Heirs And Hunters

Chapter 16

W I N T E R

The graphics and letters on the pages of my current comic read obscures. It blends into a blur as my focus keeps slipping from the templates. Slumped upside down on Yuki's couch, I peer at him. He sat normally on the other side struggling to hoist a bottle of water in his bandage-wrapped hands like a thumbless crab. The angle I reclined only enhanced the scene visibly. I flipped a page and resumed my reading.

"Winter?"

He calls out.

"My sweet Winter"

He pleads for my attention. Crossing my ankles by the head of the backrest I snuggle in comfort.

"Fluer?" He hollers for the only other member in his apartment who toiled by the kitchen counter plating the food order that recently had been delivered. "Can you be a darling and unscrew this cap for me?"

"Busy. Ask the ghost haunting near you" floats her reply.

"Did you not see me do that?" He fussed.

"Did you try begging?"

I groan, covering my face with the book.

"Wedge the bottle between your forearms and jam the cap between your teeth. I don't think I need to explain more" The room is quiet after I unleashed my instruction, there's a crippling rustle of hurried movements followed by the plastic seal of a cap breaking.

"How come I did not think of that?" Yuki expressed in disbelief.

"Have you forgotten already? Winter has endured an ingenious amount of damage as a result of her combat lessons, so these life hacks come naturally to her" I open my eyes and gather my meandering thoughts as Fleur glides into the living area. I tossed the comic volume aside and rolled onto my stomach. Slipping to the floor I sit upright on the spongy rug. A chunk of my hair fell into my face, Yuki and Fleur paused their respective chores to honor the human out of hibernation.

"Do you like the way I laugh?"

I couldn't take it back. The odd piece of Ivans compliment or mock - or whatever the hell that was has stuck with me since last night. In the heat of the moment, I might have brushed it off but once he accompanied me throughout the exit and only left my side when I found Percy, our encounter and the strange exchange of the psychological insight we shared had been on repeat.

Yuki's brows hiked, and he tilted his head questioningly.

"Your laugh?" He double-checks

"Yes"

"I don't know" he shrugs weirded "But yeah, you do this evil giggle when you are up to no good. That makes me uneasy because it resembles the evilness of a possessed girl after a failed exorcism" he offers earnestly. I sigh. Switching to Fleur. I watch her expectantly. The ginger cautiously looks up from her bowl of some tasteless nutritious concoction. She swallows her bite.

"I don't know about liking a laugh. But I do know the ones I hate" she then points at Yuki "He produces this screeching laugh when he is extremely happy, it sounds like an eagle under an asthma attack"

Yuki snorts, throwing her a dirty stare. But I agree with her.

"Like a chalk on a dry board," I add.

"Like the whistle of a waterless tap" Fleur piles in smirking.

"Like a tunnel-

"Enough you soulless hags. I am injured and in pain, a sick person is pitied not patronized" he waves his hands up to enrich his argument. Fluer rolls her eyes and heaps a spoonful of pasta from Yuki's plate. She shoves it in his mouth.