Sleepless✎

𝟐𝟑

TIME IS A FUNNY THING. When you needed it to fly past you, it went extra slowly - almost like it was mocking you. Taunting you, showing you that nobody could control it - that everything revolved around it.

Ilaria felt the truth of that when the clock struck 4am and she was still in the brightly lid corridor of the town police station. Kai was wide awake too, he was playing with the stitches in her jeans with one hand - the other kept his head up as he leaned his arm against his knee.

They were abnormally quiet, usually they always found something to say. In that moment it seemed they were both too tired to talk but they clinged onto the presence of the other like if they didn't they'd somehow evaporate.

For two people who may have found a serial killer that had been terrorizing their town since Ilaria was 12 - or longer - since there could - no there were victims they didn't know about. They didn't seem triumphant in the least.

Ilaria nibbled on the sleeve of her hoodie, she was just beginning to contemplate going home and coming back when the doors of the station burst open.

Two offers flanked either side of Michael, they held him tightly at the forearm and dragged him forward - he never put up much of a fight from what Ilaria could tell.

She pushed out of her seat at the same time Kai did and as Michael passed them - he didn't fight, he didn't point a finger... He just smiled.

A winners smile.

But he hadn't won, Ilaria told herself - he hadn't won.

She tried following them down the corridor and to the interrogation room but another officer stopped her.

She pursed her lips at the captain as he came in, looking distraught as ever "I'm sure you kids have alot of questions."

"No, actually - we figured out the answers long before you did." Ilaria snapped "Although, there is one, did you find anything else in his dorm?"

Captain Bensons blue eyes met her own "unspeakable things, child." he said "the FBI is coming in. You said he might have a partner, we're going to figure that out - in the mean time, you kids should get home and get some rest."

He didn't wait for a response as he hurried down the hall to the interrogation room. The flourescent lights were giving Ilaria a migraine and she felt like stomping around like a child demanding answers but she didn't do any of that.

Why did it take them so long to finally ask the FBI here? What else, exactly, did they find in Michael's dorm? How many things were Ilaria and Kai right about?

The amount of questions storming up in her head didn't help her migraine at all.

She sighed shakily and leaned her head on Kai's chest "can we just go sleep."

Kai enveloped her in a hug, she hadn't known it before - but she really needed that hug. She breathed in his scent and held onto him tightly.

When they finally let go of each other they left the station and eventually found themselves in Kai's room.

Ilaria was so exhausted she didn't bother changing as she curled into Kai's side. There she would be okay. Beside him. That's where she belonged, that's where she would be safe. The one place she wouldn't leave-no matter what happened, no matter arguments or misunderstandings, she belonged with him and he belonged with her. It was as basic as that.

Ilaria thought she'd been inlove before. She was so wrong.

Or maybe, what she felt for Kai couldn't be put in a single word. He was so deeply entangled in her soul - the word love simply wouldn't do them justice.