The Raven Girl: Ronan X Reader

Chapter Sixteen

Ronan Lynch was making a ruckus. How did I know this? Oh, well, who else would be sounding like they were being murdered by a possum in the middle of the night?
I stomp to my door and open it, seeing Noah in his own doorway. "Make it stop," he said.
I sighed, and looked to Ronan's door. Ronan's room was not to be entered while he was sleeping, for reasons I didn't know. The first time I ever walked in on Ronan while he was sleeping, he had cuts all over his arms, but it was as if they weren't real. Like you just peal them off like a cheap sticker from the mall.
I walked over to Ronan's door and opened it. If he was dying, I needed to be a witness. It's not like Gansey would do good in court.
The first thing I saw was Ronan hunched over on his bed, only wearing... ahem, boxers. My cheeks flared a bit at the sight, but I skipped past it. The next thing I noticed was the tattoo that covered his entire back and snaked up the back of his neck. Gansey has said that the image changed every time he looked at it, but it didn't happen for me. All I saw was a giant forest, with ponds with fish, and giant trees all around.
A small voice in my head said something that I couldn't understand: abester.
I ignored it and walked into his room, ripping off the headphones that played a wailing track. He looked up at me in annoyance. "You're not allowed to be in here, Girl Gansey."
"It's a free country, Bird Boy. Your dinosaur woke us up. How does something so small make such a racket?"
"She's hungry. You make even more noise when you're hungry, so don't be a hypocrite."
I facepalmed. "Ronan, you're going to have to keep her downstairs or something."
He lifted up the baby bird, her eyes big and round. Ronan knew my weakness were small animals.
From Ronan's doorway, Noah said in a small voice, "I don't like that thing here, it reminds me of..."
"Hey man, stay out of my room."
"Oh," I said, "be quiet. You, too, small bird."
"Chainsaw."
Noah withdrew to his room, but I stayed and watched Ronan feed Chainsaw. He seemed like such a different person with her: he cooed at her, he helped her eat. This was the Ronan I knew before Niall Lynch's death.
I put my head on Ronan's shoulder, and he puts his head on mine. No words were spoken; well, there may have been. It's all a bit hazy.
When the analog clock on Ronan's bedside table hit two o'clock, he nudged me. "I think you should go back to bed. You have school in the morning."
I nod sleepily and stand up. Before I left however, Ronan grabbed my hand.
"Before you go..."
Ronan pressed his lips to the back of my hand.
"A kiss from a king to a princess."