my accent was—and is sexy-sounding in your little ears.”

So what if he was right? It wasn’t like I was going to confess it. Still, our faces were growing closer, actually I was just standing there he was the one getting closer. My lips tingled when he pushed them together, the soft tissue on both of them melding into one soft smooch.

“This,” I got out parting us inches. “Is only happening because… I’m emotionally confused…”

Aric nodded with a face that read ‘whatever you say’ which told me he wasn’t buying it. I could use my emotional status—that was indeed a mess, right now—but I knew there was something more here, between us. I just didn’t want to deal with it, or acknowledge it, because if I did, then it made us something and I didn’t do relationships at all.

“I’m a bastard for taking advantage of fragile girl, then.” He reclaimed my lips, nibbling briefly, never actually sinking his teeth—it was so strange how he managed that. How he managed to shut me up with these kinds of kisses, how his touches affected me. “I’m probably tagged for hell already…” He whispered playfully when I had to catch my breath.

I nodded my head dazed by the hand he planted on my back, pushing me to him.

“Pity I still have the cast on…” Aric shook his head stealing another deep smooth and slow kiss from me.

“I like this just as much.” My face was burning under his palms. I think I stopped responding to the kiss at some point, and I knew he’d noticed when a velvety chuckle rippled from his throat. “I didn’t know you blushed, hmm that’s sort of cute.” Yep, I was blushing—and no I did not do it on a frequent basis. But with Aric it wasn’t the first time. I couldn’t believe he’d only taken notice of it now. What was worst, was that I didn’t understand why I was mad about it, it was good thing he hadn’t seen my cheeks flare up like the Fourth of July before.

Putting some distance between our bodies was something I knew how to do, and was exactly what I did. My brain was a total torrent of confusion.

“Huh, you need sleep.” I blurted.

“Okay,” He agreed plainly. “Let’s go to bed then?” He suggested nodding to where his current bedroom was.

I did my best to muster a frown, like what he was implying hadn’t crossed my mind.

“I said you needed it. You have dark moons under your eyes—full moons.” I accentuated holding up a finger.

Aric’s shoulders lifted a little as he breathed deeply. I couldn’t see behind the mask, he kept putting one up whenever he got worried—the calmness he carried around was more than annoying, it was his cover up method. I’d begun noticing it since the doctor spoke to us the first time. When he thought a bad news was coming, for a minute, there were all kinds of dread playing in his eyes—the next second, calm and collected was the game change.

“Not to tell you off or anything, Annie,” I was more than tempted to do more than eye-scold him for the nickname. “But you aren’t looking as spiffy as you’d like to make believe.” I knew what he was talking about; my eyes probably looked sunk into deep craters.

“Fine, we’ll both go to bed, but we’re not sleeping in the same room. We don’t need to.” I reached for my trusty crutch— “Hey what’s the big idea…?” I didn’t screech as loudly as I wanted, he didn’t release me or go deaf, so…

Aric cradled me in his arms carrying me in bridal glory. The only thing missing was the white, long tailed dress. I huffed as my fate sealed itself. With my leg in this state there was little I could do without getting it hurt in the process.

“Seriously?” I muttered looking over his shoulder.

“Ooh, seriously,” He drew out in a mocking American accent—the best he could. “I like sleeping with pretty girls.”

“Oh, I’m pretty now?”

“Sexy, hot—whichever you prefer.” He gave a wide smirk. He was so full of himself.

I knew what he was trying to do, though. He was trying to get my mind of Melissa. Melissa—who was in a hospital room all alone, without anyone watching over her; the questions assaulting me were the ones that plagued Nate every second of every day and night. What if she didn’t wake up? What if she woke up and no one was there? What would she think, would she think we abandoned her there…? Would she have forgotten anything—there were just so many things to ponder, so many things to worry over. She was my best friend, she had to wake up. Melissa was in this predicament because she was selfless and saved my life, because she wanted justice to be made, she wanted her Mother’s life’s work to be worth it. And it was, Order members were being found and picked off one by one. I’d given the flash drive to Reed who ended up sending it to Washington through various, unconnected people, that way they would never know of our involvement.

