Dante’s P.O.V:
Before he had even finished speaking, Archer had fallen asleep. I couldn’t help feeling terrible for him, he’s turning sixteen and he’s lived with bad parents. We already knew who they were, their names were spoken venomously to my parents when they had been asking about the town, making sure it was a good place. According to the other citizens, Archer was a really good kid, but his father and stepmother were… not so good. I shook my head, he needn’t have told us all of that, because, sadly for him, most of the town already knew. My hand slid up to his back and I rubbed his back whilst he slept. He must have been dead tired. I smiled to myself,
‘Maybe when I wake him up in two hours breakfast will help him feel better?’
I let out a soft chuckle; it was a pretty funny thought when I actually thought about it, food makes people feel better. Archer stirred in his sleep and I stopped making noise and rubbing his back. I paused and looked at my hand, it was fairly low…
‘Okay! Come on, Dante! He just walked into your house trying to hide from his crappy parents, he doesn’t need you trying to feel him up in his sleep.’ I cursed my actions silently and told my mind to shut up. Perhaps non-surprisingly, my mind kept talking and working and warning me to be cautious so that I don’t accidentally make the guy hate me before I could date him.
‘Wait, what if he doesn’t like me?’ My mind asked me, quite logically, but the question made me sad. I did like Archer, I mean,
“He has soft brown eyes, with sparks of green through them, and I paid attention to them when he was talking… A bit weird, but what else was I going to do? Stare at his crotch whilst he told me about his problems? I’m not that type of guy.” I stopped as I realised I was now talking to myself out loud. I checked to make sure that he was still sleeping but he must have heard me, he was looking up at me with eyes that showed amusement but also showed sleepiness.
“Sorry, I just… I know we just met, but I’d like to take you on a date.” He looked at me for a second that seemed to last an eternity and I thought maybe he didn’t like me and began to apologise when he said,
“That’s cute, I’d like that. But can we just sleep now? I mean 6:25 a.m, why are you even awake?” He smiled tiredly as he spoke and I couldn’t help but want to lie down next to him and hold him close.
“I was just excited, we only…” I began, but I broke off as I realised that he was asleep again. I didn’t really have any thing to do this early in the morning, but I mean, I had been excited about moving in, we’d even had doors installed that lead to the balcony because there used to be just windows. I looked at Archer again, his hair was dark brown and when I thought about it, it probably helped make his eyes stand out. His skin was darker than mine but not dark, dark, just a bit tanned. I looked around the room; it was painted light blue with darker touches here and there on the outline of the windowsills and the doorframes. I liked the room, but then my eyes drifted to the empty space next to Archer and I decided I’d try and get in a little extra sleep. As I moved to lie next to him, a thought hit me, as it was probably hitting my parents too;
‘How did he get inside past the glamour?’ I froze and my right hand flew immediately to the puppet charm on the bracelet on my left wrist. It would pulse and glow faintly red if someone wanted to cause harm to me, but it was quiet so I sent my magic conscious out to fan the room and check Archer’s aura. My family is one of the many, many families existent in the world that have access to magic, and due to tradition, we choose the Necromancy discipline. The puppet symbol helps us to identify other mages who have chosen to the same discipline as well as let us focus our power more accurately. As my magic came into contact with his body, my puppet symbol flared a brilliant azure-gray before dying down and showing a softer, crimson colour.
