Turning his head on the side, James felt his cheeks heat up, yet he refused to let go of Nyx's hand. His fingers were ice cold against Nyx's warm wrist. This only made Nyx frown. Before James could get the chance to say something, Nyx took his hand into hers and touched his forehead again.
"Lie down. I will go take a cold compress for you, okay?"
Feeling the moment slip through his fingers, James panicked and took hold of her hand again. Putting up with the heat of his face, which he wasn't sure if it was because of the blush or the fever, he looked at Nyx in the eyes.
"I don't remember anything about the past... about us..." James started.
Nyx's face paled, but her expression didn't change, hiding her emotions again as fear made her swallow hard. She tried to hide it. But James still noticed it.
"I don't remember any of the feelings we once had, and I don't think I will ever remember them."
Nyx touched with the tip of her tongue the piercing on her lip as she tried to calm down her thumping heart. It's okay. It's okay as long as he doesn't hate me. It's fine. It will be okay...
The hand holding her wrist slowly slid down to her palm and interlocked their fingers. The light touch like a feather caressing her hand tickled Nyx's heart. Her amber eyes fell on the hands before looking up to meet James's eyes. There was confusion in her eyes and a spark of hope that didn't dare to be too apparent lest it died before it could shine brightly.
With the heat reaching the tips of his fingers, James put on a shy smile. "But I like you now... I was angry when I found out the truth, I even hated you a bit, but I still like you. And I feel like I will like you more in the future. So..."
Hearing James opening his heart to her, not hiding anything, with nothing but shyness and sincerity in his eyes, Nyx felt like she was dreaming. The cold hand against her warm one was the only thing that told her this was indeed happening.
"... so please don't leave."
James couldn't take it anymore. After saying that last sentence, he turned his head to the side again. His eyes fell on the interlocked hands, but the sight of it only made him blush even more, so he struggled to look somewhere else.
"Mhmm." Nyx nodded. Her voice was soft, barely a whisper, strained with emotions. "I won't leave."
Maybe because after a long sleepless night and a long tiring day, James could finally relax, his body finally collapsed. Or maybe his fever got worse. It could be either of them, but one thing was for sure. After confessing to the woman he liked, James felt like shit. His head was pounding, his throat felt like he had swallowed thorns, and his whole body ached as he shivered.
Nyx took him to his apartment so he could take a cold shower before changing into clean clothes and lying down in his bed. Covering his shivering body with the quilt, she sat by his side and spread the cold compress over his forehead. Without needing James to tell her, she spread it down to his eyes, knowing he didn't feel comfortable there. Her lips curved the slightest bit when she heard his sigh when the cold compress touched his eyelids.
"How did you get sick?" She asked him softly.
James was already half-asleep when Nyx asked him that. It took him a while to understand what she just said to him. Grunting, he tried to answer her. "I sat on the floor... all night..." Nyx frowned when she heard him. "...I think the window of the living room was open too..."
"Fool."
James was shivering for most of the night. Every few hours he would wake up, slightly open his eyes and every single time this happened, he saw Nyx sitting by his side, changing the cold compress every now and then. He wasn't sure if he had dreamt this or not. That was until he woke up in the morning and saw her still by his side.
Nyx was sitting on the floor. Her head was resting on the mattress, her cheek pressing against her arm. In one of her hands, she was holding the wet cloth, the cold water dripping from it on the floor.
Tap
Tap
Tap
James turned his head to the side, the cold compress slipping from his forehead. His eyes lingered on the face of the woman that was just a few inches away from his, eyes closed, soundly sleeping. Her lips were slightly parted, exhaling softly, puffing away the strands of blue hair that had fallen on her face.
Under the warm sunlight, she looked so beautiful, so peaceful... like a sleeping fairy.
What a pity that the bruise on her face was still there, glaring at James.
With a frown on his face and absentmindedly, James reached out with his hand and touched the soft, bruised skin. His thumb caressed it a few times, moving gently as if fearful of waking up the fairy. It slowly went down and the tip of his thumb touched the corner of her lips, barely grazing the black piercing in her lip.
Heat suddenly overcame James, engulfing his chest, making his heart go wild. His breathing became erratic, his own breath sounding too loud in his ears. Like a fire licking his ribcage, James felt his feelings erupt. Erupting like a volcano.
"Are you taking advantage of me?"
