HSDWM, a fanfiction

Chapter 29

Knowing our drive today was going to be easy in comparison to the previous two, only about six and a half hours, we took our time waking up before taking our bags to the car and then heading into the restaurant for breakfast.

It was the shortest leg of the trip, but we were exhausted when we arrived home. We dragged ourselves into the house and took our bags straight to the laundry room to start a load in the washer.

I whined, "Can we just order pizza?"

Xavier opened the refrigerator and grimaced at the food that had spoiled in the time we were away. "Yeah, I don't really want to, but it's our best option."

Xavier made the order and said, "It'll be thirty minutes."

I looked up at him. "Will you teach me how to cook?"

He smiled. "Yeah, I can teach you how to cook. It'll be fun to cook together. We'll start tomorrow after a trip to the store."

I smiled and nodded. Then I frowned. "Tomorrow's Thursday. We have school all day."

He sighed. "It doesn't make sense to return to school in the middle of the week. I'll have Jordan and Cameron bring everything we've missed tomorrow and we'll return to school on Monday."

"Can Alice and Gabe come over, too?"

His eyes flicked toward me, then he shrugged. "Sure, why not."

I punched the air in victory and went to put our laundry into the dryer.

After eating the pizza Xavier coaxed me into taking a walk, saying it would be good to stretch our limbs after so many days cooped up in the car.

I sighed and followed him out of the house. We walked around his entire property, quietly enjoying each other's presence. It was a lovely late spring evening.

As we walked I drank in the sights and sounds that marked this home. The tall trees filtering the dwindling light of the sun as it sank into the distant horizon, birds and squirrels settling in their nests, the chipmunks and other ground animals scurrying to their burrows. I stopped many times to inspect various flowers closing their petals and bowing their heads to sleep.

"It's good to be home," Xavier said.

"Yes," I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the scents of moist earth, mosses and grasses, new leaves and plant life, "yes it is very good to be home." I smiled and opened my eyes. I turned to look at him to see what he was focusing on.

To my surprise, he was watching me. There was a hint of something in his eyes I'd never seen before, a softness I couldn't comprehend. I tilted my head. He smirked.

"Are you ready to head in?"

I nodded.

******

We separated our clothes from the dryer and went upstairs, saying goodnight to each other before he went up to his own room.

I put my clothes away and changed into my pajamas. I was so ready for bed. And it was as comfortable as I remembered it to be.

I'd just fallen asleep when I felt the bed dip beside me and an arm pull me to a hard chest that smelled of Xavier.

"Xavier?"

"Sshh, sleep, Ash."

******

I was alone in bed when I woke from blissful sleep the next morning. I imagined I'd been dreaming until I noticed a note on the pillow beside me.

Sleep in, Ash. I'll give you the rest of this week and weekend to rest and recover. You'll rejoin training on Monday.

Xavier -