Adeline and the Ovunque's Key || Ongoing

038

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟖 — 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧?

When I arrived back into the safe space I shared with Nicholas. I was surprised to see the interior lit up. He was always leaving it dark whenever I got back. The moment my feet make it to the living area, I can hear quickened steps walking around, inside his room.

What's going on?

Before I can process how weird this atmosphere was, the door to Nicholas' room opened up, his head peeking out to gaze at me. He stared quietly for a moment. He might be a bit far from where I'm standing, but from here, If I try to observe his expression, I couldn't at all, see any hint of his cold and harsh demeanour on it.

"Uhh... hey?" I tried to greet him. He merely glances and nodded back at me.

"Did you go on another one of your adventures today?"

"...Are you going to scold me again?" I asked, obviously feeling weird about today's mood.

"No," he shook his head. "If you did go on another one of your adventures, did you get hurt again today?"

He's being extra weird for no apparent reason... What's going on?

I only stared at him incredulously, hard to say I'm actually believing this right now. I placed my stuff on a chair nearby and began marching up to his room.

He seems to grow tense when he saw me coming, but he didn't bulge or try to stop me. He merely stood, there, beside his door as he gaze at me.

When I got inside, I didn't wait long before I went up and placed the back of my palm on top of his forehead. He only look at me, confused at my gestures. I can feel his grey eyes on me, so close to my skin. So close that my belly begins to feel warm from it.

"You're not sick..." I diagnosed after a while, pulling my hand away from his forehead.

"What made you think I was?"

"You– nothing. I was probably just tired," I brushed it off, thinking it wasn't worth mentioning. If he finally would be sweet and nice to me again, why would I need to push it off?

He tilted his head to the side to survey me. He lets his eyes run down my figures, his gesture almost identical to Pierre looking for any sign of wounds on me.

"I do have wounds," I laughed. "I think that is a daily occurrence now and you should probably stop being so shocked about it."

"How did you get it this time?"

"Well, I wasn't hurt because of the adventure," I started. "I was hurt because I was training with the Red Paladins today."

"The–...Why are you with the Red Paladins?"

"I don't know. I guess, Greysen just like having me around." I replied, with the purpose of maybe hitting a nerve of his. And immediately after I said that I regretted it to the point that I quickly turned to leave. But my effort was stopped when he hold me by my wrist, holding me back from leaving.

"Why are you going close to that wanker?" he asked, his tone much darker than before.

"Gee, I don't know, Nicholas. Maybe because I was there only to train in his army so I don't need to cry about being a burden and definitely not because I want to fuck him. But I don't know. What do you think?"

"I was– It was just a question."

The tension was rough between us after that. You can literally taste it in the air. A series of eyes batting at each other accompanied by our heavy breaths. Then he sighed, letting go of my wrist before walking to his bed and plopping down onto it.