Waking up to the sound of a quiet room, no girls bickering back and forth, fighting over who gets the first cup of coffee, was heaven. My eyes fluttered open not at the sound of a blaring alarm, it being Saturday and all, or one of Terra's plants dropping and shattering, but at the light snore I heard in my ear, along with my internal clock. A small smile spread across my lips as I looked down to see Riven's arm draped over my waist before rolling over slowly to face him, his arm never moving. I had never seen him like this...so calm, peaceful, eyes closed, mouth parted slightly to let that soft snore escape, his hair an absolutely mess from last night's activities...he looked perfect, as if I had created this image myself. I pulled one arm from under his blanket that we were both entangled in, our clothes scattered around his floor from last night and ran it through his hair gently, earning a small sigh from him, only making me smile. I had never woken up in a guy's bed in bliss, always in a rushed horror, terrified that if I didn't get up and out of the bed before my ex woke up that there would be a morning argument waiting for me...but here, in the quiet dorm that smelled faintly of clean linen because it was across the hall from the communal laundry room but mostly of Riven's cologne, based mostly of cedar wood, I felt nothing but a warm, blissful calm.
"Sugarplum..." he mumbled, still asleep as I ran my fingers through his hair, only making my eyes and smile soften. I moved slightly, planting a small and gentle kiss on his cheek, nose, lips before moving down his jaw at an agonizingly slow pace.
"You're still here." He hummed as I picked my head up to see his eyes beginning to open, his voice deep and riddled with sleep, his arm that was around my waist pulling me fully on top of him, our chests flush to each other, his body supporting all of mine.
"I told you I would be." I spoke for the first time this morning, the butterflies in my stomach beginning to flap their wings at the look of the sleepy, dopey smile on his lips.
"I've had this dream before..." He mumbled only causing me to raise a brow at his statement.
"...Waking up with you in my bed, in my arms, rather than waking up alone, half the bed cold and your lavender scent lingering, it's lonely here without you." He elaborated only making my expression soften completely, any thought I had of playfully teasing him, completely gone. Our gaze meeting for only a moment before his arm that was still wrapped around me, tightening and flipping us over so my back was now pressed to his mattress. The blanket shifted with us, my right leg now sticking out, our shoulders and arms exposed, yet not an inch of me cold.
"It was nice, your voice being the first thing I heard today...sweet thing of mine." He hummed, bending his head down to the crook of my neck and leaving small kisses behind, one of his hands finding my exposed thigh, giving it a small squeeze just as his lips met the hollow of my collar bone.
"My sweet sugarplum fairy." He continued, only making my cheeks redden at the slow, intimate touches and the sweet nothing escaping his lips. All our other moments were full of passion, need, want, desire, in his dimly lit room where my insecurities weren't on full display, but this one...it was soft, cherished, intimate and exposing, the room filled with morning sunlight where there was no hiding, no forgiving lighting, it was a complete different and new feeling and experience, both with Riven and in general for me.
"A blush? Oh, that's new." He noted, feeling the heat from my cheek against his ear, his lips still finding new spots on my skin to linger.
"So is the tone in your voice and the sweet words spilling from your lips." I countered, feeling him smile against my skin, only causing me to smile as well.
"Have to treat my girl right." He mumbled, only making my smile widen at the mention of our relationship conversation last night. Us, together, boyfriend and girlfriend, clandestine meetings, stolen glances, secret rendezvous, this dorm of his becoming our sacred and safe space of ours.
"I have a proposition for you." Riven breathed as he picked his head up just as my hands found their way to his hair at the back of his neck and nape of his neck, our eyes locking.
"And I'll have an answer...or a counter offer." I shrugged, a smile on my lips as his other hand brushed hair out of my eyes, that arm supporting him above me, his elbow bent and pressed to the bed.
"Stay here with me, all day. No room mates, no new found father, no hiding our feelings yet...stay with me so Monday will be less painful when we have to act as if we barely know each other." He began, my heart twisting at the look on his face as he spoke, as if he was waiting for rejection, as if he was waiting for me to speak up with an answer that was anything but yes.
"We can watch movies, talk, lay here and do absolutely nothing...There is vending machines down the hall, I can charm diner lady Doris into letting me take some extra food from the canteen to bring up here, I'll even show you my roof spot tonight and we can look at the stars." He continued, taking my silence as hesitancy, only furthering the nervousness I could see written all over his face.
"I just...I didn't see you, feel you, kiss you, touch you for a week and I don't want that to start all over again just yet. I may be your "absence of chaos" but you are...all consuming...I don't want to come off as a clinger but...just, stay with me, please." He kept going, his nerves, insecurities and issues that we touched on, getting the best of him, only causing a smile to spread across my lips.
"I have a counter offer." I perked up, flipping us back over in the process so I was now straddling his waist, the blanket pulled tightly around my chest, while my back and hips were fully exposed, his hands taking full advantage of that.
"Oh, yeah?" He hummed, biting his bottom lip slightly in anticipation and fear. I leaned down so my lips were only a few inches from his, his eyes looking down at them as his hands on my hips tightened.
