The Zodiacs

52. Seeing Nightmare

^^ Odion & Keket(but with cornrows)

"Thank you," Akil nodded to the man who extended the squared flask toward him for a drink of water in the cool desert air. He smiled kindly, taking the hard object into his hand and quickly spinning the cap open before lifting it to his mouth to gulp down the cool water within.

The movement didn't make him flinch in pain. Although the discomfort in his back hadn't entirely disappeared, it had grown much more subtle since he'd begun to take the herb remedies made by the campers to their own injured traders. Soon enough, he and Layla would part from the men to resume their journey back to the others.

He spared little thought to wondering how everybody was... or where they were. But they would return to the cave and, if nobody was there, they'd search until they did find them.

After all, they had no chance on their own. Neither he or Layla were strong enough to face the Pharaoh's men on their own. There was barely any question about the chaos the others may be facing, especially after losing the four who'd been captured, Keket, and Zahra all in the same battle.

Night was setting over them for the second day they'd stayed with the group, and Akil naturally found himself looking around for the single girl amongst all the men sitting around him. He spotted her in the distance, sharing drinks with an all too familiar Farouq as they laughed at something he was sure could not be funny enough to prompt such a reaction from her. Seeing her grin so widely angered him.

Farouq leaned toward her, whispering something into her ear so nobody else could hear. Akil watched, keeping his eyes pinned on the girl as she raised an eyebrow at his words and playfully shoved the boy away.

She glanced toward the burning fire in the middle of the camp, her gaze catching on the boy sitting directly across from it as he continued to watch her, unbothered by whether or not she saw him. In fact, he wanted her to see him because it was getting late and he was getting tired.

Layla seemed to get the message when he let his eyes move once to their tent, looking back at Farouq with a slightly bothered frown. She didn't want to go to bed already, but he wanted to and they'd already established a system during their time with the all-men group. They'd only spend two nights and she always seemed aggravated when he called her away from the same company she'd kept every time.

"Come on," she grumbled, walking past him and into the tent without a single glance backward. He sighed at the behavior she'd kept up for their entire time together and returned the water flask to the man behind him.

Just as Akil began to rise, pressing his hand into his back with the building tension, his eyes caught onto Farouq's from across the camp. The slightly older trader didn't seem happy that he constantly interrupted him and Layla's time, but Akil couldn't care less. He wasn't out to please the young member. Not to mention, it gave him an adequate pleasure to exercise the control he had over their relationship.

He sighed, pushing the tent's heavy material apart and lowering his head as he stepped in after the girl who was already pulling off her pants in the corner. "Do you not know how to sleep with pants like any normal girl would in this situation?" The older Zodiac asked, not glancing toward her while securing the rope holding both flaps of the doorway together.

"And what situation would that be?" Layla asked, folding her pants and placing them on the small table on the tent's right side. She turned toward him, her gaze pinned on the boy as she pulled off her shirt, daring him to look in her direction while she stood so exposed in front of him. But like every other time, Akil kept his gaze forward when he moved toward his own change of clothes.

"The situation where you share a room with a guy you don't know," he mumbled, giving her his back as he pulled off his own shirt and slipped into one of the two shirts Rashid had provided them with to sleep in. Layla was pulling her own over her head as she watched him.