Rejected Mate

Chapter 44- "You're gonna make me cry."

Listen to some music and clean a room in your house! It's fun and will make you feel better when you're done!:)

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(Scarlet's POV)

I stared at the floor for a moment. "At first it was fear."
His head tilted to look at me. "What do you mean?"
"I couldn't even fake trust at that point. The first two days I was terrified that I was going to slip up and they would kill me. But, after that I didn't sleep because it was the only time I could be alone."
"I'm confused. What are you talking about?" Turning to face me fully, he sat up straight, crossing his arms.
I followed his example, scooted back in the bed, crossed my legs and faced him. "I wasn't just kept there for nothing."
He nodded.
"They wanted me to tell them where Ayrith is, I wanted to get home, so I combined the two into a plan to get me out." I laid back on the pillows, and a moment later, Axel was doing the same. I smiled at that. "The plan worked obviously. I'm home, and Heath is on a wild goose chase."
"Don't skip over it."
I sighed. "Why can't we jus-"
"Please?" We made eye contact and I knew he was serious about this.
I nodded.
We stared at the ceiling and talked for around an hour.
"He would come into the room I stayed in to talk."
"About what?"
"Ayrith, you, my mate- I hadn't told him you were my mate-"
"I figured."
"-so, mostly just those things that I don't like talking about with strangers and psychotic people."
He nodded.
"And, if I wasn't talking to him alone, then I was invited to meals to discuss with him and a few of the higher ups about how to kill everyone here. "
He looked at me. "How?"
"To kill everyone or do that without blowing my cover?" I smiled, a part of me wanting it to be taken as a joke, but also knowing it was a horribly morbid one that I probably shouldn't make.
"The last one."
I shrugged, my smile disappearing. "I had to get home."
We looked at each other.
I didn't expect the serious, caring expression he had when I saw him.
He stared at every part of my face before looking at my eyes.
"... Axel?"
He stood up. "I'm tired of this place. Let's get you checked out."
I smiled. "Alright."
He helped me up, and we finally left the hospital to go home.

We opened the door and stepped in.
There was a note on the table.
"They wanted to be here but they had to work. Sorry."
The note said pretty much the same thing, but with a lot more 'I love and miss you's'.
I giggled.
Looking up at Axel, I caught the quickest glance of an expression that made me blush, and I swiftly focused on the stairs in the opposite direction.
"I'm hungry." Axel began to walk to the kitchen.
"I gotta take a shower real quick and then I'll join you." I looked at him.
He nodded. "Alright. Honestly, I should too." He chuckled, scratching the back of his head.
I smiled.
We both walked up the first set of stairs.
I took a few steps into my room and stopped, turning to see Axel just about to go up the next staircase.
"Axel."
He stopped and looked at me. "Yes?"
"You've been in my room."
He didn't blush like I expected, he just took his foot off the first step and looked at the floor in an apology. "I'm sorry."
I could tell he hadn't touched anything; that's not what I was concerned about.
After a while he looked at me in confusion. "Scarlet?"
I walked out of my room to him and hugged him.
"Scarlet? What-"
"I'm sorry I was gone so long."
"What?" He tried to signal for me to let go, but I didn't. "Scarlet. Come on. Don't apologize for being forced to stay somewhere."
"That's not what I mean." I mumbled into his shirt.
He excepted his fate and put his arms around me in a relaxed way, resting his head on mine. "Then what do you mean?"
"I'm just sorry I worried you so much. I... -I guess I'm empathetic and want you to not have felt so sad and stuff." I hugged him harder, partly because I was trying not to cry more then I already had that day.
"Scarlet. Just knowing you're okay makes me feel better." He chuckled.
"Stop talking." I whined. "You're gonna make me cry."
"Okay."
After a moment he started swaying and I joined in easily.
Then he started humming a song, and I started laughing when we began swaying more dramatically, almost to the point that I would fall over, but he made sure I didn't.
We stopped after he realized I was all cheered up.
I was still laughing when I said. "I love you!" And I kept laughing after, thinking nothing of it, until I opened my eyes to see him barley pink in the face as he chuckled with a sweet smile.
Just that look made my face heat up.
I smiled back, almost like I was trying to get revenge for his face.
I don't know if it worked, his expression only became more endearing.
We both stopped laughing after a moment and just shared a smile instead.
"We still need to take showers." He put his foot back on the first step with a teasing expression.
"I'm going." I half turned to my room with one of mocking.
He chuckled and made his way up the stairs to his room.
I grabbed my clothes and went to my bathroom to shower.