"I stay with you all weekend...not just today." I breathed, moving back a bit to see his expression change, a childlike grin spreading across his lips, my answer being a clear opposite of no or anything else I could have come up with to not be here with him when truth was, there was no place I'd rather be.
"Yes to the movie, the talking, the snacks, the rooftop, yes to it all...yes, to you, Riven." I nodded softly, only causing him to let out a deep, shaky, relieved breath as he picked his head up from the pillow, one hand leaving my hips to cup my cheek as he moved.
"Perfect, you are absolutely perfect." He breathed before kissing me with his normal passion and desire, only making me practically melt into him.
"Now let's start this weekend off with a bang." He smirked, only making me smile with a smile giggle as he flipped us once again. I was glad to see his normal attitude was returning and his nervousness was fading, I wasn't going to leave, I didn't need to and I didn't want to. Something in our souls were made up of the same things, the bond proved that, we were made for one another, whether it be because we were both raging storms that were each other's tranquility or because we were two broke souls scarred with the wounds from our demons, playing a dangerous game of trust...and love...time would only tell.
*Riven's Point of View*
"I said no roommates and I still get you for the night." I hummed in Samira's ear as She laid on my bed Sunday night, peering over her shoulder to see her texting both Celeste and Terra back about where she had been for the past two days, her phone screen illuminating her face. My Spotify playlist on shuffle on the speaker I had dug out from my wardrobe, knowing the music would help her mind, especially seeing as tomorrow we would have to go back to acting as though we didn't know each other. Her shoulders were tense, seeing her uncomfortable for the first time this weekend, but not with me...with tomorrow fast approaching.
"Chase Atlantic...very you." She noted the music that was playing, only making me crack a smile as I nudged her softly and looked down at her phone, trying to get her to put it away.
"I have to keep up appearances, Riven." She hummed, loving the way my name rolled off her tongue. She laid on her stomach, the moonlight pouring in from my window as I rubbed her sheet covered lower back with one hand, gazing at the girl that had flipped my world upside down in a matter of 48 hours. We held true to our plans for the weekend, watching movies that we talked and snacked through them, that was when weren't tangled up in each other. Saturday night, with the help of the last joint I had, I opened up to the girl that captured my heart. I wanted her to know me, I wanted her to want me for who I was, and not wanting to change a thing about me just as much ad I wanted to be a better person for her. We couldn't go on public dates, at least not yet so I took this weekend as one, long, continuous date...which included showing her the part of me that I had long hidden away. I told her about my mum, Odette, and how she left a few months after I was born, because of how my father, Duncan, treated her no doubt. I told her about how summers were the worst months of my years, my father left me alone during school years, being there most of the day and only coming home at night when he was already pass out, or in last years case, having to leave Alfea and go back to him, back to the house filled with pain, alcohol and the ghost of the mother I never knew. My head sat in her lap, her fingers running through his hair, the feeling of it quickly becoming addicting, as I talked. The weed definitely helped me let it out without fear of rejection or judgement, Sky found out about my dad on accident last year, when I got absolutely shit faced and compared myself to the man I hated. Most children grow to hate their parents, but I was pretty sure that I hated them both the moment I realized that I was on my own, which was the ripe age of five. My father didn't raised me, he didn't even take care of me as a baby, his mother, my grandmother did, and when she was gone...I raised myself, I felt like a constant burden, I had been on my own my whole life,...but looking at the girl above me, her warm, dark brown eyes locked with mine, nothing in them but understand and care, I realized that for the first time in my life, I didn't want to be alone. I developed abandonment issues from my mother's leaving, and a fear that I would end up like my father, I knew I wasn't the best boyfriend candidate but I was willing to try for her. She returned that favor when we went up to the roof an hour later and she told him all about her ex, Nico, her mother, Violet, and the earth fairy father that raised her, Griffin. It killed me to hear how Nico had treated her, abused her, mentally and physically, only telling me I wasn't the only one with issues, only hers were commitment issues, not abandonment ones. He had taken everything from her, her joy and her innocence and replacing it with the darkest parts of life, he destroyed parts of her that she would never be able to get back, left mental and physical scars, like the one on her right hip that I had kissed many times...It took everything I had to not get down from this roof and beg her to lead me to his house so I could give him a taste of what he had given her for a year of her life. How someone could ever hurt the beautiful and kind girl in front of me, I would never understand and when I hear her voice get slightly choked up, I sat us up, her head having been resting on my chest as we looked at the stars above us, I made her promise.
"No words or hands of mine will ever hurt you." I swore as I felt my heart clench while I looked at her, seeing that I wasn't the only one between us that needed the other and I wiped the single tear that rolled down her cheek under all those stars, I realized that I was going to do everything in my power to shield her from any other pain that I could.
"Well..." I started, moving some of her hair off her bare shoulder, loving the feeling over her against me in anyway, fingers on in hair, lips on lips, breath on skin, any contact from her, had me reeling.
"...I guess I'll just have to fight for your attention." I finished my thought, bending my head down to kiss her shoulder, once, twice before she lowered her phone from her face and turned to face me, our noses less than a centimeter from touching.