Aric was setting me on bed before I knew it. It was an ample, comfy, four-poster bed. We were in San-Diego, Nate’s house. When I received the coordinates of where they were from a guy named Mark—who apparently was Aric’s double agent—I let Reed know. He called people who owed him, not only in the Hive, because they weren’t very interested in saving a soon-to-be ex-member, meaning Nathaniel, and two other kids who brought them nothing… I swear that pissed me off. I got on the chopper against all of my doctor’s wishes and followed the rescue team in. I saw Melissa in Aric’s arms, Nate hovering nearby looking stricken with fear, grief and anger. Melissa didn’t move and inch, so I began making sense of the conversation, or shout out they were having with Riley. She’d shot Mel, that was all I needed to do my own shooting. Yes, I’d been leaning on my crutch even more heavily than in the last few days. It hadn’t mattered. I missed the first one, the second, though, went straight through the chest. The guys Reed had managed to round up rushed her to the helicopter, landing in the nearest hospital. They managed to stable her after getting the bullet from the place where it had been lodged in, her hip. She was lucky because to permanent damage had been caused. She had lost too much blood, though. That’s when the doctor said she was in a coma. Since we knew better than to stick around Phoenix, Reed asked that she’d be transferred to a hospital in California, San Diego, so we’d have a safe place to stay. Besides, there wasn’t a lot of “killer” activity here. The Hive owned most of CA.

My eyes focused on the present as Aric stripped, throwing the T-shirt on a chair, leaving the healing scabs on his back visible. The color on them was dark red, like dried blood, some were thin, long, others were thicker and smaller. They rode up from the middle to his shoulders. It was a cruel thing to do and see. Aric’s skin had been golden—soft, with no bump along the way… would he be scarred for life?

“They’ll fade, just like the other ones did.” He piped as if he’d read my wandering thoughts—wait, the other ones?

“What other ones…? I never saw a single scar on you!” I was forcing myself to scoot to the edge of bed where he was sitting, undressing his jeans. I only wondered if it hurt or bothered him after my eyes had started gazing down crazily to find evidence and my fingers were absently moving up and the flesh. “I’m… does this bother—hurt?” I rushed.

Not bothering to stop moving or glance over his round shoulder, Aric shook his head. My finger pad traced a path where no imperfection was found, but there, under the light from the bedside I saw it. It was so old, bleached golden I could barely make it out. I did my best not to ‘whoa’ because it would be idiotic and I knew it.

“How long…?” I gobbled my final words.

“A long time ago, it’s not worth rehashing.” I was glad, I knew it was selfish but I didn’t think I could handle being told about his early years in The Order. Killing and torture were two different things; I didn’t stand the last one. “What side of bed do you want?” Was he serious about this?

“How about my own bed, it’s actually a room away from this one, think you can take me there? I’d go myself but…” I pointed down to my leg. “You kidnapped me from the living room leaving my crutch behind.”

“I’ll take the left, then.” He ignored my huffy request by shoving the covers back—hitting me with them.

I shrugged them off, twisting around to face him, giving him a piece of my mind.

“You are insufferable!” I hissed, clenching my hands.

Aric regarded me by propping his naked back on the bed, his eyes relaxed and a tingly smirk was summoned into place.

“Can’t you just admit you love sleeping beside me? I mean, the first step is admitting you have a problem—” I lunged for him planning on slapping a big one across his face… my plan crumbled when he caught hold of my arms, holding me to his chest. “I was going to say step two was giving in into addiction, but throwing yourself in my arms is just as good.”

“I did not throw myself at you—or I did, but to slap you!” I managed the angered explanation while my face was pressed up his free-wound chest taking in his warmth. I didn’t want to admit or believe that I was beginning to doze off, resting on Aric’s chest as he brushed my arms softly. I don’t really know why but there was a soft chuckle from above. “Are we… going to sleep in these positions?” I was giving in and apparently it wasn’t as hard anymore.

“Do you want to?”

“No,”

“And sleeping with me?”

“Are you going to take me to my bedroom?”

“No,”

“Then I’ll have to settle.” I breathed over his nicely honed body.

Aric jostled us down on the mattress, turning on his side, making me fall lightly on the bed. Already something in me craved the human body heat it had been receiving. Obviously, the lack of sleep was getting the better of me that had to be it. His hand touched my hair flinging it behind me gently.

“You can always crawl there.” The sudden words made my nose twist.

“I never crawl…” My statement would’ve sounded much more threatening if I hadn’t yawned.

“Hmm,” Aric pulled the covers around us both. “That’s one of the things I like about you.”

