Chapter 17: Alcott
I bounced on my heels as I waited outside of Charlie's cabin, hearing a thump and a muffled laugh on the other side of the door in response to my knock.
The door flung open and Charlie's eyes opened wide when he saw me.
"Hey, baby," he greeted and propped his hand on the doorframe. "What're you doing here?"
"I just thought we might be able to hang out," I said. "Are you busy?"
"Charlie," came a yell from inside the house. "I found it!"
"Just a little," he responded to me before calling over his shoulder. "I'm coming." He turned back to me. "You can come in. I should be done in, like, fifteen minutes."
"I don't want to interrupt," I objected, but my curiosity was piqued.
"It's fine," he said. "Alcott won't mind."
"Alcott's here?" I asked.
"Come inside," he said. "It's freezing cold out here."
I stepped into his cabin and he pulled my coat off of me and hung it up beside the door before walking to the living room. Alcott was kneeling on the floor beside the coffee table, giggling like she was drunk.
"Charlie, I- oh, hey," she said when she saw me, her laugh cutting off in her throat. "I'm Alcott- Mia, actually."
"Y/N," I responded awkwardly.
"Let's finish this up," Charlie said and approached Alcott. "Y/N, you can do whatever until we're done."
"I can go if you guys are busy," I said and pointed toward the door.
"No," he insisted. "Alcott and I are just finishing this up."
"It'll only be a few minutes," she added, her dark eyes meeting mine. "You can help if you want."
"Oh, uh, I don't-"
"Yeah, that's a great idea," Charlie interjected and beckoned me over. "We'll show you how to do it."
What 'it' was was a diagram of what I assumed was a Hebridean Black.
"We have to figure out what's making her so aggressive by comparing her natural habitat to our imitated environment," Alcott explained as she pointed to a page in a book. "We use the diagram to understand the specific functions of each anatomical characteristic of the dragon. Like, for example, we know that the scales and the blood circulation are tailored to the climate in her natural habitat, so by determining what pieces of her physical makeup have been changed, we can better adjust her environment so that she'll be comfortable."
"But, as I've told you, she's not adjusting well," Charlie added, "and if we can raise enough concern for her well-being, we might be able to stipulate a relocation so that she can return to Scotland."
"You can't just change the environment?" I asked and looked over the diagram.
"We could," Alcott said and shrugged her shoulders, "but it won't be the same. Her instinctual intuition will kick in. Even if we could exactly replicate her natural environment, we could be shaving years off of her lifespan."
I grunted and sat down on the couch.
"What?" Charlie asked me and looked at me with raised eyebrows.
"Makes no sense to me," I admitted and curled up as I watched him sit beside me and lean forward to look at the diagram.
"Healing makes no sense to me," he responded and patted my leg before going off on a tangent about the dragon's claws. Alcott nodded and craned her neck over the diagram, intently taking notes on what could just as well have been Greek to me.
"So, you're really good with dragons, huh?" I asked and Alcott looked up at me.
"Oh, well..." she said bashfully.
"She's wonderful with them," Charlie answered for her with a smile shot in her direction.
"How long have you been here?" I asked her.
"Uh... well, Charlie and I started at around the same time," she said and paused in her note-taking to calculate. "I started two months after him in 1990," she said and nodded to herself before continuing to mark up the diagram. "So four years."
"Alcott and I were stuck in a cabin together for the first two years we were here," Charlie said and looked at me.
"Worst roommate I ever had," she snorted and rolled her eyes before gasping excitedly. "Charlie! Look at the scales for a moment," she said and swatted at his arm with the back of her hand.
"What?" he asked.
"Look at the scale measurements," she said with wide eyes.
Charlie furrowed his eyebrows and scanned over a column of data in a book and a handwritten list of numbers scribbled on a scrap of parchment.
"Her scales should be fully developed by now," he said and absently ran his fingers over his beard with a confused glance to Alcott.
"They should have been a while ago," she said and sat up straighter. "Her scales have overgrown. That's got to be uncomfortable."
"You're a genius, Alcott," he said with a fascinated laugh.
"I'll go to Mr. Balaur now," she said and rolled up the diagram while messily gathering all of her documents.
"Want me to come?" he asked and stood to help her gather her things.
"No," she said and shook her head adamantly. "I've got it. I'll tell him that we're going to start drafting an appeal. You stay here with your company. It was nice to meet you, Y/N," she said with a smile. Charlie opened the door for her and she rushed in the direction of Cristian's office.
Charlie milled around his cabin picking up after Alcott, who had left in such a rush that she had left her coat behind, as well as some of her notes.
"She's so into dragonology," he said, "that you can't get her to slow down when it comes to stuff like this. She gets so fixated on solving problems that you can't get her to think about anything else but she's a damn good dragon-keeper."
"She seems it," I said as he sat down on the couch. "You guys have been friends for a long time?"
"Oh, yeah," he answered and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. "I transferred here to do a sort of dual-enrollment thing, kind of like what you're doing, and I was the youngest on the reserve. I was fifteen turning sixteen, and I was struggling to find a place to fit in but then Alcott showed up. She was a year older than me but she was assigned to be my cabinmate and we had a hell of a time, causing trouble like you wouldn't believe. She's crazy but I love her."
"She sounds really cool," I said and set my head on his shoulder. Something about knowing that they were roommates made me feel insecure and I didn't know why. Maybe it was how pretty she was or the reminiscent smile that pulled at his lips or the obvious chemistry that they had.
"What'd you come to see me for?" he asked and looked over at me.
"Oh," I said and scratched at the back of my neck. "I just missed you."
"How sweet," he teased. "Do you have a crush on me or something?"
"You're the worst," I said and buried my face in his shoulder. "I can't ever be sappy?"
He laughed and pulled me into his lap, his arms winding around my waist.
"I'm glad you came over," he said. "I've been meaning to talk to you about everything."
"Talk to me," I said and yawned as I tucked my head into the crook of his neck, draping my arms over his shoulders and cuddling into him.
"What are you so tired for?" he asked.
"I learned how to magically reattach a limb at one in the morning," I said. "Been up since then."
"Come on," he said and pulled me from the couch.
"Why? I was comfy," I whined as he pulled me toward his bedroom.
"Go to sleep and we'll talk some other time," he said and stood at the foot of his bed as I reluctantly climbed under the covers.
"Stay with me," I requested and held my hands out to him.
"I should go and find Alcott," he said, grabbing my hands and leaning down to kiss my knuckles.
"I sleep better when you're with me," I said and held onto his hands tightly when he attempted to retreat. "Please, Charlie."
"Alright," he said and rolled his eyes. "Scooch," he demanded and I smiled victoriously and shuffled over to make room for him. "Just for a little while, until you fall asleep."
I nodded and waited for him to get comfortable before I cuddled into his side and rested my head on his chest with a content sigh, breathing in the scent of his cologne.
"You smell good," I mumbled in a final attempt to ward off my sleep as my eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
"Go to sleep," he said softly and stroked my hair.
I fell asleep quickly and slept through to the next morning, only to find that Charlie had not moved a muscle.