"Keep fighting." She teased, only making a smirk form on my lips, another thing I had learned about her and thoroughly enjoyed, she was a flirty tease, and matched my energy completely.
"A little to the left." She continued, before looking back at her phone and tilting her head more to the side to give me more access to her neck, causing me to move all her hair to the opposite side I was on, before kissing her neck, a fire sparking in the pit of my stomach, that need I felt for her returning. I placed two kisses to her neck before I moved up to behind her ear and placed one, lingering there for a moment when I heard a soft sigh leave her throat as she locked her phone and practically tossed it to the ground.
"Looks like I found a sensitive spot." I mumbled as I kissed the same spot once more before she turned her head to meet my gaze again.
"This weekend has been..." She began, her eyes traveling down to my lips as my eyes looked over her every feature, my hand that had moved her hair slowly traveling back down to her lower back.
"You have been..." She continued, causing a pang of worry to hit me before she shook her head softly with a smile, resting her forehead on mine for a moment.
"It's been straight out of one of those dreams of yours. At the risk of sounding like a clinger..." She cracked a smile, repeating my words from Saturday morning, only making me smile as well before stealing a kiss from her.
"How much do you think I could sleep here before we get caught?" She whispered against my lips, making my heart sore at the hopes of having here every night and always.
"Mmm, not sure...but I am sure that your dad would be the one to catch us so maybe you could talk your way out of it." I grinned, knowing that if anyone was the catch her going into the Specialist hall but not coming out till the next morning, it would be Silva.
"I have to leave early in the morning so I can get back to the suite and shower." She groaned, throwing her head forward onto the bed beneath us causing me to laugh at her dramatics.
"Or..." I trailed off, seeing her head pick up as she looked at me through her eyelashes, god she is stunning.
"You could wear something of mine, your stockings and shoes from the party and we could shower together." I offered, only causing a smile to grow on her lips before she leaned closer to me once again.
"Sex, shower, sleep?" She whispered, her brown eyes now almost black, a groan escaping my lips as I nodded rapidly before she pressed her lips to mine and pushed me down onto the bed...like I said on Saturday morning, perfect, she's perfect.
*Samira's Point of View*
"Why is everyone staring at me?" I whispered to Terra as we walked through the canteen on Monday morning, going down there to grab breakfast before rushing to the front to find Celeste to wish her good luck with today, her mother Luna coming to visit. I felt everyone's eyes on me, and their emotions were all scattered, their thoughts still foggy from spending all weekend in my bubble. I texted Terra this morning asking her to bring me a change of clothes to the bathroom near the canteen so I could change, leaving Riven's dorm moments before he did, making sure to keep the shirt that Riven had left me borrow on, only adding jean shorts, different undergarments, different stockings and different shoes to the outfit, the smell of his cologne lingering on the plain black shirt that could literally be anyone's to the people staring at me, while I knew it was Riven's.
"There is a rumor going around about you being Silva's kid." She whispered back only making my eyes widen as she nodded with a sigh. The only people that knew were Terra, Riven, Silva, Celeste and Sky, and I thought I could trust all of them, I had been with Riven all weekend, I knew Terra didn't spread it, so who did and how would Silva feel about it?
"Any idea on how it started?" I questioned, both of us playing into it being a rumor, rather than confessing its truth.
"No clue, one second nobody knew and the next, everyone was talking about it, my guess is someone at the specialist party spread it after we all left." She explained as we walked through the line, grabbing a juice for Celeste as we did, knowing she wasn't going to eat with her mother on the way, stress and nerves consuming her. Had someone heard me talking to Silva? Or telling Celeste and Sky that day by the greenhouse? Was it purely made up and fabricated on suspicion or just to start up drama in a school full of people looking for something to gossip about?
"You must really like him." Terra noted as we started on our walk out of the canteen, to head to the entrance where Celeste and Sky were.
"The guy you're seeing...to be with him for two days straight." She elaborated only making me nod with a small smile at the thought of the weekend that Riven and I had just shared. I had told Sam about the fact that I was seeing someone the night of the specialist party, and I told Celeste and Terra over text last night when their worried and anxious texts came through, wondering where I had been all weekend. I had to tell them at least that much, I didn't say who, which was what Riven and I had agreed upon but I couldn't lie to my room mates, especially on a campus that was only so large, my disappearing act hadn't gone unnoticed by the two of them and it made me wonder how long Riven and I could keep this up.
"Hello, I don't believe we've had the pleasure." An unfamiliar voice hummed as I felt an arm link with my free one, causing me to look away from Terra only to see Beatrix on my arm.
"I wouldn't call meeting you a pleasure." Terra mumbled only causing me to laugh and nod at Terra, impressed by her comment, and not expecting it from her, feeling a sense of accomplishment wash over her as she saw how proud I was of her for speaking up.
"Was I talking to you? No, I didn't think so...can we chat for a moment?" Beatrix started off talking to Terra but finished with talking to me, pulling me to a grinding halt which caused Terra to do the same, protective friend mode kicking in. It didn't take a mind fairy to see that Beatrix was bad news and a total Dowling suck up which we had seen in our classes, while that was Terra's reason for disliking her, mine were more Riven centered.