I don’t know what my facial reaction was, though I didn’t need to worry over it much longer because Aric clicked the light off, throwing us in utter darkness. The sound of waves came from outside, I could see a mental picture of Del Mar cost. Then, I felt inviting heat. Even if it was so very hot I didn’t seem to mind Aric’s bodily temperature. It was so close; I could sense it with my eyes plunged into night light. It would be so easy to just scoot five inches into him, lay against him, feel his musky scent invade my senses—I was so out of line right now, I don’t think I recognized myself. My thoughts were sounding more and more fan-girlish than I’d ever thought possible. By now he was probably sleeping and I was staring at him like a total creeper.

“Aric…” A huge number of question marks floated through my brain. Why the hell did I whisper his name? I had nothing to tell him! I’d just be letting him know I was—

His arm curled in turn of me, propelling me close to his chest; his arm didn’t disappear from me.

“Yes?” His voice had a calm, drowsy effect to it, but he hadn’t been sleeping.

Think of something stupid, you need to follow up to his name. I shouted to myself. My mouth opened and closed for a little bit until I spoke what I thought to be the most logical thing to say.

“Just tonight,” I wanted to smack my head against something. What kind of thing was that? Dear God, are you punishing me for sleeping with as many boys as I possibly can? Okay so that did sound bad, but I wasn’t allowed to have a relationship, people would get hurt otherwise. So—

“Sleep, yeah?” I felt my insides tingle as his accent thickened. Subconsciously, I nodded setting my head on his spread arm. When I thought all was said and done for the night, Aric proved me wrong… “Have pleasant dreams, Kitten.”

***

You know when you wake up to the smell of freshly cooked bacon and eggs? I do, and the smell making shoot upright was nothing like it. Dazed for a second, I realized that it was morning, I was in Aric’s room and bed, alone—and the stench of brunt food was coming from the outside. My eyes spotted my blessed crutch by the bedside. Aric must’ve put it there in case I woke up. Good, because I was really curious as to who was burning Nate’s house down. I parted the door further, enough to slip out, and boy did I hate having to limp. It was hell; I could not wait until I was healed up. Nate’s house was two-floored, modern made of wood, steel and concrete. It was everything someone young would want, with the latest décor and appliances. The plasma screen occupied nearly an entire wall. Three rectangle window panes adorned the living room where a black couch for three people rested, along with a red comfy chair, low-ground coffee table—to the side a nicely polished dining table for six, an enormous painting on the wall behind it—all of it was magnificent and it was obvious he’d killed lots of people to pay off the house alone, the entire inside was even more and I couldn’t think how much money it was worth. The kitchen was no different. Only I don’t think Nate would be happy with this at all…

“Oh my God… was that… what was that?” I tilted my head as I came up behind Aric, who held at arm’s length a frying pan. Traces of black smoke came from its center where a dark brunt shape laid.

“An egg…” He answered looking down to my stunned face.

“Well… was that for me?” I chanced.

His eyebrows knitted as if he’d never thought about that possibility.

“No, it was for me.”

“Oh… but I thought Mel said you didn’t cook…” My stomach clenched at her mentioning. “So, why would you, you know… cook?”

“Because I was sick of eating hot-dogs! Or any other food you can cook in a microwave.” My eyes blinked, my mouth made a U turn. “I suck at cooking.” He added wanting me to stop snickering.

“At least you didn’t scream like Chris Keller—that would really be embarrassing.” I tapped a finger on my hip, thoughtful. “Though… very funny,”

Aric’s confusion only multiplied my urge to pat his arm and laugh when he wasn’t around. Poor guy tired of eating fast food for breakfast.

“Who?” I waved away, of course he didn’t get the One Tree Hill reference—he was a guy.

“Why didn’t you just pour yourself some cereal and milk? I’m pretty sure those don’t need cooking.” I set the carton box on the kitchen island.

“I don’t like milk.” He handed me a bowl along with a spoon.

“Of course you don’t.” I rolled my eyes sitting on a high chair. I poured milk followed by the chocolate cereal. “Then eat some fruit.” I nodded to the center-plate filled with it—mostly apples. “Unless you’re not into that either,” With a half-shrug after cleaning what he’d ruined and opening a window to let out the smell, Aric grabbed an apple, washed it and bit it, making that crunchy noise I found so funny. “Where’s Nate?”

I doubted he was still sleeping. One sleeping pill did the trick of getting him to sleep, but didn’t keep him that way for this long.

“I don’t know, somewhere outside. I woke up when I heard doors opening and closing, when I got to the living room he was marching outside with a beach towel and swim trunks.”

I nearly choked.

