The Freak with the Violet Eyes

FVE- Chapter 5

Chapter Five

    "Dahl, wake up."

    I gasped as I gripped Nathan's shoulders. He held me up as the full shock sat in. I had been asleep and now I was standing with Nathan in the middle of the hall. How did I get here? And on the first floor of the two floor cottage my father had brought me to under Bastian's advice. Something about not over exposing me to too many new people and to get me comfortable being in a real family.

    Nathan gently guided me into the kitchen that we were standing next to. After setting me down in a chair, he ran over to the sink and picked up a clean glass before filling it with some water. He handed it to me as he took a seat next to me. His hand finding my back and giving me a gentle rub.

    Once the cup ran dry, I looked at Nathan. "How did I end up in the hall?"

    His brows knit together. "You were sleep walking."

    I looked down. "But... I don't sleep walk." I looked up at him. "Sharie would have smacked me hard with the back of her hand if I was out of my room at night."

    He frowned. "You don't have to worry about that anymore."

    "So I'm not in trouble?"

    He smiled lightly at me and moved a loose strand of my hair out of my face. "You'll never be in trouble for something like that with us." My whole body relaxed and he pulled me to lean against him. "See. Nothing to worry about or be scared of."

    My finger started to make small circles against his silk robe he wore over his bare chest. I've only seen him like this during the mornings at the breakfast table. I've only seen him shirtless once when he and Michael decided to have a wrestling match two weeks ago. They were just having an argument about nothing really and decided to settle it that way. My father had rolled his eyes and muttered "boys" as he turned back to something he was reading.

    Nathan stopped my hand with his and I looked up at him. He was looking down at me with an intense look in his eyes. "Are you comfortable with us?"

    A small nod. "Over the past two months, I haven't felt alone for very long whenever I do start feeling lonely." I leaned my head back on his chest. "I wish we could stay like this. You all and me just being here. Everything feels so normal for the first time in my life. I don't feel outside, but apart of this family."

    My breathe softly caught as his hand buried into my hair. I looked up at him and he leaned down. My breathe that I had been holding turned into a soft moan when his lips graced mine. He pulled me closer to him as he slanted his head to the side and kissed me soundly.

    When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine. My heart was racing as I wondered what I was really feeling right now. I was confused yet tingly by the kiss. All I could think about more than anything was for him to kiss me again.

    His eyes opened and looked right into mine. The look of hesitation. Like he wanted to kiss me more too. But he was restraining himself because I knew he was thinking about me. I moved toward him so he knew I was alright with him kissing me.

    Just before we met, the lights in the kitchen snapped on. We both were shocked apart and looked to the door to the kitchen. My father stood there wide eyed with his hand still over the light switch. His jaw dropped as his eyes were flicking back and forth between Nathan and I.

    I moved away from Nathan and looked down. Nathan slipped off the seat and stood up beside my seat. "Uncle, I can explain."

    "You, Nathan, will explain why you were just making out with my daughter. If you were taking advantage of her, so help me." There was a growl at the end.

    "Forgive me Uncle, it's just..." Nathan took in a deep breathe. "I can't help falling for Dahl." I looked up at him and he looked down at me. "Since the first moment I saw you, I've wanted to kiss you." He cupped my cheek. "You're the first I've ever wanted to kiss."

    I blushed. Especially when he started to lean down toward me. My father wasn't having any of that. He yanked Nathan away and thrusted him to the door. "I think that's enough for now. Go back to bed."

    Nathan looked back at me before he pouted and did as his Uncle told him to. My father turned toward me with a frown which I looked down because I didn't know if he was mad at me. He moved to sit next to me and took my hand. We fell into silence as he just looked at me.

    After what felt like an hour, my father lifted my chin and looked right into my eyes. "You're not in trouble." He shook his head. "Neither of you are." His other hand joined the first to surround my hand. "Just worried about you. I'm concerned about you and how you would feel if anything ever happened between you two."

    I tilted my head away but I looked back when my father chuckled. He had a small smile as he carefully pulled me over onto his lap. He held me like I was an eight year old little girl again. "I think Nathan would be a good choice for you. You're actually the first girl I've ever seen him interested in or caring so much about." I looked up at him. "He used to just stick with Michael and Nira. But with you, he's been thinking of things to help you."

    I blushed remembering that Nathan does help me when he comes down for breakfast every morning. He's done it since the first morning he found me up before everyone was up and in the kitchen. The first morning he had frowned at first before he just let me cook. I felt happy to cook for them as they didn't require me to and only wanted me to cook when I felt like it. Bastian had said that they should just let me do what I normally did if that's what I wanted to do before they started to break me out of the trained behaviors.

    He smiled and I saw that his thoughts shifted to something else that made his smile slip. "You must have been up for a reason."

    I frowned. "Nathan had found me sleep walking, but I've never done it before."

    He matched my frown. "What were you dreaming about?"

    I looked down as I've done several times. My father was used to giving me sometime to let me speak. A few times, I took me quite a bit of time before I started speaking. He just sat with me and let me find my voice as I never had one of my own till he took me from that town. Now I could think and make decisions of my own without fear that I will be beaten for doing so.

    "A memory." This is how the conversations were. They start small. Just a word or two. Then more would come when I felt a little more comfortable after the first few.

    My father nodded and cuddled me on his lap as he leaned back. Only twice has he done this when I started speaking about what I was thinking or how I was feeling. This just told me that I had his full attention and nothing else mattered in all the world. Though Bastian had told him that's what I needed, my father had said that he was already going to do that. My father has even taken a long leave from leaving again for the human's realm as he used to have done when he brought another demon back to her family. But this time he was my family and I needed him.

    "I was very little and had woken in the middle night one night. Sharie had found me in the kitchen. That was the first time I had done that but she got so mad as if it happened every night." I paused to look up at my father. The feeling of being vulnerable came to me as it always did. And in that moment, I couldn't say what Sharie had done that night, or for the next month.

    My father saw I wasn't going to be able to continue and he nodded. "You don't have to worry about that any more. If you need a snack at one in the morning, come down and get one." He rolled his eyes. "The boys do so nearly every night."

    He smiled as I yawned. "Let's get you back to bed." I gasped as I threw my hands around his neck and he laughed under his breathe. When he stood up, he had lifted me up into his arms as if it were a natural occurrence. "I don't want you to tire yourself out anymore."

    Slowly I sagged against my father's chest as I started to fall asleep against him. A sliver of hope slipping into me to never be without my father. That we were never parted again. Now that he was in my life, I beg to keep him there always.