"And why would we do that?" I snapped, yanking my arm out of her grasp only causing her to let out a vindictive chuckle.
"Because I believe we can help each other, now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." She challenged, eyes glowing her storm grey, only making me take a step closer to her, eyes glowing my deep purple.
"I'd love to see what you define as the hard way." I muttered, already entering her mind and giving it a squeeze, causing her to groan as she gripped the metal railing along the catwalk bridge we were walking across to get to Celeste.
"You'll get in trouble." Terra whispered, grabbing the opposite arm that Beatrix had grabbed and much more gently. My mom had taught me how to defend myself with my powers and with my physical strength and girls...they liked catfight and I was not above using my claws.
"I'll go see Celeste, you just...deal with that." Terra offered causing me to let up on Beatrix and look at my friend and roommate. Terra took the juice from my hand as I backed out of Beatrix's mind and gave her a second to recover so I could focus on Terra.
"Tell her if she needs anything to just text and we'll drop everything." I hummed, causing Terra to nod silently, feeling an insecurity, uncertainty and slight amount of jealousy wash over her.
"Hey...sit together at the assembly? You can tell me all about what you did this weekend? About your end of the party?" I offered with a smile, only causing her to return it before walking away. Terra was the first person I truly trusted here at Alfea, even when I was sleeping with Riven and it was just a hook up, I didn't trust him, but Terra...she gained my trust almost instantly and now that I was spending time with other people, trusting other people, she was worried about our friendship...something I would have to fix later.
"You're lucky I don't report you to Miss Dowling." Beatrix mumbled as she pressed her free hand to her head, only causing me to scoff with my arms crossed over my chest.
"Go right ahead, you don't strike me as a tattle tale but if you are, I have no problem telling her that you threatened me with "the hard way" first and I was simply defending myself." I rebuttaled as she collected herself before taking a deep breath, her pain, and anger beginning to dull and...hope, being put in it's place.
"I believe you can help me with things that I came here to do, and I'm hoping after you hear what I have to say, you'll want to." She explained, looking around to make sure we were alone, all the students below us in the canteen.
"I'm a mind fairy, I'll let you know if I feel someone coming...get on with it." I sighed, leaning on the stone pillar to my left.
"Dowling knew you existed." She spat out, only making my eyebrow raise while my heart skipped a beat, managing to keep my outside cool as if I had no idea as to what she was referring to while my insides were scrambling.
"What are you-" I began only for her to cut me off, shaking her head and putting a hand out to tell me to stop nonverbally.
"My father was part of that group of five that set out on the Burned One crusade, the mission that tore your mother and your father apart..." she started, as I stared at her, Andreas...she was talking about Andreas, the other man of their group that my mother had told me about before her passing.
"...some time after you were born, Dowling tracked your mother down, they talked, she felt you kick her your mother's belly, she knew that Silva was your father and she said nothing to him, for sixteen years she acted at though you weren't walking this earth!" She whisper yelled, only making me realize that she was the one that started the Silva swirling rumor, she had to have been.
"My father kept an eye on all of them from a far as he raised me, and once I was old enough to understand everything he told me that I would need to find you, befriend you, enlist your help. I tried to do it an easier way, one that didn't involve you but it didn't work out and you might be my only shot. I came to Alfea to take Dowling down and free the rightful headmistress, and now you have a reason to help me...our fathers were friends...maybe we can be too." She tried to reach out only causing me to take a step back as I shook my head.
"I'm not going to be friends with someone who spread rumors about me being Headmaster Silva's child. I don't know who you are looking for, but it's not me, you've got the wrong fairy." I swore before walking away from her and going further down the corridor to find an empty room where I could let my emotional freak out commence. Why didn't my mother tell me about Dowling being aware of my existence? Was she ashamed to tell me that both she and Dowling kept me a secret in fear that I would hate her for keeping me from Silva my entire life? If Dowling got in touch with my mother than she could have connected her to Silva after the mission so why didn't she? I had so many thoughts and questions rolling around in my head, I wasn't sure of anything other than the fact that Beatrix was telling the truth in what she said, even if she was holding back the full extent of it. I just took my phone out with shaking hands, and uneven breathing, there was only one person that was going to be able to calm me down and talk me off of the ledge that lead right to walking straight to Dowling's office to confront her.
*Riven's Point of View*
"Woah, you alright there, Riven?" Silva questioned as I clutched my chest and took a step back from Mikey with a sharp inhale. Sky was my normal sparring partner but he was dealing with Celeste and her Luna insanity so Silva paired me with Mikey for the few hours before the day got cut short...what I didn't expect to feel like my heart was on the verge of exploding as we reset for one last round before we all had to stop and change for the assembly.
"I didn't even touch him!" Mikey chimed in defense as I looked over at Silva with wide eyes, the tightening feeling in my chest only worsening. Silva had been like a father figure to me since last year, being Sky's best friend and one of the top in the class after my fire few weeks of getting my ass kicked, made him realize I wasn't a quitter which only made him push me more, in the best ways...in ways that a father would.
