Elven Love (SAA Book 1) ✔

Part Three

(Art belongs to me.) Clayton froze, dead. With a distraught reaction, he peered upon the elf who was supposedly named Pyrodomous. What a joke. A grin broke loose as he began to snicker. "Pff-- what kind of name is that? Let's give you something that's less fake, just so you can fit in."

He raised a hand to his chin as he thought for a moment, and it wasn't long before nodding in agreement. "What about Owen?" he offered, gesturing a hand towards the other boy. Pyrodomous flinched and looked up to Clayton with an apologetic look, smiling shyly before his ears twitched again.

"Oren?" he mumbled, sounding oblivious to what Clayton said prior to the name suggestion. The human simply glowered and huffed, shaking his head in defeat of trying to get through the elf's thick skull.

"Fine, whatever." He washed off his anger and put on a polite smile. "it's nice to meet you, Oren. I'm Clayton, my parents are Eric and Ava Miller." Oren's eyebrows creased as his eyes flicked to the side. The blond seemed to notice the action and bent down to see what was wrong.

Oren looked confused, or lost, as if he couldn't find something. He looked like he was internally panicking as if he'd forgotten a large part of his life. In guilty concern, Clayton pressed a palm to the perturbed boy's shoulder. The skin under his hand was warm and smooth, solid under his touch.

He flinched from his daze. "Sorry. From here on, I'll be Oren Pyrodomous."

»»---------««

Eric's heavy footsteps could be heard from outside Clayton's bedroom door a few hours later. Oren was drowning Clayton in questions, and the human merely answered with a content expression. The cheery atmosphere dissipated as Eric paused in front of the door, listening in.

He knocked and Oren jumped, ears pressing back against his head. His eyes went wide and his nimble fingers gripped the sheets tightly. Clayton stilled, brow furrowing.

"Clay? Who're you talking to in there?" Eric's grizzly voice came from behind the closed wooden door. The human shuffled quietly and grabbed Oren's forearm as he pulled him off of the bed.

He quickly put a finger to his tips and motioned for Oren to crouch. Obliging, the elf hastily dropped to the ground as Clayton gestured for him to slide under the bed. There was barely room for his bijou body to fit, but it was just snug enough for him to be hidden from sight.

"Nobody! I'm watching YouTube." he called back, grabbing the covers and draping them over the gap between the box springs and the floor. He climbed onto his bed and laid down, reaching over for his phone and unlocking it with deft movements. The door swung open just in the nick of time, revealing a rather suspicious father. His elderly eyes were narrowed, scanning in panorama through his seemingly empty bedroom.

"Okay, just checking. I'm still not used to the technology you got going there." Even as he said that, it didn't seem genuine in the slightest. His eyes monitored the bedroom, which led him to opening Clayton's closet, as if he were expecting someone hiding there. Clayton rolled his eyes and lifted his leg so that it was propped against his other knee.

"You're just paranoid. Why would I have someone in here, anyway?" his son looked back to his phone and began typing. "You can leave now. I might need to be dropped off in a bit. Mom's probably worried about me." Clayton began to stand from his bed when he felt soft, gentle fingers wrap around his ankle. The human glanced down with wide eyes until his ankle kicked away lightly. "Could you drop us- ccmmhhmm," Clayton coughed, "can you drop me off soon?"

"Sure thing, get your stuff ready."

»»---------««

The house exterior wasn't the greatest; brown wood and chipping paint on either side of it. The backyard was lined with a wire fence, keeping a massive, towering Magnolia tree inside a barrier. A small rose garden was planted in the front, and although it was carefully tended and loved in the past, it was now riddled with nasty weeds.

Upon stepping through the front door, one could see a large living room of pale walls and a large brown couch that curved at the far corner. Antique paintings and old photographs trailed about the ivory walls, hung on crooked nails that left inch-long cracks along the cement. A flat-screen TV sat over an oak cabinet that held useless items Clayton never bothered to organize.

Right as Eric parked the car in front of the house, Clayton unbuckled his seat belt and bolted out. He shuffled to the back of the car and popped the trunk open, revealing a curled-up Oren with his ear twitching as if he were a dog. His eyes were closed, showing off his snow-like eyelashes.

They looked fluttery and soft, but now wasn't the time to admire them. Clayton bent over and shook his arm gently, causing Oren to stir and blink a few times before emerging from the car trunk.

"Okay, so Dad doesn't know you're here, but he might know about you when we get you outta here. We have'ta be quick even so, okay?" Clayton reached forward and grabbed Oren's wrist, pulling him towards the house as the elf stumbled behind him.

"Clayton," Oren faltered, "why are you in such a hurry? Can't your father--" The human opened the front door and launched themselves inside, locking the door behind them so Eric wouldn't follow them up. As Clayton looked out the window to check if Eric was still there, Oren on the other hand, was looking around the living room in astonishment.

His ears were perked highly, only flushed at the tip from the adrenaline he was shoved into. "This is your house..? It's massive. Do you live alone?" the elf asked, his voice lathered in excited enthusiasm as he spun in a semi circle to look around the expansive room.

The blond turned to him, a deadpan haunting his features as he pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "I live with my Mom." he simply stated. He moved away from the window as Eric had already left, only to see Oren staggering around the living room aimlessly. Soon, he backed up into Clayton and whirled around with wide eyes. His freckled cheeks flushed a light shade of green.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm just really impressed.. What else is there?"

Disregarding the flare of heat over Oren's cheeks, Clayton went deep into thought for a moment. He let off a little jump before dragging Oren towards the staircase that hugged one of the four walls. "My bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and dining room, you know." he started, "I'll show you my bedroom first. I think my ferret will like you."

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Thank you for reading Part Three!