The voice of the woman caught him off-guard. The hand touching her face drew back as if it had gotten burned. Ashamed and feeling guilty, James raised his eyes up the face of the woman, only to be met with her amber eyes, sleepily looking at him. The corner of her lips lifted a bit, the movement tickling James's heart.
This moment... This moment that felt like a memory of a previous life that he couldn't remember felt so familiar, so sweet, brimming with emotions.
"I... I wasn't trying to..."
Nyx closed her eyes again, but her lips were now fully curved into a smile. "It doesn't hurt."
Confused and still a bit startled because of getting caught red-handed, James moved his eyes up to her face that unknowingly had fallen on her lips again. That black piercing, for some reason, seemed to tease him. "Hmm?"
With her eyes still closed, Nyx tittered. "The bruise. It doesn't hurt."
"Oh..."
Nyx opened her eyes to look at James, not feeling sleepy any longer. A teasing glint flashed through them. "But I got a cut in the inside of my lip. Want to see it?"
The mischievous look in her face and the teasing made James's face heat up, yet much to Nyx's surprise, he shyly nodded his head. That slight up and down movement almost drained all of Nyx's patience and set fire to her self-control.
My little bunny learned to tease back.
Not willing to be outdone by him, Nyx brought her face closer to James, their noses barely touching. "How do you want to see it, love?"
How the hell am I supposed to answer that?
His own heartbeat echoed in his head, his thoughts in total disarray. He wanted to say something, but was unable to come up with something. For a second, James forgot how to speak. All words left him, betrayed him, despite his desire to mutter even half a word.
Just as he was cursing himself, Nyx's face closed in. Yet, much to James's disappointment, the woman simply pressed her forehead against him for a few seconds before backing away and standing up. "You don't have a fever anymore, but you better stay home to rest today lest it goes up again."
She bent over to pick the wet clothes and left the bedroom.
James watched her in a daze, feeling regretful. He should have said something... anything to keep her close for just a bit longer. The air in front of him felt so empty all of sudden. The whole room felt too empty. Too lonely.
It was too late now. All that was left to do was to get up as well.
James found Nyx squatting in the middle of his living room, talking to her cat. She reached out with a slender finger and tapped the pink nose of Murmur. "Listen to mommy, okay?" When she heard James's footsteps behind her, Nyx stood up, acting as if nothing happened. "I had to take her with me. She doesn't like to spend the night alone with no one in the apartment."
James looked down at the cat that rushed over the moment it saw him as it had always done every other time and a frown spread on his face. "I heard you..." He stopped talking and cleared his throat before continuing. His eyes, however, didn't dare to meet Nyx's gaze. "I heard you mention something about her... ehem.... daddy..."
Nyx took Murmur away from James's feet and hugged it against her chest. "What about it?"
"Who did you mean by that?"
Grinning like a gremlin, Nyx handed the cat to James. Murmur nested in his arms and dug its little pink nose in his neck, before rubbing its head against James's chin. "What do you think?"
Without waiting for him to answer, Nyx walked to the door of the apartment, ready to leave. Still, holding the cat in his arms, James followed after her. "Where are you going?"
"Work." Nyx answered while walking out of the apartment, closing the door after her.
In the middle of the hallway, the man and the cat exchanged glances. The corner of the man's lips tugged downwards a bit, looking at the cat helplessly. "Your mommy likes to flee every time she gets the chance."
Murmur nudged James on the chin with its nose.
"It's frustrating..."
The cat pretended it understood him and meowed once.
Still vexed about what happened back in his bedroom, James sighed. "I should have said something... So frustrating..."
James listened to Nyx and took the day off, yet he didn't lazy around. After eating breakfast and feeding the cat, he called his brother, determined to set matters straight. He couldn't cast away the restlessness in him knowing that his brother had hurt the woman he liked.
On the other hand, Neil had been waiting James's call since yesterday. From the moment he lost control of his temper and raised his hand to hit Nyx, he knew he fucked up. He didn't intent to hurt her, he just... he just wanted to talk to her... But things got out of control.
He shouldn't have hit her.
But it was already too late to regret that. It was useless to try and justify himself. He was angry. So what? He was worried about his little brother. So what? He was just... So. What?
Neil hated himself the whole night, dreading the moment James would call him. But there was no sign of James the whole night.
Neil wondered. Could it be that he miscalculated something?