"Observe in my place." Silva waved to Mikey as he wrapped an arm around me to help me down from the platform, sitting me down on the stairs and handing me my water bottle as he looked me over, counting my pulse with the two fingers he rested on the underside of my wrist. I felt like I was either going to pass out or vomit, I had never felt such an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety at once but I had no idea where it was stemming from.
"You are having an anxiety attack. Your pulse is nearly 200, you need to push whatever it is back in your mind or let it out." Silva spoke calmly only causing me to shay my head rapidly as I took a swig from the bottle he had handed me.
"Silva I...I don't know what it's about, I'm fine, my mind is clear but my heart and body sure aren't." I breathed, still shaking my head as I tried to catch my breath...soon after the words left my lips, it was like a light bulb went off...Samira said that our bond would only get stronger with time, she told me on the rooftop Saturday night that at Silva's and Violet's peak, they could feel what each other were feeling...was this the start of that and if so, where the hell was she and what the hell was going on?
"Your mind isn't clear..." Silva trailed off for a moment, processing everything that was happening before the same light bulb went off above his head, shit, over protective dad lecture in 3...2...1...
"You have to find her and-" Silva started only for my phone ringing from the platform, cutting us both off. I picked up the phone with a shaky hand, seeing the purple heart emoji I had put instead of her name just incase anyone got any bright ideas and wanted to snoop.
"I know you are training and I know it's a risk and I know we agreed on secrecy but I...I can't breathe." She spoke barely above a whisper as soon as I picked up, causing my heart to twist form my own emotion rather than the ones I was feeling from her.
"Stay where you are, I'm coming to get you." I breathed before hanging up and looking at her shared location, we had a whole conversation on Saturday about leaving them on so we could find each other periodically through the day when we needed that extra boost or calmness or in my case, just to hold her.
"We'll talk later, go now and I'll find you both after the assembly." Silva spoke up before I nodded and rushed off, as fast as the already rushed heart rate and heavy breathing would let me. Luckily for me, everyone was slowly gathering in the canteen that was getting turned over for the assembly, the tables disappearing, the benches multiplying and and rearranging so the back staircases I learned my way around last year were free and open for use. I knew if anyone saw me, it would be a frightening sight, stumbling down to the room that she was pinged in, pushing the door open to see her nearly hyperventilating as she paced back and forth, fists clenching open and shut rapidly in front of her...it broke me to see her like this.
"Sugarplum." I breathed as I shut the door behind me, causing her to stop and look up, tears in her eyes as she rushed over to me, her chest colliding with mine as she wrapped her arms around me, her hands gripping the back of my shirt tightly, I wrapped my arms around her and rested my cheek on the top of her head, on hand cradling the back of her head, the other rubbing her back as the tightness in my chest lift almost instantly...I had never felt the "absence of chaos" like she had...before this moment, I took her by her word and gave into the feelings I had for her but this...this feeling...it was overwhelming in the best way. It was like everything I was feeling before I got to her, shattered like a broken pane of glass and the shards fell to her, the emotions returning to their rightful owner and I felt a calm, a lightness, a peaceful silence...an absence of chaos.
"You came." She breathed out, pulling me out of my own head as I processed everything that I was feeling, causing me to look down at her, the hand that was resting on the back of her head, moving to cup her cheek gently.
"You called." I answered, before she stood on her tippy toes to connect our lips, her hands that gripped the back of my shirt loosening and moving around to rest on my chest, backing me up as she walked forward like I had done to her countless times these past two weeks. I knew she said being physically helped her clear her mind, just as being in my presence did and after the influx of emotions I felt from her, she was going to need every ounce of things that helped her mind clear, and what kind of boyfriend would I be if I denied her of that? I turned us around with one movement, pinning her to the door I had walked in from moments before, kissing her with everything I had, her kiss was desperate, frantic, like she needed it to breath and honestly, she kind of did. A few moments later, I felt her whole body relax against me, my arms wrapping around her waist to hold her up, as if her knees were going buckle out from under her at any minute from the ever changing emotions she had just went through.
"Thank you." She breathed as she broke the kiss to breath, I wasn't going to be the first one to pull away, she needed me and I was not going to make her feel like she couldn't have me, in anyway, shape of form.
"Just doing my job, pixie." I breathed back as she rested her forehead on mine, one of her hands leaving my chest to cup my cheek as I had done to her just before, turning my head slightly to plant a single kiss to her palm before letting her caress my cheek.
"I don't know what I would have done without you." She confessed, causing my entire expression to soften, it being written all over her face. When she told me about the bond we shared or were going to share, seemingly for he rest of our lives, whether we liked it or not it made me feel ten times more secure in us, knowing that she would never truly abandon me but seeing her like this, feeling her ease in my arms...it cemented it all for me.
"You don't need to worry about that happening, I'm here and I will be every time that you need me." I assured her, her eyes meeting mine in the dust filled classroom that she had chosen to hole up in.
"I could feel you." I admitted, causing her brow to furrow in confusion slightly, as her thumb stroked my cheekbone gently, neither of us moving from the embrace and closeness, neither of us wanting to.
