The Way The World Ends ✓

Chapter 30. Nate

~

Between the emotion

And the response

Falls the Shadow

~

Late at night, when both of them were exhausted after sharing their love, they collapsed next to each other on the bed. Nate didn't know how he got so lucky to have Indigo by his side.

"You're not twitching," she murmured, tracing her fingertip over his usually clenched jaw.

"What can I say?" He faintly smiled, catching her hand, "you make me relaxed." His eyes fluttered shut and he smiled contently. "You make me feel whole."

"I know what you mean," she whispered, though he could still hear the catch in her voice.

He opened his eyes when he heard her choke up and saw a few tears had fled and trailed down her cheeks, taking refuge in the hollow of her throat.

"Indie," he rumbled, kissing her neck and erasing the tears from her skin. "What's the matter? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no," she hurried out, furiously wiping her tears away from her face. "You did everything right, I promise. It was amazing. I don't even know why I'm crying. I'm just really emotional right now. It's not a bad thing. I'm not sad." She reassured, sniffing and opening her eyes wide to keep the tears from escaping.

"It's okay," he whispered, draping his arm on the pillow above her head to stroke the other side of her face. "I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered, turning toward his body so he couldn't see her face anymore.

"Come back," he mused, smiling a little at her attempt to conceal her slowly reddening eyes. "You don't have to hide from me when you cry."

"Are you crying because it hurt?"

"No, it only hurt a little bit. Then it felt good," she suppressed her cute little smile and hid it with her hand, her tears stopping for a moment because of her giggle. "Was it—was it good for you?" She asked, looking up at him with big eyes.

He couldn't help but laugh, his chest shaking against her body with his amusement. "Are you kidding? Everything about you is good for me." She still looked up at him in question, not sure if he was trying to spare her feelings. "It was amazing. Don't doubt that for a second. You should've known based on the noises you made me make."

She blushed madly and slapped his arm out of embarrassment, only causing him to hold her tighter as he chuckled quietly at her antics. She slowly relaxed against him, and before long he heard her breathing even out into small snores. He pulled back and looked down at her, able to see that her features had finally let go of some of the stress that usually plagued her. She looked innocent, like the all of the pain had been erased and left a clean slate. A fresh chalkboard. He kissed the crown of her head and settled in, ready to find sleep next to this beautiful creature. What this girl could do to him.

~

As much as Indigo was changing, Nate was changing as well. It was the little things that he noticed first; he didn't twitch as much, and he didn't need to go on a run every day to calm himself down and clear his thoughts. Instead, he went running for pleasure. Then came the larger differences: his grades went up full letters, he slept better, he didn't wake up with so many headaches. He wondered if it was possible that all of this was because of Indigo.

She was changing drastically too, he noticed. She didn't have nearly as many panic attacks as she did months ago. It went from him comforting her once or twice a week to once or twice a month. He knew that a few months ago she wouldn't have been able to spend the night in someone else's house or even come close to the recovery she made after Andrew's attack. As unfortunate as it was, she seemed to be handling it well.