Klaude (Octavius Sequel)

fourteen | finally

||SUPER sorry for how late this update is! Let's just say I was preoccupied with 1,492 pages of ap us history ||

|| PREPARE YOUR HORMONES ||

SMACK. TWACK. PUNCH. 

My wrapped fists collide again and again with the plush leather surface of the punching bag, and I can feel thick beads of cold sweat beginning to collect at my hairline, causing the nearly white-blond strands to stick to my forehead. 

Every muscle in my body aches, after what feels like hours of training. Believe me, I'm not a fitness addict like Octavius, trust me. But right now, the burn that spreads through my ripping knuckles is the perfect distraction from reality. 

In my mind, I picture Hector's face on the punching bag, and a sly smirk spreads on my lips momentarily as I imagine my fist slamming into it with the force of a cannon. I can visualize his blood dripping down his face as he looks at me with lifeless eyes. 

"Return my doe to me." 

The words echo in my ears, a constant reminder, an omnipresent symbol of the danger around me. Of the constant threat of Pilar's disappearance. 

How can I lose something I barely even have? 

I growl at myself, hugging the punching bag tightly, catching my breath. Truthfully, the moment that Octavius interrupted, the distance he put between Pilar and my lips. I resented that. It's a foreign feeling for me, I'm so accustomed to being the one who puts a smile on other's faces after placing one on my own. But in that moment, it took everything in me not to pummel him right then and there. 

But I couldn't, not with her right there. 

I slide down the punching bag, sitting down on the floor and placing my head in my hands. 

These past days have been like flying, but not the carefree type. These days have been a blur of trees and thorns and fleeting beauty that is just within your grasp but you can never touch. It's the type of flying that causes your stomach to jump and your airways to freeze and causes nausea to creep up under your tongue. I am a flightless bird trying to reach the clouds. 

My head is a hive of buzzing bees, threatening to sting me with their venom but never actually completing the task. 

"Ugh!" I groan, slamming my back down onto the ground, splaying my arms and legs out into a star position. 

"Curiouser and curiouser." I jump at the gentle voice, whipping my head in its direction. 

Pilar is standing in the doorway, her hair tied into a type of intricate braid that seems impossibly and perfectly complicated. And she's smiling slightly, the corners of her heart shaped lips tilted up into the most beautiful hint of amusement. 

Realizing that I am still stupidly splayed out on the ground, I hurry to my feet, raking a hand through my hair to make it look somewhat presentable. 

"That sounds familiar." I clear my throat slightly. 

Pilar moves closer to the center of the training gym, her eyes cautiously and curiously scanning the mirrored walls and the metal machines.

"I admit, it is not my own." She smiles again at her own little joke. She doesn't say more, so I carefully step forward, leaving a decent amount of space between us. 

"Enlighten me, Pilar." She turns to me, a blush coating her cheeks. 

"It is from my favorite book." She says in a whisper, and she looks down at her feet, as if embarrassed by the little revelation. 

I frown slightly, desperately cursing myself for not reading more.

"Which is?" I step a bit closer, and now there is about a foot between us.

"Alice in Wonderland." She sighs, her voice dreamlike and vaguely angelic. She's so filled with wonder in her utterance, and I can practically feel how important this book is for her.

"The one with the white rabbit?" I ask, and she turns her body towards me, her eyes lighting up. 

"Yes." She says breathily, and something in her tone causes my heart to twitch, and I know my eyes are turning darker. 

"I thought it was curious, the way you were lying on the ground." She explains, gesturing with her hand to the ground, and I rub a hand at the back of my head, slightly embarrassed. 

"Yeah," I cough slightly, "I was trying to become one with the universe. Or maybe just the linoleum." 

She frowns at me, confused. 

"Linoleum?"

"It's the material that the floor is made out of." I explain. 

Smooth moves you got going on here, Klaude. Why don't you just read her the entire 'Q' section of the encyclopedia? 

"Your hands." She gasps, suddenly stepping forward whilst grabbing my slightly bloody hand. 

Sparks trail up my arm, sliding through my veins and into my blood, igniting something in my mind. 

"It's nothing." I whisper, my voice going husky and hoarse. She continues to examine my hand, her violet eyes flickering and her long dark lashes fluttering like the trees in the winter wind. 

It's at the oddest times that the world seems to align, that everything around you falls away like the curtain after the most brilliant opera. Troubles, tribulations, these all float away, and you feel weightless and free. As if you are no longer flying around the trees, but floating above them like clouds. 

And it's during these times that you make decisions, perform actions that are either amazingly perfect, or incredibly foolish. 

The hand that is being held by Pilar turns, sliding itself down her arm, stopping at her elbow. I can feel the goosebumps rising on her soft skin, but she doesn't pull away. I lift my other hand, caressing her flushed cheek with my rough fingers, curving my fingers around the back of her neck. 

For a moment, we are nose to nose, violet staring into emerald, and her pupils are the size of moons that orbit some distant and undiscovered planet. 

"Klaude..." She whispers.

And then I kiss her. 

And I am on fire, burning slowly, softly. She is softer than silk, sweeter than sugar, and perfect. My lips are pressing so unbelievably gently against her's. I feel as if I am holding a glass figurine in my hands, so fragile and poised to shatter away from me. 

I don't want to, but I have to. 

I pull away slowly, staring into her face. Her eyes are still closed for a moment, her teeth catching along her bottom lip, and her cheeks painted a beautiful crimson. 

"Thank you." She whispers, finally opening her eyes. 

"Always." I respond, pulling her closer and into my embrace. 

|| I have one word..... AWWWWWWWWWW ||

|| Klaude you little cutie, you devil you ;) ||

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