"Your anxiety, your fear, your anger...it overwhelmed me when I was sparring...while you were in here having the anxiety attack of your life, I was out there, a mirrored image." I explained, causing her eyes to widen as she came to the same realization that I had on the mat. Our bond was strengthening, growing, I could feel her as Silva could feel her mother, and that if I was training when it happened, someone had to have taken notice which meant our two person secret had just become a three person one.
"Who knows?" She questioned softly, no hint of anger or fear in her voice, more over just wanting to know who we had to keep an eye on and what kind of bomb we had to defuse.
"Silva." I answered causing her let out a breath of relief, taking me by surprise as her hand dropped from my fact and she rested her head on my chest, everything in her relieved while I was beginning to process that her father knew about our brand new relationship.
"He's your dad." I spoke up, as she picked her head back up and met my gaze.
"He's my dad that gets it, Riv." She assured, only causing me to sigh. I knew she was right about that, that he would understand what the both of us were feeling, more so me over her, and I knew I'd be able to go to him if I had any questions...that was if he didn't destroy me over the fact that I was dating his daughter.
"He's your dad...oh my god, you have Silva and your earth fairy dad...I have two dads to worry about." I emphasized, repeating my words with a different tone so she would hopefully follow where my head was, only making her crack a smile and the corner of her eyes crinkled like they did every time she smiled.
"You're worried what they'll think about us together, it's cute!" She laughed only causing me to roll my eyes with a smirk as I shook my head, it literally was impossible to be anything but happy around her.
"He wants to talk to us after the assembly, you going to be okay for that? I'll be by your side the whole time." I promised as she took my hand and pulled me over to one of the set of chairs in the room, sitting down in one and motioning for me to sit in the other, only causing me to raise a brow.
"I need to tell you what got me all worked up in the first place." She sighed, left leg already bouncing with anxiety, causing me to lean forward in the chair I sat in and took one of her hands in mine, giving it a small squeeze. We had just gotten through our first live connection, a panicked one at that, I knew whatever she had to tell me, we would get through too.
*Samira's Point Of View*
When we got to the assembly, Riven walked right over to Sky who was lingering near Celeste, not getting too close because as his very loud thoughts stated, he and Celeste had not told her mother about their relationship and it seemed Celeste wanted to keep it that way. Aisha pulled me to where her and Terra were seated, where she told the both of us that while she was working in Dowling's office this morning, taking the spot as her temporary secretary while Callum went to a family emergency, or that's what she had been told, that she found a listening device, that bend the sound waves that would travel through it to let her listen in to whatever conversation Dowling was having...it just so happened she was talking about how Callum did not go on vacation, but instead, he died, leaving all three of us to wonder, how? Terra wanted me to check on Celeste who was sitting front row, a Solarian guard on each side of her, Sky sitting on the bench behind her with Riven to his right, but when I did, Dowling walked by me at the same time, breaking the read I was doing on Celeste and refocusing it on the woman who had caused my emotion fueled meltdown not even an hour before.
"What the hell?" I breathed, my gaze and glowing eyes following Dowling as she slowly walked down one of the aisles that has been created when they set up the room for the assembly.
"This assembly isn't just about the Burned Ones. Something else is up." I whispered to Terra, Aisha next to her, both their eyes widening at my comment.
"What did you pick up, exactly?" Terra questioned, leaving me to turn and look over my shoulder at Dowling who was now standing at the back of the rows of seated students.
"Dowling's anxious." I hummed as I tried to get more from her, she was lying about her dead assistant's whereabouts, according to Beatrix, she had been lying to Silva for the past 16 years...what else was she hiding?
"Well, her assistant did die." Aisha counted only causing me to shake my head as my gaze turned to Silva. The trio of Dowling, Silva and Harvey had stuck together this long, if something was up with Dowling, odds are, both of them knew about it too.
"But Silva's on high alert, too, like there could be a threat anywhere." I hummed, looking him over, what the hell was going on?
"And my dad?" Terra chimed, only making me sigh slightly at the worry and slightly distrust I felt from her, directed at her dad, not at me, while I recentered my gaze to him.
"He's scared, like uber-scared." I answered before blinking a few times and letting my targeted emotions tone down slightly, just in case I needed my magic for anything else later on.
"Earlier, he was making something using the stones they used in the vessel...It tracks magic and now Dowling's got it." Terra chimed, the sad look on her face nearly breaking my heart as I rested a hand on her shoulder gently, knowing that whatever was going on, one or all of us would find out and spread the word amongst the others. The bond of Dowling, Silva and Harvey started when they were students at Alfea, so it came as no shock to me when I began to wonder and think that I could be making those level of connections, right here, right now, starting with this.
"They're still on edge so whatever they're doing, it's not going well." I hummed as the three of us stood in one of the out coves, watching the older trio converse amongst themselves.
"I find it hard to believe that they'd have some big ulterior motive." Terra sighed, hurt that there was a lot of questions up in the air surrounding her father and the two other adults she had known pretty much her whole life, growing up around Alfea and all.
"I don't want to believe it either, but..." Aisha trailed off with a shrug.