It was one of those showers where you don't want to get out, and when you do, you want to feel as clean as possible.
I shaved my legs, took forever to wash my hair,  used a body scrub, used body wash with a loofa, and afterward, I just stood under the water for too long until I remembered that Axel was probably waiting for me.
I quickly got dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, brushed my hair, moisturized my face, and put my hair into a ponytail before stepping out of the bathroom.
There was a knock at the door. "Scarlet?"
"Come in!" I shouted from the closet.
"What are you doing." I heard him come in.
I stepped out of the closet and lifted up what I was holding.
"Grabbing a jacket."
"Is it cold?"
"No, I just want to be cozy." I put the hoodie on over my shirt. "Baggy clothing is cozy."
He smiled. "Well the food's ready."
"You made me food?"
"Yes." He looked at me like I was crazy. "Why wouldn't I make you food?"
"Because maybe you didn't want to. I don't know." We walked down the stairs.
"That doesn't mean I wouldn't."
"I'm gonna cry again. Don't say sweet things when I've just cried!" I pulled the jacket closer to me.
All of a sudden he was hugging me from behind, making us sway again. "Well now I know how to take care of that!" He laughed.
"Ah! No!... Not the swaying! My only weakness!" I jokingly made my voice deeper, trying to sound like a cartoon villain.
He just chuckled before letting go.
"You saved me!" I leaned on his arm, now making my voice high. "How could I ever repay you?" I looked up at him through my lashes as I blinked too fast for a normal person.
He laughed some more and nudged me off him. "You're such a nerd."
I giggled. "And yet you like me anyway!"
I couldn't see his face because he turned into the kitchen to grab the food, but when he came back, I swear I saw a smile he hadn't got in check yet.
"I do." He jokingly looked out into the living room like it was a field, as he set the plates onto the table. "It's my only weakness."
"What a terrible weakness to have. I pity you." I nodded solemnly. "I have no weaknesses, so..."
"Wow." He sat down. "I see how it is."
"Wel-
"No. It's fine."
"If you wou-
"No... I get it." He put his hand up to silence me. "I completely understand...."
His interrupting was apparently too funny to me, and I couldn't help but laugh, which he eventually joined in on, effectively putting an end to the joke.
"I missed you." He looked at me.
My response was to choke on my own spit and be sent into a coughing fit as Axel, in shock, started laughing again.
After a minute, I stopped choking. "Oh my gosh...."
"I was not expecting that to be your reaction." He chuckled.
"It wasn't. That was bad timing and pain." I put my hand against my chest worriedly.
"I'm sorry." He said, way too amused.
"Don't laugh at my pain."
"I'm not." He smiled.
We ended up taking around an hour to finish our food because we were mostly just talking, joking around, and catching up on lost time. We knew that after that day, we would have to get serious about everything that was going on again, and we didn't want to waste the time we had left.
We stayed in the music room until everyone got off work, came to see me, and all decided to hang out in my room for whatever reason.
Everyone wanted to know how I was doing.
Jordan, Thomas and Robert seemed to be the only ones who knew I had tried to stab Axel, which they of course wanted to know why, but Axel quietly took them to the side, saying he would tell them later so we could all hang out without getting away from the light mood we wanted.
At around 1 in the morning, I barley had time to open my mouth to yawn, when Axel kicked everyone out saying "Scarlet needs to sleep."
"Axel, you didn't have to-
"Scarlet." The way he looked at me.... I didn't know what all it was, but it made me remember I had only gotten a few hours of sleep in the past 5 days.
"... alright." I nodded. "Goodnight, Axel."
He smiled in a sleepy, content kind of way. "Goodnight, Scarlet."
I walked up and hugged him. "Sleep well."
He put his arms around me, resting his head on mine. "Sleep well."
I rubbed my face into his chest, in a sleepy, I very clearly was too tired to think about what I was doing, kind of way, and then backed away.
He grinned and took a few steps backward, out of my room.
We smiled one last time before he went upstairs to his room, and I shut my door.
I took my jacket off, turned out the lights and laid in my bed, falling asleep after only a few minutes.

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1837 words