“He’s… are you sure it was Nathaniel?” I said once I’d swallowed a mouthful of cereal and milk. “You know, ash hair, tall, brown eyes—”

“Extremely handsome, smart, athletic—yeah, it was me.”

I didn’t even have look over my shoulder as he waltzed past me, then Aric to get to his fridge. His hair was dripping wet, and all I saw was his muscular back polluted with salty water. On him were no traces of whipping, if there had been they were gone. Nate was still having shoulder-pain, I think, from getting his shoulder popped back into place. Aric said they used different torture with each of them. I cringed, thinking of what Mel went through—who would torture someone like her? She was so kindhearted… it hurt knowing she had to go through all this. It pained me even more that she was the only one who wasn’t out of the woods yet.

“What were you doing?” It was stupid because he’d been swimming, obviously.

Nate turned with a bottle of some energy drink, opening it with a click. As he shrugged, the towel hanging from his shoulders bounced, a bit.

“Swimming,”

“All this time?” I stirred the cereal.

“No,” He rubbed something below his right eye. “I jogged, too.” His face scrunched as he smelled the brunt eggs. “Were you trying to cook bacon?” Nate glimpsed to his brother.

“Eggs,” I jumped at the opportunity of embarrassing Aric.

Nate’s lips shook as he contained laughter. Aric took another chunk out of the apple while leaning on the counter. I batted my eyelashes at him with a mischievous glare.

“I thought you didn’t cook—”

Aric gritted his teeth at me when I, once again, beat him to the punch.

“He doesn’t, but he was tired of eating microwave food.” Nate did his best not to choke on the drink.

“ ‘He’ is standing right here.” At Aric’s warning tone towards me, I resumed eating quietly, but giving an occasional chuckle.

“I would make you bacon and eggs, but since you drugged me last night—” We shared a glance as he slit his eyes. “You’ll have to deal with hunger, unless Anna offers to cook for you.” Having finished the drink, he threw the can into the bin. “I’m leaving for the hospital after showering whether you’re ready or not.” He announced with a monotone, the same one he’d been using for the last days.

Today was actually the day Nate did something besides thinking about Melissa. I guessed that was good. He loved her, okay, but it didn’t mean it was healthy for him to be thinking about her all the time. Because right now pondering about Mel only brought questions we didn’t want answered—or we did, but were afraid to know. I wondered what made today any different than yesterday, and the days prior.

“Any clue on what got him out of zombie-land?”

Aric tossed the apple’s core into the trash then he moved his neck trying to get rid of a kink.

“Hum… today’s the sixteen of June.” He provided like that should mean anything to me, when he saw me drawing a blank he leant on the kitchen island and elaborated. “It’s his birthday, today.”

“Really?” I sat a little straighter; I had no idea what day he’d been born in. I didn’t know much about Nate, to tell the truth, just like most Hive members. He kept everything to himself. “Did you sing happy birthday?” Aric’s look made me wonder if I was demented for asking. “So that’s a no,” I muttered.

“Do I look like the type of guy who sings that?” No, not all.

“Okay, fair enough—did you at least say happy birthday?” Another glance made me grind my teeth. “You guys are totally helpless. How did you survive?” I set my stuff in the dishwasher. “Why can’t you act like normal people? Apart from the whole I’m-a-killer-for-hire thing we aren’t any different than normal people. We’re like them… mostly.” I finished lamely. “Can’t you just play nice?” I summed up as he followed me and my lumpy walk to the living room, and into my bedroom—or he would’ve if I hadn’t pushed the door closed. “Aric, I wanna get dressed.” He was holding the door from completely closing. “He’ll leave without us, you know, he will, just like last time.”

“Fine, darling, but I’m collecting next time, then.” Collecting? “My good morning kiss, you have to repay me somehow for sleeping in my bed—with me in it.” He smirked when I opened the door to smack his arm—this time I got to do it, but I also got something else.

He pulled me closer when I was done hitting him, our lips connected lightly; it grew deeper towards the end. I’d walked right into that one…

“Wasn’t sure of that would work, but…” He wiped a finger above my upper lip. It was white from the milk, no doubt. “I’m glad it did. It’s easy to get you riled up, I think I like it, too.” Aric winked his long eyelash at me.

I pushed his arm.

“I despise you!” Then the door slammed in his face.

“I love when your claws come out to play—”

Ignoring him I grabbed some clothes to change, preparing myself for one more day in the hospital, watching Nate sit by Mel’s side beginning her to come back to us—to him.