"Silva wanted to see me anyway, I'll go and talk to him, you go and talk to your dad and we'll meet in the suite in an hour?" I asked Terra, seeing her nod in response as Dowling walked away from the other two of her group, Aisha raising a brow, wondering why Silva wanted to see me.
"He wants to talk about the rumor that is swirling, it hurts him as much as it hurts me." I answered out loud, hearing her thoughts as they came. With everything going on, I wasn't sure who and who I couldn't trust so the last two room mates, Bloom and Aisha...were going to have to wait to know the rumor mill churned out some truth until this puzzle began to fit together. Silva was a teacher, his daughter being a student could possibly be an issue for him, favoritism and all that, especially because it wasn't disclosed at the start of the school year and on the one day that the Queen of the realm is here, fun for all.
**
"So what's our plan here? Flat out admit it? Plausible deniability?" Riven questioned as he and I walked to the Bastion to see Silva in his office, only making me sigh as we walked, there was never a day where things were just...calm, and on today's list of crazy, are the Alfea facility secretly villains?
"He saw you today, he knows about the absence of chaos bond, so unless you have the ability to lie to Silva's face and tell him that you are bonded to another mind fairy that isn't me, we cant really deny it." I hummed as we walked causing Riven to stop and grab my arm to stop me, causing me to spin around to face him.
"Do you think he would believe it?" He questioned with a raised brow and a smile only causing me to sigh once more as I pulled my arm out of his grasp, his eyebrow raising at my sudden mood change.
"You would rather lie and claim another mind fairy as your own that admit to Silva-" I started, only for Riven to chime in."
"Your father." He pointed out.
"-That we are bonded...a bond that he knows better than any one, a bond he would understand and be able to help us with if that time ever came." I processed what he was saying out loud, only causing him to look at me like it wasn't a big deal, that lying about our bond, wasn't a big deal.
"You really don't see why that would hurt the mind fairy that you are actually with?" I scoffed only causing his eyes to widen, expression falling and step closer to me, shaking his head rapidly and running his hands up and down my arms, realizing that I was annoyed and slightly hurt by his suggestion.
"Not to mention, I already don't know who else is lying to me, to us, to the school, I really don't want to make liars out of you and I when it comes to our bond." I elaborated only making his head shaking turn into nodding.
"I didn't mean to upset you, I also don't think it came out how I meant it. I just meant, we wanted to keep this just ours for a while, we agreed and I know it being just ours matters to you as well as to me, and though I don't think Silva is a blabber mouth and would go telling anyone, I know you. I know you would worry that he would, or that someone else would find out, our bond means more to me than you realize and I certainly don't want to claim another mind fairy as my own, I really like the one that I found." He explained, cracking a smile at the end, and causing me to do the same as he pulled me closer to him, his eyes more green than normal from the overcast and drizzling weather.
"I am also slightly nervous that he won't want this delinquent dating his perfect daughter, but that is besides the point...Am I forgiven?" He hummed, one of his hands cupping the side of my face gently as I nodded in response and he pressed his lips to mine gently...in the rain...in the Bastion...in front of Silva's office.
"Damn it." Riven mumbled against my lips, opening my eyes to see his were open and looking over my shoulder, only causing me to pull apart and turn to see Silva staring at us, his arms crossed over his chest.
"You two are the worst secret couple, I have ever seen." Silva chimed, shaking his head slightly as he motioned for us to follow him into his office which we did, silently.
"So...Riven is your absence of chaos." Silva hummed as he sat on the edge of his desk, looking back and forth between the two of us.
"Is that why you wanted to see us? You wanted to talk about the bond?" I questioned, sensing a nervousness in him, an uneasiness, and it wasn't pertaining to this.
"Not solely, no but it is an interesting development." He noted as he stood up and walked around to the other side of is desk, sitting down with a sigh, causing my brow to raise, what was he preparing to tell the both of us and why did it seem so serious?
"There is a murderer at our school." Silva spoke up after a few minutes, causing my brow to raise as I looked at Riven, his gaze meeting mine, his eyes widen in shock while mine we narrowed in confusion, before we both looked back at Silva.
"And you say that so nonchalantly because...?" I questioned only causing him to take a deep breath in, and letting it out as he spoke.
"The assembly today, the faculty, myself included, were searching for a certain kind of fairy magic. Someone killed Callum the night of the specialist party, so we held the assembly both to educated you all and to see if we could find that fairy, but we turned up empty...I was going to tell the two of you either way. Riven, you and Sky are my lead specialists, I need you both ready, willing and able if I need you and Samira...you're my daughter, and I wanted to warn you in the hopes that it will keep you safe...as well as you being the most powerful mind fairy in the school...you may know who killed Callum, not blatantly of course...power normally seeks out power." Silva explained as I listened to his words, realizing that mine, Terra's and Aisha's suspicions where justified and that they had been lying to everyone, for their own reasons, but lying just the same which also made me realize that Beatrix's confession about Dowling knowing about me, was the closest thing to the truth I had right now. I could feel that Beatrix was telling the truth but Dowling lying about the true nature of the assembly, and about Callum's whereabouts only proved that she had the capacity to lie to one of her closest friends for sixteen years.
