I Know You

Ch.20 - Hadley

 We started eating our food and were laughing in no time. The first question I asked was what he'd like to drink and we increased from there. I learned a lot about what made him comfortable and he learned a lot about what drove me insane about my sister. While she was my best friend we still fought and aggravated each other.

We finished our food as the rain started falling. Lightly at first and as the rain continued to fall it got darker and darker outside. I pulled the blinds shut and turned on one of the lights on our side of the room. "If that's too much or not enough light just let me know, okay?" He nodded and pulled his hoodie closer around him. "Do you want a blanket or anything?"

"That would be nice." He smiled. "I don't know why I'm as cold as I am."

"It's the sudden temperature change. No matter how warm it is outside or inside if the temperature changes quickly we can't always adjust to it before we get cold." I grabbed a large blanket and threw it over him before sitting back down and starting the first movie. As it played we both ended up shifting where we sat. By the time we got really comfortable and the gore started Flint was leaning against me and I had my arm draped over his shoulder. I felt him flinch during different parts of the movie and at one point he started hugging my arm. I found one of his hands close to mine and took hold of it.

He looked up at me and I smiled down at him. He squeezed my hand. "Thank you."

"Horror movies are best shared with someone you care about. It makes the scarier ones less scary and it turns the crappy ones into comedies." He laughed at me and cuddled back to me.

I don't think anything bad could happen right now.

Lightning struck close by and thunder roared right before the power went out. Flint jumped, gripping my arm tighter and shaking. I leaned forward, wrapping my free arm around him. "It's okay. Flint, it's okay. Nothing's here. Nothing can hurt you here." He shook his head back and forth, refusing to listen and I moved a hand to his face and held him still so he could look at me. "Flint! Nothing with hurt you here. You have my word that I will not let any harm come to you. Do you trust me that I will protect you?"

He nodded, still shaking. He spoke, his voice sounding as small as a child. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. It happens. We all get scared. Be it a storm, movies, or events in our lives. Being scared is as normal as breathing. Without fear we don't survive. You're a wolf. If you smell a human coming and you smell gunpowder do you stick around to find out what's happening?"

"No. You run the other way and if you can't run away you hide as best as you can."

"And that's because your wolf knows from numerous years of experience and instinct that being afraid is a good way to make sure you survive." I leaned over and picked my phone up off the table and turned on the flashlight function. "Come on. I'll show you around the house after we put up the rest of the food. Sound good?"

He nodded, yawning and following me into the kitchen. I had him hold the light even though I didn't need it so he'd feel comfortable and safe holding it and helping. Something to take his mind off the fact that the power had gone out. "I figure I'll take you to the workout room first. This way you can see where I spend a lot of time in case you're ever around and looking for me. Or if you ever want to try sneaking up on me." I saw the beam from the light moving and didn't need to look up to know that he was laughing. Good. "Ready?"

"Yeah. I think I am." He smiled at me when I stood up and started walking down the hallway to the workout room.

"It's easy to workout in here because the room's been soundproofed so I don't have to worry about anything with it. And there are no real windows in here so if I need to shift I can do that here if I can't make it somewhere in time. It's an odd thought, but it works for me if worst comes to worst."

We moved to the other end of the hallway and I motioned to the bathroom. "Door stays open if no one's in there. Makes it easier to tell if the room is in use or not if there are people over. Across the hall is my bedroom. Come on in." I led him into my room and pulled out the air mattress, straightening it and pulling out the hand pump. "Lucky for us the pump is battery operated and I had it charging yesterday so it would be ready to use today if you wanted the mattress. I think it's safe to say that you're going to want to be in here instead of out there since it's not only dark, but storming."

He nodded. "Yeah. The radar didn't show signs of the storm passing through quickly when I'd looked." I started pumping the mattress up. I walked him back to the main room and then we went back to the hallway. He went to the bathroom to get ready to lie down and I looked through the closet in the hall to find a deck of cards for us to play with while we sat on my bed.