Hurricane - Book 2

Chapter 5

TW in the descritpion
Thank you to rare.candykale.art for this emmotional piece!

Luca POV

Luca pressed his lips to Alberto's. His tears slid down his face, falling onto Alberto's cheeks. He felt the warmness of Alberto's mouth for only a moment before sitting up quickly.

"I...I - uh." Luca stuttered, growing red in the face.

"What did I just do!?"

It was as though he had lost himself for a moment.

"I'll get everyone! They'll want to see you!" Luca said, jumping from the bed and diving for the door, slamming it closed behind him.

He couldn't believe it. He kissed Alberto! Luca was just so happy to see him. To see him awake again. And then there was that tugging sensation inside him. At first, it had shocked him. But then it made him feel comfortable. Safe.

Luca shook his head.

"I was just excited. That's all it was." He reasoned with himself and walked to the living room to find the others.

"You ok?" Giulia asked, looking at Luca's still puffy eyes.

"Yeah. Sorry about that." He said, rubbing them.

They all made their way back into the room with Alberto. Mattias helped prop him up with additional pillows.

He looked better than Luca had seen him in.... well, months. Alberto was still too weak to do much more than talk, but at least he was awake. That was the biggest first step.

Luca sat down on the edge of his bed, keeping a respectful distance as Mattias checked on him.

"Al," Giulia said, walking up beside his bed, "I have this for you. I brought it from the house." She said, taking a shark tooth necklace from her pocket.

Alberto smiled as soon as he saw it.

"Thanks, sis." He said and let Giulia put the necklace around his neck. Then Alberto's eyes found the figure standing in the back of the room.

"Who are you?" Alberto croaked out.

Luca realized with a start that Alberto might not remember Eshe.

"Alberto, this is Eshe. She saved us." Luca said as the Sirena walked up to Alberto's bedside.

She had a peculiar expression on her face.

"Nice to meet you." She said, extending a hand. Alberto took it. His face was puzzled.

"What's wrong?" Luca asked.

"I just... feel like I remember you for some reason," Alberto said, looking at Eshe.

"You briefly spoke to me as I dragged you off the ship. If you hadn't, Luca would have been left behind." Eshe said.

"That's probably it," Alberto said, but he still seemed unsure. "You're blue, arent you? Your scales, I mean."

Eshe nodded.

"Yeah, I remember. It's like Saphire blue."

"No. My scales are dark in color. Navy." She said. She seemed on the verge of saying something else but stopped herself.

"Where are we? What happened?" Alberto asked.

The group went off on a long tangent about how they got here. They updated him on the rescue, the escape, and what happened in Portorosso. He listened attentively without asking a lot of questions.