Storm Dragon's Ashes

Chapter 14: Our Route to War

Pic of King Darius Hakushi

(Jack's POV)

My eyes open to the sound of thunder. I sat up straight on my chair where I had fallen asleep, yawning as I scratched the back of my neck. When I look to my left, I see Lucy, already awake, sitting on her bed, staring at me. My eyes widened so much by the the surprise that my cheeks reddened. I looked away before she could notice it though.

"Oh hey good morning!" I say, not looking at her.

Not really the reaction I wanted to give out when she woke up.

Contrary to what I did, she just kept staring back at me with those brown eyes of hers. I turned my face to look back at her.

"Jack?" Lucy asked, breaking the awkward silence. My eyes completely focused on Lucy.

There were parts of me that still hurt from last night but there wasn't anything as grave and painful as last night. I like to think I heal fast... Before I knew it, she jumped from her bed and gave me a hug. My face reddened again. When she let go of me, I'd made sure I wasn't completely weirded out by her or staring at her again.

"I'm glad to see you're okay." She says, smiling at me. It wasn't much but I guess this felt good. If I was gonna be opening up to them, this didn't seem like a bad start.

"H-how are you feeling?" I ask her, fixing my composure. She then starts looking around the room. No one was around, except for us and Wendy on the other bed, still sleeping. I had an urge to help her but there was nothing I could do to help her. I didn't have any healing magic.

"I feel better now." Lucy answers my question, now looking at the window. "Where is everyone else?"

"I don't know. I just woke up." I tell her. But speaking of waking up, when did she wake up?

"Lucy, how long have you been awake?" I ask her. She turns her head back to me and answers.

"I don't know. Maybe fifteen minutes." She's been staring at me sleeping for fifteen minutes?

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Didn't want to disturb your slumber." She quickly answers, raising her hands and bending her fingers, as if putting more emphasis on the word slumber.

After that, I didn't know what else to ask, to be honest. My mind was quickly overcome by other things, for me to be thinking about Lucy staring at me, for fifteen minutes, while I slept. Where were the others? How long until Wendy woke up?

How long until I have to speak about my past?

To be honest, I wanted nothing more than to hope that Gray had completely forgotten about our deal. I don't care if I'm being petty. I don't want to. I still think I'm not ready. I was probably ready yesterday but today I was back to square one.

Yet, Lucy has supported me throughout this ordeal since even before I told her about me, and then after it as well. Even now she embraced me as I was. What does she think of me?

"And you? How are you fairing?" Lucy asks me, taking me out of my thoughts. Lucy was now looking at the blankets, worry showing on her face. What was she thinking?