Family Matters

PART 2: Chapter Three

"Ceres..." Hayden muttered as he looked at the sleep depraved girl. He had noticed that throughout the day she was constantly struggling to stay awake and even now, she was doing the same.

The two had gone back to Hayden's house because he wanted her to take a nap and eat something but the girl insisted on doing their work.

"I'm okay...we have to start on the homework now" Ceres muttered but her pencil did not move as her eyes struggled to stay open.

Hayden gave a short sigh as he realized that without a small push, Ceres would not move so he plucked the pencil out of her hand and closed her notebook.

"What are you..." Ceres could barely finish her sentence as a yawn elicited from out of her tired body.

"You're going to get sick if you keep this up. You can take a nap here for now until you're at least a little more rested, then we can do homework" Hayden said while putting Ceres' school books aside.

Knowing that Ceres wasn't going to get up herself, Hayden took it upon himself to lift up the girl with ease and laid her down on his bed.

'Her brothers would totally kill me if they ever found out about this...' Hayden thought to himself as he brought the comforter up on Ceres.

'What should I make to eat...? Something easy on the stomach should be good...' Hayden stood and was going to leave the room but his arm was unexpectedly grabbed.

He looked back and saw Ceres' uneasy expression.

"Please stay..." She muttered and Hayden gave a soft smile before nodding.

"I'll stay until you fall asleep" He said and was about to take a seat on the ground but Ceres shook her head.

"Lay with me" Hayden's face exploded into the deepest shade of red that one could ever see at Ceres' words. While Ceres remained unbothered by her words, Hayden's heart was racing a million miles a second.

He would never get used to her blunt but honest words. It was one of her best qualities, but very bad for Hayden's heart.

"I don't know..." Hayden muttered but he had no choice anymore as Ceres tugged on his arm again, a little more forceful this time.

'You're supposed to be tired!!' Hayden thought as he found himself face to face with Ceres whose eyes were now focused on him as she held on to Hayden's hand.

"Thank you" Ceres said, her green eyes twinkling softly.

'I just can't say no to you, huh' Hayden thought as he gave a nod to Ceres' thanks.

Ceres always managed to surprise Hayden every single day. Whether it be by her actions or her words, she always had something new to offer.

One of his favorite surprises (though he feels like it shouldn't be) was when Ceres had gotten angry on his behalf. Back when they were still trying to convince Lance and Kade to approve of their relationship, Ceres had finally had enough and exploded at them.

"You two don't understand that you can't keep coddling me all my life! I'm grateful to all of you, I really am, and I respect you very much but this is the one decision in my life that I cannot and will not let you have judgement on! I want to be with Hayden and if you can't accept it, then I'm sorry but you're going to have to suffer!"

Hayden had never seen Ceres so fired up like that before. The brown haired girl was always cool, calm, and collected so for her to have gotten angry in such a way, and for him nonetheless, Hayden's heart had ascended past the clouds and straight to the moon.

He smiled a little to himself as he looked down at the peaceful look on Ceres' relaxed face. She wasn't asleep yet but he could tell she was starting to nod off.

He really did love her with all his heart. She was the center of his world since day one, and that hasn't changed throughout the years. Hayden thought that it was selfish of him to wish to be the center of her world, but a guy can hope right?

"Hayden..." Ceres muttered. Hayden jolted at the sudden calling of his name.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Can I...tell you...something...?" Ceres words came out drawled as she tried to hang on to consciousness just for a moment longer.

"You can tell me later okay? You should sleep now" Hayden said and decided to stroke Ceres' hair to try and induce sleep for her. It seemed to work because Ceres went quiet and after a few seconds, her breathing mellowed out.

Hayden was curious to know what Ceres had to say, but he knew her health had to come first so he pushed his curiosity to the back of his mind.

Hayden waited a few minutes before taking the opportunity to carefully lift himself out of the bed and just when he was almost free, a squeeze to his hand stopped him.

Ceres was still gripping on to his hand and even in her sleep, she refused to let go.

'How am I supposed to cook for you if you won't let me go?' Hayden thought as he tried to pry his hand from hers without waking her.

Hayden supposed that he would just have to wait until the girl finally let go of him.

The sound of a phone vibrating caught Hayden's attention and he saw Ceres' phone light up. From what he could see, the caller ID said Roman.

Did he let the call go to voicemail? But what if it's important? Hayden didn't want to just answer the phone but decided to do it just in case of a chance of it being something important.

"Hello?" Hayden said and tried to keep his voice down as he was still next to a sleeping Ceres.

"Hayden?" Roman questioned.

"Yeah, it's me" Hayden said.

"Where is Ceres?" Roman inquired.

"She's sleeping. She was looking pretty tired all day so I figured that it would be alright to let her sleep now" Hayden answered and Roman gave a light hum.

"I see...I was just calling to check in on her since I know now is the time she can't sleep properly. I'm glad that you're by her side to help her, thank you" Roman said and Hayden felt himself turned red at the sudden praise.

He wasn't doing anything worth being thanked for, yet Roman still did it. Well, Roman was the most sensible brother in his opinion so it was only natural in a sense.

"It's no problem" He said.

"Alright, please tell her to call me when she can. And Hayden," Roman paused as he waited for Hayden to give a sign that he was listening.

"Yeah...?" Hayden said wearily.

"Don't do anything that will get you killed" was all Roman said and Hayden just internally sighed.

"Yeah, I know" He said while giving a small nervous chuckle.

"I'm glad you understand. Goodbye" Roman didn't even leave room for Hayden to say it back as he merely just hung up and Hayden just sighed again.

Hayden had just noticed that his hand was now free. He figured Ceres must have let go sometime during the call.

'Okay, let's go make something for her' Hayden thought before heading out of the room.