Asmeri [eng]

1. Phoenix and Dragon

Amy eagerly drew dark outlines of figures in her sketchbook. Crooked, scary and tall... That's what those characters were. She had never seen their faces, never had the privilege of knowing who they really were. Nevertheless, they visited her in her dreams night after night, month after month, year after year. She didn't wake up as much as she used to, especially when Percy was around, she had sort of gotten used to it - but that night the nightmare deepened.

It didn't matter that it was one o'clock in the morning. It didn't matter that she had thrown up her entire dinner just ten minutes ago. She couldn't bring herself to go back to sleep, so she first slipped under the icy shower, which couldn't cool her heated skin anyway, then sat down at the table with a cup of tea, picked up one of the many sketchbooks and began to draw everything she could remember. She did it often, just not this late. Usually she forced herself to go back to sleep, but this time she simply couldn't.

,,Amy? Wouldn't it really be better if you-"

,,Quiet," she whispered, scrawling the outline of uneven shoulders on the paper in concentration. ,,I have to... I have to capture it. It's fading fast."

There was silence for a while, but Percy never stayed quiet for long, he just didn't know how. In some ways, he was an idiot who constantly needed to poke at the wasps' nest. Finally, he sighed heavily and Amy heard the impatient shuffling of his feet, so she prepared herself for a stupid remark, even though she knew she was going to explode anyway. ,,It's fading fast? You can't forget it after a few hours. You remember so many things before-"

,,Wrong," Amy growled, exasperated. ,,I should remember so many things, but I don't because maybe I have a fucking sclerosis! Don't come at me with legends."

,,You're pretty easy to piss off these days. You might as well stop interrupting me. Do you want to set up therapy? Maybe it'll help you," he said as if he didn't sense the warning sign to keep quiet. He spoke in a serious tone, but Amy could already tell when he was teasing her.

She pursed her lips into a tight line in annoyance and pretended not to notice him. ,,I need a precise scene, a precise..." she muttered to herself.

,,Even a self-talk?" came from behind her. Before she could explode again, and this time many times stronger, she felt warm breath on her neck and froze for a moment. Why was he doing this when it was causing even more heat in her body than she could tame? Oh, I know... He has no idea, Amy thought. ,,You should lie down, really. You need to rest, Amelia."

She sighed tiredly and lowered her head. She put down her pencil and rubbed her eyes. ,,Tell that to the people on the damn paper."

A head adorned with dark brown tousled hair appeared in front of Amy, studying her creation with interest. When a pair of yellow eyes glanced at her, she froze again, hoping he wouldn't notice her goosebumps. In the dim light of the desk lamp, his sharp features looked much more appealing, causing another wave of heat to rush from Amy's feet to her head. Although she had sensed these feelings ever since they first met, she had never considered them important. It was only recently that his presence at certain moments had begun to unnerve her more than was appropriate. And even though she tried to overcome it, the feeling was growing stronger. No, stop, you can't! After all, he's-

,,There were more of them at once this time? The last time that happened was a year ago," he said worriedly, partially cutting off her train of thoughts. Amy wanted to ask him if he was aware of how distracting his gaze was. Whichever girl he glanced at, each one's knees trembled. He was so desirable, even though he didn't show himself in public in this form that much, and he obviously wasn't the least bit interested in it anyway - and Amy had no idea why.

She nodded slowly and took another sip of her hot tea. A normal person would definitely burn their tongue, but not Amy. Something inside her had a heat that was a thousand times the temperature of mere kettle water. Amy had never known what it was like to be burned and had only twice in her life experienced what cold felt like. She stood up with the tea in her hands and turned off the lamp, leaving the Moon outside the window as the only source of light. Even though it was so far away, it gave Amy enough light to move safely to the bed. ,,It wasn't much, just what I drew. Hopefully it won't visit me now, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow for more clues."