Safer This Way

Chapter 44

Not sure why this took so long to write, especially when it's...the last chapter...except for the epilogue :) But alas it is now written, and as sweet yet cheesy as all the others. I hope you guys enjoy this, and that you'll forgive me for being so absent for so long. You're the best...Happy Reading!!!

*Victor*

    "Do you think he knows?"

    I glance over at him again and shrug. "He has to, right?"

    "Wouldn't someone have said something?"

    "Well, he was on food duty with Luke and Gabe, so..."

    Nathan shakes his head on a laugh. "You're right, those two are the reason it's there in the first place."

    We both turn our attention back to North, or rather to the bushy, angry eyebrows and giant fangs drawn in black marker all over his face. We're decorating the house for New Year's Eve like we do every year, however this time we're really pulling out all the stops since we have Sang.

    He clears his throat, turns to me and says, "Someone should tell him."

    "You're right, you should go do that."

    Throwing a hand over his heart, like a drama queen, he gasps. "Me? Why can't you do it?"

    "Because I like my head attached to my body, that's why." Duh.

    "Well I'm not going to be the messenger he shoots either."

    I smirk at his cowardice. "Chicken."

    "You're the chicken."

    "Wimp."

    "Scaredy cat."

    "Wuss."

    "Giant Bab–"

    "Hey, you two, what's going on over here?"

    It's funny really, how quickly the two of us spin around and go silent just hearing her voice, like two toddlers with their hands caught in a cookie jar. Which is exactly what you shouldn't do, it makes you automatically look guilty.

    Sang must be thinking along similar lines because she eyes us suspiciously, and for a moment I forget about North's facial redecoration because, my god, she's beautiful.

    "Damn, Peanut, you look good enough to eat," Nate says, his words almost a hiss as he tries and fails not to let his eyes roam over her again...and then again.

She blushes deeply, but sends him a shy smile, her confidence having grown leaps and bounds in recent weeks. Her hair–now at what Gabe refers to as 'pixie-fucking-perfection' length–is pinned away from her artfully painted face with diamond pins. The dress she wears is a deep emerald green, the fabric glances lovingly over the curves that have slowly but surely begun to fill out these past weeks in ways that are deadly to rational thinking. But it's the long sleeves starting just off her shoulder, leaving them bare, that make my brain sputter as thoughts of leaving a trail of kisses there and–Beethoven, Tchaicovsky, Vivaldi, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Chopin, Beethoven...

    "Victor?" A soft hand comes to rest on my forearm, pulling me from my...calming recitations to see Sang looking at me with confusion and a hint of concern in her eyes. It isn't until I see Nathan nearly choking on his laughter that I realize I was thinking out loud. I go red and hang my head in defeat.

    "He's alright, Sang," Nate tells her, still snickering like a juvenile. His words, however, do little to soothe her.

    "I just, uh...listing famous composers is...calming," I start, only to stop when Sang gives me a dubious look almost as if saying really? Am I new here?