"You said you came up empty, what does that mean? How were you hoping to find the murderous fairy?" I questioned, arms folding over my chest, seeing Riven stiffen and stand straighter in my peripheral, realizing everything that I just had, knowing everything that I did.
"Mr.Harvey made this...device to track the magic or the fairy that killed Callum, it was a mandatory assembly, so in theory, every fairy should have been there." Silva elaborated before my arms fell from my chest and to my sides as the puzzle began to fit together in the shadows of my mind.
"Bloom and Beatrix...they were missing from the assembly." I spoke lowly, mostly for my own benefit, working it out aloud, remembering when I asked Aisha where Bloom was and she told me in the suite with a massive headache, but her emotions told me she was being deceitful and feeling slightly guilty.
"Beatrix and I...she came to me before the assembly...you were right, power does seek out power, no doubt if a fairy is killing people, especially ones close to Dowling, it's her." I nodded, as I spoke to Silva, only causing him to jump back up from his chair and walk over to us, one of his hands on one of each of ours arms.
"Riven, go back to your dorm, don't say a word of this to anyone. Samira, come with me." Silva hummed as he walked us to the office door, letting go of Riven's arm but still holding mine, beginning to lead me away from the office where Riven stood outside of it, a yanking feeling forming in my stomach.
"Hold on." I mumbled to Silva, taking my arm back as my own before jogging back over to Riven and pressing a small kiss to his lips, his puppy dogged eyed expression softening. That yanking feeling was the pull trying to tug me back to him, Riven's genuine fear of me just up and leaving broke through his normal, surface level, cool act when he saw Silva and I walking away from him, leaving him alone, even if it was only for an hour or so.
"I'll see you back at the dorm." I promised, as one of his hands wrapped around to my waist, pulling me back closer to him, rising me to my tippy toes so our lips would connect once more, causing me to smile against his lips as I heard Silva's foot tapping impatiently in a puddle under his foot.
"I'll be waiting for you." He breathed as I stood back flatfooted, looking him over for a moment before running to catch up with Silva, a smile on my lips as the yanking feeling vanished, Riven's fear settling, giving us the time to do whatever Silva needed me to do...only to be stopped when Silva's arm flew across my chest, causing my stride to come to a screeching halt.
"What the he-" I started, stopping myself when my eyes looked ahead of us, seeing one of the Solarian guards passed out on the cobblestone path back towards Alfea...seems someone wanted to go for a joy ride.
**
"It's alright, they know." Dowling chimed as soon as Silva and I walked into the office, Terra and Aisha already there and confronting Dowling and Mr. Harvey about what was going on, causing me to scoff at her presumptuous attitude, thinking we were coming in here to let them know we were onto them, I had no idea out Headmistress was so self centered, until right now.
"One of the queen's guards was knocked out. His SUV is gone." Silva stated before turning on his heel and walking me back out of the office, stopping right outside of it and resting his hands on my shoulders.
"Take the girls either back to the suite or to the front entrance to wait for our return, they will listen to you. We will find Bloom but you have to keep the rest of you together." He stated only making me nod, knowing that he was right in the fact that the rest of the room mates had to stay together with a murderous fairy on the loose.
"Wait...we have to find Celeste then, is she still with Queen Luna?" I questioned, grabbing his arm to stop him from walking away just as the group of four walked out of the office, causing my hand to drop.
"Something for you three to figure out while the three of us find your friend." Dowling answered my question only causing me to look over at her with narrowed eyes, which both Silva and Terra took notice to.
"Come on, let's check the suite first." Terra offered, linking her arm with mine, exchanging a look with Silva as she pulled me away from the older trio, knowing that something was going on, more than I was letting on. I knew once I told Silva the truth about Dowling lying to him for years, he would be infuriated so for this moment...when two of my room mates were MIA, I decided to keep it to myself.
"The rumor is true, isn't it?" Aisha questioned as as they three of us briskly walked back to the room, practically marched, all three of us worried, nervous and slightly frantic that our princess room mate was MIA.
"Can we talk about this after we find Celeste and know that the twisted sister isn't killing her too?" I responded as we all walked into the unlocked suite.
"Celeste?!" Terra called through the suite as we walked in, going off towards the bathroom to check in there while Aisha looked in her's and Bloom's bedroom before crossing over to mine and Terra's while I walked right into Celeste's room that she had labeled off limits but considering the circumstances, I think she's allow it. I pushed the door open only to find Sky sitting on the edge of her bed, head in his hands, walking into a thick fog of pain, sorrow, and anger, causing my eyes to widen as I walked over to him.
"Sky? What's wrong?" I questioned softly, resting a hand on his shoulder as I sat down next to him only causing him to sniffle and pick his head up from his hands...oh no, our signature golden retriever boy was crying? This couldn't be good.
"Luna...she...she pulled Celeste from Alfea." He answered, his voice full of tears and cracking slightly as he said it out loud, my eyes blinking to shift him out of focus and the room itself in focus for the first time since I stepped in, it as baron, all her drawers flung open and empty as well as her closet...captured princess by her evil mom, murderous fairy, liar Headmistress, both of my secrets on the edge of exposure...what the actual hell?