Into deception

Coffee with doubt

📚

"Good morning" I mumble as I yawn my way into the kitchen that has both of my favourite people staring at me shamelessly.

"Sleeping beauty has awoken I see" Max smiles my way, his eyes shift behind me as Nicholas follows closely by, although there's no hate in his eyes and I wonder for a moment if he's suddenly okay with him. A part of me wants that, it feels like it's entirely my fault that they're arguing and I hate it, I hate me.

"Hey"

"Hey so I was wondering if you could just fill everyone up now?"

"Now?"

"I mean yeah? Unless you need more time to get something together" i take two cups filling one with coffee while the other with tea, Lev follows along as I make my way back to Nicholas and Max who are actually sitting at the same table, can't tell if I'm dreaming or if the world has just flipped upside down.

"No I think you're right, now is better then later"

"Oh is this the part where you tell us what you two have been secretly up to?"

Max asks and I shoot Levi a look.

"He's nosey what can I say"

I smile shaking my head while handing Nicholas's his cup of warm coffee, for a moment he just stares at it like he's never seen one before but then takes it looking up at me.

"I like coffee"

I frown "yeah? I know"

He just stares at me, nothing else. I look away smiling once again to Levi who has begun to rock everything stable.

"Right so me and Mia have been looking for someone since the day of the explosion. Someone who- well someone who's supposedly dead"

Nicholas gaze shifts to me and for some reason know he knows.

"Who?" Max chimes in, Levi turns to me waiting.

"My mother Max, we've been looking for my dead mother although the word dead isn't so easily said in our world"

"Well shit"

"Yup"

"Anyways I think I found a lead that could possibly put an end to this for good, but to get to that we need to be in South America"

"Why south?" Nicholas finally talks.

"Because that's where the women's business is, it's where her entire empire is located at"

"Empire? So she's wealthy then?"

"Oh Max she's more than wealthy, she runs the new drug that's been spreading around like wild fire called Cozen" 

"Cozen?" Nicholas asks, and we all turn to him.

"Yeah, why?" Lev asks.

"Well she's definitely not trying to hide her motive I'll tell you that much"

"Why what do you mean?" This time I ask.

"Cozen means to trick or deceive, and with the amount of deaths she already has on her hands I'm guessing that's exactly what she wanted from the begin "

Well she's definitely confident that's for sure.

"Do you know her name?"

"Elle"

Nicholas comes to a complete halt, to the point where his coffee cup shakes spilling some of the dark liquid out. He's not the type of person to be nervous or mess up, for some reason this scares me. I can't help but feel like I've been lied to again.

"Elle?"

"Bane you know her?" Max asks and he to seems to be worried about the answer in waiting.

He doesn't say anything, I watch him as my heart continues to walk along a plank that has nothing but a drop to death waiting for me. His hands clasps together putting them onto the table and I look down not bothering to hear from him, he knows something and he isn't saying a word.

"I have something-" then he begins and I look up, we all do, none of us expected him to actually talk "-I have something installed in my heart to keep it going, the person that got it for me was a women named Elle"

How does everything always tie together? Why can't it just be a wild card for once.

"So the person that saved you is also the person who has taken countless lives and not to mention is supposedly meant to be my mother?" I can't help but smile, at this point everything is a joke.

"I didn't know, i swear Mia I never knew"

"Bane-" Max tries to calm him down but there's no way of putting Nicholas out, not even me.

"No I need to make this clear, I had no idea. Himiko was the one that found me and brought me to her, that's how I know her"

"Himiko brought you to her?" I meet his gaze.

"Yes"

"So she could know where Elle is?" Levi asks but I keep looking at him, waiting to see him slip up and show me that he's lying but I can't see it. I don't know if I'm once again blinded by my emotions or if it's the truth. I don't know.

"She should, yes" he says never once looking away from me.

I look away and to Max whose worried for me like always, I watch as he nods to me and I have to double back to see if what I just saw was correct. Max just told me to trust him, Max did. For some reason I find it in me to trust him and let this moment be what it appears to be, the truth.

"Okay so we should go and pay Himiko a visit then" I finally say.

"She's definitely not going to make this easy"

"Satan spawn being easy? Those two things can't exist in the same moment let alone sentence" Max says standing up.

Lev and Max walk straight ahead, talking and laughing about something leaving only Nicholas and I to strain behind. His hand instantly ties around my arm pulling me back.

"Mia" his warm and gentle voice says, I take a moment to myself to not only make sure I know what I feel but to also take into account what Max hinted to me. "Tell me you believe me" there's a pleading sense in his gaze, hungry almost.

"I do" somehow saying that hurt, maybe it's because this is how I wished the last time played out. I wish I couldn't said those two little words to him, saying it now feels so distasteful, sour and cruel.

"But I've hurt you again haven't I?" He let's go of his hold on me stepping back an inch.

"Yes. But I believe you"

"Let me take you out tonight"

"Nicholas this is the worst time you could possibly bring something like that up"

"Mia our lives aren't exactly built on steady new roads, timing for us is always wrong, always. I don't know what could happen tomorrow or after that or even five minutes from now but right now I'm standing in front of you and taking the seconds as they pass" he stops and really looks at me "so I'm asking you on a date Mia"

"Nicholas-" I try to find the right words but there aren't any, all and every letter from the alphabet disintegrate right before me. So I nod.
He smiles instantly, both in relief and in joy but I'm terrified.

"I know you're scared, I can see it. But Mia-" he stops "I was going to make a promise to you but I've been doing that all along, I can't keep telling you this will be different because that's not enough, I want to show you, let me show you"

For some unexplainable reason this calms me.