However, before he could take that thought any further, the next morning, James's name appeared in his phone screen. The vibrating phone demanded to get picked up, but Neil hesitated with his hand hovering above it for a while.
In the end he still answered it.
"What took you so long?" James's voice was heard from the other end of the call.
Much to Neil's surprise, James didn't sound angry or upset. His voice was calm and smooth. It didn't look like he had found out anything about what happened. Neil started to have doubts. He wasn't sure of anything any longer.
"I didn't have my phone with me." His voice voice sounded a bit strained while trying to feign calmness.
"Can you can over to my place?"
Neil swallowed hard, feeling like it was his own heart going down his throat and not his saliva. There was no way out of this, and his guilt wouldn't let him be in peace even if there was a way. Things had already come to this point. Neil wasn't sure if James knew about the past or not, but it wasn't that important now, that he liked the same woman from five years. Those four years he had forgotten would eventually surface.
Sighing in surrender, Neil softly answered. "Yeah..." He wanted to say something more, to apologize or... anything... but he felt that it was useless, and it wouldn't sound sincere.
"That's good then." James said and shortly after, hung up the phone.
Nyx showed up in the company, looking quite the opposite of yesterday. This bewildered a lot of her co-workers. The words that she got slapped right in front of the building by a man had spread all over Eris. After all who was Nyx? She was the beloved granddaughter of the CEO. Who would dare to offend her? Offending her was like offending Walter Letti.
Yet, Nyx, despite the fact that she still had a bruised a face, walked around the company with a smile on her face, as if yesterday's events never happened and everyone else had just dreamed it. The people who hadn't witnessed it and only came to find it out because of the rumours turned to the people who told them and scolded.
"Does she look like she got slapped? She's smiling like it's her birthday. Who are you trying to fool?"
"Dude, she has a bruise on her cheek!"
The co-worker stole a glance at Nyx's bruised cheek and frowned. "Maybe she's into that kind of stuff..."
The other man pressed his lips in a straight line, trying hard not to smack his co-worker's head. "I'm pretty sure you slap other cheeks when you're into that kind of stuff."
"How do you know?"
Clearing his throat, the man walked away like the conversation that went astray didn't happen at all.
On the other hand, Nyx happily went on with her day. When it was lunch time, she sat at the usual spot with Walter who looked like he had grown older overnight from worry. If he wasn't sure that Nyx would hate him if he intervened in her affairs, he wouldn't hesitate to send someone to teach that brat a lesson.
What gave him the balls to slap the granddaughter he treasured so much?
But Walter knew that what Nyx hated the most was other people poking their nose into her business. So he just worried himself for the whole night, thinking about how hurt Nyx must be.
Yet this brat shows up the next day looking like she had swallowed a sun or something. Twinkling eyes, bright smile. It almost blinded Walter's poor eyes.
"Did that lump of shit slap you silly? Did your brains fly out of your head? Why are you smiling like a fool the whole time?"
"I fought with mom."
And that made you so happy?
What the fuck did you say to that woman to be so happy?
"Hmm..." Walter hummed thoughtfully. "Is that why Randy sounded constipated over the phone last night?" Nyx bit a laugh back at that, making the expression on the old man's face soften. "What are you hiding?"
Nyx leaned back on her chair and looked out of the window of the restaurant. There was a carefree smile on her lips. "He said he likes me... He asked me not to leave him..."
It seemed that the smile on Nyx's face was contagious because it crept up Walter's face as well. He shook his head in relief. The meal in front of him now seemed to taste better and the wine in his glass sweeter. "Shall we make a toast then?"
"I don't drink."
Walter rose the glass of red wine in a toast and brought it to his lips. Touching the brim of the glass, he smiled and softly said. "Your loss." Then he sipped at the wine, obviously making a show out of it to spite Nyx.
Nyx rolled her eyes and drank her water.
She didn't feel like she was losing anything. Quite the contrary actually... she felt like she had won the world last night.
A.N.: I started university and been a bit overwhelmed these days so I couldn't find the will to finish the chapter. It's done now.
The fluff in the coming chapters... Ooofff! Boy! Prepare your hearts. (￣y▽￣)╭ Ohohoho..
EXTRA:
James: *touches Nyx's face while she's sleeping*
Nyx: play dead play dead play dead
James: *touches the corners of her lips*
Nyx: I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead
Nyx: Wanna see the cut on my lip?
James: *nods*
Nyx: (*￣ii￣)